New Yorker excerpt

[jwgh]

This is from the current (December 13) issue of the New Yorker, from the section titled 'Pop Music':

Every college student who feels a little sad and sits down with an acoustic guitar to summon beauty and form hopes, whether or not she knows it, to come up with one of Keren Ann's songs. This, unfortunately, is not what usually happens. Right now, at a café somewhere, a guitar player is pouring out his acoustic vision in front of helpless diners who, bereft of legal protection, are silently praying for the robots to take over.