[contextly_auto_sidebar] Regular CultureCrash guest columnist Lawrence Christon has a new piece about an incident in St. Louis that brings together a number of tendencies in the arts. Of course, the situation he writes about echoes both forward and backward in time; cultural appropriation has become one of the most contested issues lately and seems likely to remain that way. I don't concur 100 … [Read more...]
Archives for 2018
Handguns, the Press, and Annapolis
[contextly_auto_sidebar] Almost a quarter century ago, I worked as intern, in my last year of journalism school, at the Baltimore Sun. This was a rough few months for me -- I earned nothing for five-days-a-week in the paper's features department, the city was experiencing a crime wave right up to the edge of my neighborhood, and I was breaking up with a pretty serious girlfriend during just … [Read more...]
Martin Amis on Poetry and Posterity
[contextly_auto_sidebar] AS smart and funny as his novels are, Martin Amis is a devastatingly good essayist as well. I spoke to him recently about his latest collection, The Rub of Time, which assembles several decades of nonfiction pieces. The subject of the book is the toll taken by the ages -- the way it gradually erodes talent and inspiration as surely as it does the soil on a hillside. … [Read more...]
The Sacred Art of John August Swanson
[contextly_auto_sidebar] EVEN as a lifetime religious skeptic, I've long been fascinated by artists, writers and other culture-makers who bring religion, spirituality, and related matters into their work. Most likely, the art impulse and the urge to worship and praise originated in tandem; what we now call religion and culture were almost seamlessly joined for many centuries. (The agnostic or … [Read more...]
Punk, Indie Rock and Power Pop With Chris Stamey
[contextly_auto_sidebar] Though he's hardly a household name, North Carolina's Chris Stamey has been just alongside many of the key developments in left-of-the-dial rock music over the last four decades. As a young Southerner he visited and then moved to New York City right as CBGB's and Television were exploding, he helped found the dBs and Let's Active, which put him on on the ground floor of … [Read more...]
The Bookers: Performing Arts in Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar] It was on returning back to town in 2016, after a year away, that I was startled to see how much the performing arts scene had changed since I originally landed here in the late ‘90s. Some things about L.A. were worse, but this was more, better, more wide-ranging. Instead of a simple cultural geography that mostly involved downtown L.A., the city had de-centered: Now … [Read more...]
The Return of the Posies (Guest Columnist)
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FRIDAY night, the Seattle-area band the Posies stopped through the Bootleg Theater, which has gradually become one of my favorite places to see a show in Los Angeles. Out with me was a music writer whose work I've admired for 20 years (okay, she's now my wife), who was an ardent fan of the band back when they and a handful of other indie rockers were reviving power pop … [Read more...]
Angelique Kidjo Plays Remain in Light
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE other night I caught a stunningly good show by the West African musician Angelique Kidjo -- a reimagining of Talking Heads' classic 1980 album Remain in Light, itself inspired by West African rhythms and themes. I was having so much fun I failed to take notes, but sometimes guest columnist Steven Mirkin, a longtime music journalist, was paying more attention. … [Read more...]
The Literary Courtney Barnett
[contextly_auto_sidebar] I CAN remember only a few times I've heard a song and immediately known I was hearing a major talent, someone I'd be paying attention to for years to come. The Smiths, Liz Phair, Pavement, Thelonious Monk, and Glenn Gould have all struck me that way. Time will tell if she really belongs in their company, but the Aussie singer-songwriter knocked me out with her song … [Read more...]
“West Side Story,” and Leonard Bernstein at 100
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IT'S hard to think of a figure in American cultural history more complex and protean than Leonard Bernstein. For my generation, he was already in eclipse when we came of age in the '70s and '80s. But he was such a titan that many of us -- and those older and younger -- are looking forward to the performances of his work and the upcoming exhibit at the Skirball Cultural … [Read more...]