How Good Does Karaoke Have to Be to Qualify as Art?

That’s the headline at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/magazine/portland-karaoke-scene.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Back when I was the art critic for Willamette Week (1974-1983) I didn’t write the headlines for my articles, so I can’t blame Dan Kois, the writer of the article itself, for the idea that something must “qualify” to be art. Nowadays we all know that anything considered in the realm of art is art and nobody seriously involved with art worries about whether something is or isn’t— just how  it works, doesn’t work, moves us, irritates us or maybe really just isn’t worth considering. “Art” is an attitude in the mind of the viewer.

On the other hand, the article in the NY Times  (from January 17) is a fun read about Portland’s intense karaoke scene. Not something I knew anything about, homebody that I am. But Kois does a great job of giving more evidence that Portland is coooooool.