Thirty years ago this summer, the late Glenn Shelton wrote one of his HIRED HAND columns for the WICHITA FALLS (Texas) RECORD NEWS. Shelton, who wore his cultural conservatism proudly, made a remark alleging that young people would have been more willing to go to Vietnam if they had been listening to Glenn Miller instead of The Beatles.
In the year 2009, Tim Rutten--LOS ANGELES TIMES columnist (who used to whine about the decline of the Los Angeles he knew in columns of two decades ago), husband of superlawyer Leslie Abramson (defender of the Menendez brothers) and also the ghostwriter for Johnnie Cochran's autobiography-- vents some disdainful observations about Michael Jackson, American inability to value the kind of high culture Tim Rutten adores, the fears that Old Journalism will crumble further in favor of coverage-determined-by-number-of-online-hits and oversaturated coverage of celebrity deaths: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten27-2009jun27,0,7268941.column
To be fair to Rutten, he probably has at least half a point about how cable can be monomaniacal about covering one Big Story while ignoring other things happening in the nation and the world.
But, to me, he's no more than a rich man's variant on Glenn Shelton--peddling the same kind of persnickety contempt and fearfulness.
Showing posts with label LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
More independent bookstores in L.A. than you'd know from reading the LA TIMES.
Longtime mainstay of the LOS ANGELES TIMES' book review section Susan Salter Reynolds wrote an article about the up-in-the-air status of West Hollywood independent bookstore Book Soup following the passing of owner Glenn Goldman: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-book-soup27-2009jan27,0,4988908.story
And, true to longtime form, the TIMES seems to maintain a steadfast belief that the only independent bookstores in the city of Los Angeles are Book Soup and Los Feliz' Skylight Books (with some understandable mourning of the demise of Doug Dutton's Duttons Bookstores chain--particularly last year's closing of the flagship Duttons in Brentwood). Of course, some of that may be due to tireless self-promotion by Goldman and Skylight owner Kerry Slattery.
Here's a link to information about the independent store Chevalier's Books in Larchmont Village:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chevaliers-books-los-angeles
And here's a link to the site of Studio City's Portrait of a Bookstore (also housing the coffeeshop Aroma Cafe): http://www.portraitofabookstore.com/
One thing that Ms. Reynolds and I can agree on: Customers are more likely to receive personalized service at independent stores than at the faltering corporate competition.
And, true to longtime form, the TIMES seems to maintain a steadfast belief that the only independent bookstores in the city of Los Angeles are Book Soup and Los Feliz' Skylight Books (with some understandable mourning of the demise of Doug Dutton's Duttons Bookstores chain--particularly last year's closing of the flagship Duttons in Brentwood). Of course, some of that may be due to tireless self-promotion by Goldman and Skylight owner Kerry Slattery.
Here's a link to information about the independent store Chevalier's Books in Larchmont Village:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chevaliers-books-los-angeles
And here's a link to the site of Studio City's Portrait of a Bookstore (also housing the coffeeshop Aroma Cafe): http://www.portraitofabookstore.com/
One thing that Ms. Reynolds and I can agree on: Customers are more likely to receive personalized service at independent stores than at the faltering corporate competition.
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