AUSTIN KLEON : TUMBLR

I tore through this. Lethem’s original 2007 Harper’s essay was a huge influence on Steal Like An Artist and probably a bunch of other people. (Heck, David Shields took the method of the essay and turned it into a whole book, although I’m guessing from Lethem’s acknowledgements, their influence on each other is a two-way street.) I had fun in the book version of the essay, highlighting and annotating the passages from other sources, showing the unmarked passages that Lethem wrote as the glue between them.

It’s such a big book (over 400 pages) that it’s impossible to share all my underlines, but this passage from the intro says a lot:

[I pit myself] compulsively against bogus valorizing notions of originality, authenticity, or naturalism in the arts….For if we consent that what appears natural in art is actually constructed from series of hidden postures, decisions, and influences, etc., we make ourselves eligible to weight the notion that what’s taken as natural in our experience of everyday life could actually be a construction as well.

Other than his writing on other writers and influence, I really loved his pieces about musicians. His piece on Rick James, his profile of James Brown, and interview (!) with Bob Dylan are all very much worth reading.

Again, it’s a huge book, not as tight or as focused as The Disappointment Artist, but not meant to be either.

Recommended.

122 notes | ∞ | Permalink

This is Happening

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

LCD Soundsystem, “All I Want,” off This Is Happening (2010)

Pitchfork:

“Usually I’m pretty purposeful about my grand theft, like stealing the guitar sound from [Robert] Fripp for ‘All I Want’ and stuff like that,” James Murphy told the A.V. Club last June. This comment is the perfect summation of Murphy’s referential aesthetic. It’s the important thing to remember with LCD: Murphy is not writing and recording this stuff hoping that no one notices where he is borrowing from. He’s not living in fear of being discovered. The borrowing, in cases like “All I Want”, is a large part of the point. “There’s all this anxiety that people are going to ‘catch’ you,” he told Joe Colly in a Pitchfork interview. “No one wants to get called out for being derivative or something. It’s like, we’re all making rock. No one’s reinventing the wheel over here. If anything, the balance is struck by not worrying too much about it. So I’m spending my energy trying to make a good song rather than spending my energy trying to cover my tracks.

I love this album. Compare:

“All I Want” vs. “Heroes”

“Drunk Girls” vs. “White Light, White Heat”

“Somebody’s Calling Me” vs. “Nightclubbing”

(Source: kindlesong, via magnolialucinda)

84 notes | ∞ | Permalink

Know any creative couples?

Hey friends,

For an upcoming project¹, I’m looking for ~~creative~~² couples — married or partnered, straight or gay — who make cool things.

Preferably: 1) they are delightful in conversation and 2) they make things together (as in, run a business together) or make things apart (separate careers).

Here are the cities in which I’m looking for recommendations:³

Atlanta, GA
Austin
Ann Arbor
Detroit
Boston
Chicago
Cleveland
Columbus
Denver/Boulder
Kansas City
LA
Madison
NYC
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Portland
Providence
San Francisco
Seattle
St. Louis
Washington, D.C.

I’d really appreciate your help!

You can also tweet your recommendations to me @austinkleon

Or shoot me an email.

Hint: it’s related to this tag. ↩
I’m sorry about that word, but it works. ↩
There’s a specific, semi-secret reason I asked for these cities, but by all means, if you know couples in other cities/towns, include them too. And yes, I know a lot of couples in these cities, but I want to hear your recommendations! ↩