[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...]
The Dark Vision of Neil Postman
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9SH7Jz0T3AVOjswZ9pMhaO2BBpIbBBbX"] ONE of my all-time favorite social critics is the late, great author of Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. (I'm even fonder of his book Technopoly, which came out in the early '90s but remains one of the great books about what the Internet would do to us.) So my senses were stirred when I … [Read more...]
The War on Drugs and Mexico’s 43 Students
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Pln6fxEk2TX0tQNMAlUpd0JSCmyG43Dh"] WHEN I was in Puebla, Mexico, a few weeks back, the story of the 43 missing students -- thought to have been murdered by a collusion between a drug gang and government officials in Guerrero -- was heating up and protests were beginning. To some, they are the latest victims of the War on Drugs launched, and largely maintained, by the … [Read more...]
Do Visual Artists Still Need Galleries? And, Outsider Artist in Texas
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xuel5RALWv2asRk33q0uxqd8UbYD0j58"] OVER the last few years, there's been a lot of talk about disintermediation -- removing the middle man. Digital technology makes this easier, and we've seen the self-publishing model expand for artists for authors, musicians, journalists and others. Will artists abandon galleries and try to reach collectors directly? Some already … [Read more...]
Political and Public Art, Billboards, New York and Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="gUbWKQMto2pd9SNDW9DKGH0zVVcyuOMo"] WHAT happened to political art? Has it seen a revival during a period in which inequality and related subjects are flaring? Does tackling a topical theme doom a work of art to becoming ephemeral? Will activist art ever again be as visible as it was during height of the AIDS crisis in the '80s? We probably can’t answer all of that … [Read more...]
The Past and Future of Jazz, and “Writing From California”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5JaPY4EuOTgKJQzRDmJq9iKTEWZtZtT7"] SHE's not just my favorite new jazz singer in many moons, but someone who points the way forward for the music. That's the sense I've gotten from the young, classically trained vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant, who played the other night at Catalina's and whose album, WomanChild, is a knockout. Part of what I like about her is the … [Read more...]
Calder, Bookstores and the Death of Cool
TODAY I’ve got a few smallish items to catch up on. First, it’s hardly news that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been on a roll recently. Over the weekend, I caught the Calder exhibit – “Calder and Abstraction” – and parts of it blew me away. I’ve seen my share of Alexander Calder sculptures over the years – there is a “stabile,” the stationary version of a mobile, outside the train … [Read more...]
The Glories of Van Dyke Parks
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ct3qiObIO1GjbjGS8WTsakgdEZd3a77u"] ONE of the great characters -- and great talents -- of Southern California, Van Dyke Parks, has experienced a renaissance lately. First known for his work with the Beach Boys and for his pop-baroque Song Cycle, Parks is an ornery Southerner with a big heart, an abiding love for music, and some serious frustrations with recent … [Read more...]
Are the Arts Only For the Rich?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="aqiS16Ux4TDDRYOTuxApesEZ8xik6SGp"] TAKE the long view, and people and institutions have been trying to destroy culture, and the people who make it, for centuries. Among the latest attacks has been the category of the "cultural elite," and the implication that anyone who enjoys the arts or takes place in their making is not a real American. It's a weird mix of … [Read more...]
Pete Seeger, Llewyn Davis, and Sisyphus
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="o511ReiogmTCk65Pr1jtarJdMtJ8q5at"] IN the weeks since I’ve seen it, I’ve gone back and forth on the movie Inside Llewyn Davis. The film was beautifully shot and well acted, I love the way some of the scenes of Greenwich Village make it look like the characters are inside the cover of Dylan’s Freewheelin’ , and so on. But I also couldn’t help thinking that for all … [Read more...]