stevenberlinjohnson.com: Boozy

I had the great pleasure last night of watching one of the last performances of Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification Of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses. I don't really know all that much about the theater, so perhaps Boozy belongs to an existing genre that I'm just not aware of, but it struck me as a pretty amazing hybrid form: a serious look at the clash between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, and thus between master planning and sidewalk-centric urbanism, all conveyed through the form of a genuinely hilarious mock musical comedy. There are stirring Broadway anthems about single-use zoning, if you can imagine such a thing ("Put the people with people/Put the business with business"), as well as a number of not-so-subtle references to Emergence: the Jacobs character gives an impassioned rant about slime mold at one point, and at the end she and her followers start chanting "Emergence! Emergence! Emergence!" while the Moses camp shouts: "Get it done! Get it done!"

I had drinks with some of the creators afterwards and told them that I hoped the show would find another run somewhere -- it's been totally sold out from day one. If it does make another appearance, I'll try to mention it here.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of seven books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

stevenberlinjohnson.com

Boozy

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