I’m happy to report that tomorrow today I’m headed to Mexico City yet again. At this rate, I’ve been telling people, I expect to be relocating there permanently sometime in mid-October. I joke, but I do feel like the place keeps calling me.

This time around my excuse is a lecture-demo I’ll be giving at a weeklong tech-crunchy event called Campus Party (#cpmexico), where I’m joining some fine company in the musical part of the program. On Friday at 2:30pm, I’ll be refreshing an oldie-but-goodie grine o’ mine: performing ethnomusicology in the digital age, aka mashup pedagogy, aka — for this especial occasion — etnomusicología a lo digital.

Cue GOOGLY español:

Si escribir sobre música es, como algunos han propuesto, el equivalente a bailar acerca de la arquitectura, tal vez “musicar” sobre la música ofrece una manera más directa de contar historias, definir relaciones, y enfocarse en características particulares. Incluso si no es exactamente más directo, tal enfoque ofrece modos ricos y evocadores de análisis y comunicación sobre música. Desde el mashup a la mezcla, el software contemporáneo de audio permite plantear preguntas sobre las obras musicales a través de la yuxtaposición vertical y horizontal, mientras que un procedimiento tan simple como la disminuir la velocidad de algo puede ofrecer inimaginables formas de escuchar y entender. En esta conferencia-demostración se ofrecen algunas técnicas y ejemplos del uso de software de producción digital para contar historias sobre la música y la cultura.

I want to thank Eric Gamboa (aka Elebleu) for extending the invitation. Along with Majadero (aka Lauro Robles), who knows the form (and has been ustreaming it up), we’ve been plotting to perhaps do another little session at some point in the next few days — more like a live mashup clustermix than anything vaguely academic.

When I was last in town I had the pleasure of sharing a bill with Majadero, the first guy I’ve seen wield an iPad in the DJ booth. What was wild was that this was the second time I’d shared a bill with him (the time before was last November). What was crazier still was that I realized back in November, while talking to him, that I had been playing his&crew’s leftfield dub tracks in my Beat Research sets for a couple years already (having stumbled upon them looking for “Mexican dubstep” or something like that). All of these encounters happened independent of Lauro and I ever being directly in touch. Mexico City is a huge place, but it sure can feel like a small world sometimes.

Also, apropos of nothing but my own vanity, I want to take the opportunity to thank Eric again, a bit belatedly, for taking some of the coolest photos of me, like, ever.