[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9QYXBUzJHimvnKsbZ6oLELXVvjWIavAs"] OVER the last few years I've been diving into the breakdown of the old 20th century creative economy and assessing as best I can the crisis we're in now. But I've also been asking myself -- and everybody I know -- how we might move forward. Part of the answer comes from work I've been doing for a new online magazine called the 21st … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2015
The Death of a Great Video Store
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Xk6JC31DMBzwhIx8HqWSAUMhlvPf4tdk"] LOS Angeles is the capital of the film world, but it is about to lose one of its last great shops that rents movies: Vidiots in Santa Monica. I got to know this place about a decade ago, as well as a store made up of some of its alums, CineFile in West LA. A little later, I frequented Rocket Video, which closed a few years ago and … [Read more...]
The Meaning of The Clash
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="jzqLTuB5rmQYkgMOc3cPogWpL4eHcyGM"] For the last two weeks I've been touring behind my book, doing lots of public-radio interview, and in some cases dueling with people who disagree with me. The concentrated attention has made me think long and hard about my stance and my values. One of the things I've realized is that my politics are an odd cross between Teddy … [Read more...]
Culture Crash on the Road
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="I6HdN5b3gj1Ofnif6g564Xjc8xXJLg7S"] For the last two weeks my book and I have been on the East Coast barnstorming for artists's rights, the middle class, an honest discussion about digital technology and other subjects. It's been a blast, I am still reasonably healthy, and I look forward to returning home to California later... today. Thanks to everyone I've met … [Read more...]
The Costs of Disruption
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Xw8ARjhG6mdZqCIxpK59cJwcBfxfFyJo"] WHAT happens when we tear up the past, replace people with bots and culture with content? Those are some of the question on the mind of former New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier in his piece "Among the Disrupted." He begins this way: Amid the bacchanal of disruption, let us pause to honor the disrupted. The streets of … [Read more...]
The Artist in the 21st Century
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="PVd8mrLaWjsXaMaGJ86HIjTmHjDjQjiA"] WHAT has art -- and the artist as its maker -- come to mean after postmodernism and four decades after Warhol's emergence? That's a question Sarah Thornton -- a very sharp British sociologist with an interest in visual art -- asks in her newish book 33 Artists in 3 Acts. I'm only partway through Thornton's book, which is full of … [Read more...]
Culture Crash on Madeleine Brand/ KCRW and Uprising With Sonali
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0JCYSVMp1thXSJOsnsjL1jZtKezUDFkY"] TUESDAY was my book's pubdate; it included a launch event at the LA Central Library's ALOUD series that I think went really well. (But who knows?) I also went on the air with one of California's great radio figures, Madeleine Brand of KCRW. I've been a KCRW listener since I landed in LA 18 years ago. My life has changed in all … [Read more...]
Education, Postmodernism, Etc: Culture Crash on Arts Fuse
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WPKTRu7DK4BAvb2DdgCv8vmNO0N4zlpH"] TODAY my book, which digs into the issues I touch on in this blog, hits the streets. So I'm very pleased to post an interview with some of the most penetrating questions I expect to see. It's with the arts journalist William Marx. He starts this way: Arts Fuse: Why do you believe that the media, universities, and cultural … [Read more...]
The Plutocrat’s Art Club
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="jyFHuTfymBp4zjqhRnelFYWTSaIQFC3g"] The Germans may have a word for it -- things that seem inevitable but are stomach-turning nonetheless. That's the way I feel about the fact that the very rich are amassing lavish art collections and finding tax shelters for them. They call these tax shelters "museums," but don't let the rest of us in. It's the latest in the strategy … [Read more...]
“In Praise of Gatekeepers”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7ocf4Du4J7q0MwSCTfQQr9rCt1ruYmRF"] ONE of the subjects that makes the disruption boys' hearts race is the idea that technology will get rid of the gatekeepers -- those record-store clerks and publishing-house editors and journalistic critics who just get in the way of the pure, frictionless working of capitalism. If you own a company -- esp a tech company that feeds … [Read more...]