[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ogAgvEbhEk1KhQ645pd9wWfUDmJyWJe3"] MOST of us have read about the high cost of new homes in a handful of cities. But new data shows that even renting in a wide range of places -- Chicago, Miami, LA, Salinas, parts of Texas -- has become impossible for the middle class. This may seem to have nothing to do with art or artists, but most of us who have joined the … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2014
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...]
Irony, Minimalism, Ehrenreich and God
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6L1vQwHGvhhhWxyn2fDj3qlLYwI011YD"] ATYPICALLY, I'll start the week by recapping the weekend a bit. First, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is partway through its second Minimalist Jukebox. The Phil is doing its best to take an expansive view of this oft-caricatured movement. On Saturday I caught a John Adams-conducted concert that included a world premiere, U.S. … [Read more...]
Trouble With iTunes, and More On San Diego Opera
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QbQ1AU6Xrnco2mhImRDlqE6xwuPHZulj"] WHEN it comes to the collapsing sales of recorded music, and subsequent loss of revenues for musicians, I go back and forth between blaming the record labels for dropping the ball, and seeing the revolution of digital music as relentless and unstoppable. Either way, musicians have been the prime casualty. But it looks like one of … [Read more...]
Moonlighting in the Arts, and Indie Bookstores
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YLE8JYvI5WjT9s4HqFR2NBxgeIk5XA2Y"] A NEW survey from the National Endowment for the Arts shows that alongside the 2.1 million people who work as "artists" (broadly defined) another 271,000 work as artists on the side. While not quite shocking, there's some useful data in the report, including the fact that artists continue to be unemployed at twice the level of other … [Read more...]
Do Visual Artists Still Need Galleries? And, Outsider Artist in Texas
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xuel5RALWv2asRk33q0uxqd8UbYD0j58"] OVER the last few years, there's been a lot of talk about disintermediation -- removing the middle man. Digital technology makes this easier, and we've seen the self-publishing model expand for artists for authors, musicians, journalists and others. Will artists abandon galleries and try to reach collectors directly? Some already … [Read more...]
Political and Public Art, Billboards, New York and Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="gUbWKQMto2pd9SNDW9DKGH0zVVcyuOMo"] WHAT happened to political art? Has it seen a revival during a period in which inequality and related subjects are flaring? Does tackling a topical theme doom a work of art to becoming ephemeral? Will activist art ever again be as visible as it was during height of the AIDS crisis in the '80s? We probably can’t answer all of that … [Read more...]
All Rock-Music Edition: Dean Wareham, and the Poptimists
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dTd8KUgvezSMCnL3vPx3MNcoWYDv5jqq"] OVER the last few years I’ve been corresponding with a number of rock musicians about how their world has changed in the post-label, post-recordings world we seem to be moving into. One of the most observant of them is Dean Wareham, former leader of indie-rock bands Galaxie 500 and Luna. Dean has a new solo album – his first – and … [Read more...]
Arts Funding in the UK, Minimalism in LA and Crash in New Jersey
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="lpJ1NjBTQ91gXSFAYVELC8izsXpf07Li"] WHY do folks in much of the rest of the post-industrial world – not just Europe but Canada and Australia and elsewhere – feel so much less anxiety about state funding of culture? I have my theories – some of which I explore in my book – but the issue continues to baffle me. Turns out that in the UK – a nation both very similar and … [Read more...]
The Inventiveness of Brad Mehldau, and Another Bookstore Down
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="XtxFdbJyLsCS5dQHdicsk1xjrReqe1hk"] LAST night, pianist Brad Mehldau and tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman played separate sets at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. These are perhaps the two leading jazz musicians of my generation, so there was no way I was going to miss it. While I would have loved to see these two, who've worked together in the past, play a … [Read more...]