[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Xw8ARjhG6mdZqCIxpK59cJwcBfxfFyJo"] WHAT happens when we tear up the past, replace people with bots and culture with content? Those are some of the question on the mind of former New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier in his piece "Among the Disrupted." He begins this way: Amid the bacchanal of disruption, let us pause to honor the disrupted. The streets of … [Read more...]
The Artist in the 21st Century
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="PVd8mrLaWjsXaMaGJ86HIjTmHjDjQjiA"] WHAT has art -- and the artist as its maker -- come to mean after postmodernism and four decades after Warhol's emergence? That's a question Sarah Thornton -- a very sharp British sociologist with an interest in visual art -- asks in her newish book 33 Artists in 3 Acts. I'm only partway through Thornton's book, which is full of … [Read more...]
Culture Crash on Madeleine Brand/ KCRW and Uprising With Sonali
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0JCYSVMp1thXSJOsnsjL1jZtKezUDFkY"] TUESDAY was my book's pubdate; it included a launch event at the LA Central Library's ALOUD series that I think went really well. (But who knows?) I also went on the air with one of California's great radio figures, Madeleine Brand of KCRW. I've been a KCRW listener since I landed in LA 18 years ago. My life has changed in all … [Read more...]
Education, Postmodernism, Etc: Culture Crash on Arts Fuse
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WPKTRu7DK4BAvb2DdgCv8vmNO0N4zlpH"] TODAY my book, which digs into the issues I touch on in this blog, hits the streets. So I'm very pleased to post an interview with some of the most penetrating questions I expect to see. It's with the arts journalist William Marx. He starts this way: Arts Fuse: Why do you believe that the media, universities, and cultural … [Read more...]
The Plutocrat’s Art Club
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="jyFHuTfymBp4zjqhRnelFYWTSaIQFC3g"] The Germans may have a word for it -- things that seem inevitable but are stomach-turning nonetheless. That's the way I feel about the fact that the very rich are amassing lavish art collections and finding tax shelters for them. They call these tax shelters "museums," but don't let the rest of us in. It's the latest in the strategy … [Read more...]
“In Praise of Gatekeepers”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7ocf4Du4J7q0MwSCTfQQr9rCt1ruYmRF"] ONE of the subjects that makes the disruption boys' hearts race is the idea that technology will get rid of the gatekeepers -- those record-store clerks and publishing-house editors and journalistic critics who just get in the way of the pure, frictionless working of capitalism. If you own a company -- esp a tech company that feeds … [Read more...]
How Do We Save Journalism?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="garKPKQO2s6Wcq12fnP4ZbWsAHkTgfpv"] FILE under the law of unintended consequences: Because journos pride themselves on being disinterested observers without bias or investment -- the old "objectivity" business -- they are reticent to stand up for their own peers and profession. I found this out the hard way when I lost my job, and every editor I asked about a first … [Read more...]
Culture’s Perfect Storm: CC on the Radio
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="CN8b3Y5FZAeQMTZTsTtc0tupQqcwaJ9l"] WHAT do recent changes in technology, economics and social norms mean for the art, culture and the creative class? These are the topics that drive my book, Culture Crash, and they're subjects I discussed with the Jeff Schnechtman, the Napa, CA-based radio host whose show is called Specific Gravity. Here it is. I may … [Read more...]
Postmodernism and the Human Condition
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4fl6TsMH8aaXBjpQRlz6uE4TNBUnTl8E"] ONE of our favorite controversies over the last few moths has been the tussle over Excellent Sheep, the William Deresiewicz book that criticizes the obsessive pragmatism and money worship that's come to define the Ivy League experience. Simultaneously, one of our least favorite recent developments has been the destruction of the … [Read more...]
The Dark Vision of Neil Postman
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9SH7Jz0T3AVOjswZ9pMhaO2BBpIbBBbX"] ONE of my all-time favorite social critics is the late, great author of Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. (I'm even fonder of his book Technopoly, which came out in the early '90s but remains one of the great books about what the Internet would do to us.) So my senses were stirred when I … [Read more...]