[contextly_auto_sidebar] TONIGHT I am looking forward to going to Disney Hall to see an odd pairing: the songs of Franz Schubert interspersed with the short plays of Samuel Beckett. The recital, put on by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, features several singers and actors including Irish actor Barry McGovern and soprano Julia Bullock. The whole thing springs from the twisted genius Yuval Sharon, … [Read more...]
Arts Journalism and the Culture Crash
[contextly_auto_sidebar] SOME things have gotten a bit better since I published my book two years ago; some have unraveled more or less on schedule. One thing that does not seem to be improving is the state of cultural journalism: Arts critics (and reporters, like yours truly) continue to be laid off as publications scale back and decide -- just as school boards do in lean times -- that … [Read more...]
Pres Obama’s cultural policy
[contextly_auto_sidebar] LIKE a lot of Americans, I'm sorry to see President Obama go. But in at least two areas, he was a real disappointment. One was his gutless response -- or lack of response -- to the housing crisis, which involved mostly looking the other way and proposing toothless acronyms while banks crushed homeowners struggling with the Great Recession. His second great failure … [Read more...]
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
[contextly_auto_sidebar] ONE of my favorite writers in any genre is the USC humanities professor Leo Braudy, justly celebrated for his Frenzy of Renown, a history of fame going back to Alexander the Great. Braudy writes widely on literature, film, ancient civilizations. the question of America, the overlap of culture and politics, and all kinds of subjects that interest me. He's insightful, … [Read more...]
“Best Books of the Last 20 Years,” and the Canon
[contextly_auto_sidebar] It sounds like a great idea, or at least a revealing one: Assemble a list of the most important books of the last two decades, in any genre, from poetry to the novel. Find accomplished writers in a variety or genres — Rebecca Solnit, Jonathan Lethem, Roxane Gay, Ann Padgett, Patti Smith, and so on — and ask them for their favorites since 1997. “The end of December is a … [Read more...]
Octavia Butler’s Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE posthumous rise of the science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, who died in 2006 and spent most of her life in and around Pasadena, CA, has been fascinating to watch. I've been interested in Butler since I moved out here and began to hear of her work, in the late '90s, and love one of her story collections. But I don't know her life of output in great detail. So … [Read more...]
The Powerful Influence of Leonard Cohen
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IT'S been a very tough year for music lovers, and the last week or so has been especially rough for other reasons. But the legacy left by the late poet/ songwriter is something to be grateful for. In my latest Salon story, I document the influence of Cohen from the earliest covers of his songs (Judy Collins' "Suzanne," Fairport Convention's "Bird on a Wire"), … [Read more...]
Lit Crawl L.A./ North Hollywood
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE other night I ventured out to Los Angeles's North Hollywood neighborhood for the latest installment of Lit Crawl L.A. This annual night out has been going since 2013, but for various reasons I've missed it every time, even though NoHo is one of my favorite L.A. 'hoods. The idea of Lit Crawl is to arrange readings, conversations, rants, and various kinds of … [Read more...]
Guillermo Del Toro at LACMA
[contextly_auto_sidebar] I MUST admit to being the kind of museum-goer instinctively suspicious of exhibits about popular culture. I say this as someone who loves pop culture and spends most of his life there. But these exhibits can be ways of pandering in an attempt to draw new audiences. I'm all in favor of the new audiences, but turned off by the pandering. But I had high hopes for the … [Read more...]
Poetry and Plutocracy
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="fhqVn6TOLjpnLFsHnV7qvLOILjagWywW"] A NEW book of poems, Monetized, looks at our new Gilded Age, with its staggering extremes of wealth and poverty. The book is written by the New York journalist Alissa Quart, who has written three books, the most recent of which is Republic of Outsiders. The New Yorker's Joshua Rothman has a smart profile of Quart on the … [Read more...]