[contextly_auto_sidebar id="iQQVe5TAzEEnpCsYlIIqaek1CQTiG9Gn"] WELL, I feel like the vaudeville announcer lingering onstage because the dancing girls are late: The piece I intended to launch this blog with turns out to be waiting until the weekend. But I’m quite intrigued by this essay on creativity, work and careers in the arts, which appears in my favorite newish magazine, Pacific Standard. … [Read more...]
Introducing Culture Crash
Today I launch the new ArtsJournal blog, Culture Crash. I’m a longtime arts reporter in Los Angeles, and a former LA Times writer who’s covered architecture, classical music, jazz, film, books, visual art, indie rock, and and written for Salon and The New York Times. For the last five years I’ve run the West Coast Culture blog TheMisreadCity, but I’m shifting those energies to Culture … [Read more...]
Dave Allen on Rock Music and the Internet
RECENTLY I've been corresponding with Dave Allen, bassist for the British post-punk group Gang of Four. His ideas on digital culture -- mostly strongly opposed to those of David Lowery and David Byrne -- are as forceful as his bass playing on Entertainment! I'll point out that I disagree with Mr. Allen on much of what he says; I'm less optimistic that the new system will work out for musicians … [Read more...]
Print, Online and the Creative Class
TODAY I have another piece in Salon, this one about the folding of New York magazine into a biweekly, and the resulting conversation about where the media is (and isn't going.) HERE it is. People trying to be "counterintuitive" are framing this as a win for journalists and journalism, since more people will read New York related copy on the blogs (some of which are quite good.) It's like saying … [Read more...]
David Lowery vs. Silicon Valley
CAMPER Van Beethoven's singer David Lowery has become the most ornery of those fighting for musician's rights. He's erupted over piracy, Spotify, lyric websites, and the battle between the surviving Beastie Boys (with the ghost of Adam Yauch) and GoldieBlox. I speak to him for Salon here. He makes a pretty good case for what's wrong with Silicon Valley techno-utopianism, which leaves artists … [Read more...]
Cable TV and the Niche-ing of America
TODAY I have a story in Salon looking at the golden age of cable TV post-Sopranos, and contrasting this with the economic/technological forces in the culture right now.And I ask: If HBO, or AMC, can find a profitable quality niche -- and stay in business -- can a jazz club? A book publisher? Theater company? I also look at the world of indie rock labels.I speak to the authors of two new books, … [Read more...]
The Web, Jaron Lanier and the Disappearing Middle Class
TODAY I have a long and I hope substantial Q+A with web visionary-turned-skeptic Jaron Lanier. Here it is. We get into some ideas that reflect on my investigation of the fate of the creative class in the 21st century, including the growth of a tiny digital plutocracy at the expense of the imperiled middle class.The piece is provoked by his powerful and odd new book, Who Owns the Future? … [Read more...]
Can Unions Save the Creative Class?
SALON is running a series on labor unions in the 21st century. My contribution is a piece asking if struggling artists, musicians, authors, scribes, etc. can make use of a union or collective to negotiate these strange times.I spoke to a number of folks -- a laid-off journalist, a music historian, screenwriter who helped lead the Hollywood writers strike, cultural observer Thomas Frank -- for this … [Read more...]
The End of Jazz?
THIS year -- soon drawing to a close -- has gotten me thinking about the American songbook in a major way. Part of this is because of the publication of Ted Gioia's wonderful The Jazz Standards -- which has shown up on a number of year's best lists, and through which I have whiled away many hours.Another is the notorious Atlantic article, "The End of Jazz," which is both a review of the book and a … [Read more...]
Publishing and the Creative Class
IT was easy to miss, because of the chaos created by Sandy, but publishing may be on the verge of a serious contraction or at least rearrangement. It's hard to tell what is going on -- a lot of only vaguely related issues are coming together at once -- but this is not good news for people working in the business.Here is my story from Salon, the latest in my series on the pressure exerted on the … [Read more...]