”Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.” – Otto von Bismarck
These days anyone with ready access to the Internet and a functioning understanding of browsers and search engines can find out, to quote Robert De Niro “a few things about a few things.” Which is precisely why OZY Editor-at-Large Eugene S. Robinson says, “Are you going to believe me? Or your lying eyes?”
With as storied of a past as Robinson has, the temptation is to say both: NY native and graduate of Stuyvesant High School, and then 3000 miles west to do the same at Stanford University, his parallel tracking in journalism and music and art is noteworthy because it’s not only seen him editing-in-chiefing LA’s now-defunct Code magazine (and EQ Magazine) but also writing for GQ, Vice, V magazine, Wire, PC Gamer, Decibel, Revolver, MacLife, and the list goes on. All while singing his ass off, first with the 1980’s hardcore punk band Whipping Boy and now more recently with Oxbow, who Vice magazine calls “the greatest art rock band in the world.”
Add to this his appearance in the worst movie of 1987, Bill Cosby’s Leonard Part 6, his work with Gus Van Sant and Nick Cave, his German TV show, his seminal Harper Collins tome on fighting, his novel (in two languages), his play (also in two languages) and his interviews with everyone from Billy Bob Thornton, Jello Biafra, Halle Berry, Chris Rock, Matt Groening, Henry Rollins, Samuel Jackson ad Hollywood-eum, and you only have about half the picture.
The other half of the picture? Brick by brick, all here eventually on the ABOUT pages, baby. And he’s at OZY why? “No place else in America is even remotely interested in trying the probably near-impossible,” says Robinson. “Which is, in my mind: making the compelling interconnections between what we think and what we do come ALIVE. All while having fun doing so? Well, that’s why I’m here and that’s why OZY is here.”
