Homework
Out of force of habit, Americans still call pop stars "artists," but how many of our most popular "artists" think of what they are creating as "art"? Does Kelly Clarkson know what an artistic vision is? Shania Twain says she doesn’t even like music all that much (Or so a People magazine profile reported earlier this year; I wanted to link to it, but People's archives are useless unless you subscribe to the magazine or AOL, so you'll have to trust me.) So unlike real artists, who tell us useful truths about ourselves that we wouldn’t otherwise recognize, such people merely collect our money. But instead of feeling cheated by them, lots of us feel fulfilled, which can only happen in a country where "consumer" has long since outstripped "citizen" as the primary civic ideal.

In a better world, Shania’s shocking admission and Kelly’s oceanic vapidity would be powerful indictments of their right to command our attention. And in a better world, Peter Wolf would be our American Idol. Wolf has taken some pretty deep draughts from a lot of musical springs over the years, and his latest album, Sleepless, is the result. From Memphis soul ("Never Like This Before") and Exile on Main Street-era Stones ("Nothing But the Wheel," with Mick Jagger) to a touch of calypso ("Oh Marianne") and even his own musical past ("Homework"), Wolf shows us that the first criterion for being comfortable in your own skin is knowing where you come from. Such knowledge can be a beacon to help us navigate a future that will take us who-knows-where. If nothing else, it can give us the heart to keep moving. This is one of the things art is supposed to do, and we have rarely needed it more than we do right now, at a time when we seem to have lost sight of all the landmarks out here in the fog. [posted 4/30/03]