David Bryne = "New York has changed"
downtownrobbrown
446 Posts
http://pitchfork.com/news/52570-david-byrne-says-wealth-inequality-has-crushed-creativity-in-new-york-city-in-new-editorial/
http://pitchfork.com/news/52570-david-byrne-says-wealth-inequality-has-crushed-creativity-in-new-york-city-in-new-editorial/
Does he have a point?
The city is a body and a mind ??? a physical structure as well as a repository of ideas and information. Knowledge and creativity are resources. If the physical (and financial) parts are functional, then the flow of ideas, creativity and information are facilitated. The city is a fountain that never stops: it generates its energy from the human interactions that take place in it. Unfortunately, we're getting to a point where many of New York's citizens have been excluded from this equation for too long. The physical part of our city ??? the body ??? has been improved immeasurably. I'm a huge supporter of the bike lanes and the bikeshare program, the new public plazas, the waterfront parks and the functional public transportation system. But the cultural part of the city ??? the mind ??? has been usurped by the top 1%.
This city doesn't make things anymore. Creativity, of all kinds, is the resource we have to draw on as a city and a country in order to survive. In the recent past, before the 2008 crash, the best and the brightest were lured into the world of finance. Many a bright kid graduating from university knew that they could become fairly wealthy almost instantly if they found employment at a hedge fund or some similar institution. But before the financial sector came to dominate the world, they might have made things: in publishing, manufacturing, television, fashion, you name it. As in many other countries, the lure of easy bucks hoovered this talent and intelligence up ??? and made it difficult for those other kinds of businesses to attract any of the top talent.
A culture of arrogance, hubris and winner-take-all was established. It wasn't cool to be poor or struggling. The bully was celebrated and cheered. The talent pool became a limited resource for any industry, except Wall Street. I'm not talking about artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians ??? they weren't exactly on a trajectory toward Wall Street anyway ??? but any businesses that might have employed creative individuals were having difficulties surviving, and naturally, the arty types had a hard time finding employment, too... Unlike Iceland, where the government let misbehaving banks fail and talented kids became less interested in leaping into the cesspool of finance, in New York there has been no public rejection of the culture that led to the financial crisis.
http://pitchfork.com/news/52570-david-byrne-says-wealth-inequality-has-crushed-creativity-in-new-york-city-in-new-editorial/
Does he have a point?
Comments
Lots of words, not much to say.
The only people who have been able dedicate their lives to art and creativity and live above the poverty line have always been the wealthy. Guess what? People want to eat and the distance from hand to mouth grows farther and farther every year.
There is how you pay the rent and how you keep your mind and soul alive.
I'd like to see what the numbers are for enrollment in art, film, design, etc. schools now compared to 20, 15 and 10 years ago.
His definition of how people "make things" is limited, myopic and - as he references the 1% - elitist.
Smacks of the hip hop is dead line. It doesn't look/feel/sound/etc. exactly like it used to, I can't relate, the rules have changed, the medium and message has changed - therefore it must be dead!
Show me a living thing that has remained the same for the past 30+ years and I'll show you something boring, stuck and irrelevant.
Everyone else = No shit. That's how time works.
b/w
Analog ---> Digital.
In any event, if David Byrne is only just noticing this now, he's a sight further behind the curve than most people. I particularly liked this: Well, why not? You probably haven't been a poor struggling artist for a very long time - at least you have the option of being able to afford to go somewhere else.
Meanwhile, in Berlin...
Of course, you can't have even just a dj gig down the block from a residential building. But if you want to get some corporate sponsors together and throw enormous music festivals that tie up and ultimately tear up the lawns of our few municipal parks, then hey...how many weeks do we need to reserve the space for you?
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
My god, yes.
Brooklyn is now the safe haven for these kids.
am I part of this problem (that of course I didn't read)
So true! When I first moved to NYC from Berlin, I was impressed and energized by how fast everybody was moving. people seemed to be constantly alert, walking fast on busy sidewalks without ever bumping into anybody. What you said about going on the train before people got off or coming to a full stop like a broken toy once they cleared the doors. Shit like this never happened. People on escalators would stand on the right side and walk on the left side. I moved back to Berlin and I was shocked at how lethargic and thoughtless people were moving around, not clearing the doors, freezing on busy sidewalks, blocking escalators etc. Fucking krauts, I thought, lame and blind. Then come 2008 I'm back in NYC and it has become the fucking same! How was this possible?
1000x
it's an easy strawman to blame it on the financial industry. Wall Street has been here. That's not the reason for lacking creativity. Look at any area of commerce in NYC (including the "cool" ones like mine!) and I guarantee you, weak shit is at an all time high.
Do they still shoot guns in Williamsburg? I mean, non-ironically, like without the aid of a musket or blunderbuss, vintage gunpowder and salvaged wooden barrels?
ive never heard gunz in Williamsburg but im also never home or sleeping if I am home so not the best person to ask
It is the fact that these particular proclamations are coming from someone with the eminence of David Byrne as artist/Talking Head/cool dude that gives them weight to people other than ourselves who knew it but didn't want to hear it. And it is happening everywhere not just here.
There's no easy answer to this. The only constant sure thing in New York is change.
b/w
when are we going to get the re-formed talking heads? aren't they ripe for a cash-in about now?
I told him to look Uptown from jump.