[contextly_auto_sidebar id="vGiRx28JEAJa3NJAi6uPVSLuqhSRvvpA"] THE great Texas-born jazz musician, who died last week, worked in a number of genres -- free jazz, symphonic music, funk -- and it can be hard for newcomers to get a sense of him. Here's how I began my Salon piece on Coleman: Miles Davis said he must be “all screwed up inside” to play that way he did. Max Roach punched him in … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
What Silicon Valley means For Culture
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WjZxcPtWCK6ExlRGkfHJTGqGfWWntSeY"] RECENTLY your humble blogger was able to connect the current situation in the world of technology -- the money, the power, the self-deception -- with the history of the arts. Specifically, I'm talking about cultural patronage, and I take it back to Haydn, Moneverdi and Velazquez. This piece of mine from Salon may interest Arts … [Read more...]
The Shallowness of “Mad Men”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qq4k2gwK5FqCbEAvppoCYx8tAgWoXajG"] HERE at CultureCrash, we are split on the advertising chronicle Mad Men. Mostly, I think the early seasons were among the best television ever, even if recent seasons have become mere Age of Aquarius soap operas. Our guest columnist Lawrence Christon has no love for the show, early or late. Here is his response to the program's … [Read more...]
The Dangers of Classical Literature
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="oHcTuy4aEjunKWqhD4mC4hqre93rSFli"] Let me catch my breath a second and direct CultureCrash readers to my Salon piece on trigger warnings on university "trigger warnings," the poetry of Ovid, and my fears about Fox News. Of my recent Salon work, this seems like the one most relevant to ArtsJournal readers. Bottom line is, How do we regard the violence, rape, … [Read more...]
When Humor Misfires: Warren Buffett Edition
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="lgir0rOvQFYZoxYQdc3socyTbOjSL7EA"] Gang, I've been AWOL from the blog lately because of my new job at Salon and a trip last week to Toronto for Canadian Music Week, where I spoke on artists' rights. I expect to have some fresh, uh, content for CultureCrash one of these days. For now, here is new piece by our steady guest columnist, who like me writes about the … [Read more...]
What I Have in Common With Andrew Sullivan
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="nKnrC7PUeqDJC4RDR5siDCwLQPIJamEg"] OVER the last few years, as the traditional print media has fallen into a tailspin, a number of observers -- including very smart, canny ones -- have predicted that blogs would replace print as well as the more established websites. Andrew Sullivan, whose site The Dish was updated often and drew an enormous readership, was often … [Read more...]
“Sleeping Through a Revolution”: Technology and Culture
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ywu4fbbeaZ4xnIPum8dfcpIbDyG5zWSP"] ONE of the clearest and most powerful descriptions I've seen about the place where technology, culture and economic forces meet is in a lecture USC's Jonathan Taplin gave not long ago. He's transposed the speech into a piece for Medium called "Sleeping Through a Revolution." Taplin is especially good on the big picture, and on … [Read more...]
Louis C.K. and the War Against Smugness
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Af28w71jYaGhUSvBJL3VamJOvXqLnshM"] HOW do you respond when someone handsome and callow cuts you off? Our guest columnist Lawrence Christon goes on a tear here about how we've gone wrong. With no further ado. A FEW THINGS I WISH HE’D SAID By Lawrence Christon Though spoken in a TV show, it’s one of those crystalline moments, like “Rosebud,” or “I’ll have what … [Read more...]
The Craftsman: Musician Matt Keating
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="EdVjbY1oGn33X3u5XD2sNfMAvy9nGcGd"] HERE at CultureCrash, we've been admirers of Matt Keating's music since we saw him play at a barbecue at South by Southwest in the '90s. I'm especially fond of his music from that period -- the Candy Valentine EP is an essential document that I don't think could be improved -- but he's been remarkably consistent in his pursuit of … [Read more...]
Ranting and Rolling in Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="mWdRzlBTyNGzGnaVXOaed48P7lTbyuwV"] I'll be at Chevalier's Books in LA's Larchmont Village neighborhood tonight, with the writers Lynell George, David Ulin and Joe Donnelly of the literary magazine Slake. Be there or be square. I'll also be at the LA Times Festival of Books on Sunday April 19. … [Read more...]