Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Brian Bieniowski, Associate Editor
By
Gothamist Staff
Published Jul 12, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Gothamist Staff
Published Jul 12, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Brian Bieniowski is the Associate Editor for Asimovs Science Fiction magazine and the owner of ambientreview.com. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Bianca. We talked about the future, about ways of living your life, about ambient music and about the end of the world. My interview questions have been removed.
My visions of the future generally concern my own life; its supreme smallness, the drop-in-the-ocean mentality I try to live my life by. I think only a little about the future of mankind, aside from fanciful daydreams, or the stories and dramas of the future I read. I have goals and hopes for my life, but I do try to take things as slowly and meaningfully, on the daily level, as possible. I am a wholehearted believer in personal responsibility for my choices and actions. I try to live intuitively, but not in a haphazard fashionspontaneous living, but not frivolous, you might say. I feel no responsibility for things like cities, or the future of humanity, though. These things get along fine without me, and will continue well after Im gone.
I dont particularly like cities, and its why I dont live in one. I took responsibility by living near the city, but not within it, though it caused me certain hardships, considering my profession. I dont regret the decision at all.
I started working from home a few days a week recently. My father-in-law came over today and said, "Do your submitters know you are reading their stories on the living room floor, with a cup of coffee, and no shoes?" Well, now they do. Im in the city three days a week, which is one train ride both ways, lasting under an hour. I walk to work every morning, both in New Jersey and New York City. The train is my bridge between two pretty walks. The City walk is smellier, though. New York has its beauties, theres no question, but I do find myself constantly comparing it to less crowded and less developed areas.
I love the artist who works in relative obscurity, despite fickle public tastes/opinions. Harold Budd, John Crowley, R.A. Lafferty, Brian Eno, Robert Rich, Moebiusthey pursue (or pursued when alive) avenues that are purely their own. I believe that one must press his or her own way in this life, that one must not become a slave to influences, that a person must make his or her own life an example of how things can be done, even if nobody notices, perhaps especially because nobody notices.
One of my favorite quotes ever is by Peter Christopherson from the groups Throbbing Gristle and Coil: "I reckon its probably better not to think about anybody in 'heroic' terms at all, but just be polite and, if possible, interesting to all the people you meet. Just treat everyone with the same generosity of spirit, and chances are they will do likewise."
I look at SF as a visionary literature of potentials. SF says, "If humans can get their mess straight, look at what they can do!" It makes men and women consider their best potentials and attempt to achieve them.
I think people who grew up reading SF, who matured through the reading of SF, and who felt a certain way when they read what they experienced as the classics, also feel the drive to engender that feeling in others. By writing their own stories, theyre making attempts at spreading the virus. Still others want immortality within the small pond of the SF world. Its like Hollywood, but smaller, nerdier, more socially uncomfortable. Of course, I mean that in the best possible way.
I think SF functions like a muse for would-be scientists. Isaac Asimov wrote about robots, some brainy kid loved the stories and went into robotics. It really seems to be just that simple, sometimes. The science and the fiction influence each other in turn; its a two-way street. SF gets credit for presaging scientific advancements, and it certainly has, but I think its more from the shotgun approach to futurism. Look at classic SF that featured robots, Scientology, cold-fusion powered cities, and hyper-drives. Three of those four concepts are currently bullshit (though the last two are, at the time of writing, unlikely possibilities). If that SF-gypsy fortune-teller told me I was going to get hit by a milk truck tomorrow, Id take my chances on the street.
Reviewing ambient music can be hard, especially the more formlessly droning releases. Sometimes I feel myself sinking into flowery, descriptive BS as Im writing. I write the reviews in such a way that the reader can skip the middle paragraph, which consists of winded, pretentious mumbo-jumbo. Funny thing is, my own non-critical writing is nothing like my reviewsI tend to write quite sparely. Im not altogether pleased with the reviews; I feel as though writing about the music cheapens it, and the writing itself reflects that cheapening. The music is sometimes so free of connotation that I resort to using the same few words repeatedly to describe what only the music itself can express. And, of course, in reading my own reviews, I see the limits of my own writing. Its still a learning process for me. Ill quit reviewing one day, perhaps in the next year or two. Ill hit a dead end with it, thats for certain.
I feel ambient is the music you turn to when all else seems too fat and unbearable with connotation.
When I consider the end of everything, my life seems brief, and the urge to make the most of that brevity is at its most severe. Humans tend to put connotations on everything, and I love the idea of a world that simply is, without bothering with why. When were gone, all of our vulgar constructs, physical and theoretical, are going with us. Good riddance, perhaps. One of my college professors accused me of being anti-intellectual, and to this day I cannot decide whether it was an insult or a compliment.
My vision of the end of life is not unique. I imagine that we will all die off somehow, whether it be through our own stupidity or climactic/astronomical disaster (provided we find no way to leave Earth and colonize other planets). If we do not wreck the place first, the Earth will continue as a constantly roiling, teeming mass of raw life without us, until the Sun finally decides to die. The Universe will continue to whirl, perhaps aimlessly, and we will have been nothing but a footnote of infinity; a short cry in the dark. I can think of nothing more beautiful.
- Interview by K. Thor Jensen
Tagged
associate editor
Brian Eno
city
coffee
college
fashion
hollywood
interview
law
love
Music
new jersey
new york
new york city
people
science
science fiction
scientology
sf
Sometimes I
the city
the future
the universe
Thor Jensen
Throbbing Gristle
train
When I
Gothamist Staff
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
A new film invites you to eavesdrop on one of the greatest conversations in NYC history
In 1972, legendary documentarian William Greaves filmed a party he threw for Harlem Renaissance luminaries. With help from his family, "Once Upon a Time in Harlem" brings that decades-old footage to theaters.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 21, 2026 at 1:07 p.m. ET
The Knicks are NBA champions. Now they have to start dressing the part.
Before they attempt to fend off LeBron James and the 76ers on Tuesday, the Knicks will have a chance to show off their winning mentality through their tunnel fits.
By
Sonia Rao
Arts & Entertainment
The Knicks are NBA champions. Now they have to start dressing the part.
Before they attempt to fend off LeBron James and the 76ers on Tuesday, the Knicks will have a chance to show off their winning mentality through their tunnel fits.
By
Sonia Rao
Will Barnes and Noble in the East Village spell doom for smaller shops? It's complicated.
By
Sonia Rao
Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years
By
Hannah Frishberg
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .