[contextly_auto_sidebar id="sMcHj6Lojb9dMZsYLz0bq8L0kVkN6RaH"] LATELY the country-steeped singer-songwriter has become vocal and eloquent on issues of artists's rights, including an appearance before lawmakers in Washington, DC; she's also on the executive board of the Content Creators Coalition. The freshest thing about the arguments made by this daughter of St. Johnny is that she looks not … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2014
Will Cable TV’s Golden Age Last Forever?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xsRN9Irj889DZIdZgx4NQ6tyZZUOY1S9"] THE answer to this question, I must admit, eludes me. But the era of deep and complex narrative television born with The Sopranos (and carried through Deadwood, Mad Men, etc) seems to have moved into another chapter as HBO and CBS announce streaming services. Here's the beginning of my new piece on Salon: The most prestigious of … [Read more...]
Paul Krugman on Amazon
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="EnEg7SR54tQeApaTB0TxyD3jWfVDaZ1e"] Is the online bookseller a monopoly? A monopsony? I'll leave the details to the economists, but will concur with the New York Times columnist -- and the recent New Republic story -- on the company's danger. The most succinct way to phrase it may be the way Paul Krugman opens today's column: "Amazon.com, the giant online retailer, … [Read more...]
Iggy Pop Rips the State of Music
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rsTsrc9iWZyWOtGEurvcdQNW78Mrk5Dy"] TODAY I have a new Salon post that quotes an Iggy Pop speech in the UK, and tries to make sense of it. Well into the age of streaming, we’re still hearing from a few musicians – most of them promoted and even employed by the tech sector – that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Some resent the new arrangement, where they … [Read more...]
More Death Among the Alternative Press
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="RwTNk9ycXONYXBOQztWFt8xWs1Cktyce"] AT a certain point, we won't even notice it anymore when a publication we've loved and learned to rely on fades to black. For a little while longer, though, we'll still register it. That's one of the reasons I'm grimly happy to have had the chance to weigh in on the loss of two more alternative weeklies -- the Providence Phoenix on … [Read more...]
New Lucinda Williams Record
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="2nnqMpDwCs1dANMr4gtQn9KG4Y8QR2ie"] HERE at CultureCrash, we're all dedicated Lucinda Williams fans of long standing. Her new double-disc album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, is one of country/folk/blues artist's finest, and includes not just longtime associates like lap steel and mand0lin master Greg Leisz but jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. In honor of the … [Read more...]
Was Beethoven a Bad Influence?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="BuXkCBK03a5HewprMNjDnGKXPBsl6eH9"] A FASCINATING Alex Ross story in the New Yorker looks at the incredible impact of Beethoven -- has any artist reshaped his art form more? -- and then acts if he has kept music from evolving. Here's Ross on Ludwig van: He not only left his mark on all subsequent composers but also molded entire institutions. The professional … [Read more...]
Amazon and the New York Times
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="hcxWCofPNmshtu5V4mfeJWMEKeMUb4SZ"] I REMAIN a dedicated fan of the Gray Lady, but its recent pieces looking for some "good news" in the Amazon fight struck me as bit strange. Today I respond in a post for Salon. It begins this way: In the careful-what-you-wish-for department: A bit more than a week ago, the New York Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan, urged … [Read more...]
Author Sven Birkerts on Culture Crash The Book
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="l18iXkqE0pAKSvY5UNL4M81fXOJAntvm"] ONE of the first and most eloquent books on the transition away from the world of print to a new one dominated by digital communications came 20 years ago from the veteran literary critic Sven Birkerts. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age was funny, sad and prescient, and served as important foundation … [Read more...]
Is Amazon a Monopoly?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QUacYyetZUphAZnyUIQyaD8AKTam7LBQ"] THE battle over Amazon -- including the siege of Hachette -- has heated up lately, with The New Republic's Franklin Foer and several prominent authors, including Ursula Le Guin, calling the online bookseller "a monopoly." Foer has argued that it's time for the Department of Justice to break Amazon up. This is from his TNR piece, … [Read more...]