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When it comes to Miranda July's rise, The New York Times has been along seemingly for the whole ride. This weekend, The Times does the inevitable and profiles the Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker in the magazine. (For comparison: though July is based out of Los Angeles, a quick look at The New York Times' record on Google turns up 62 hits on July to the L.A. Times's 26.) It's worth a read if only to get to know the artist and better understand why most people either love her to bits or hate her vehemently, as evidenced by the blog I Hate Miranda July.
In their first mention of July, née Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, when she relatively unknown in 1999, The Times's film critic Stephen Holder said that "Ms. July lacks the wit and showmanship of Laurie Anderson" and went on to say her work "belongs squarely to the tradition of the experimental one-person Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art)." This initial reaction was prescient. In the dozen years since then Miranda July has written stories for The New Yorker and The Paris Review, produced music videos for Sleater-Kinney, performed in art exhibitions around the world and even nabbed a Caméra d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. The Times coverage has kept pace, and they seem pretty positive about the 37-year-old artist. July has contributed videos and music playlists to the paper, while the arts section has reviewed most of her major work.