The Treatment
James Wolcott: Critical Mass
From the Village Voice, to Vanity Fair, to the New Yorker, and back to Vanity Fair, writer James Wolcott talks about his long career as an observer.
By Elvis Mitchell • • 28m ListenFrom 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.
