sons of Norway: scratching at the local myth of the Replacements
The Replacements are in the ether again. Do they ever leave? Their legend has hardly faded since they broke up in 1991, but it seems now that popular culture, having cycled through late 70s/early 80s new wave and post-punk, is in the midst of a nostalgic phase for late 80s/early 90s college-radio music. There was...
listening alone, together: a review of “Pop Music, Pop Culture” by Chris Rojek
British sociologist Chris Rojek has just published a major work in the social analysis of pop music. To say its argument isn’t completely satisfying doesn’t belittle the remarkable accomplishment of Pop Music, Pop Culture (Polity, 2011), which covers the gamut of musical production, content, and reception from the pre-historic oral tradition to today’s P2P networks. Most distinctively, Pop...
my guest blog on Social Shutter Re: Maryland Deathfest 2011
This week the visual urban sociology blog Social Shutter ran my photos and a new essay about Maryland Deathfest. If you didn’t see the post, I’ve reprinted it below. And do check out Social Shutter, where Georgia State University sociologist Deirdre Oakley and her students offer some compelling and provocative photoessays. Deathfest Posted by Leonard Nevarez, BALTIMORE, MD — The Maryland Deathfest...
Maryland Deathfest 2011: my photos and a first take
Maryland Deathfest 2011, a set on Flickr. So much to chew on from my weekend in Baltimore. Talked to a lot of folks, got a decent look at a few local areas, did some record shopping, and became acquainted with National Bohemian beer, a.k.a. Natty Bo, the cheap beer of choice in Baltimore. Plus, I...
getting ready for Maryland Deathfest, part 1: statement of intent
Grades have been turned in, the school year is over, and now I turn to more important responsibilities — road trip! In eight days I’ll be attending Maryland Deathfest to experience the state of the art in extreme heavy metal. As the event’s website states, “With an emphasis on diversity, the festival brings together the very best death...
4/20/11 panel: “Media and the Community: A Concept of Public Culture”
I haven’t been able to write on the Musical Urbanism blog for awhile, thanks to the crush of teaching, grading, and overseeing surveys for the city of Poughkeepsie’s community food assessment, all of which have peaked in the month of April. (Twitter has been a good time-suck, too, I’ll admit.) So I’m excited to be participating...
just stay put: an alternative vision for arts-based urban revitalization
Here are some thoughts about a different way to think about arts-based urban revitalization, written in the form of a suspiciously confident manifesto. These ideas are completely pie-in-the-sky and fly in the face of the prevailing wisdom in this field, but I’m fine with that if it reveals some fallacies and unspoken assumptions of most...
scaling up in Silverlake (R.I.P. Arthur)
Arthur Magazine is no more. After 31 issues published over 2002-08, and another two years as blog and events promoter, the self-styled countercultural periodical ran out of money and, on March 15, 2001, ceased releasing new writing altogether. Today there is silence from this bold and clever champion of freak folk, psych rock, underground comix,...
don’t cross a Scottish new romantic
I’ve always loved Ultravox since I first heard “Vienna” in the early 1980s. However, my musical education from the New Musical Express (which, as I mentioned before, kind of fucked me up) quickly impressed upon me that Ultravox were actually fey pompous bourgeois muso popstars. (Just earning three of those five modifiers would ensure a critical death...
shameless self-promotion: “Pursing Quality of Life”
I’m pleased to announce that my new book has finally been published: Pursuing Quality of Life: From the Affluent Society to the Consumer Society. Here’s the official blurb. From anxieties over work-life balance and entangling technologies, to celebrations of cool jobs and great places to live, quality of life frames the ways we enhance our lives...
branding alienation with Tony Wilson
I recently watched Joy Division (2007, dir. Grant Gee), an exciting documentary that carries more intellectual heft than maybe any other film about a rock group. Great interviews not just with the surviving band members and others who knew them, but also early followers who were deeply affected by the band’s records and performance. I’m struck, for...