Had another one of those "the world is the size of a postage stamp" moments (maybe it's also a networked publics moment..) while returning to Los Angeles from Seoul via Tokyo on UA890 when I somewhat randomly decided to listen to the music channels that pipe through the armrests. I normally don't do that, mostly because I have my iPod or PSP or whatever to distract me from the painful petty annoyances of flying in steerage. The vocals and bluesy syncopation was familiar on channel 10, though, and within a few moments I knew it was some old secondary-school chums who make up Blues Traveler. New album, evidently. I get to see them far less often nowadays — they always seemed much more likely to pass through NYC than LA.
Why do I blog this? The multi-tentacled way in which cultural production is distributed, hived, re-integrated and distilled is remarkable. I’ve heard and seen Blues Traveler through out the culture network, from radio, to satellite TV while on a lightly habited Caribbean island, to Late Night TV, to backstage at venues ginormous and miniscule and, now, coming out of the armrest on a transpacific plane ride.
Technorati Tags: airplanes, networked publics