Please Don’t Dream About Impressing Keith Urban

What Do We Glamorize in 2013 That We Shouldn’t?

American popular culture has long glamorized the unhealthy and unsavory. We go to the movies and watch attractive people puffing cigarettes or mafiosos strutting around in sharkskin suits killing off their enemies. We turn on our radios and hear a rap song that celebrates the violent excess of Scarface—or a pop song about dancing with Molly. In advance of the Zócalo/Getty Center event “Why Do We Need Glamour?” we asked several thinkers the following question: What do we glamorize in 2013 that we shouldn’t?

November 19, 2013

Business Lessons I Learned From Rock Stars

When I Was Building Up Rhino Records, the Insights Came From Unexpected Sources

by Harold Bronson | October 28, 2013

In the mid-1970s, my business partner Richard Foos and I were two recent college graduates with little more than a passion for music and a record store on Westwood Boulevard …

Want To Know Something Horrible?

Never Have We Been Offered So Much Tragic Yet Pointless News. And Yet I Read It.

by T.A. Frank | May 16, 2013

Recently I had the misfortune to be in a Days Inn, and, on CNN, which I’d turned on for the sake of companionship, was non-stop coverage of the horrible things …

Zany, Brainy, and Sometimes Abstain-y

Mayim Bialik on Acting, Neuroscience, and Avoiding Meat

July 9, 2012

Mayim Bialik is at the very least a triple threat. She’s an actress who stars on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler (she is also known …

Can Pop Culture Save the Nerds?

TV Portrayals of the Smart and Awkward Are Nicer, But What Is Their Impact?

July 4, 2012

On TV, the nerds have traditionally played the role of sidekick or butt of the jokes: Screech Powers and Steve Urkel were better known for their unrequited crushes and awkward …

Face It, You Love Snooki Pix

Why Do We Crave What the Paparazzi Have To Offer?

May 15, 2012

If you’ve never picked up an Us Weekly or Star, then you must be an eccentric, a liar, or a North Korean. Tabloid photos of the rich and famous filling …

pop culture