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Well, I'm hardly nodding in agreement, just focusing on my own thing. That "philosophy interest group" doesn't represent a mainstream section of music theory anyway and it's a section that I'm not hugely interested in right now. Not that I'm not interested in philosophy, but I have a lot of other things to focus on - soon I'll get around to investigating those ideas, but it would be out of line for me to criticize until I have.
But music theory isn't analogous to lit crit or art history; it's a sub-discipline of musicology that (for better or worse) tends to focus on practical matters (pedagogy, etc.) and analysis/theory (which tends to be obsessed with the "music itself" rather than other outside topics and doesn't have a proper analog in the other arts). So, to get to my point, most theorists don't pay much attention to philosophy (trendy or otherwise) beacuse it isn't in any way central to the discipline as it stands(whether it should be or not is another question). They aren't ignorantly nodding in agreement, they're just attending a different session. In a lot of ways, theorists just do their own thing and form into camps--you can see this in the program.
No, I didn't go to the Ottobar, I was constrained because the meeting hotel was in the inner harbor and driving was an issue. I was also usually in large groups that were just looking for a place to sit down.
I know who John Rahn is -- I was in the same room as him often, but I didn't meet him. I know several people who are on familiar terms with him though I suppose, and he seems like a very nice man. I could theorize about why you're being so hostile, but I won't. I do feel, however, that your constant antipathy towards all academia (not that is doesn't deserve tons of criticism) is annoying. I really have to bail out of this thread now.
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