Happy Friday friends.
I’ve got a weekend of my two favourite things lined up – photographs and brilliant people. I hope yours is equally excellent.
1
Beyonce profiled by NYTimes Magazine – She wouldn’t be top of my list of listens but there’s just something about her; thought provoking, fascinating, she earns the attention she so furiously demands.
Beyoncé is, as a cultural studies professor might put it, popular culture’s most richly multivalent “text.” The question these days is not, What does the new Beyoncé record sound like? It’s, What does Beyoncé mean?
2
Still relevant, an interview with Simon Reynolds on his 2011 book, Retromania.
CW asks “Is our retro obsession ruining everything?”
I’m into innovation and moving forward. All the music I grew up on was like that, starting with post-punk music. Then in the ’80s, I was into Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, and in the ’90s, I was involved in the electronic scene. So the idea that, in the 21st century, music is modeled on the past seems counterproductive, or a failure, even.
3
As Google makes ‘street-view’ like tours of museums available online, Mario M. Santamaria questions the implications of Google’s Art Project and the objectivity of both Google and museums through a study of instances where the hardware used to capture the museum is shown in the image.
The museum says what is art and what is important to view. Google Street View says, “that is the world!” Google just has more power to define all of reality than cultural institutions.
4
What’s your personal pop culture hell?
This one made me laugh:
When Sony brought the first CD players to the market in the early ’80s, the corporation introduced a uniquely modern form of torture in the form of the “skip track” function. It’s a device of acute anxiety for anyone in close proximity to listeners who can never remember the track number for their favorite song..
But this is the one I connected with most:
..the short chick’s dilemma: going to a live show for one of my favorite bands and being trapped behind someone who can only be described as a giant..
Yeah, I hear ya.
5
Tony Robbins reckons that to succeed in anything you need to be hungry more than passionate. Hunger destroys the fear of failure.
Passion is first gear; it will get you going, but hunger is the ticket that will take you there.
I also like this quote quite a lot.