Consider me a very strong "yes!" in favor of you "mixing things up by throwing in a post now and then on music (or film, or a novel, or a play)"; as you know, I think your writing on different forms of pop (and high!) culture is one of your strong suits, and I'd hate to see that go away just because your gig at The Week did. (Just think of it this way: Substack is the new blogging!) As for your answer to my question, thanks very much; I'm going to find the time to give that Nile Rodgers interview a listen. Your perspective on the arc of Bowie's career is interesting; I agree that the following couple of albums were lackluster (though "Blue Jean" is possibly my single favorite Bowie track of his whole career), but as I've dove into 1983, I find Bowie's artistic and cultural engagements during this period really fascinating (think The Hunger, Labyrinth, and his confrontation with MTV here: https://www.mtv.com/news/w50hpx/david-bowie-calls-mtv-out-black-artists-diversity). Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts, and the link.
Linker, I appreciate very much your nuanced take on my question about John Gray. You very well confirmed my suspicions that his proverbial Warholian 15 minutes of fame--about all any even semi-serious writer can get these days, to be fair--expired well before the rise of Trump, Orban, Bolsonaro, Putin, et al. Likewise, it predated Brexit in his land, which was accompanied by a succession of bumbling Tory prime ministers in Westminster that made it exceedingly more dramatic than it would have been in more sober times (i.e., Thatcher, Major, Blair). Knowing him, he probably predicted the subsequent UK chaos at the same time while cheerleading the "Leave" forces. As you imply, he was probably not read by enough people on these shores to have made an impact on the current US neo-authoritarian movement, due to his unrelenting pessimism about the human condition. Americans, by and large, except for certain ethnic groups and Southern Whites, have never given it the time of day in days gone by. Say what you will, but the MAGA hordes are declinists when Democrats are in power and full-throated, Reagan-like optimists when the GOP sits in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That, of course, would hold true for left-wingers when every Republican president since Nixon sat in the White House, but we do not hear as much from them these days, except if one hangs around a college campus, youth hangout, or Twitter too much. As for Gray, I imagine he, like generations of other other Brit social commentators/academics everywhere on the political spectrum before him, tries to think as little about the U.S. as he possibly can, and when he does, he probably views our decrepit, sewer-stinking political culture with more than a bit of schadenfreude, if not outright derision. After all, in his and others' sights in the UK, those damn Americans have made out ever since the nation's founding as if they were virtuous redeemers of Western Civilization from the corrupt Old World. Now they are getting theirs, as developed, literate nations of any kind always will at some point. To conclude, I suspect Americans are going to need more than a stiff drink if they are going to stomach the likes of his "Straw Dogs"--illegal substances would be needed instead. Anyway, thanks for fielding my question!
Consider me a very strong "yes!" in favor of you "mixing things up by throwing in a post now and then on music (or film, or a novel, or a play)"; as you know, I think your writing on different forms of pop (and high!) culture is one of your strong suits, and I'd hate to see that go away just because your gig at The Week did. (Just think of it this way: Substack is the new blogging!) As for your answer to my question, thanks very much; I'm going to find the time to give that Nile Rodgers interview a listen. Your perspective on the arc of Bowie's career is interesting; I agree that the following couple of albums were lackluster (though "Blue Jean" is possibly my single favorite Bowie track of his whole career), but as I've dove into 1983, I find Bowie's artistic and cultural engagements during this period really fascinating (think The Hunger, Labyrinth, and his confrontation with MTV here: https://www.mtv.com/news/w50hpx/david-bowie-calls-mtv-out-black-artists-diversity). Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts, and the link.
Linker, I appreciate very much your nuanced take on my question about John Gray. You very well confirmed my suspicions that his proverbial Warholian 15 minutes of fame--about all any even semi-serious writer can get these days, to be fair--expired well before the rise of Trump, Orban, Bolsonaro, Putin, et al. Likewise, it predated Brexit in his land, which was accompanied by a succession of bumbling Tory prime ministers in Westminster that made it exceedingly more dramatic than it would have been in more sober times (i.e., Thatcher, Major, Blair). Knowing him, he probably predicted the subsequent UK chaos at the same time while cheerleading the "Leave" forces. As you imply, he was probably not read by enough people on these shores to have made an impact on the current US neo-authoritarian movement, due to his unrelenting pessimism about the human condition. Americans, by and large, except for certain ethnic groups and Southern Whites, have never given it the time of day in days gone by. Say what you will, but the MAGA hordes are declinists when Democrats are in power and full-throated, Reagan-like optimists when the GOP sits in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That, of course, would hold true for left-wingers when every Republican president since Nixon sat in the White House, but we do not hear as much from them these days, except if one hangs around a college campus, youth hangout, or Twitter too much. As for Gray, I imagine he, like generations of other other Brit social commentators/academics everywhere on the political spectrum before him, tries to think as little about the U.S. as he possibly can, and when he does, he probably views our decrepit, sewer-stinking political culture with more than a bit of schadenfreude, if not outright derision. After all, in his and others' sights in the UK, those damn Americans have made out ever since the nation's founding as if they were virtuous redeemers of Western Civilization from the corrupt Old World. Now they are getting theirs, as developed, literate nations of any kind always will at some point. To conclude, I suspect Americans are going to need more than a stiff drink if they are going to stomach the likes of his "Straw Dogs"--illegal substances would be needed instead. Anyway, thanks for fielding my question!
Yes to posts on the arts.