Belgian Old School Gripes

I had been wanting to comment on the Belgian editors court win against Google and Google Operating System’s coverage of Google’s compliance with the court order promted me do it. I can’t stand all the legacy shops playing hardball just to get a piece of the action. When did they ever create as much value to the consumer ? Whether its books or newspapers, all I want is to be able to search content, maybe read a snippet, maybe read the whole copy or buy access to do this. But I don’t see any reason why Google should pay for sending traffic or business to their sites. It should probably be the opposite. So too bad for the Belgian publications, we just wont be on the same page anymore.

Abanico Is No More, Long Live ISAAC

I am saddened to find out this morning that Laurent Erdos, the founder of Abanico, a Paris based school of Africo-Carribean Music, has decided to pursue personal projects in Spain, and so Abanico is no more. In his goodbye letter that is currently online at the Abanico web site, Laurent mentions the difficulties of identifying a sustainable business model for a private music school in France. This is a real shame. I had met briefly with Laurent in 2005 when I had attended a series of conferences by Isabelle Leymarie on the roots and history of Cuban music. Isabelle wrote a very interesting and exhaustive book called Cuban Fire on this topic.

Abanico will find a new life through a new initiative called ISAAC. I wish the ISAAC founders good luck and I hope they will continue the Abanico tradition with much success.

I wish you well Laurent !