Much love for the LMA

If you are a fan of live music and have not familiarized yourself with the live music archive you need to do so. As an admitted Deadhead the site is a treasure trove. You can stream any of their almost 3000 Dead shows on your computer and download a great number of them in lossless file formats (SHN, FLAC). The aren't your ticket? There are hundreds of bands and thousands of shows on the archive. Most tend to be in the "jam band" community (however widely applied that term is), such as String Cheese Incident, Derek Trucks Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, etc. It's a great way to check out new acts before you purchase tickets and records.

Follow up

After meeting with the new GPD last week, I discovered that the graduate student representative at the faculty meetings is selected by the GPD. This task was officially given to the HGSA for which we plan to have a democratically nominated individual represent the history graduate student body.

Personally, I'm excited at the level of involvement being afforded the HGSA by our GPD and the increased amount of transparency in departmental issues. I would encourage all graduate students, regardless of discipline, to join your department's graduate student association (or equivalent) or to establish one if there isn't already. Not only does it provide camaraderie but access to departmental information that might otherwise not be immediately forthcoming.