Brad Barrish

We live in a world where movies aren’t considered art, but intellectual property. They’re “content,” little chunks of stuff that can be licensed, extended, remixed, rebooted, made into bedsheets and amusement park rides and whatever else will make money. It’s how the business has worked for half a century or more.

In no particular order, these are ten albums released this year that I enjoyed. Are they the best? I dunno. Who cares? I don’t want to argue or invite discussion about that sort of thing. I do, however, want to introduce people to music they might not otherwise hear.

A tradeoff occurs every time you get feedback. You become slightly more mainstream, slightly more aligned with the zeitgeist. You become marginally more of an exploiter than an explorer , standing on the shoulders of the giants who conceived the paradigm you’re striving to build upon. This is very effective when you want to align your work with... See more

The ways our minds form meaning and connections is heavily shaped by our emotional state, but this can quickly become problematic.

We have let school shootings in America persist long enough that we have created a culture where kids grow up seeing them as a path towards fame and glory. Another consequence of how thoroughly the internet has flattened pop culture, politics, and real life violence. All of it now is just another meme you can participate in to go viral.