Terry Teachout's love of theater, his leisurely pacing, and his old-fashioned-ish musical tastes sometimes leave me with the impression that he's a bit out-of-step with contemporary culture. But then he contributes a column that's so on it snaps into focus just how with it he is, how much he understands the pulse of contemporary life.

We live in an era of blogs, tweets, aggregators, and Fox News. It's quite easy to exist in an ideological/cultural/sociological/psychographic bubble of your own making--one that entirely reinforces your existing systems of belief. That's why I start every morning with the Wall Street Journal.

From butts to technology, never let it be said my interests are narrow. So, let's talk about the iPad for a second.

Let's lead this post with a bit of theater: Karin Dreijer Andersson aka Fever Ray (or maybe it's a stand-in?) accepting an award for best dance artist at that country's equivalent of the Grammy Awards. (They're called the Grammis. American cultural imperialism is no joke.):