Saturday, September 04, 2004
Tomorrow in review
Two brief reads on today's music and tomorrow's journalism:
The California Aggie on What's Wrong with Music Journalism?
The Rocky Mountain interviews Lyle Lovett on writing, music, journalism, and the shape of things to come.
"It's very much about just being who you are, no matter what the circumstance of a given day might present. Being who you are, for better or worse."
That's hard to do as the media and globalization of everything from music to groceries takes away the things that make cities, regions and genres stand out.
"That's a really accurate statement, in terms of the homogenization of our country," he says, noting that ease, convenience and immediacy seem to take the place of substance, value and tradition.
"I live in a place that's really in-between worlds at this point. It's between an old way of life that is clearly being crowded out - not just physically by people, but by the way of the world, really."
"Agriculture, for example. Local markets don't need to supply themselves with food to eat. You can go to the grocery store and get fresh vegetables all year long from different parts of the world. In the old days you ate what was in season, and it came from right around where you were.
"It's not progress that I'm opposed to, but when you see, along with change, you see values and quality of life being diminished in some way or just reverence for the way of doing things. When you see knowledge and ability being not considered or less regarded in some way, just because of the way things change, that's what's hard to see."
Lovett is a voracious learner. A former journalism major, he returns to his alma mater, Texas A&M, occasionally to speak to journalism classes, sometimes on the topic of ethics. He's in a unique position to do so: he studied journalism in college and has certainly been the topic of every type of journalism - criticism, biography, tabloid - since becoming a public figure.
"I really enjoyed journalism school," he says. "I learned English so much better writing for the daily paper in school than I ever did in English class.
"In terms of ethics, my main interest when I go back up to school and meet the kids is to see 'What do they think? What kind of journalists are we turning out? What do they consider to be ethical? What do they think is OK to do in terms of getting the story?' "
¶ 9/04/2004 11:31:00 AM
Two brief reads on today's music and tomorrow's journalism:
The California Aggie on What's Wrong with Music Journalism?
The Rocky Mountain interviews Lyle Lovett on writing, music, journalism, and the shape of things to come.
"It's very much about just being who you are, no matter what the circumstance of a given day might present. Being who you are, for better or worse."
That's hard to do as the media and globalization of everything from music to groceries takes away the things that make cities, regions and genres stand out.
"That's a really accurate statement, in terms of the homogenization of our country," he says, noting that ease, convenience and immediacy seem to take the place of substance, value and tradition.
"I live in a place that's really in-between worlds at this point. It's between an old way of life that is clearly being crowded out - not just physically by people, but by the way of the world, really."
"Agriculture, for example. Local markets don't need to supply themselves with food to eat. You can go to the grocery store and get fresh vegetables all year long from different parts of the world. In the old days you ate what was in season, and it came from right around where you were.
"It's not progress that I'm opposed to, but when you see, along with change, you see values and quality of life being diminished in some way or just reverence for the way of doing things. When you see knowledge and ability being not considered or less regarded in some way, just because of the way things change, that's what's hard to see."
Lovett is a voracious learner. A former journalism major, he returns to his alma mater, Texas A&M, occasionally to speak to journalism classes, sometimes on the topic of ethics. He's in a unique position to do so: he studied journalism in college and has certainly been the topic of every type of journalism - criticism, biography, tabloid - since becoming a public figure.
"I really enjoyed journalism school," he says. "I learned English so much better writing for the daily paper in school than I ever did in English class.
"In terms of ethics, my main interest when I go back up to school and meet the kids is to see 'What do they think? What kind of journalists are we turning out? What do they consider to be ethical? What do they think is OK to do in terms of getting the story?' "
¶ 9/04/2004 11:31:00 AM
