James Wolcott: Critical Mass

From late nights at CBGB's, to the halls of the Village Voice, to stage-side at the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, James Wolcott has seen a lot in his career as a journalist and pop culture critic. He's gone from the Village Voice, to Vanity Fair, to the New Yorker, and back to Vanity Fair, writing about everything from SCTV (which he calls 'a combination of a Robert Altman movie and a MAD magazine comic') to Patti Smith's legendary first gig at CBGB's. He has compiled a career's worth of writings in his latest book, Critical Mass: Four Decades of Essays, Reviews, Hand Grenades and Hurrahs. He joins Elvis to talk about the problems he has with today's television critics and the state of pop culture today.