From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V10 #100 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Saturday, April 10 2004 Volume 10 : Number 100 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] critics [breinheimer@webtv.net (bill)] Re: More thoughts on critics. [dmw ] Re: More thoughts on critics. ["Russell Van Rooy" ] ViV [Ethan Straffin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 03:00:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friend... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ********************** Jill Hughes (Riphug@aol.com) *********************** *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jill Hughes Sat April 09 1955 Aries Klaus Kluge Sun April 10 1960 Unicorn Steve VanDevender Sun April 10 1966 Racer Art Liestman Fri April 10 1953 Repeat Stephen Golden Sat April 10 1971 Jokey Michael Bowman Wed April 11 1962 Aries Wolfgang Ullwer Fri April 11 1969 Widder Janet Kirsch Thu April 11 1974 Aries Jerry Tue April 13 1971 Aries Stuart Myerburg Mon April 14 1969 Aries T-Bone Wed April 15 1992 happy cat Jeff Hanson Sat April 16 1966 Aries Michael Klouda Mon April 17 1967 Aries Harry Foster Sat April 21 1956 NiceGuy Kjetil Torgrim Homme Thu April 23 1970 Taurus Jeff Burka Thu April 24 1969 GoFlyAKite Christine Waite Tue April 25 1972 Taurus Matt Adams Thu April 26 1962 Taurus Brad Hutchinson Tue April 28 1964 What sign? Geoff Parks Sun April 30 1961 Taurus Marty Lash Sat May 01 1948 Taurus Barney Parker Fri May 02 1986 happy cat Gray Abbott Tue May 03 1955 Suprised Tamar Boursalian Tue May 03 1966 Taurus Richard A. Holmes May 07 Taurus Steve Ito Fri May 08 1970 DA Bull... Brian Gregory Thu May 09 1963 Eclectic - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 08:36:26 -0400 From: breinheimer@webtv.net (bill) Subject: critics Don't get me wrong; I'd be the first to agree that there are some lousy critics out there. The John Mellancamp quote especially resonates with me. I've always thought that whenever I read a review that concentrates predominantly on the lyrics that the writer was an English major who would be better qualified to critique poetry. However I do believe that, like most things, music criticism is done well by some and poorly by others.Let us not forget that everything written in the ecto guide (and much, or perhaps merely some, of what is posted here) is criticism. Indeed, the postings about critics could be viewed as a type of literary criticism. As for critics being musician wannabees (unlike, of course, any of our esteemed ecto members) while this is sometimes true it does not necessarily make them incompetent critics. Some critics have even gone on to become recording artists themselves. One example is the late Lester Young. And while I personally enjoyed his music as much as I did his highly subjective writing; he was, ironically enough, generally panned by the critics. np: Dave Grisman Quintet- DGQ 20 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 10:02:53 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: More thoughts on critics. On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, alan wrote: > On Fri, 9 Apr 2004, andrew fries wrote: > > > and let's not forget this one: > > > > 'writing about music is like dancing about architecture' > > - Thelonius Monk (IIRC) > > I have also seen that quote attributed to Frank Zappa. and david byrne and lou reed (among others). if anyone can provide an authoritative citation, i'd love to see it. incidentally, my criticism Web site, the pathetic caverns (mostly me, with some guest reviewers) has just officially relaunched. (the new search engine is still in "beta" and we're bringing the archives back gradually) www.pathetic-caverns.com the pathetic caverns: a zine - opinionated and eclectic reviews a studio - specializing in indie/rock/mobile/live/demo recording dm-w@pathetic-caverns.com http://www.pathetic-caverns.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 09:12:19 -0700 From: "Russell Van Rooy" Subject: Re: More thoughts on critics. Way cool 'criticism' web site. Great reviews of American Splendor, Richard Thompson. But what really gets kudos is your inclusion of Television's "Live At the Old Waldorf" CD on your 'not the best of 2003 (but good)' list. Let me recommend the following music/pop-culture writing web site: http://mauricerickard.com/index.php/1/ for similarly eclectic tastes. - - Russ - ----- Original Message ----- From: "dmw" To: Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 7:02 AM Subject: Re: More thoughts on critics. > On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, alan wrote: > > > On Fri, 9 Apr 2004, andrew fries wrote: > > > > > and let's not forget this one: > > > > > > 'writing about music is like dancing about architecture' > > > - Thelonius Monk (IIRC) > > > > I have also seen that quote attributed to Frank Zappa. > > and david byrne and lou reed (among others). > > if anyone can provide an authoritative citation, i'd love to see > it. > > incidentally, my criticism Web site, the pathetic caverns (mostly > me, with some guest reviewers) has just officially relaunched. > (the new search engine is still in "beta" and we're bringing the > archives back gradually) > > www.pathetic-caverns.com > > > > the pathetic caverns: a zine - opinionated and eclectic reviews > a studio - specializing in indie/rock/mobile/live/demo recording > dm-w@pathetic-caverns.com http://www.pathetic-caverns.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 16:25:52 -0500 (CDT) From: mapravat@prairienet.org Subject: Two thumbs in the eye: critix redux I think what was attributed to Frank Zappa was actually coined--albeit not in identical form--to what very likely was a critic, or at least some other commentator inspired by one of Tom Wolfe's early books in the Sixties. This fellow characterized the "New Journalism" then epitomized by Wolfe as something on the order of books/articles by people who couldn't write, based on interviews with people who couldn't talk, written for people who couldn't read. The perfect squelch, IMHO WIVH, comes from the movie _Almost Famous_, in which the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) gives this sage advice to the young Cameron Crowe (whose name was different in the movie, but I forget who it was, I also forget who the actor was) about reviews by other critics (probably those from Rolling Stone in particular): ***DON'T LET THOSE SWILL MERCHANTS REWRITE YOU*** Mitch (Still too much in sticker shock over the regular price of low fat granola to be willing to pay similarly for kashi, now that my beloved store brand of honey nut shredded wheat seems to have disappeared from the shelves) ------------------------------ Date: 9 Apr 2004 20:37:27 -0700 From: "Michael Pearce" Subject: Re: More thoughts on critics. I used to actually write music reviews for a paper in 1972. The record companies would shower me with vinyl, most of which went to the reseller stores. I started doing it because I wanted to turn people on to obscure stuff I liked, but after a couple of months I was spending my time listening to stuff I didn't like and writing about it. When the paper went under after 5 months I decided to never write about music again. Michael ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 20:55:30 -0700 From: Ethan Straffin Subject: ViV Anyone know these guys? www.vivtheband.com I stumbled upon them tonight, based on their contribution of the (very Freedy-Johnstonesque) song "Waiting" to the pilot episode of "Six Feet Under," which I was rewatching on DVD. They've got six free MP3s on their site, and while not all of them work for me so far, I kinda dig "Did I" in particular. Ethan ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V10 #100 ***************************