Agent Palmer

Despite all of the incredible television advertising catchphrases that still live in my millennial head, one still has a stranglehold: “The incredible, edible egg.”

Yes, yes, television was supposed to rot my generation’s collective brain, but it seems downright healthy compared to the subsequent generations’ digital diets. But that’s not the health I want to dive into.

I don’t know if this is the correct takeaway from Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, but it seems to me the “loud hate” minority is much more powerful than the massive “love and let live” majority.

By all accounts, Lilith Fair was an outrageous success. Yes, it took its toll on founder Sarah McLachlan. After all, in three years, it played 134 dates across 54 cities and raised more than $10 million for women’s shelters and non-profits.

Maus is the award-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. It is a “Survivor’s Tale” specifically, Art’s dad, Vladek, and his survival of the Holocaust.

It is also Art’s story of dealing with his father’s history, legacy, and guilt. It is beautifully crafted in both form and function, in the black-and-white panels, text, and spaces in between.

If you are a regular viewer of this blog, you may be thinking to yourself, “Palmer reviewing a Coupland book about Marshall McLuhan? Hasn’t this already been done before?”

It has! Back in February of 2024, I reviewed Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan by Douglas Coupland. But the thing about reading through an author’s biography is that sometimes they cover a subject more than once.

I’ve prided myself on separating the artist and their art. On a whole, it generally makes things easier to enjoy. 

The art is the art, and any baggage that may come with the artist can be left at the door.

There is an exception that changes the perception of the artist and can change the art, which is based on digging deeper into the artist.