[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Ik2UBDsLb9qxlWm7jqiO4d9Utt1cqk1Y"] SO who decides what we do -- our biology or us? Is there anyone home, or do we just run through our decisions the way nature programmed us? I didn't think there was a lot more to say about free will, which often provokes dull, abstract debates, but a presentation in Puebla, Mexico last week by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at … [Read more...]
Musicians Respond to YouTube’s Streaming Plan
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6BOXVutxAn6x54DqzWmGmpzRcmnqtSpG"] IT'S been on the verge of dropping for months now, but YouTube has finally announced its new music streaming service, which could perhaps crush some of the others. What will it mean for musicians, er, content providers, especially those without corporate backing? At this point we don't entirely know, but the group Content Creators … [Read more...]
Amazon and Hachette Put Down Their Guns
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="cbGdJO2smCNX5vcUPc2VBnWMyTRPboTU"] WELL, it's not clear who cried uncle first, but this fight between the online realtor and the French publishing company -- whose authors were being punished by late delivery and discouraged sales -- seems to be resolved. Here's the lead from today's New York Times story: Amazon and Hachette announced Thursday morning that they … [Read more...]
La Ciudad de las Ideas festival
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9AhxX8pf5CvtID3wavJN9goOU6FcNHYU"] YOUR humble blogger is just back from a few days in Puebla, Mexico, which hosted an annual ideas conference that included writer Piper Kerman, filmmaker Werner Herzog, tiger mom Amy Chua, and a host of musicians, neuroscientists, and magicians. There was also an appearance by the Orquestra Esperanza Azteca, one of the many groups … [Read more...]
Michael Lewis and the Wolves of Wall Street
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="E5qNaI36069IPjIw5lgPIe3Zh8gOxJpu"] FEW writers have penetrated the macho, risk-taking culture of finance like journalist Michael Lewis, who worked on Wall Street and in the City of London in the late '80s. His first book, the colorful, high-octane Liar's Poker, has just been reissued for its 25th anniversary, and it describes the birth of the sort of casino … [Read more...]
Is Opera Really “Dead”?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bkv13k1YwsUOJ9oOZ89GQDYLY1wM0rF3"] WELL, of course it's not, but another story has gone up recently arguing that the entire art form is finished. The focus of the piece is that the opera repertoire has been stuck in the 19th century for way too long -- that it doesn't move forward, with new work, anymore. That would indeed be damning, but looking closer, we see that … [Read more...]
Obama Wants a “Free and Open Internet”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="jqHfdeb7F6lDN38IeV0lSf8Avyx9cp2I"] THE president, I'm pleased to say, has now taken a fair and reasonable stance on an issue that exerts a strong effect on the creative class. Do we want the web to be skyboxed-- the rich over here, in the good seats, the rest over there, fighting for crumbs -- the way American society is? I don't, and that's what net neutrality, in … [Read more...]
The Sardonic Muse of Lloyd Cole
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="x7fHoswu5DffP7bQJStvjipFAfVMBxGb"] I HAD the pleasure recently to speak to one of my longtime heroes, the British-born, Massachusetts-dwelling singer-songwriter Lloyd Cole, about Dylan, Why he loves country music, aging as a rock musician, and other topics. The conversation is here. Here's my first question for Lloyd: Let’s start with the new record and then … [Read more...]
“What’s With All the Jazz Bashing?”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5PEO4QFSNmxgzHgSPv9UaaL0AEAfjMDQ"] SOME of America's smartest publications -- the ones that often offered robust and serious jazz coverage in decades past -- have recently been running articles (satiric, critical or otherwise) dissing one of my favorite art forms. New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Review of Books... What's behind it? Music historian and CultureCrash … [Read more...]
What Happened to Net Neutrality?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="JX2tjd7JvriqrA2S7OZYKTAWW9ZQa4Rm"] What about the idea that the Internet would become a level playing field, an outlet for democracy and independent voices, rather than a corporate-dominated, winner-take-all wasteland like commercial radio? Well, it's taken one step forward and two steps back, or perhaps vice versa -- the new proposal is very hard to figure … [Read more...]