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Rob HorningPopMatters General Features EditorAbout Rob HorningRobert Horning has developed a substantial body of work in PopMatters' music reviews, concerts, film, and TV sections. You may have also seen his writing in Time Out New York and Skyscraper. In his PopMatters column, "Marginal Utility", Rob bridges the abstract and concrete aspects of consumerism. As we all know, consumerism is a popular topic with theorists, sociologists, and historical analysts that hang out in university offices and corporate conference rooms. Lest you think his column might read like an excerpt from an academic text, you will find that Rob's writing is as grounded and approachable as an everyday trip to the grocery store. Rob has a BA and MA in English Literature and was working on a dissertation for a PhD, but grew less interested in the subject matter of his study (18th century commercial fiction and book reviews), and found himself drawn to the stuff he was reading from outside the field: social theory, economics works, and sociology. That research, and his continued interest in it, is what generates his solid background knowledge for "Marginal Utility" and informs his music reviews. Features The Cut-Out BinAl Kooper, New York City (You're a Woman) (1971)[31.Jan.08] :. This album features some of the best of Kooper's original compositions and is free of his tendency to include reinterpretations of over-familiar songs.  MusicLosing California[5.Oct.07] :. After the Mamas and the Papas, unheralded songwriter John Phillips released one perfect solo album before disintegrating into addiction and self-recrimination.  The Cut-Out BinHall & Oates, Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)[22.Jun.07] :. Before their string of ubiquitous 1980s hits, this songwriting duo wrote surprisingly strange and pleasantly unpretentious soft rock.  MusicElectric Light Orchestra: Too Much at Once Can Blow the Fuse[16.Feb.07] :. Alone, ELO's pop mini-symphonies are perfect confections that captivate with their careful sonic details and ear-pleasing melodies and hooks.  The Cut-Out BinThe Beach Boys, Love You (1977)[13.Oct.06] :. Essentially a Brian Wilson solo effort, on which the ravaged, troubled genius takes a few more painful steps toward a purifying simplicity. The Cut-Out Bin The Carpenters, The Carpenters (1971)Columns Marginal UtilityRenters: Enemies of the Ownership Society[4.Apr.08] :. In light of the recently burst housing bubble and the resulting inflation, this renter is having a hard time maintaining sympathy for borrowers who went in over their heads, buying homes with far more space than needed.  Marginal UtilityThe Design Imperative[29.Jan.08] :. No longer a prole with a dirty toilet, thanks to that fancy toiletbrush in hand, one becomes a fledgling design critic and a curator of the tastefully appointed museum that used to be a one-bedroom apartment.  Marginal UtilityThe Attention of Last Resort[18.Jan.08] :. Instead of promoting the sharing of ideas and opinions among friends, social networking sites promote posturing and marketing, friendship as spectatorship, surveillance, and imitation, and give us the attention we crave.  Marginal UtilityPaul Krugman's 'The Conscience of a Liberal'[7.Dec.07] :. Krugman may be hoping to discredit the very label conservative, so that it could be used as a cudgel the way liberal had been used by the Limbaughs of the world the past few decades.  Marginal UtilityFinancial Fantasies[20.Nov.07] :. What truly moves markets is a mystery, but what moves humans to participate is pure fantasy. Marginal Utility Inevitable ConsumptionMarginal Utility Too Many MirrorsMarginal Utility Elitist Dumpster DiversMarginal Utility Disposable PersonalityMarginal Utility The Pleasures of PropagandaMarginal Utility The Fear of SuccessMarginal Utility The Patent Medicine ParadigmMarginal Utility Freedom from ChoiceMarginal Utility Virtual UtopiaMarginal Utility Sympathy for the MiddlemanMarginal Utility Oh, the Tangled Webs We WeaveMarginal Utility flag CreativityMarginal Utility The Underground EmpireMarginal Utility Headphones and Head SpaceMarginal Utility The Attention EconomyMarginal Utility The Snacks Attack SocietyMarginal Utility Shopping ParanoidMarginal Utility Information WhirlwindMarginal Utility Holiday Shopping: The Good FightMarginal Utility The Usefulness TrapMarginal Utility The Customer Is Always WrongMarginal Utility Buy Me BeautifulMarginal Utility The Consumer in the KitchenMarginal Utility The "Me" SyndromeMarginal Utility Inefficient IntimacyMarginal Utility Meters, Purple People Eaters and The Revolution BetrayedMarginal Utility In Search of Real AmateursMarginal Utility Indecent ConsumptionMarginal Utility An Etiology of BoredomMarginal Utility Traveling the Public/Private DivideMarginal Utility Celebrities and the Barnum EffectMarginal Utility Thrift Store GentryMarginal Utility Convenience and the Cost of Free MusicMarginal Utility We're All Walking Sandwich Boards, These DaysMarginal Utility The New Sumptuary Laws for Modern-day SubjectsMarginal Utility The Mystery of Consumer Demand, or Personality as InventoryMarginal Utility The Myth of the Rebel ConsumerReviews DVDsPlagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea[30.Nov.07] :. They seem to be on one of the last American frontiers, where native optimism can still stubbornly face down an inhospitable climate, environmental wreckage, and state neglect to make for an unencumbered life that seems wholly one's own.  MultimediaBig Oil[11.Jan.07] :. With Big Oil, you can finally indulge your fantasy of fashioning virtual Nigerias of chaos and plunder, without burdening your conscience with the consequences.  MusicAndy Kim: How'd We Ever Get This Way/Rainbow Ride[2.Nov.06] :. With his unaffectedly yearning tenor and laconic delivery, Brill Building songsmith Andy Kim made bubblegum music suitable for adults.  MusicThe Open Mind: The Open Mind[6.Oct.06] :. '60s psychedelia purged of all whimsy, wonder, and utopian overtones, the Open Mind's heavy, druggy anthems foreshadowed 1970s hard rock  DVDsBob Dylan: Bob Dylan:1966-1978 After the Crash [DVD][29.Sep.06] :. This is a fan-made product, albeit a good one, when judged against bootlegs and fanzine stuff, but judged against real documentaries, it's a bit of a drag. Music The Triffids: Born Sandy DevotionalMusic Broadcast: Future CrayonMusic The Ides of March: VehicleMusic Sebadoh: IIIMusic The Pipettes: We Are the PipettesBooks Play Between Worlds by T.L. TaylorMusic Nilsson: Son of SchmilssonMusic The Guess Who: The Best of the Guess WhoBooks Household Words: Bloomers, sucker, bombshell, scab, nigger, cyber by Stephanie A. SmithMusic Delta 5: Singles and Sessions 1979-1981PopMatters Pick MusicPatti Smith: Horses/Horses[23.Nov.05] :. What's surprising about Patti Smith's Horses is how subversive it still is, despite its having long since been canonized as one of rock's most important and influential works. Music Bango: BangoMusic Terry Reid: SuperlungsMusic Fursaxa: LepidopteraMusic Def Leppard: Rock of Ages: The Definitive CollectionFilm The Girl from Monday (2004)Music Smog: A River Ain't Too Much to LoveMusic Pat Benatar: Greatest HitsMusic Jandek: Glasgow SundayFeatured Article MusicGene Autry: The Essential Gene Autry[26.May.05] :. Two-disc collection of the singing cowboy's truly essential tracks is a quintessential piece of Americana. Music Dungen: 1999-2001Music Ella Fitzgerald: Sings the Jerome Kern Song BookMusic Shivaree: Who's Got Trouble?Music My Morning Jacket: Early Recordings, Chapter 2: LearningMusic Lydia Lunch: Smoke in the ShadowsMusic Puffy AmiYumi: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumiMusic The Bee Gees: Number OnesMusic Entrance: Wandering StrangerDVDs The Nutty Professor (1963)Music Swell Maps: A Trip to Marineville / Jane from Occupied EuropeMusic Kimya Dawson: Hidden VagendaMusic Giant Sand: Is All Over the MapMusic The Frenchmen: Sorry We Ruined Your PartyMusic Shocking Blue: At HomeMusic Little Wings: Magic WandMusic Heart: Little Queen / Dog & Butterfly / Bebe Le Strange [reissue]Music The Red Krayola: Singles 1968-2002Music The Flatlanders: Live '72Music George Jones: The Definitive Collection: 1955-1962Music Brian Eno: Another Green World [reissue]Music Patti Smith: Trampin'DVDs Ween: Live in Chicago [DVD + CD]Music Lloyd Cole: Music in a Foreign LanguageMusic Kiss: Alive!Music Various Artists: Ultimate '80sMusic 50 Foot Wave: self-titledDVDs The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: The Beginnings in Hamburg: A Documentary [DVD]Music Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies: The HomelandMusic R. Stevie Moore: Nevertheless OptimisticMusic The Gits: Frenching the BullyMusic Jeff Kelly: For the Swan in the HallwayTV Survivor All-StarsMusic Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle: One from the Heart: Original Motion Picture SoundtrackMusic Beat Happening: Music to Climb the Apple Tree ByMusic Birdsongs of the Mesozoic: The Iridium ConspiracyMusic DrugMoney: Mtn Cty JnkMusic Clear Horizon: self-titledMusic The Minders: The Future's Always PerfectMusic The Bevis Frond: New River HeadPopMatters Pick FilmPower Trip (2003)[8.Jan.04] :. The real villain, as Power Trip portrays it, is the corrupt Georgian government, led at the time by Eduard Shevardnadze. Music Joan Baez: The Complete A&M RecordingsFilm My Architect (2003)Film In My Skin (2002)Music Azure Ray: Hold on LoveMusic Jad Fair and Jason Willet: SuperfineMusic The Gossip: Undead in NYCFilm Prey for Rock & Roll (2003)Music Shutdown 66: Welcome to DumpsvilleMusic Quasi: Hot ShitMusic Alasdair Roberts: Farewell SorrowMusic Van Morrison: What's Wrong With This Picture?Music Shirley Horn: May the Music Never EndMusic Little Wings: Discover Worlds of WonderMusic Tokyo Sex Destruction: Le Red Soul Communitte (10 Points Program)Music Nanang Tatang: MukiMusic East River Pipe: Garbageheads on Endless StunMusic The Walkabouts: Slow Days with NinaMusic Mötley Crüe: Dr. FeelgoodMusic SushiRobo: The Light-Fingered Feeling of SushiRoboMusic Velvet Crush: Free Expression (Expanded)Music Friends of Dean Martinez: On the ShoreMusic Dead Meadow: Shivering King and OthersMusic Les Baton Rouge: Chloe YurtzMusic Joy: self-titledMusic Thomas Truax: Full Moon over WowtownMusic Ursa Minor: Silent Moving PictureMusic Nina Nastasia: Run to RuinMusic The Trouble with Sweeney: I Know You DestroyMusic The Byrds: The Essential ByrdsMusic The Osmond Family: Osmondmania!Music The Vexers: self-titledMusic Rick Nelson: The Best of Rick Nelson (20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection)Music Portastatic: The Summer of the SharkMusic Erase Errata: Other AnimalsMusic Stereo Total: Oh AhBlog postsMarginal UtilityManufacturing neuroticism[16.May.08] :. I am on the record as being against customer service. It seems to me a trick to get us overinvested in shopping as a place where we can exercise our will to power. So when Yves Smith asks, in this... Marginal UtilityThe end of record stores[14.May.08] :. On the internet, displaying our musical taste has become easy to the point of being virtually automatic. Social networking sites, with searchable lists of our preferences, seem expressly designed for... Sound AffectsThe New Yorker's 100 essential jazz albums[13.May.08] :. David Remnick of the New Yorker offers this list of 100 essential jazz albums. Note that many of them are not albums but mammoth multi-disc retrospectives covering vast spans of time. It would... Marginal UtilityThe conserver society[13.May.08] :. Yesterday in the New York Times, Paul Krugman opined that oil prices are high not because of speculation but dwindling supply: "A realistic view of what’s happened over the past few... Marginal Utility"The Hype Cycle"[13.May.08] :. I referenced this n+1 article about the "hype cycle" in the previous post, but it's worth, well, hyping. Mocking the odious New York magazine-style approval matrices, the author... Sound Affects Black Metal BakingMarginal Utility Protest brandingMarginal Utility Participatory surveillenceMarginal Utility Wealthy timeMarginal Utility Peyton Place and the roots of reality entertainmentMarginal Utility Difficult theoryMarginal Utility Defying the stimulusMarginal Utility Green thumb strategyMarginal Utility The unheard musicMarginal Utility The "atmosphere of craven conformity"Sound Affects The Most Unwanted SongMarginal Utility Social surplus or accursed share?Marginal Utility Inferior goods and the lump of consumption fallacyMarginal Utility Homeownership ideologyMarginal Utility A fifth column at the Wall Street JournalMarginal Utility Silent raveMarginal Utility Jettisoning aesthetic fundamentalsMarginal Utility Caring about the music businessMarginal Utility "Starve your neighbor"Marginal Utility Grounded planesMarginal Utility Deconstruction time againMarginal Utility Housing as "forced savings"Marginal Utility The return of MalthusMarginal Utility Triumph of the willMarginal Utility Only weirdos rentMarginal Utility Social gamingMarginal Utility Trash-outs as performance artMarginal Utility No smilesMarginal Utility Beating ZippyMarginal Utility Gimmie shelterMarginal Utility Twilight of the English professorsMarginal Utility Enemies of the ownership societyMarginal Utility Bear Stearns less valuable than A-RodMarginal Utility Feeling sorry for sexMarginal Utility The Fed's latest bailoutMarginal Utility Secrets of the Emperors ClubMarginal Utility The end of A&RMarginal Utility The end of the sexual class system, circa 1970Marginal Utility Social-conservative theory, an oxymoron?Marginal Utility Consuming the idea of productivityMarginal Utility Kids as consumer goodsMarginal Utility Twelve steps to financial disasterMarginal Utility Socialism's moral failureMarginal Utility Too many stores?Marginal Utility Country-fried bigotryMarginal Utility Feeling singleMarginal Utility Bastiat and the consumer's point of viewMarginal Utility Two-year lifespan of social networksMarginal Utility Stimulating spending and manufacturing optimismMarginal Utility Cutting credit cardsMarginal Utility PolarizationMarginal Utility Long live philistinismMarginal Utility Completely incompleteMarginal Utility Metablog bloggingMarginal Utility Scientific sanction to loveMarginal Utility The taste of luxuryMarginal Utility Hedonic marriageMarginal Utility Manufacturing demand for mortgagesMarginal Utility Paid followersMarginal Utility Crowdsourced artMarginal Utility Blame the mortgage brokersMarginal Utility Necessary bubblesMarginal Utility Individualist totalitariansMarginal Utility The ease-of-influence factorMarginal Utility Making deals with oneselfMarginal Utility Starbucks and McDonald'sMarginal Utility Boredom as character flawMarginal Utility Price incentives and peer productionMarginal Utility Cultural consumption at the marginsMarginal Utility Small business sentimentalityMarginal Utility Disappointed bridgesMarginal Utility Egalitarian customer serviceMarginal Utility Forever catalogsMarginal Utility The irrepressible melancholy of year-end best-of-music listsMarginal Utility The NAR's sunshine boysMarginal Utility Waiting for the RhapsodyMarginal Utility "Reading the spreadsheets upside down"Marginal Utility Texting loveMarginal Utility Winning at white elephantMarginal Utility Joy in repetitionMarginal Utility Taste versus curiosityMarginal Utility Mall shootingsMarginal Utility The evils of word-of-mouth advertisingMarginal Utility Prime subprime borrowersMarginal Utility Top down cultureMarginal Utility Post-commercial entertainmentMarginal Utility Consumer confidence and consumerismMarginal Utility Condition brandingMarginal Utility The ice-men of competitive goofy golfMarginal Utility The attention of last resortMarginal Utility Speed dating dataMarginal Utility Affordable luxuryMarginal Utility Headbanger's doleMarginal Utility Ironic tourismMarginal Utility Blabber jammersMarginal Utility Cavestomp 2007Marginal Utility Costumes are creepyMarginal Utility TimelessMarginal Utility HagglingMarginal Utility Smoking crackMarginal Utility Vicariousness in TrollopeMarginal Utility Manly SundayMarginal Utility Facebook's futureMarginal Utility Political transvestismMarginal Utility Priests and jestersMarginal Utility Ideological educationMarginal Utility Financial narrativesMarginal Utility Scalping Hannah MontanaMarginal Utility Ads for cell phone useMarginal Utility Overrating ratingMarginal Utility Market failuresMarginal Utility Radiohead becomes economists' favorite bandMarginal Utility "Real facts"Marginal Utility Sleaze addictionMarginal Utility Overtime and meaningful workMarginal Utility Greenspan's media blitzMarginal Utility More on disaster capitalismMarginal Utility The return of the last intellectualMarginal Utility The dark secrets of the Denver AirportMarginal Utility Disaster capitalismMarginal Utility Did Americans really want McMansions?Marginal Utility The "greening of Wal-Mart"Marginal Utility A few theses about the BeatlesMarginal Utility Nimbyism and environmental justiceMarginal Utility Burning the early adoptersMarginal Utility Opera for the massesMarginal Utility Trickle-down recessionMarginal Utility BankerpaloozaMarginal Utility Digital books |