KEEW back on the radio (May 22) and IASPM Canada comes to Hamilton (May 23-26)

If you've been following along, you know that Kill Eat Exploit the Weak started as a campus/community radio program but went off the air (after many years) when I moved away from Kitchener-Waterloo. You'd also know that I've been dabbling in campus radio again during the last couple of summers, co-hosting a fill-in show for McMaster's CFMU 93.3FM on Saturday nights: Hellbound Summer Metal Meltdown.

back on the road again

...or, more precisely, the train tracks.

My next trip is to Montreal, for my third conference of the year (whether I will do any concerting while I'm there is yet to be determined). My first of 2011 was ICFA-32, the annual conference held by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Conference two was held by the new Popular Culture Association of Canada in Niagara Falls. Next up, IASPM-Canada (International Association for the Study of Popular Music). I'm off to present my nth conference paper on metal.

In preparation I re-watched the DVD Pagan Metal: A Documentary, and was again surprised by how much interesting dialogue could emerge from and despite the deliberately stupid and careless interviewing, editing, and general film making that went into the production. But it turns out that multiple viewings only make me more annoyed with the attitude toward women and 'girlie' metal displayed here, demonstrated through the way Leaves' Eyes is framed, particularly singer Liv Kristine and her sister Carmen, whose band Midnattsol appears only in a spliced performance clip. What qualified appreciation I have for the movie clearly emerges from the dynamics of the scene itself and the intriguing personalities involved in it.

There are at least a few other papers on metal scheduled for this week's conference. We'll see if after hearing them I've picked up enough to report back.