My good friend David Schoffman is your typical opinionated, over-educated, urban American artist. That is to say that unlike my colleagues here in Paris, Schoffman is loud.
You see, nobody is more obnoxious, yet more stimulating than a French intellectual. By contrast, in the United States, 'serious' culture is always inflected with wry references to populist entertainment. One could easily survive a dinner party in Paris without being familiar with Lupin but it is practically inconceivable spending an evening with a bunch of New York highbrows without anyone making a reference to Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Schoffman may very well be the only exception to this rule yet with certain qualifications. Though I doubt David could tell the difference between Beyoncé and Adele he is a fanatical enthusiast of the viral podcast Timmy Black Presents: The Lives of Contemporary Artists.
I find this baffling.
