West of Southby…

I’m too far West this year to complain about all the hipsters crowding our regular East Austin hang-outs (1,2,3) during the wonderful madness that is SXSW.  There’s something great about living in a place that turns into a cultural mecca for a week or two out of the year and feeling like part of that – even if you’re not particularly musical and you feel a bit exhausted by all the hipster-ness. Phoenix isn’t a mecca for anything but anti-immigration sentiment. So I’m spending Sunday morning listening to the My Morning Jacket concert podcast on NPR, “writing letters” with CJC,  nursing LEC, and cleaning bathrooms. Vicarious living. Who said I’m not cool?

 

A little bit behind on this whole itunes thing

I bought my first itunes albums the other day. Gifted Queen’s “Greatests Hits” to GC (per shrinking isaac’s recommendation) and Carly Simon’s “Into White” for me. I’m the kind of person who, until now, has always insisted on making the trek to the record store and buying the actual CD. But I read a few reviews of the CS album that made me realize that I had to have it and fast. Since I hadn’t yet taken a shower and since packing up CJC and driving across town to the record store is a little bit of a pain – not to mention the time, traffic, parking hassles, gas, and other pollution involved with doing that, I bought on itunes. There’s probably no going back.

The best part of the whole transaction: I couldn’t remember which password I used for my apple account, so after 3 unsuccessful tries, I clicked on the “forgot password” icon which took me to a page aptly titled “iforgot.” Too cute.

 

O Holy Night

Stuido 60 on the Sunset Strip moved up many, many notches in the pop-culture pecking order after this past episode – “The Christmas Show.” I haven’t been so moved by a new interpretation of an old favorite in a very long time. A free download of the song is available here. If you, too, have had enough of what I call the Mariah Carey vibrato ad nauseum effect, you’ll be very, very grateful. How’s this for Merry Christmas?

 

A Great Equalizer?

I recently caught this interview with the writers of The Office (probably my favorite show on television right now) on Fresh Air and thoroughly enjoyed it.

There’s something funny about Fresh Air. I listen to it occasionally – whenever I’m in the car at the right time, though I did listen to it almost every day during that brief period of time I had a desk job with a regular schedule. The thing is, relative to how often I listen to Fresh Air, I talk about it a whole lot. Get together with friends for lunch – did you hear Willie Nelson on Terry Gross? Greg Kinnear on Fast Food Nation? Mike Judge? We especially like talking about guests who have ties to Austin, but not exclusively. At a housewarming party with lots of people I didn’t know, I was part of a really lovely conversation about Terry’s interview with Zadie Smith. It was an old interview, rebroadcasted just as the paperback version of On Beauty was being released; hearing it prompted to pick up a copy of her first novel. Another person at the party had done the exact same thing after catching the program.

Maybe this just says something about the social circles I run in: academics, film people (I married into that world), architects, a few musicians — highly educated, creative types, who don’t have a whole lot of money. But I think it actually goes beyond that. A recent ASR article on cultural tastes and social networks speaks to this. The author argues that cultural consupmtion is primarily a social endeavor insofar as that our cultural tastes help us create and sustain different types of relationships. “High-brow” and “popular” culture lend themselves to different types of social captial – evidenced by more strong and weak network ties, respectively. Individuals who consume both types of culture (and lots of it) have some pretty serious advantages compared to those who consume only one or the other.

So back to Fresh Air. There’s something ironic about learning more about The Office (network television, generally considered pretty low-brow) on NPR (media for “sophisticated” people who “don’t watch TV”). I consume both popular and high-brow culture, and on occasion – like when listening to Terry’s interview with Matt Groening – I do it simultaneously. Better yet, when I talk about Fresh Air interviews with friends and strangers in this blog, in conversation, or by emailing a link to a particular program to someone I suspect would enjoy it, it’s a two-fer. I’m sharing that I listen to NPR and that I watch network television – complementary cultural resources – and in doing so, I’m reproducing my relatively advantageous social position. Sheesh.

If all this is true, could we conclude that Fresh Air has the potential to be a profoundly equalizing social force? Omar? Terry? Anybody?