[contextly_auto_sidebar id="nyU3WlOOWJ6AtWo9GPWNXOReGdrv3jlA"] WHAT could be the first skirmish in a larger war is shaping up in Hollywood, where L.A. musicians are protesting a studio's hiring of foreign musicians. The protestors are telling the Lionsgate studio, which distributes the Hunger Games movies, to "stop sending musicians' jobs overseas." It comes after a protest by the American … [Read more...]
Just How Bad is Amazon? A New Backlash
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9ZV3e0kcKq8CTDdht2tTpvL5mUJdBAL3"] LAURA Miller is one of our day's most lively and credible writers on books and authors. In her latest Salon piece, she says goodbye to Amazon, and documents her frustration over the Hachette mess, in which the online service deliberately slows delivery of some publishers' books. The company's predatory, near monopolistic style … [Read more...]
What Does Death of Net Neutrality Mean for Culture? And, Women of Paris
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xGDWAexoDrHPFCevaXgcNYzALx2EWaaG"] THIS week, it seems, has brought us closer to the end of net neutrality, with the FCC getting closer to approving a pay-to-play "fast lane." The fear among purveyors and enthusiasts of indie culture is that there will be a tiered Internet, one for wealthy corporations and a slow one for the rest. Enormous power would go to broadband … [Read more...]
Art, Work and Money
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="iZv7JeHqc41WMIllgv7eQnjxMkFtGil8"] IF art and culture produce something besides money, what, exactly, is it? Who are the people who devote their lives to this stuff? And how have technological and economic shifts changed things over recent years? Those are questions I ponder often, and A.O. Scott addresses them in a perceptive and wide-ranging New York Times essay … [Read more...]
How Do Visual Artists Survive? A Conversation
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bf0FrQh0qNpnPUaXjMY1eGrcVaOQV5gc"] IT’S never been easy to make a living as a creative being, and recent years have made it even more difficult for anyone without a trust fund. So I’m quite cheered by the recent appearance of a handsome, useful book, Living and Sustaining a Creative Life. Edited by the Brooklyn-based, Yale-educated artist Sharon Louden, it's … [Read more...]
Announcing Culture Crash the Book; and Kylie the Appalling
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ftixoeOJRzszHlmMuaxS6xpP6qUMIuEH"] EAGER for more of the uplifting optimism of the CultureCrash blog? Then you'll love my upcoming book, Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class, which Yale University Press has just formally announced. Here is the press's page. The book is about a crisis in the arts and culture, one provoked by digital technology, changing … [Read more...]
How Important is a Writer’s Routine? Plus, McMansions
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="VwvlTpDOy3SsWouxN3cvJka5SISHA7pJ"] ONE of the many ironies of our age is that as creative folk find it harder and harder to keep afloat, a whole world of books, workshops, and other sorts of guides to creativity continue to spring up. A sub-genre is the book which tells you about an artist's or writer's daily routine: How eccentric waking hours or diets or various … [Read more...]
All Rock-Music Edition: Dean Wareham, and the Poptimists
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dTd8KUgvezSMCnL3vPx3MNcoWYDv5jqq"] OVER the last few years I’ve been corresponding with a number of rock musicians about how their world has changed in the post-label, post-recordings world we seem to be moving into. One of the most observant of them is Dean Wareham, former leader of indie-rock bands Galaxie 500 and Luna. Dean has a new solo album – his first – and … [Read more...]
What’s the Matter With San Diego, and a Deadly Impostor
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uXOtZCit5zazXO6t0Ht1wwihD894I3a9"] EVEN in an arts world familiar with groups going belly-up, this one surprised people: The San Diego Opera's board voted last week to call it a day, effective at the end of the current season. No pleading with donors or subscribers to pitch in, no Chapter 11 filing, just an abrupt, "Closed For Business" sign. Now the group's … [Read more...]
Debating the Blue Note 100, and Music Streaming
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="46i5BmaPr0zmJefPqiMZ5JyjjVYvB11F"] THE jazz label Blue Note has announced plans to reissue 100 of its classic albums on remastered vinyl as part of its 75th anniversary celebration. I don't love everything Don Was has cooked up since taking over the label -- his emphasis on "branding" rather than improving and promoting the actual recordings and supporting the … [Read more...]