Rage against bad critics!

Hey, I’m back!

I will admit that this week it is hard to be angry at City Paper, because my anger has been raised by a much lesser paper, which makes CP look like the New York Times. This lesser paper, which is read by approximately 12 people, printed a scathing, badly written, unsupported load of crap review about my musical project. It was lazy, unnecessarily mean (what can I say? if you don’t get that it’s a joke, you might not enjoy it) and contained at least two very big mistakes--and I quote,

“His Myspace page says that he is similar to Weird Al. That is an understatement.”

Um, honeybun, what you meant to say in your little insult of me, is that this is an OVERstatement. As in, "this guy thinks he's the next Weird Al, but that is an overstatement, because he sucks." But that’s okay--nobody’s reading your paper anyway.

And:
“The lyrics, if you can call them that are immature and out and out stupid.”

Lyrics (plural noun)
1. music song words: the words of a song, especially a popular song (often used in the plural)

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

I believe that whether you like what I have to say or not, they are, in fact LYRICS. I am sorry if this person didn’t like my words, but don’t turn around and claim that they do not even count as lyrics. That is what is immature and stupid.

It just pissed me off because criticism should really follow a three step model:
1. what was the artist trying to do?
2. Did the artist accomplish the goal? And
3. Was the goal worth accomplishing?

I can accept negative but valid criticism--indeed, I’ve gotten it in the past and I have learned from it. But this little shitting on of Davey G and the Keyboard just started with the fact that this person did not like the fact that my whole act is done with a Casio keyboard. Because that “proves music is just a hobby, or just something to waste his time.” (actual quote) Because, in this personal's somewhat parochial view, if you’re trying to do comedy, you are obviously wasting your time.

I realize that responding to criticism is also a waste of time, so I am not printing this paper’s name or URL. If you find it, kudos to you. I merely offer them a big “fuck you.” No one reads them, no one cares, and even though that paper came out last month, no one brought it to my attention or even realized it existed. As much as I don’t like City Paper, if they had reviewed me, people would have been calling me first thing Wednesday morning to tell me about it. Maybe I need to lay off on them for awhile…

(Hey, I am angry!!! Just not at City Paper!)

See you next week!

Links!!!

Brian Morton’s Blog
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/12045
This is last weeks’.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11890


Movies
Charm City Cineaste
http://charmcitycineaste.blogspot.com/

Comics

This Modern World
http://www.thismodernworld.com/newest-comic/

The Maakies
http://www.maakies.com/

The Perry Bible Fellowship
http://www.pbfcomics.com/

Music/Events

A good music listing site.
http://patsdistrict.com/music_scene/maryland_music_scene.html
http://www.bmorelive.com/



Michael Shermer’s E-Skeptic Newsletter!
www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/08-01-08.html