Mark Bittner

This is what Mark Bittner, the author of "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill", told me when we first discussed his appearance on afterTV:

I don't know if I'd be an appropriate guest. As far as the digital revolution goes, although I'm reasonably computer literate, and I do think computers have some good uses, I have strong Luddite tendencies. I intend to write my next book by hand. I think digital music is tiresome. Eventually people are going to return to live music, learn how to master an instrument, drop all the gizmos. Live music is where the vitamins and other musical nutrients are. Nowhere else. And I can't read a book on a computer. I don't know anybody who can. Short pieces yes, whole books no. People are reading books less and less, true, but I think the resulting "illiteracy" is showing up in disastrous ways. Nobody can follow a long thought. People have short attention spans because all they want is to be entertained. I don't think technology is magical. It's mundane. Magic is where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. With technology the whole is exactly equal to the sum of the parts--nothing more. I think of technology as being, by and large, the feverish attempt of a culture to lose itself because it is SO bored.

WOW! Listen to Keen and Bittner

Comments

[No Betts]

What Mark Bittner says about musicians needing to get back to the skill of playing real instruments and having a concern for the music rather than their publiciy photo, reminded me of what John Cleese said at his recent visit to Zellerbach. In the Q+A session he did after his one man show he
explained that part of the reason he was doing a one man show was to cut out the marketing people who seem to determine so much of show biz these days. He wanted to get back in front of a live audience and tackle the challenge of what makes
them laugh, to be able to develop the material himself. Part of his motivation was his contempt for the decision to close a show that he was in after just two performances.

[Carl Lennertz]

As a mktg. guy, I believe completely in the artist creating what feels right in her/his soul, and then it's my job to help bring that to an audience, not the other way around.

[cbh]

My spouse and I were looking fwd to this interview since we lived next to Mark and got to know him and the parrots while he was working on his book and the film. As expected, it was refreshing to get an outsiders perspective on technology and humans from someone we knew as thoughtful in general.

I enjoyed the end of the interview for Mark's take on how computers and the internet are distractions, something a lot of us are blind to when we're in the midst of using them, but seems to be true when you think about thr bigger picture. My spouse on the other hand said that "I felt like I was just listening in on a phone conversation btwn two guys . . . which I was . . . this podcast stuff is bringing down the quality of media." meta-meta?

[me]

u be at are skewl

[Vinanti Sarkar]

Winner of 3 first prize awards at American Film Festivals, our docu-drama "MISTAKEN IDENTITY" has been filmed at Capital Hill in Washington, DC, screened across 45 US States, commemorated 5th anniversary of 9/11 at the House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada. Two New York women filmmakers, Vinanti Sarkar and Host/Anchorwoman Amanda Gesine, have organized the India premiere screening on Doordarshan nationwide TV with over 600 million daily viewers in April 2007 ! Who needs PBS ?

[Hentai]

Winner of 3 first prize awards at American Film Festivals