Since I launched this blog, the most frequently asked question is whether I am irrational to make it a weekly.  Haven’t I been paying attention to instant newsfeeds, tweets and pings?

Well, it’s precisely because I have been paying attention that this is a Weekly.  The easiest way to get un-followed is to tweet too much, and the best way to get un-friended is to tell too much too often.  No, I don’t care that you just found a golden egg in FarmVille.

In fact, Cultural Weekly is a kind of rational corrective to “always-on, all-the-time.”  Instant is good for breaking news, but this isn’t a news site.  This site is about perspective and a bit of reflection.   The culture we “consume” has become a commodity, and like all commodities it is designed to be obsolete fairly quickly so we consumers will buy more.  We have “fast culture” just like we have fast food.  As an antidote, we need a movement for Slow Culture just as there is a movement for Slow Food.  That’s what Cultural Weekly is all about.

Good culture is not fast to produce.  It takes two or three years to make a movie, and a year, or ten years, to write a book.  Even though, as audience members, we may experience the movie or the book in a matter of hours, the quality of our experience is directly related to the time-consuming craftsmanship of the work.

I don’t want this blog to be too perishable.  If I and the guest columnists are going to write about a subject, it should include thoughts we’ve considered for at least a week, and it should contain some ideas or information that will keep you thinking for at least a week, too.

By the way, just because I call this a Weekly doesn’t mean I’ll only write once a week, as you have probably noticed already.  Just like The Daily Show doesn’t broadcast every day.  In fact, The Daily Show only airs 4 days a week.  So if that is Daily, this is Weekly.

With that, I’ll encourage you and your friends to subscribe or follow.  Cultural Weekly won’t clutter your in-box, and I hope it helps you cut through the clutter of the cultural choices we face every day.

PS: In the spirit of this post, I am taking a week off and will be in Big Sur with no internet access.  I’ll moderate comments, answer emails and post again after August 30.