John Szarkowski: 1925-2007

Today comes news of the death of John Szarkowski, MoMA’s great former chief curator of photography, a man whose influence over the field was immense. In his 29 years at MoMA, Szarkowski put his stamp decisively on the art and taste of his time simply by pointing to a few crucial photographers and saying attention [...]

Tuned In

Miniseries, Mini Review: The Bronx Is Burning

I don’t know if people who live outside New York City can understand the phenomenon of nostalgia for the city’s sleazy days of the 1970s. Maybe it’s a combination of high real-estate prices in the newly-cleaned up “America’s safest large city,” hipster irony and old-fashioned NYC contrariness, but it’s not uncommon to find people occasionally [...]

Tuned In

Test Pilot: Big Shots

ABC Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let’s get on with… [...]