[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QsLx7wwZeCPiHbCCxGIMq5cuGHsw7dvf"] DOES music journalism have any interest in music, as opposed to celebrity and wardrobe? What happens to the audience when they get fluff instead of criticism, paparazzi shots instead of real journalism? A tough, intelligent new article by my friend Ted Gioia is sure to lose him friends among the fraternity of culture scribes: … [Read more...]
Dave Eggers on Artists in the Digital Age
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Sgct1PtiO3Y0LbD66DOqZ5sXTeAmgc4p"] FOR reasons I half understand, Dave Eggers's recent novel The Circle was dismissed and ignored in some circles. The book's not perfect, but works beautifully as a fable about what we're willing to give up to live in a digital utopia. The book's protagonist, Mae, lucks into a job at a Google-like campus in Northern California and … [Read more...]
Will Technology Eat Your Job?: The Second Machine Age
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rH31sHcPNX2fJ8BUGdeIZ6rMJes54987"] THE honest answer to that question is, Well, maybe. Today I have a Daily Beast interview with Andrew McAfee, an MIT researcher and co-author of the new book The Second Machine Age. His previous book, Race Against the Machine, took a cautionary look at how digital technology, including artificial intelligence, was leading to levels … [Read more...]
Will Gentrification Kill Music Scenes?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TrbR7MBr156tnxxUjyokh6h5WiyTPKma"] ONE irony that members of the creative class lives with every day is that we help bring neighborhoods up, and then get priced out sometime after the ascend. This has been going on for decades, but it's taken on a special fierceness in places where the tech boom and high finance have reshaped the cost of living. We see a … [Read more...]
Making it as a Writer: MFA vs NYC
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6RDST6owlrC0x8P60LIwnB5J7Z8Ftt9Q"] HOW does an aspiring novelist, poet, or essayist break into the business? What kind of ecosystem does he or she inhabit after getting established? Does grad school help? Among the best answers to those questions came from novelist Chad Harbach in his essay "MFA vs NYC," and he's expanded it into a provocative anthology that … [Read more...]
The Enigma of Acting, and Longing for Adelaide
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="32rmFQIcwhA54BeHtYSmHSIWsnR6KSaz"] WHAT drives actors to do what they do? Can they inflict real and lasting emotional pain while transforming themselves? And has science been able to document and quantify any of this? These questions are explored in a long, nuanced new story on the Atlantic’s Health channel. Sitting behind this story, of course, is the recent … [Read more...]
Jazz Telepathy: Fred Hersch and Julian Lage
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WMgTBTUIttMzmXda37fW7vFebFeMPq8h"] LAST night I was lucky enough to catch jazz pianist Fred Hersch and guitarist Julian Lage in the kind of duet setting that captured not only what's best about jazz, but about chamber music and "Americana" as well. For two chordal instruments to stay out of each others' way is not easy, but this exceeded my high expectations, … [Read more...]
Artists Struggle For Studio Space
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="npP8u6de6KK3cPDVFRq7dyGjkAQtokuK"] OFTEN I wonder how visual artists -- most of whom are not rich and not famous -- are faring while the global art market booms and auctions hit new heights. Solid data is hard to find, and much of the market is opaque. But an illuminating new story makes clear: Rising rents make it hard for artists in big cities to hold their … [Read more...]
Photography on the Web: Getty Images Goes Free
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wKTuBaBs4g6nEeAQFph8OgG0XKZQVL7g"] THE state of photographs and other images on the Web is fraught and confusing, and seems destined to become more of both with time. Vague tensions turn into lawsuits; the "free" crowd, sometime with tech-corporation lobbying, goes up against Hollywood lawyers, and on and on. I must admit, as someone who respects the need for … [Read more...]
The Future of Alternative Weeklies, and Chiming Indie
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ShQp9YeN13ifE3cCtt2c9QeB43k2DCRC"] DOES the alternative press have a future? Do these papers still matter to their cities? And how much of that future will be corporate controlled? Those are some of the topics that an editor at the Baltimore City Paper gets into in a smart op-ed today. Alt-weeklies have had a hard time of it over the last few years, Baynard Woods … [Read more...]