Recently on BBC America they have been running a promo for the upcoming second season of Copper featuring a compelling cover of Hard Times Come Again No More, a song written more than 150 years ago by the "father of American music" Stephen Foster. If you don't recognize the name, you will certainly recognize his work - "... he virtually invented popular music as we recognize it today ..." reads his bio, and that is not an exaggeration. "Camptown Races", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" -- just a quick scan through this list of his more than 200 songs and you will soon realize that when you think of traditional American folk music, you are probably thinking of Stephen Foster. [more inside]
posted by Lokheed on Apr 1, 2013 - 15 comments

The dream of a laptop-powered "knowledge class" is dead. The media is melting. Blame the economy -- and the Web This is something I've been thinking about for some time, and voila!, here's a really good piece to back up my assumption that the expansiveness and multiple profusions of creative freedoms made possible by the Internet has helped bring down a large swath of "creative types", just as it has enabled others. This is a worthy and provocative read, and will be part of a Salon series that looks into the "hollowing out" of the creative class. [more inside]
posted by Vibrissae on Oct 7, 2011 - 154 comments

Big bird, fired. Seems the economy has truly fallen on hard times when they start letting the puppet people go. Sesame Street lays off 70; can complete financial collapse be far behind?
posted by monstro on May 28, 2001 - 41 comments