Apple and Recent Nostalgia

We’re in the era of service economy, but the image of a back room filled with people frantically working the phones to confirm transactions feels redolent of the older era of manufacturing. Of course some parts of the country and many parts of the world are still in that era; in New York however the nostalgia for that time is palpable. Coming to the store I passed a huge banner advertising the TV show 'Pan Am,' a 'Mad Men'-style spinoff celebrating America’s version of the Victorian era, starring (I was amazed to see) Christina Ricci. She once read slush for Open City, the magazine I edited, many years ago; her father was a Reichian therapist who practiced scream therapy and never realized that his otherwise soundproofed basement office had an air vent that led directly into her room. She’s been an actor with, I think, a genuinely interesting streak of deviance. It seems odd to see her in a show whose pitch meeting might have involved a phrase like, “It’s 'Charlie’s Angels' meets the Mile High Club!”

—Actually some thoughts on Steve Jobs.