SMT 2010 - INDY or BUST!

This past weekend was the jointly held annual conference of Society for Music Theory and the American Musicological Society.



The remnants of what used to be called the Music Theory Mod Squad. From the right, Drew and Mark.












John and I roadtripped down to Indianapolis with two fellow Western Mustangs, Emilie and Gillian. The conference is a great time to reconnect with people I used to go to school with and who I basically only see at this conference every year. It's sort of like having friends from camp, who you only see at camp.


Gillian, trying out the foam roller in between conference papers.















Last year I wrote several SMT posts, I guess because I took a ton of pictures. But this year, the pictures I took are really random and don't illustrate what the conference was like in general.
I can't construct a narrative from them, except to say that:
1) I went to the IU party and saw my classmates.
2) We played with the foam roller in our hotel room.
3) There was an impromptu dance party in our room on the last night, right before everyone went to bed. That's the kind of thing that happens at camp, right?




















And by dance party, I mean we hooked Mark's computer up to the speakers in the TV and a few of us danced around while I packed.

















Note that SMT dance parties happen with the Science Channel on in the background. Still, everyone left saying that next year we'll plan better dancing, and allow more time for it.


















Some other highlights:
- Carla came up from Bloomington and took us to a wonderful tapas restaurant called BARcelona. It was by far the best meal of the weekend, and I will definitely go back. And as always, it was really nice to hang out with Carla. I wish she didn't live so far away! Maybe we'll see each other over Christmas.

- I'm now the student representative for the Committee for the Status of Women and I went to two really productive meetings with them over the weekend. They seem really encouraging and open to new ideas that might address the gender imbalance in the SMT.

- If people I know keep going to this conference, I think all my friends in music theory will know all my other friends in music theory within the next couple of years. It's great to hang out with people from both IU and Western at the same time, and for them to actually have a good time together. SMT: bringing people together, one school reception at a time.

Next year the conference is in Minneapolis, and it will involve a plane instead of a road trip. I hope lots of people I know will still be there, since I really look forward to having a mini-reunion every year.