[contextly_auto_sidebar id="C9NSdernwV8X41Rw5BV3m3kxC3W8iYky"] THE movie Noah was directed by one of the most talented filmmakers of my generation. He can also be one of the most erratic. I got to hang out a bit with Darren Aronofsky about a decade ago when he was following up his debut, Pi, with Requiem for Dream. He had a reputation even then for being difficult and stubborn, but he came across … [Read more...]
Remembering Mike Kelley, and an Inscrutable Indie Rocker
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uhn6cUcVr5hepNR0gearR5lZEvN3qK1j"] MONDAY sees the opening of the Mike Kelley retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The museum is only a few miles from where Kelley lives and worked. His work remains stirring and bitterly funny, and there was much good cheer from old friends and admirers excited to finally see so much work in the same place. … [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...]
Snubbing Sarah Polley, and Musicians Souring on Facebook
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="C9J6uLN8DJGJrhAieA8jJpyWE47Vp38G"] IT’s always healthy going into Oscar weekend angry about something, usually a good film that you feel has been ripped off by not being nominated. For me, that’s Sarah Polley’s ingenious and deeply felt documentary, Stories We Tell. The movie follows the Canadian actress/director into some odd family history; saying any more will … [Read more...]
Scorning the Great American Novel, and The Return of Beck
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Jai56XiddmTkDBhUq1fwtKRmcQk3eCCw"] WHO wrote the Great American Novel? Does such a category make any sense? Did it ever? A provocative essay argues that we've outgrown the term, and that it was wrong to begin with. Whether we're talking about Melville's Moby Dick or Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, my old colleague David Ulin writes, we're missing the real point of … [Read more...]
New Group Fights for Artists
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="NvvIzO2UWJlX4uUIoRf2LjL4Y3FqhcNC"] TODAY I have an interview in Salon with rock musician John McCrea, who is announcing a group he's helped assemble, Content Creators Coalition. The group, which puts on a free rally tonight in New York that will include David Byrne, aims to bring artists and artisans of all kinds together as a way of making the creative life less … [Read more...]
Artists in the Digital Age, and Falling in Love with Technology
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qC3vge9cgA87c22YRZr5Mjkjf9EcoUPy"] HOW will the digital age shape the livelihood of artists, writers and musicians? There’s a new story in The New York Times that everyone who cares about the subject should read. It’s by Robert H. Frank, one of my favorite economists and the sharpest observer of the winner-take-all phenomenon, which may seem to have little to do with … [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...]
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...]
Digging the New Dean Wareham
DESPITE our well-documented bias for things West Coast, the Misread City gang has a deep and abiding love for the work of Dean Wareham going back to the Galaxie 500 and Luna eras. The day after seeing Luna on its first US tour (opening for the Sundays, if memory serves, and before the first LP), we walked to the local record store in Chapel Hill to pick up the band's Slide EP. (It was what we … [Read more...]