Last Call for Sunday
Truthdig Presents
POP CULTURE, POLITICS AND THE PRICE OF MASS DISTRACTION
Are our national obsessions with celebrity and consumerism undermining our most fundamental democratic and moral values? Are we living in an era dominated by trash culture and junk politics, as some critics contend, or does popular culture offer unique opportunities for progress and political engagement?
Join Chris Hedges, Sharon Waxman and Marc Cooper for a debate about the role of popular culture hosted by Robert Scheer, editor of Truthdig, and Zuade Kaufman, the Web site’s publisher. Truthdig associate editor Kasia Anderson will moderate. This special program will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, July 19, at the publisher’s home in Los Angeles, on the city’s Westside. The address and directions will be provided upon RSVP. Valet parking will be available.
Donations by those attending the event will help Truthdig continue its award-winning work as an independent, progressive source of news and analysis on the Web. A contribution of at least $75 is required for this limited-space event.
Please RSVP to (213) 625-0787 or rsvp@truthdig.com. Checks may be sent to Truthdig, 1158 26th Street, No. 443, Santa Monica, CA 90403, or credit card payments may be made to Truthdig here.
About the Panelists
Chris Hedges, in his provocative new book “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle,” argues: “A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies. And we are dying now.” Hedges, an award-winning Truthdig columnist and a former Mideast bureau chief for The New York Times, is also the author of “I Don’t Believe in Atheists,” “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” and “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”
Sharon Waxman is the founder and CEO of TheWrap.com, an online news source covering the entertainment industry, and has covered Hollywood for The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the author of “Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World” and “Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System.”
Marc Cooper turned his fascination with Las Vegas into his 2004 book “The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas.” Cooper, who has written for dozens of publications ranging from The Atlantic to Rolling Stone, is a Truthdig contributor, a contributing editor to The Nation magazine, and is the author of the L.A. Times bestseller “Pinochet and Me” and “Roll Over Che Guevara.” A faculty member at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, he is also Director of Annenberg Digital News.
Kasia Anderson, Truthdig’s associate editor, will moderate the discussion. Anderson, previously an entertainment reporter for the New York Daily News, is now completing a doctoral dissertation on celebrity and politics.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
If only I was a wee bit closer and had some spare time to go to this. I know you probably have little control over these sort of reuqests but PODCAST, PODCAST, PODCAST
July 17th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I think it possible. Should be pretty funny. Hedges is so so dark about the masses being bamboozled by bubble gum that to make this at all interesting I will have to pose as a defender of the Oprah show or something,
July 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Or maybe you’d even have to pose as a defender of those grieving Michael Jackson. Given what transpired on this blog, that would surely be interesting. Without getting bogged down in a bunch of (interesting) theory from Adorno, Lipsitz or a consortium of others i tend to see both sides of the equation. Im genuinely interested in how people read, interact and create opop culture, see it as a kind of “text” from which people create their own meaning, and those interpretations can at times go against the grain. On other day I’m just down with what Hedges says. Good luck
July 17th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I’d go, but 75 bucks is a lot.
for $37.50, perhaps.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Marc Cooper says:
“Hedges is so so dark about the masses being bamboozled by bubble gum that to make this at all interesting I will have to pose as a defender of the Oprah show or something.”
Or perhaps, Cooper, you can just say what you honestly think.
Are you really as cynical and unprincipled as the above quote would lead many people to believe?
Cooper, how much are you getting paid for this performance and what are the terms of the agreement you entered into? How much do you make a year?
July 17th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
The above baiting quote is so transparently….whiff…..Rick Barrs.
Yep, smells like Team New Times Spirit.
By the way, LA Weekly’s looking rather thin these past weeks. Whatever summer diet the Weekly is on (dropped ads?), it sure beats whatever Valerie Bertinelli’s eating.
Too bad Laurie Ochoa and Nikki Finke had to go, the Weekly read likes a super-sized piece of New Times shit this week. Nothing left to read in it…..
July 17th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Marc – Mr. Hedges has a strong essay, imho. It’s a good Marxist screamer, yet kind of fun to read . Most of his points strike their mark. He’s especially nailed down the damage done by corporations forces who trade in celebrity persona as commodities. However, his rhetorical flourishes also overstate his case. For instance, Mr. Hedges cites Neal Gabler, concluding “that celebrity culture is not a convergence of consumer culture and religion so much as a hostile takeover of religion by consumer culture.” Assuming the either/or choice as necessary (it’s not) one should gladly accept the rise of the consumer culture over the religious. Think of the counter: surely there’s many among the godly quite ready to play the role of centralized censoring who’d make sure we never suffer ‘too much Michael Jackson.’ That would be a much worse place to be than where we’re at with our bubble gum culture. Also, Mr. Hedges, at least rhetorically, seems to have little faith in the basic atomized US consumer’s ability to be selective. Or as George Carlin famously put it, “…you can actually change the channel…” Hedges noted that 31 million tuned into the spectacle of Jackson’s funeral. Apparently the other 269 million of us had more important things to do.
And what about a culture of bubble gum? Aren’t there some virtues? Among some of my most pro-feminist friends, they swear that a bubble gum song such as Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” is very radical and empowering. Just think how much that tune would drive the mad mullahs nuts. Accessibility to art or culture is important too, no? Doesn’t art that appeals to the masses have some place? So what if democratizing art makes “the masters” cringe a little. Not everyone “gets” Mozart. A little vox populi is OK. Perhaps trying to do high art through populist vehicles like Disney ends up confusing more than it inspires. Fantasia, anyone? But isn’t risk and risky projects, such as Fantasia, necessary in order to achieve?
Just some thoughts. I’m sure you’ll think up a lot of better debating points yourself.
Have fun.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
You know what? I just hit that ‘submit comment’ while this horde of Kid Rock fans came marching down Jefferson Ave (Detroit). That vox poppy thingy can be some sappy weak shit…
July 18th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Yes, Podcast! In any case, I hope they video it. They’d be silly not to.
It should be a great event! Have fun!
July 18th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Nikki didn’t go any where. She still publishes the same she did before in the LA Weekly. Only her on-line blog is now hosted elsewhere.
July 20th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Dude let’s at least hear a report back about the debate and hopefully a podcast too
July 21st, 2009 at 10:19 am
What Ahmed said.
We’re all becoming curious to know if Mr. Hedges has convinced you to drive down to Anaheim and put Disney to the torch.