In a time-honored tradition of having entirely too little time to honor given preparations for AAG, I haven’t had the opportunity to write about AAG, so here we go.

For those of you attending the Association of American Geographers meeting in Downtown Los Angeles this week, I’ll be presenting my research on the transformation of Highland Park into a vinyl lover’s mecca tomorrow at what’s shaping up to be an amazing cultural geography paper session. Here are the details, and the session page on the conference site.

Wombleton Records, Highland Park, Los Angeles. (Photo from marpop.com)

Paper Session:
2259 ‘This Must Be the Place’: The Evolving Economic Geography of Music II 
Wednesday, 4/10/2013, from 10:00 AM – 11:40 AM
Olvera Room, The LA Hotel, Level 2

The LA Hotel is located right at the corner of W. 3rd and S. Figueroa.

Click the prior link for more details, but other papers in my session include foci on electronic music in Berlin, the contemporary Lubbock music scene (I wonder if Buddy Holly would even still hate it there?), the shifting imagery in Country lyrics, and something about booking hardcore shows for a tiny Swedish community. In other words, several reasons why I absolutely love working in Cultural Geography. Special respect to Brian Hracs for putting this together and chairing it. (On a side note: why does my research involve so many transplanted Canadians?)

I will do my best to keep this updated this week, but that’s presupposing I’ll have some breathing room. If you’re going to be around and can help it, don’t miss a few of my brilliant colleagues at their respective sessions:

• Teresa Anderson-Sharma presenting on community gardens as a usage of vacant space on Wednesday at 8 AM in La Cienega, Westin, Lobby Level.
• David Schwartz presenting on his research about Search-and-Rescue deficiencies in the Arctic for Canada and the US on Friday at 8 AM Laguna Parlor 3028, Westin, 30th Floor (Fancy!)
• Abel Santana co-presenting some research with Dr. Christy Jocoy on field data and GIS analytics Wednesday at 4:40 PM in Santa Monica A, Westin Hotel, Level 3
• Dr. Deborah Thien (My Adviser) will be presenting her research on the socio-spatial ramifications of post-traumatic stress disorder on Friday at 8 AM in Palos Verdes, Westin, Lobby Level, along with Dr. Alison Mountz (my former professor from Syracuse who recommended CSULB to me. Wild.)
• Many others I unfortunately don’t have time to list right now. So here’s the next best thing.

Thanks for reading, and best of luck to all my friends/colleagues this week. Time to ship up to Los Angeles. If only someone with a solid connection to Black Flag had advice on the best way to get there…