From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #7 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Sunday, January 9 2005 Volume 07 : Number 007 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] McReview [RockinRonD@aol.com] [RS] Glenn McDonald (Writing Again - We're About 9) [OzWoman321@aol.com] [RS] Mc Attack (but, soft) ["Gene Frey" ] [RS] Glenn McD ["TRICIA MULLANE" ] Re: [RS] Our Own Principles To Misconstrue? [Vanessa Wills ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 09:05:46 EST From: RockinRonD@aol.com Subject: [RS] McReview In a message dated 1/8/2005 5:01:25 AM Eastern Standard Time, _Janet_ (mailto:Janet@smoe.org) C. writes re: Glenn McDonald's reviews : >>I read his "review" of Courier and I'm confused. Did he like the album or hate it?<< While he has his moments, I find much of McDonald's writing overly arch and purposefully obscure. ReadinRonD ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 11:54:01 EST From: OzWoman321@aol.com Subject: [RS] Glenn McDonald (Writing Again - We're About 9) Hello, All - Rockin&ReadinRonD wrote: << While he has his moments, I find much of McDonald's writing overly arch and purposefully obscure. >> I would, respectfully, beg to differ - I wrote RonG after his post, thanking him for the heads-up! I'd never heard of Glenn McDonald before but spent an hour or so Thursday browsing his reviews, photos and blog - he makes me feel I'm speaking another language altogether, one not nearly so descriptive and intuitive... I will admit to being a music and literary snob - how can one resist the following? (written on the occasion of his decision to end his weekly column): << There have been times when I thought that writing about music could be the thing I do best. But I think it doesn't have to be, and probably shouldn't. I still believe that making music is what humans as a species do best, but that's a criticism as much as a grace. We need to learn to live as well as we sing, or to sing as we write, or to trade some of the small things we've practiced for larger things we fear. I need to confront ideas that are bigger than a week, and more complicated than a first draft, and cost more than sleep. Or smaller and simpler and cheaper. There are so many things I want to have tried before I am done. It is time to try some of the other ones. It is time to sit with silence for a little while, and then fight or face it in a new way. What way, exactly, I don't know, but the column has been preventing me from finding out. I end it to discover. >> I am in awe of someone who expresses him/herself so lucidly and literately - even though Glenn and I have barely "met", I'd rank him right up there with Mark Morford, Nick Hornby and Anna Quindlen (not sure who completes my Top Five at this point). I will enjoy exploring his genius further - he's a keeper! Susan http://www.heartsdesireconcerts.com http://www.horseofadifferentcolorbooking.com "A little out of place A little out of tune Sorta lost in space Racing the moon Climbing the walls Of this hurricane Still overall I can't complain..." ~ Todd Snider ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 13:31:04 -0500 From: "Gene Frey" Subject: [RS] Mc Attack (but, soft) Hey you guys, Rockin RonD reviled: >>While he has his moments, I find much of McDonald's writing overly arch >>and purposefully obscure. << Golden arch, no doubt. I read a lot of his stuff last night, but not enough to form much of an opinion. At a glance, I tend to agree with RonD. Besides, I think he totally whiffs on the point of 'Money For Floods.' Gene F. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 04:59:18 +0000 From: "TRICIA MULLANE" Subject: [RS] Glenn McD Ron wrote, "Amazing stuff." "Amazing" wasn't the first word that I thought after reading his stuff. He has a really swell vocabulary---been a while since I've seen the word "solipsism" used correctly in a sentence---but his punctuation and form are distracting. (kidding) After reading the Dar & Richard reviews, I felt as if he liked something & hated something, but I'm not sure what. Thanks for the heads up, though, Ron. It's a fun style to read. Tricia ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 02:03:30 -0500 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Our Own Principles To Misconstrue? I read his review of "Reunion Hill" and loved his many insights there, and then read the "Courier" review and was similarly confuzzled. He seems to suggest that not only should Richard not have ever made "Courier," but that furthermore he should cease and desist from ever playing his songs live. It seems like apart from liking or hating the album such as it is, he simply thinks that it ought never to have come to be. He says the "incontrovertible presences [of the songs' narrators] in a live setting work against these songs," because, I suppose, one imagines Mary Magdalene and awakens to find only Richard. This seems to me a bit like arguing that because audiences can always make out the edges of the projection screen in a cinema, no one should ever make a film that is designed to transport the viewer's imagination. (And that's so thoroughly unreasonable that I'm not even going to argue against it right now.) That said, I really did love his notes on "Fishing" and the song "Reunion Hill." His "philosophy of art" (as he calls it) could use a little work, though. Anyway, I'm just as confused as Janet about whether he liked "Courier" or not, since he does admit that there are a few moments when he thought the album "bridged the river," which seems to translate very roughly as "was really good." It occurs to me there probably really isn't an answer to the question of whether he liked it or not. He seems to think it shouldn't have happened, but that insofar as it did happen, it isn't a total wash. - --V On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:50:23 -0800 (PST), Janet Cinelli wrote: > I read his "review" of Courier and I'm confused. Did > he like the album or hate it? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 23:06:19 -0500 From: Norman Johnson Subject: [RS] Glenn McDonald I miss Glenn's column. I've been reading TWAS fairly regularly for several years. Although he can be wordy and tends to digress, Glenn is often insightful and a delight to read. Norman ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V7 #7 *********************************