Tim Oren's great weblog, Due Dilligence, pointed me to this article on BusinessPundit that suggests the music industry's real problem is that it's being displaced from people's attention by other media–and that video games are taking the biggest chunk out of the disposable dollars and free time of the music industry's traditional audience for its volume product.

No big surprise there. Most of the music I buy these days probably doesn't even show up on the RIAA's radar–I buy direct from bands, or direct from independent labels, or on iTunes; my only “traditional purchase” recently was of a Bo Diddley compilation–and that isn't exactly Top 40.

Last night, we went to see John Gorka play at the Cellar Stage at St. John's Methodist Church in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood. Given the power outages around town caused by Isabel, Paula called ahead to make sure the concert was on.

The concert was on. The power was not. Gorka had agreed to go on, “unplugged”. So, with about 80 or so other folks, we brought flashlights to St. Johns, and listened as Gorka played with candles for footlights. The lack of a sound system was irrelavent; the acoustics of the room helped out. Crickets outside accompanied him, their percussion filtering in through the open windows.

I'm sure there was a fire code violation with all that open flame. But we didn't care. Gorka gave his signature entertainingly neurotic performance, lights or no lights. It was well worth the price of admission.