Another Worry About Scottish Independence: Talent Might Stampede South

“Scots who consider themselves to be artists living in the land of their birth are increasingly uneasy about the instrumentalism of all this, how the arts are fine as long as they earn, and as long as it’s seen as definitively Scottish. … That’s okay while when there’s still an enthusiastic cultural traffic between Scotland and the rest of the UK, but the Scot Nats want to end it on Thursday.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.15.14

What is this thing called meaning?
AJBlog: We The Audience | Published 2014-09-15

Answer to the Ever-Present False Dichotomy About Museums
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-09-16

The revolution will not be staged
AJBlog: Performance Monkey | Published 2014-09-15

Adoring the impossible
AJBlog: About Last Night | Published 2014-09-15

Meet the Smithsonian’s Incoming Secretary: Jazz Flutist David Skorton (with video)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-09-15

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Bill Cosby’s Work Is Never Done

“[He] surely has neither the time nor the need to do anything he doesn’t want to do. What he does want to do, even now [at age 77], is comedy: he performs about a hundred times a year, mainly on weekends, following an itinerary that often leads him into what promoters call tertiary markets, where fans are not just happy to be able to see him in person but surprised, too.”

When Frankfurt School Philosophers Examine Pop Culture

Theodor Adorno, on an LA Times astrology column that advised, “Accept all invitations.”: “The consummation of this trend is the obligatory participation in official ‘leisure-time activities’ in totalitarian countries.” Alex Ross considers how Adorno and Walter Benjamin “were pioneers in thinking critically about pop culture – in taking that culture seriously as an object of scrutiny.”