The news that the music weekly will no longer appear in print is unsurprising. Where should we look for the sense of excitement it once offered?It would be silly to mourn the demise of NME, which is closing its print edition after 66 years, maintaining only its painful digital existence. This is not because popular music does not matter – that fight was over decades ago – nor even because the magazine became so associated with one particular form. But NME’s heyday was long past and, though the closure is bad news for staff, it is hard to imagine current readers weeping. As an ad-funded free title, no one thought it thrilling, essential or even surprising. The growing sense of profits overruling passions didn’t help. It was superfluous and disposable: something you picked up, passed the time with and dropped again – the antithesis of its former status as a cherished artefact to hunt down and then hoard in a yellowing pile in your bedroom. Its aura was once burnished by scarcity; this is a world of cultural abundance.NME was rarely as cutting edge as it liked to think itself, overly in thrall to its own mythology (especially the “hip young gunslinger” punk years of Julie Burchill et al) and too often to a narrow band of music. In many ways it was less subversive than Smash Hits. For every Aaliyah, Public Enemy and Odd Future cover there were many more with Oasis (some blame the readers). For every radical voice there was one of rockist conservatism, busy constructing a... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
Alan Moore’s Electricomics app liberates graphic fiction from the boundaries of the page at a tap of your iPad screen. Here’s what to expectReaders have been promised a revolution in graphic storytelling ever since the dawn of the internet, but this week’s launch of Alan Moore’s Electricomics... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zoe Lofgren wants Netizens to help craft laws that protect the future of the Net itself. Zoe Lofgren, Chair of the House Ethics Committee, has published a thought-provoking article about the legal tactic of seizing of domain names when the owners are accused of copyright infringement. She... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Journalist and author Julie Burchill is set to release her new book Unchosen: The Memoirs of a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Butter, eggs, heavy cream with sherry, and lobster—combined in ramekins and topped with a puff pastry. Like many recipes from Lobster (Storey, May), there is no sparing fat for health concerns. This season’s batch of cookbooks represents an ode to fresh flavor—both traditional and cutting edge. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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