American Bandwidth

2.22.2010

Bandwidth: A measure of capacity

BANDWIDTH, a metric particular to the digital age, isn't just a technological measure. The national bandwidth for change, tolerance and expectation expanded on Inauguration Day. And the shift ushered into the United States on Jan. 20, 2009, was as much an indicator of what's failed as what works:

The dawn of the administration of Barack Obama, the 44th U.S. president, reflects an exhaustion with the established templates of successful presidential politics — from indifferent embrace of the Internet’s potential to reach voters largely ignored to shopworn, intransigent strategies for exiting an ill-conceived and unnecessary foreign war.

A nation whose racial and ethnic composition has never been more diverse found a candidate whose multiethnic heritage mirrors its own. A country tired of the third-rail reflexes of race relations dared to step outside its usual range of expectations, its discomfort zone of centuries-old habits.

A nation bone-weary of the incurious arrogance of its leaders, the corrosion of its global standing, and the ruinous plunder of the economy that arrogance produced, dared to embrace a change of direction, one that effectively reset the baseline of American possibility in a full-throated Yes We Can to the question of trying to actualize the ideals that define us as a nation.

The United States between 2004 and the summer of 2009 – its knights and knaves, its fears and joys, its new ironies and old habits, its capacity for change and transition – is topic A in this collection of essays and Weblogs from a longtime observer of American life, politics and popular culture. A veteran reporter, essayist and critic, Michael E. Ross brings an incisive eye to presidential politics, press ethics and accountability, television news, activism in pop culture, the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the enduring power of blues, the war in Iraq and other issues.

Ross offers a refreshing counter to the prevailing trend of short form online narrative; his book is essentially a running four-year-plus online diary of posts to his blog, Short Sharp Shock., which focuses on trends in culture, politics and race relations. The author takes a long-form approach to online writing on four pivotal years in American history, combining the immediacy of the blogpost, the facts of a short news story and the perspective of a pithy item on the op-ed page. And he weaves aspects of social media into the book's narrative, sampling the blogosphere's illuminating, frequently hilarious reactions to cultural and political events.

In an often funny, always insightful collection of new and recent writing, the author offers takes on Barack Obama, George Bush, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, the 2008 presidential election, Michael Richards, Rupert Murdoch, FEMA, Mitt Romney, the GEICO cavemen, Michael Jackson and others in the national life.

Valedictories for James Brown, August Wilson, Hunter Thompson, Norman Mailer, Coretta Scott King, Gerald Ford, Norman Whitfield and Tim Russert are spirited salutes to indispensable voices in the public discourse. Throughout, the author explores with honesty, empathy and a jagged wit the ways we transform the nation and the ways the nation transforms us.

The American bandwidth is wider than it’s ever been before. This is how that happened.

MICHAEL E. ROSS writes frequently on the arts, politics, race and ethnicity, media and American culture. He has worked as a reporter, editor and critic at The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, NBCNews.com and other news outlets. His reviews and commentaries have appeared in Medium, The New York Times, Salon, Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Konch, The New York Times Book Review, theGrio, PopMatters, The Loop, msnbc.com, The Root, Rushmore Drive and other publications. He blogs frequently at Short Sharp Shock.

Now available through Authorhouse Books.

Embracing Michael Jackson

"His joyous, macabre hold on the popular imagination was so total that when he passed on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, hundreds danced under the marquee of the Apollo Theater in Harlem; hundreds of people, black or white, laughing and in tears, singing the songs that made him the most influential figure in pop-music history. Sir Mix-a-Lot said it: 'He was that planet we all wanted to land on.' And ultimately we did land on that planet, or we discovered, on Thursday afternoon, that Michael’s planet is the one we’re already on. The one that Michael’s sound unified. The one that Michael’s music proves we share. The one whose spiritual oxygen is permanently juiced by a voice and musical talent the likes of which we will never see again — but which will be with us every day, everywhere, forever. That’ll do for a snapshot definition of timelessness. Need another one? There may be no better proof of Michael Jackson’s impact in the world of music and culture, the irrepressible joy of his sound amid the horrors of our modern life, than what’s happening in world capitals from London to Berlin to Beijing in his honor, and what happened in flashmobs in London and Liverpool ... And what happened spontaneously and boisterously in New York City, where it all began. Three hours after he was dead, Michael Jackson was live at the Apollo."

On Obama's first 100 days

"… [W]hat’s important isn’t so much what Obama has achieved legislatively or by executive order; what predominates in these 100 days has to do with what he represents to the American people: a sense of the possible, that indelible embrace of the future we haven’t had in quite a while. It’s not tangible, it doesn’t lower your mortgage interest rate, and it sure as hell isn’t folding money. But that feeling of things improving, the ability to impart that intrinsically American sense of Yes is as central to the presidency as the nuclear launch codes. This appeal reflects not the cult of personality, as the conservatives insist, but the power of personality. And there’s a profound difference between the two."

On Obama's election victory

"Barack Obama has completed the long process of moving African Americans, and minorities generally, to a place among the larger pixels of American culture. The word 'pixels' isn’t dropped casually. It speaks to the way the visual is our main avenue for communication. Whether it’s on your flat-screen in the living room or a billboard on the highway, we tend to prioritize what’s important by what we see, how often we see it, and how much we pay attention. What the face is saying might be important. Especially if it’s the president’s face. That face on television, online and in magazines and newspapers. That face we see every day as an index to what’s crucial, maybe indispensable to the national life. That face has never been a black face before. It is now, and will be for at least the next four years. That fact changes the definition — the benchmark — of American normality. Forever."

The substance of symbolism

"Consider that factor common to personal technology, from Internet browsers to portable music players. It’s called “look-and-feel.” The look-and-feel factor ultimately can’t be assessed according to metrics or data; it’s first and foremost an emotional response to the operability of a device or a system — its ease of use, the way it navigates, the way it looks, the way it feels in your hand. By all available evidence, then, to this point, the Obama campaign exhibits the look and feel of an everyday companion article, portable, comfortable, accessible, information-rich. Barack Obama is to Hillary Clinton what the iPod is to the CD player."

2.22.2010

Bandwidth: A measure of capacity

Embracing Michael Jackson

On Obama's first 100 days

On Obama's first foreign trip

On Obama's election victory

Winning and losing in Iraq

The substance of symbolism

Previous writing

Image credits

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