advertisement
FYI

The Many Gaudy Splendors Of CES

Two of the least admirable cities in the U.S.—Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas— will be a study in contrasts this week.

The Many Gaudy Splendors Of CES

By External Source

Two of the least admirable cities in the U.S.—Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas— will be a study in contrasts this week. The nation’s capital is the epitome of dysfunction, a perversion of democracy where a huckster reigns but struggles to achieve his goals. The country’s capital of vice is a soulless, supersized alternate reality where hucksterism is the coin of the realm. In Washington, meaningless bills wither and die. In Vegas, especially this week, technology companies will offer visions of a bright shiny future, most of which will never find markets with real customers.


Ah, the splendour of CES, the consumer electronics industry trade show that has outgrown its own name. Once primarily a meeting place for gadget makers to pitch merchants their wares for the coming year, now the gaudy event is a meeting place for the who’s who in technology, media, entertainment, and the like. They’re all pushing a plan for the future while nervously looking around to make sure someone else’s future isn’t cleverer, more lucrative, or technologically superior to their own.

advertisement

And you have to walk through smoke-filled casinos to get to the hotel elevator.

Other than that, CES is a grand time. The hottest topics aren’t new: self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, 5G cellular networks, to name a few. -- Adam Lashinsky and Aaron Pressman, Fortune Data Sheet

advertisement
Marie Davidson at M for Montreal
Charles-Antoine Marcotte

Marie Davidson at M for Montreal

Features

How Quebec Markets Its Music To The World


Quebec talents attract diverse audiences beyond the province's borders. What sets them apart? We headed to M for Montreal to find out.

Azzedine Fall is from France, but he's very familiar with the Quebec music scene. He started paying attention as a young journalist at French culture magazine Inrocks in the 2010s.

"TOPS, Grimes, Kaytranada — Montreal had a significant place in international independent music," he explains to Billboard Canada. Quickly, his interest in local talents led him to cross the Atlantic to cover the Montreal International Jazz Festival and, gradually, M for Montreal. "I saw Mac DeMarco on stage, and that's when I understood that something important was happening here."

keep readingShow less
advertisement