There you see the young and old, twisting the night away

Non-classical links for the week.

I don't have cable, and now I know what I'm missing out on: the invaluable hometown compendium This Is Framingham reports that one of the programs on local cable access is music—specifically, big band and pre-WWII popular music—and the accompanying visual is simply each 78 rpm record spinning around and around. Take that, minimalists! (This probably relates in an interesting way to the bias in modern society against music and towards the visual arts, but I haven't had enough coffee to parse it out yet. Maybe next week.)

Weren't able to make the International Association of Jazz Educators confab in New York this year? You can enjoy it vicariously through Darcy James Argue, who's blogging the experience in his usual concise and stylish fashion—Day 1, Day 2, and more to come. (By the way, if you're not familiar with the estimable Mr. Argue's own music, you should know that he makes a habit of posting live recordings of his own band's performances, which is surely the classiest way around to fill up your iPod for free.)

If you're a Bostonian, and you've never been to a Pan9 show, you've been missing out—imagine a bunch of experimental music, experimental rock music, not-so-experimental rock music, and just plain goofiness all thrown onto the same program, being performed in a big old loft with an atmosphere that's half exotic-bohemian and half good-vibe house party, and you'll start to get the idea. One of the more popular acts here at Soho the Dog HQ, Fluttr Effect, got their start via Pan9, and lived next door. I say "lived" because, just before New Year's, a fire caused significant damage to both the Pan9 space and the apartment of half the band, and they're currently homeless, out an awful lot of equipment and stuff, and dependent on the kindness of strangers. There's a website up with info on upcoming benefits for the space and the band, including a a few shows, and possibly an art auction—and now would be a good time to finally pick up those Fluttr Effect t-shirts and CDs you've been meaning to get anyways, right? (I can testify that the acoustic trio EP is some of the best driving music out there.) Besides, I think we should all make it our mission to get any place that the Boston Herald considers a "hippie community" back up and running as soon as possible.