Justine Dolorfino

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Last night I went to an Asian Americans in Media panel at Barnard with two of my friends. I had taken a Music & Identity class last year at Kalamazoo College and we’d touched on Jin a little bit during the portion on Asian American music, so that was cool. It also sounded like a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed the panel overall. The panelists talked about not only their experiences in non-stereotypically Asian careers but also their experiences as being Asians and working in a musical genre (hip hop, electronic) that is associated with other racial groups. It was inspiring to hear from people who are really passionate about music and the arts, but at the same time it also makes me think about whether the arts and music programs in our schools are really reaching out to people like Jin, Dave Liang, Miss Info, !llmind, and Rik Cordero. Obviously, they were passionate about what they do from the start and were dedicated enough to make it a reality for themselves, but what about the kids who don’t? I didn’t get a chance to ask the panelists about their experiences in school music programs (if they had them/were involved in them), unfortunately. 

Miss Info also talked a little about being a woman in the specific industry and that was really interesting to hear. I would have liked to know more about it; from the start I was struck by the ratio of men to women in the panel (4:1) and am wondering if this is a fair representation of the field.

One criticism is that it would have been nice to hear from panelists in other areas of the arts. However, I’m a music person so I was still satisfied!

Anyway, I’m really digging The Shanghai Restoration Project’s stuff now that it’s been brought to my attention, so have a YouTube. :) I’m all about genre blending and I love the mix of 1930s Shanghai jazz with electronic beats and hip hop.

Happy Arts Advocacy Day! (& also Happy Glee Day!)

Filed under youtube popular music asians The Shanghai Restoration Project

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Turning Off Social Media: Slow Withdrawal

Part 1.

It’s been 17 days now sans Twitter and Facebook. I’m amused that people think that this is some sort of epic giving-up stunt; so many people have reacted with Really?s or How?!s or Why?!?s. For our generation, though, it’s pretty odd to imagine going without either or both of these services, even for a little bit. I’ve gotten more of those reactions because of the Facebook thing, though, which is understandable; I’ve been on it since 2005 and it really is kind of a given assumption that if you’re of a certain age, you’re on Facebook.

Some funny things I’ve noticed:

  1. I met some people for the first time this past week and I automatically wanted to ask them to Facebook me so we could keep in touch. How do people actually do that without Facebook, these days? (That is not a serious question.) Taking down someone’s number and/or email feels formal, personal, and intrusive all at the same time. Being Facebook friends is so much easier.
  2. Even an old professor from Kalamazoo College (Hi, Dr. Batsell) commented on my not being on Facebook at the moment. It’s so pervasive now.
  3. I’ve missed out on a few event invitations on Facebook during this time, actual events that I would have wanted to attend and do plan on attending now that I know about them. Do we not make personal contact when we want people to come to an event anymore? If that doesn’t happen, is that a subconscious sort of hint that they maybe don’t care about your presence that much, if they don’t want to follow up on whether you’re attending or not? I know that this is kind of reading into the situation, but i just think it’s interesting that we’ve lost a lot of personal communication.
  4. I have missed birthdays because of not being on Facebook. This is one thing that I still use it for, even though I didn’t go on Facebook all the time like some of my friends. I still feel bad about having to send belated rather than timely wishes. Sorry, Hetty.
  5. Photosharing is so much easier on Facebook. I need to actually say things like “Will you email me these pictures so I can see them?” instead of waiting for the notification that I have been tagged in photos on Facebook. I remember when photos weren’t even on Facebook and the tagging thing was new and confusing.
  6. I spend a lot of time on Goodreads these days for no reason. It’s not even like I have a lot of friends on it. Besides, what am I going to do with the knowledge of what my friends are currently reading/want to read? This is transference, 100%. PS, check out my books!
  7. Speaking of Goodreads. So far, I’ve resisted the urge to update my page-count on my currently-reading books obsessively, even though I downloaded the iPhone app so I could if I wanted to. Since when did our generation decide that it was super important for everyone to know little things that can be pushed out to everyone via Facebook status messages, Tweets, or even Goodreads statuses? I never thought it was necessary to email all of my friends with, “I am on page ___ of __________ right now!” Besides, unless they know the book intimately and obsessively, that’d mean nothing to them. So why do I want to do it so badly? Oh wait, because we’ve somehow been conditioned to do this. When Facebook status messages came out (remember? You had to have a “—first name— is” before every update.) I thought they were the dumbest, most pointless things. Obviously, this was before I got talked into joining Twitter by my friend Donny.
  8. I have no idea when anyone updates their blog anymore since I didn’t add feeds to Google Reader. I mean, why bother if you’re just going to see their feeds pushed to Twitter? Well, for situations like this, obviously.

Well, that’s it for now. Ask me stuff on my Formspring if you want!
http://www.formspring.me/justinermd

Oh, and I’m going to inaugurate album reviews sometime this week, starting with Cheryl Cole because I have a weak spot for electropop and English tabloid favo(u)rites. Stay tuned.

Filed under twitter Web 2.0 social media facebook

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Best Music Streaming Service: Grooveshark - streaming music - Lifehacker

The race for the top slot was a tight one. Grooveshark took home the prize with 31% of the vote beating out Pandora (29%) by a little more than 200 votes. Following Pandora, Last.fm (14%) and Spotify (13%) engaged in a similar neck and neck battle for the third and fourth spots respectively. Trailing behind them was Lala with 5% of the vote, not a bad show for a new and relatively unknown service.

I’m surprised that the one that won is as service that I’ve never heard of, but maybe I just need to check it out! I still think Spotify will be huge once it eventually comes to the US and I’m definitely counting down the days until this happens. I’m guessing that its lack of popularity, comparatively, is because it’s restricted to only certain countries at the moment, which is a shame because it has so much potential use in the music classroom. That said, though, I still think there’s nothing like actually having the music, but streaming services definitely have their uses.

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