Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

Artists

Three Dimensional Science

The World Science Forum currently underway in Budapest is a summit of academics who have traded their lab coats for leadership positions atop public and private agencies that promote and fund scientific research. These are fine people who support some of the best work in the world — balancing real, complex science with often Byzantine [...]

One more thing: Real artists ship.

In preparation for landing at SFO, I had closed the MacBook Air and turned off the iPad, but as I touched down, my iPhone beeped. The text from my son made my heart sink: Steve Jobs died . At least three people left the plane in tears. I felt like someone had unplugged my compass. Steve Jobs [...]

Nostalgia: Not as Seductive as it Used to Be.

With my wife grounded by a nasty ankle injury, we took in three movies and I escaped to a rock band reunion. Oddly, they all confirmed the same lesson: nostalgia is a temptress — fun, but wholly unreliable.  Owen Wilson is the hero of Woody Allen’s new movie, Midnight in Paris. He is a Hollywood [...]

Astral Weeks: Venturing in the Slipstream

Sometimes an artist captures lightning in a bottle. Usually they aren’t sure how it happened and few can repeat the magic regularly. In 1968, Van Morrison recorded Astral Weeks under awful circumstances. Today, it is widely recognized as a transcendant work, truly one of the greatest albums ever recorded. It is an album that has made me [...]