Judging from search engine results, this year's EMP Pop Music Conference is winding down. It seems the confetti has been swept from the floor, and all that's left to do is gather the glasses off the table and pour the remaining contents into the large pitcher.

We now must resume our usual transmission about music journalism as it is today both here and abroad as drawn from the usual selection of features.

1. A Gigwise interview with Andrew Collins (formerly of NME, Q) who is on vol. 3 of his memoirs.

2. Dissecting Dylan takes a look at Like a Rolling Stone by Greil Marcus. (I didn't know Greil dedicated this book to the radio ... )

3. Johnson Writing His Way to Success mentions his recent book, "Baseball and the Music of Charles Ives: A Proving Ground," which focuses on the impact the sport had on the life and work of composer Charles Ives.

4. Elsewhere in the world, "even those departments of news organizations not normally considered political, but rather cultural, such as art or music criticism, have undergone the same political vetting process. In that process, those journalists who had thought to shield themselves by choosing non-political arenas have found themselves also replaced by the new guard washed in by the wave of revolutionary ectasy last autumn." (Serbian Journalism after Communism & Milosevic)  ¶ 4/21/2005 08:52:00 AM