'New York Times Magazine' loves Beck

New York Times/March 2005

This weekend's New York Times Magazine featured a lengthy profile of Beck by Arthur Lubow. Among the many revelations: Beck has moved away from Silver Lake, appears to wear the same clothes a lot, and Christina Ricci does a killer Japanese waitress impersonation. Also: Like his wife and his father, Beck is a Scientologist. "It's been useful," he says. "My dad's been doing it since before I was born." In the Church of Scientology, members seeking what the church calls "higher levels of spiritual awareness and ability" are "audited" by a counselor and also by a device called an "e-meter," which measures their physiological reactions.

When reminded that the Church of Scientology provokes continuing controversy - as much for its tight control over adherents as for its core program - Beck fixes his huge blue eyes in an unwavering gaze and challenges the church's critics. "Any kind of intolerance I have a distaste for," he says, especially when the intolerance is directed at "something that helps teach kids how to read, addicts to get off drugs and convicts to start a new life."

This article is just the latest episode in Times Magazine editor Gerald Marzorati's ongoing love affair with America's foremost "Loser." As he wrote in the magazine back in 1997: Beck's approach to music evinces a comprehension of bricolage and the impossibility of esthetic originality in a post-modern moment of information overload - He's figured out that it's OK to be sincere and ironic about something worth caring about.