[contextly_auto_sidebar id="aip73amsvg3xUNYYXf6tSsLWbr1Rp29w"] I'M going back to the work of the dreadlocked writer/musician/digital skeptic this week because of a conversation that will appear soon. He's got a great few lines near the beginning of Who Owns the Future? -- recently out in paperback -- that sums up Moore's Law, as well as what's called Baumol's Curse, about as succinctly as I can … [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...]
Gearing Up for Record Store Day, and Art “Flipping”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="8eZwNmRxYLLmX2m5vhxmxtoOeyErCIlW"] MUCH of my misspent youth was passed in record stores and bookstores, both as a customer and clerk, and I absorbed huge doses of enthusiasm, and I hope some knowledge, that would later help me as a scribe. So I'm always happy to read that record stores seem to be coming back, as this story timed to Record Store Day -- the annual … [Read more...]
Week in Review: Obama on Art vs Factories, and More
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UzOdqTdRr0f4bA3skq8em9vtTLiLXNnZ"] WHAT seems to have been a throwaway line on the impracticality of the "art history major" by President Obama is stirring up art-world folk. I first read about it in this Hyperallergic post, "Obama Loves Art History But Thinks It's (Economically) Useless," which describes him praising skilled manufacturing jobs over, you know, artsy … [Read more...]
Introducing Culture Crash
Today I launch the new ArtsJournal blog, Culture Crash. I’m a longtime arts reporter in Los Angeles, and a former LA Times writer who’s covered architecture, classical music, jazz, film, books, visual art, indie rock, and and written for Salon and The New York Times. For the last five years I’ve run the West Coast Culture blog TheMisreadCity, but I’m shifting those energies to Culture … [Read more...]