I'm a bit of a classicist as far as art and literature go. Pretty much always reading and viewing stuff by dead people. If it's survived, then there's a better chance it's good right? I'm probably that way mostly with literature, while with art I enjoy more contemporary work and definitely with music I'm into digging around into current stuff. Lately, I've become more interested in being aware of current literature and art than ever before. It's not easy finding a way to do this outside of just randomly buying books, which seems inefficient. One magazine that has been helping is BOMB.
What I enjoy most about BOMB is the format. In a lot of magazines which feature interviews with creative people, you get a writer who rattles on about what they think and feel for a page and then a short quote from the creative person in question. Then more explication. It can get so bad sometimes that I feel like I'm reading an essay rather than an interview or a profile. I'm just not interested in the journalist. In BOMB, the format is having artists interview each other. As a result, each issue is a series of transcripts of conversations between creative people. I find this much more insightful, and I get a feel for the person behind the creativity and how they think about things.
BOMB also provides photos of artwork, short stories, and poetry. Some of it I dislike of course, and some of it makes me go 'meh'. However, given my love of the old, I'm amazed how much of it I connect with and/or piques my curiosity. I've picked up several things I might never have heard about as a result of BOMB. Musically, I bought All Hell by Daughn Gibson and Ascent by Six Organs of Admittance. I've just read the play 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog and my reading list for the next few months includes Ether by Ben Ehrenreich and Cervantes Street by Jaime Manrique.
It feels good to start getting in touch , in some fashion, with contemporary output.
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