[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xGDWAexoDrHPFCevaXgcNYzALx2EWaaG"] THIS week, it seems, has brought us closer to the end of net neutrality, with the FCC getting closer to approving a pay-to-play "fast lane." The fear among purveyors and enthusiasts of indie culture is that there will be a tiered Internet, one for wealthy corporations and a slow one for the rest. Enormous power would go to broadband … [Read more...]
Can the Internet Destroy the Blockbuster Era? And, Digital Humanities
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="HnOcX1gioiqpT82lL4d0savWjVspAEhp"] IT'S been pretty well documented now that by "connecting" us all, the web has reinforced the growth of a corporate blockbuster culture. Despite the talk about "the long tail," and the web's ability to sustain fringe culture, the most heavily promoted movies, pop stars and so on are increasingly trouncing their less-funded rivals. … [Read more...]
Artist-Activist Daniel Beaty, and Dismantling Libraries
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="fWCZOlqlcOkp84opgNwzY9TpfVFLSu9B"] CAN an artist -- in this case an actor and playwright -- be a healer at the same time? Do the two roles reinforce each other, or do they pull in opposite directions? These were questions I got into in a new story on Daniel Beaty, a remarkable guy who is closing out the LA run of The Tallest Tree in the Forest, a play about the … [Read more...]
Roots of a Great English Band: The Clientele
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dzt0X2rINHchc2UlFWD4AkubWFuBi9up"] TODAY sees the reissue of the debut LP by one of Britain’s best rock bands: The Clientele’s Suburban Light. Fans of the Clientele know that this group took bits of ‘60s British folk, the Byrds, and Velvet Underground, jacked up the tremolo, and produced succinct and chiming pop songs that become hard to forget. (Here is the album's … [Read more...]
Art, Work and Money
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="iZv7JeHqc41WMIllgv7eQnjxMkFtGil8"] IF art and culture produce something besides money, what, exactly, is it? Who are the people who devote their lives to this stuff? And how have technological and economic shifts changed things over recent years? Those are questions I ponder often, and A.O. Scott addresses them in a perceptive and wide-ranging New York Times essay … [Read more...]
How Do Visual Artists Survive? A Conversation
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bf0FrQh0qNpnPUaXjMY1eGrcVaOQV5gc"] IT’S never been easy to make a living as a creative being, and recent years have made it even more difficult for anyone without a trust fund. So I’m quite cheered by the recent appearance of a handsome, useful book, Living and Sustaining a Creative Life. Edited by the Brooklyn-based, Yale-educated artist Sharon Louden, it's … [Read more...]
The Struggle of Creative Professionals, and a Gay Bookstore Down
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Qq27kwhxLk22LnK6cMR3w47aN5iOTjFn"] WITH the national unemployment rate falling, and the persistence of digital utopianism, which tells us that we live in the best of all possible worlds, we've put that nasty recession stuff behind us, haven't we? The struggle of the creative class, which has not much abated, continues to be obscured. A new funny and poignant essay in … [Read more...]
Magazines in the Digital Age, and Artist Documentaries
THERE'S a long, vivid and often fascinating story in Politico magazine about Tina Brown, Newsweek and The Daily Beast. The article includes a memorable scene: "It was right around this time that Brown, forever in high heels, stood to make her way to the bathroom. As she crossed Diller’s marble floor, she wiped out and smacked her face on the ground, according to a source who was not involved in … [Read more...]
Is the Novel Dead? Plus, Art Auctions and Green Composer
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="crb2maHtqit51P5E7CQQCJm9upqvoZsh"] TODAY in Oxford, Will Self gives a speech about the death of the novel that many of my friends and colleagues have responded to with hostility and disbelief. Self's piece is at times over the top, and his persona is that of an ornery crank, but his speech -- reprinted here in the Guardian -- is essential reading. The story's … [Read more...]
Power and Culture on the Internet, and Saving College Radio
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="u4Dlzk0r3mKVO47xkZOYDpbn6EaCJhpT"] HOW has the Internet changed our culture, politics, and economic structures? One of the smartest answers to this complicated question comes from lefty filmmaker Astra Taylor. I spoke to Taylor, who also has a foot in the indie-rock world, about her new book The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital … [Read more...]