tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55149162011-04-21T17:36:45.144-04:00s woodsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089952428251481432004-07-16T00:32:00.000-04:002004-07-16T13:11:40.563-04:00

ANOTHER CASHIER WILL ONLY BE TOO PLEASED TO SERVE YOULast post on this version. New version is where it should be.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089929154480721882004-07-15T17:48:00.000-04:002004-07-15T18:11:22.833-04:00

MORE WEIRDNESS...PHASING OUT RCD 1.1  Okay, the comments are back, but things inside here have really been mucked with. I have a guess as to what's happened: Although I said below I never "tampered" in any way with this, I meant that I recently haven't tampered with things. In setting up this blog a year ago, I tampered quite a bit with Blogger's code, and was probably even a bit reckless about

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089899101373413522004-07-15T09:41:00.000-04:002004-07-15T09:45:01.373-04:00

PRE-CAUTION Just to be safe (given the bizarre disappearance of the comments), I've changed the password to this site. If you're someone who's posted here before and would like to do so again, e-mail me, and I'll update you. I probably won't respond during the day (I'm not supposed to be on here NOW), unless the post office fixes their free internet terminal.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089898598055887132004-07-15T09:32:00.000-04:002004-07-15T09:36:38.056-04:00

BABY COME BACK Hmm, through no fault or tampering of my own, all the comments seem to have disappeared from this page. No clue what happened. I've checked some other blogger sites, and no one else seems to be affected (though I realize the comments fields aren't built into my blogger template--I had to add them from somewhere else). That's a bummer if they're gone--I enjoyed a lot of the

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089838661428294452004-07-14T16:42:00.000-04:002004-07-14T16:57:41.426-04:00

From the "desk" of Gregg Juke ("The Mysterious GJ") Film Critics or Rock Critics? Well then, this place has been getting deeper (and deeper) in celluloid over the last few months than my friend Dave and I were in 6th grade (when we finally got the chance to run the movie projector, and used the opportunity to spill the film all over the classroom floor)... So: Who are the best contemporary

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089804785529804572004-07-14T07:32:00.000-04:002004-07-14T07:33:05.530-04:00

ITEM Bloggers Suffer Burnout. By Daniel Terdiman in Wired News.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089690432344517122004-07-12T23:24:00.000-04:002004-07-12T23:55:30.816-04:00

EVERYTHING MUST GO: STILLS FROM WILD PALMS

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089595655869329282004-07-11T21:08:00.000-04:002004-07-11T21:33:05.606-04:00

INSIDE TRADING I'm going to take Anthony Miccio up on his Fall CD-R offer (they've long been a blank spot for me, and I've long assumed I'm missing something, but I just don't feel like making the effort to buy or even download for some reason). Eventually, I'd like to try the same thing here--offer some of my more interesting compilations in return for some of your more interesting

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089593564911956622004-07-11T20:48:00.000-04:002004-07-11T20:52:44.910-04:00

CAPSULE MADNESS Which film guide is best? Alex Abramovich in Slate reads "nine of the most popular film guides cover to cover" and ranks them accordingly.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089396291841676642004-07-09T13:59:00.000-04:002004-07-09T14:07:02.890-04:00

FOP, FOP, FOP MUSIC I had a good laugh at the last line of Joe Clark's letter to eye this week (scroll down to the headline, "Without Merrit"). (I assume it's this Joe Clark and not the other one, though admittedly the letter would be even funnier in that case.)

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089346158641630232004-07-09T00:06:00.000-04:002004-07-09T00:09:18.640-04:00

ALBUM WHICH IN 20 YEARS TIME SERIOUS MUSIC CRITICS WON'T (BUT SHOULD) CALL A 'LOST CLASSIC' THAT FOOLED EVERYONE UPON ITS RELEASE One of the greatest glam albums in the world ever.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089345896503862192004-07-08T23:59:00.000-04:002004-07-09T00:04:56.503-04:00

THE PETER CETERA CONDUNDRUM "If You Leave Me Now" in Three Kings vs. "If You Leave Me Now" in Sex & the City vs. any other pop song in any movie or TV show ever.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089286774865174642004-07-08T06:48:00.000-04:002004-07-08T07:44:21.420-04:00

KITE FLIGHT FROM BAGHDAD re: Fahrenheit 911 Christopher Hitchens: "In this peaceable kingdom, according to Moore's flabbergasting choice of film shots, children are flying little kites, shoppers are smiling in the sunshine, and the gentle rhythms of life are undisturbed. Then--wham! From the night sky come the terror weapons of American imperialism." Ralph R. Reiland: "The biggest lie in

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1089200708104852852004-07-07T07:26:00.000-04:002004-07-07T07:59:06.893-04:00

THE ANXIETY OF INFLUENCE Sarah Kerr on Kael & Sontag, in Bookforum. Sample: "Something is at work here: At a few points, Seligman seems to drop his fine-tuned critical apparatus and merge with the consciousness of his domineering heroines. In describing the intense experience of reading their prose, he borrows Sontagian and Kaelesque notions: 'your intellect responds to their writing in a

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088916351429597832004-07-04T00:36:00.000-04:002004-07-04T00:48:07.360-04:00

HOW LONG IS YOUR BOOK, PT. II Beppe Colli from Italy writes: "The longest one I own is: Studying Popular Music, by Richard Middleton. I think it goes into your category #5 ["books that follow a story or a thesis or a particular tack of criticism"]. It was originally published in 1990 by Open University Press (UK). It's 414 pages long, but I don't really know how to compare it to other books I

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088693368211451572004-07-01T10:48:00.000-04:002004-07-01T10:49:28.210-04:00

HAPPY CANADA DAY

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088693272226627762004-07-01T10:32:00.000-04:002004-07-01T10:47:52.226-04:00

HOW LONG IS YOUR BOOK? Does anyone know what is the longest book of rock criticism ever published? Specifically I mean the longest book of rock criticism by one author. This isn't a clear-cut question, for within it, there are at least five sub-genres I can think of: collections of previous essays by an author; books of album or single reviews; specific genre studies; biographies (which, in

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088597784680018872004-06-30T07:22:00.000-04:002004-06-30T08:20:38.720-04:00

IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER? I've never done one of these round-robin blogging survey things, but this one (via Naked Maja, via 86400 seconds, via God knows where else) looks kinda fun. I set myself two rules for this: 1) I didn't finish reading those other guys answers (any similarity is purely coincidental), and 2) I'm going to do this all in one go without going back to edit or amend. A-one,

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088507817032608902004-06-29T07:15:00.000-04:002004-06-29T07:16:57.033-04:00

HISTORY OF HEAVY My guess is that more people have heard about this than actually seen it: the first appearance of the phrase "heavy metal" in a record review, by Mike Saunders in Creem, May 1971.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088484731236790382004-06-29T00:10:00.000-04:002004-06-29T01:16:06.376-04:00

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU The good guys won tonight (or should I say the bad guys did not win?)--albeit with a minority government--but my guess is that one of the big stories about the Canadian election is going to be pollsters. Indeed, the subject is being batted around on CBC as I write this. The whole country was primed for a last minute squeaker, with poll predictions as recently as

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088264666213180122004-06-26T11:09:00.000-04:002004-06-26T12:06:51.840-04:00

NEW SEVENTIES 'GOLDEN AGE' MOVIE BOOK A review of Ryan Gilbey's It Don't Worry Me: The Revolutionary American Films of the Seventies By Michael Rowin, Film Comment. SAMPLE: "I've had the nagging suspicion that the consensus that the Seventies was a Golden Age of American Cinema is mainly rooted in one overriding sentiment: nostalgia. For over ten years, critics, filmmakers, and filmgoers have

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088230038923847352004-06-26T01:59:00.001-04:002004-06-26T02:18:04.500-04:00

COMPLETE THESE SENTENCES Special My Life edition, for anyone who has read all 957 pages (or anyone who just wants to make shit up on the spot): 1) "The book that west coast rock critic Greil Marcus wrote about Elvis & myself..." 2) "Christopher Hitchens, on the other hand..." 3) "One band you'll probably be shocked to know that I'm hugely fanatical about is..."

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088229272203109822004-06-26T01:32:00.000-04:002004-06-26T01:54:32.203-04:00

HOBERMAN AT CINEMATHEQUE Guess it would've made more sense in some ways to mention this before rather than after the fact, but had the pleasure this evening of sitting through The Manchurian Candidate at Toronto's Cinematheque, which was preceded by a lecture and Q&A session by J. Hoberman. This was the kick-off event to a "Sixties Cinema" retrospective, an excellent series that also features

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088133965152143222004-06-24T23:22:00.000-04:002004-06-25T00:01:25.240-04:00

BASHVILLE? The gay attacks on Pauline Kael. How did America's leading film critic, who was fearlessly opposed to cant and dogma of all stripes, come to be seen as a homophobe? (Salon prints an excerpt from Craig Seligman's Sontag & Kael: Opposites Attract Me.)

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088133724485614862004-06-24T23:20:00.000-04:002004-06-25T00:03:44.970-04:00

BLOG POST Two people wrote me today asking to see the post I deleted this morning. I really didn't mean to try and create a mystique about this! I just thought my stuff about the Canadian election was terribly naive and obvious and (worse) really, really strident: Political Analysis 101 sort of stuff (so much easier to just yap on the phone about it than to put something interesting down in

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1088075945601332052004-06-24T06:44:00.000-04:002004-06-24T07:19:05.603-04:00

THE 'PUBLISH' BUTTON IS MY ENEMY In the interest of full public disclosure: last night I posted a lengthy diatribe about the Canadian elections (also my feelings about blogs and music right now). This morning I realized how tedious and irrelevant it all was, so I deleted it. Have I violated some blogging code of ethics by doing so? (I don't believe such a thing exists, but maybe I didn't

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1087616750910126042004-06-18T23:31:00.000-04:002004-06-18T23:45:50.910-04:00

BOOKS I HAVEN'T READ (AND THUS CAN'T SAY A WHOLE LOT ABOUT JUST YET) On shelves now: Fever: How Rock' n' Roll Transformed Gender in America. By Tim Riley On shelves in 2005: Running the Voodoo Down by Phil Freeman (blog about said book--among other things--here). I believe this book is about Miles Davis's electric years.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1087183156406274142004-06-13T23:01:00.000-04:002004-06-13T23:26:08.633-04:00

MORE KAEL & SONTAG [re: Craig Seligman's new book.] Odd Couple Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael: a curious combination By David Thomson in the Atlantic. The first chapter of the book, reprinted in the New York Times. The Perils of Pauline and Susan. NYT review by Michael Wood. Blogger Ken Smith reviews NYT's review. (From Weblogs in Higher Education.) Two Cherished Critics, An Engrossing

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1086736656812800762004-06-08T19:02:00.000-04:002004-06-08T20:04:55.233-04:00

KAEL vs SONTAG Critical giants, in the spotlight. A review of Craig Seligman's Sontag & Kael: Opposites Attract Me. By Chris Navratil in Boston.com. Sample (from the book itself): "Tone is perhaps the most obvious area where these two writers are at odds. Kael's hipness leads straight to her verbal bebop; Sontag's puritanism makes her criticism formal and rather icy. Slogging through

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1086581482974720022004-06-06T23:50:00.000-04:002004-06-07T00:11:22.973-04:00

THE ZEN OF JOHN KORDOSH First interview with a rock critic we've posted at rockcritics.com in more than six months, but it's a good one. Anthe Rhodes, new to the rockcritics galaxy, speaks to John Kordosh, a former Creem editor and writer from what has become known as the "post-Bangs" era, years which surely deserve a book of their own. More to come from Anthe, too, so stay tuned (though not

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1086234059017508242004-06-02T23:13:00.000-04:002004-06-02T23:47:04.756-04:00

ON DECK No lie--new interviews coming soon to rockcritics.com. Three interviews on deck with former '80s Creem guys (we'll have spoken to everyone from that place, janitor included, by the year 2010). Hopefully I'll be posting J. Kordosh in the next week or so, with two more mystery men to follow shortly thereafter. Also, early steps are being taken to branch the dot-com off into another

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1086201883882800162004-06-02T14:35:00.000-04:002004-06-02T23:49:00.366-04:00

IT'S NOT A BLOG (IT'S ONLY MUSIC CRITICISM, BUT I LIKE IT) The site has been filled with lists of everybody's blogs lately, which for some reason, has been depressing to me. Well, today I checked out yetserday's Village Voice and read a piece on jazz by Greg Tate which reminded me of why I love music criticism and why we started rockcritics.com in the first place. All I can say is Tate's piece

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1085570739515421402004-05-26T07:22:00.000-04:002004-05-26T07:25:39.516-04:00

UPDATE, SORT OF Not here, but I will continue to add blogs and what-not to the links page. If you have this page linked, you might want to think about switching it to that page.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1084328266792737592004-05-11T22:10:00.000-04:002004-05-11T22:21:42.003-04:00

MORE BLOGS Finally, an update to the links page. I've been crap with keeping up lately, sorry. A couple previously unmentioned new ones to note: Caryn Rose's jukebox graduate. (Funny Morrissey-NY Dolls fantasy post here.) Doc Martian's live journal, with zillions of thoughts about Iggy (with any luck, I'll get around to reading some of them...). If you sent one to me and I missed it,

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083841618037129342004-05-06T07:06:00.000-04:002004-05-06T07:10:11.090-04:00

MP3 BLOGS Transcript of NPR report about MP3 blog phenomenon here.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083755102294497022004-05-05T07:05:00.000-04:002004-05-05T07:09:14.590-04:00

NEW BLOG ALERTS To those who've recently sent info about their blogs--sorry for the delays (ditto for anyone who's sent an e-mail to which I haven't responded). I'll update the links page hopefully tonight with the following (none of which I've even had a chance to look at yet): Glyn Emmerson's rock photojournalism from beyond the photo pit, with photography here. Joseph Kyle's I Am a

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083584481856552652004-05-03T07:41:00.000-04:002004-05-03T07:47:04.500-04:00

ROCK STAR IN CRY BABY SHOCKER Scott Weiland Threatens Magazine Writer Over CD Review. "Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland has slammed Maxim magazine writer Jon Caramanica over his review of the group's debut album, Contraband, stating--among other things--that Caramanica 'knows about as much about me and my legal situation as he does about our music.'" From Blabbermouth.net, courtesty

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083543096466711532004-05-02T20:11:00.000-04:002004-05-02T20:33:57.810-04:00

40 YEARS OF POP (AND ME) As promised, I have started to compile a list marking in chronological order my 40 years on Planet Earth. I am choosing one song, album, and movie (or video or TV show if that works better) for every year from 1964 onwards. It's called "Top 40 at 40" and it's posted at my other blog. This is a work in progress--new entries will be posted on a hopefully regular basis. (

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083542641319836572004-05-02T20:04:00.000-04:002004-05-02T20:07:10.966-04:00

50 YEARS OF POP "Rock'n'roll has come a long way in the half-century since Elvis first stepped up to the microphone at Sun Studios. Here we choose 50 moments that shaped popular musical history--and in the process changed our lives." By Sean O'Hagan in The Observer.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083542409499142312004-05-02T20:00:00.000-04:002004-05-02T20:32:30.670-04:00

CHART BLOGGING Robin Carmody from The House At World's End has a new chart blog that's sort of an answer blog to Tom Ewing's Popular. In The Other Ones, Carmody reviews and rates "records which topped [UK] charts other than those used by British Hit Singles and related Guinness publications (NME from November 1952 to March 1960, Record Retailer / Music Week from March 1960 onwards)..." Er, I

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083423281866188912004-05-01T10:54:00.000-04:002004-05-01T11:10:24.170-04:00

HUZZAH #4 ANY DICKWEED CAN DO IT, REALLY Huzzahs to Mark Bliesener and Steve Knopper for keeping Complete Idiots everywhere off the street with advice that's presumably even more salient than, "Here's three chords, go!" Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah! (And with that, today's string of Huzzahs! must sadly come to their inevitable huzzah-lution.)

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083422620622965202004-05-01T10:43:00.000-04:002004-05-01T11:08:13.216-04:00

HUZZAH #3 DON'T BORE US, GET TO THE TAURUS Huzzahs to me for today reaching what some might call a grand old age. One with a zero on the end (only happens every ten years, you know.). Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah! To mark the occasion, I'm holding a festschrift for myself and will spend the entire day writing loving essays in my honour, recapitulating all the momentous and important trails I've

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083421853221722702004-05-01T10:30:00.000-04:002004-05-01T10:50:06.560-04:00

HUZZAH #2 'BUBBLEGUM' AND 'GENIUS' NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE TERMS Huzzahs to Dan Aloi, who informed me of some other good mp3 blogs (since added to the Links page). Huzzah, Huzzah! I did come across this terrific one a couple months back, but completely forgot about it. Bubblicious, you bet.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083421153510905362004-05-01T10:19:00.000-04:002004-05-01T11:03:16.186-04:00

HUZZAH #1 ANTHONY'S TOP 100 Huzzahs to Mr. Miccio, who recently completed his entertaining Top 100 LPs coundown. Huzzah! Now available in a friendly click-and-read format. (Good number one, even if I haven't listened to it fully in ages; I have a difficult time returning to it and other stuff of that ilk for some reason...guess I'm just waiting for my own personal indie-rock revival.)

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083301091954112642004-04-30T00:58:00.000-04:002004-04-30T01:04:23.546-04:00

LINKS UPDATE & REVAMP Some new links added next door. Also, I broke some of it down into further sub-genres. I hope to find more movie blogs and worthwhile sites for that section. Ditto for the new quick-list of mp3 blogs, hardly any of which I've even had time to investigate. After I've done so, I'll try to add some short descriptions; it's just a bunch of titles at the moment. (Still trying

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1083105364570154422004-04-27T18:36:00.000-04:002004-04-27T18:40:54.686-04:00

THE MIX-TAPE APPROACH Disco Dreams: Luc Sante reviews Geoffrey O'Brien's Sonata for Jukebox: Pop Music, Memory, and the Imagined Life, and Nick Hornby's Songbook in the New York Review of Books. Sample: "Both of the books under review are mix tapes, or rather they are track listings with commentary....As a way of writing about popular music that admits the intense subjectivity and chance

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082977978686566612004-04-26T07:12:00.000-04:002004-04-26T07:16:01.670-04:00

CHEERFUL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK "Good News for Music Writers: Poets Die First." Well, that's the spin the Music Press Report mailing list puts on this story. The Music Press Report is described as "a weekly must-read newsletter that will provide you with the latest in music press news, articles and resources." You can sign up via MusicJournalist.com. I'll no doubt be cribbing lots of stuff

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082947725514891772004-04-25T22:48:00.000-04:002004-04-25T23:24:15.140-04:00

CAN'T SEE THE KARAOKE FOR THE CRITICS If you've been reading with interest some of the EMP-related stuff lately, I probably don't need to point out that jane dark's sugarhigh! has been generously posting several of the "critical karaoke" performances--the latest is Franklin Bruno's. These are worth checking out if you haven't, and I assume there are still more to come. But while I do enjoy

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082675517028926022004-04-22T19:11:00.000-04:002004-04-23T00:01:41.623-04:00

NEW BLOGS, NEW SITES Must update links page soon. Next round will include: Ellen Sander Site for Sore Eyes: "...organized a little differently than your basic by-the-book site. Instead of everything being completely mapped out, you'll find little nuggets, usually in the form of previously unpublished stories or memorabilia..." un-scene by Joel Hartse, "writer, drummer, schemer." Carol

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082675229075531452004-04-22T19:07:00.000-04:002004-04-23T00:02:30.483-04:00

HER NAME'S BARBARA Come fly with her. On Air America Radio. When you touch down, you'll find that it's stranger than no one Noam known. [In other words, Flaskaland takes to the airwaves.]

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082675052199898732004-04-22T19:04:00.000-04:002004-04-22T19:07:11.796-04:00

IS THIS THING ON? Greil Marcus's EMP Karaoke performance is here (via sugarhigh).

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082590167082291372004-04-21T19:29:00.000-04:002004-04-21T20:03:27.810-04:00

EMP CONFERENCE REPORT FROM J.D. CONSIDINE [J.D. Considine kindly answers a few e-mail questions about this year's EMP Conference.] Scott -- Perhaps the first thing that needs be understood about the EMP confab is that it's NOT a "rock critic conference." Although there were a lot of rock crits on hand, there were even more academics (and a fair number who were both). Anyone expecting to

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082411676831763812004-04-19T17:54:00.000-04:002004-04-19T18:11:13.653-04:00

BLACK ROCK PROHIBITION More Than Words: Musings on Music Journalism. Black Like Me By Devon Powers in PopMatters. "Case in point: the way people talk about TV on the Radio dances not-so-subtly around these issues. Either Tunde Adebimpe's voice is full of 'soul' (a word often not applied to rock in any form), or they're written off as being 'soulless'--again, not a problem for band's whose

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082335389206412332004-04-18T20:43:00.000-04:002004-04-18T20:49:55.450-04:00

EMP QUERY I fully expect that within the next few days there'll be whole lotta bloggin' goin' on about the Seattle conference that took place this weekend, and I'll link to as much chatter as I can (my own blogging is now limited to evenings and weekends, at least for the time being). If anyone else reading this was there, either as a participant or as a visitor, and has something they'd like

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082334914273985382004-04-18T20:35:00.000-04:002004-04-18T20:39:31.936-04:00

NEW RADIO BLOG ALERT This is radio weisblogg (but are the 'pirates' alive?). Marc Weisblott blogs critically on: "AM/FM/etc.: mass media, free speech, enormous egos, hit music and more..."

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082219684532730682004-04-17T12:34:00.000-04:002004-04-17T12:37:38.530-04:00

BLOG ALERT MichaelDeeds.com "This site contains articles by Michael Deeds, including highlights from the Washington Post, the Idaho Statesman and other freelance work." [This piece on "cookie monster vocals" in metal looks interesting.]

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082219510970159722004-04-17T12:31:00.000-04:002004-04-17T12:34:44.996-04:00

ROCKWELL ON ELITISM AND CRITICS Corporate Culture Clash: Elitism, Popularity and Rock 'n' Roll By John Rockwell "When I was the chief rock critic of the New York Times in the 1970s, I used to say that rock critics were the most extreme elitists I knew. I meant it as a compliment, up to a point..." [Registration required.]

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082113729009713842004-04-16T07:08:00.000-04:002004-04-16T07:13:38.000-04:00

DON'T SCREW UP YOUR DAY JOB (Not likely any more blog posts here during business hours; web spies at work in full effect.)

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082113547059352302004-04-16T07:05:00.000-04:002004-04-16T07:09:48.996-04:00

DEMOCRACY'S NOT BUNK! In case you hadn't heard, Simon Reynolds has a post-punk epic hitting the shelves sometime in....er, don't know when, exactly, but presumably-hopefully soon. To title his book, he posed a contest on his blog. The results are entertaining (and oh-so-angular).

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082049224048556142004-04-15T13:13:00.000-04:002004-04-15T13:38:18.170-04:00

MORE MUSIC-MOVIE STUFF When I stumbled upon the Music Movies link below from the Rock and Roll Report, I failed to click through on one of his sources; it seems there's a whole discussion and/or poll about this at Gothamist.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082047164679668602004-04-15T12:39:00.000-04:002004-04-16T07:14:12.606-04:00

NEW BOOK ALERT Haven't read this, haven't even seen it, but look forward to checking it out: Tim Lawrence's Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979. Some reviews and etc: Jolyon Green interviews the author at Keep On. $3,000 record needles, life-size desserts, and the beginning and near end of disco. (Michaelangelo Matos in Seattle Weekly.) Basic info

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082045318913209252004-04-15T12:08:00.000-04:002004-04-15T12:27:53.513-04:00

MOVIES ABOUT MUSIC The Ten Best Films About Music. By Jeremy Drysdale, screenwriter (from the Independent). "You probably remember it as one of the funniest movies you've ever seen..." (The Blues Brothers?!) via The Rock and Roll Report.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1082026526824592312004-04-15T06:55:00.000-04:002004-04-15T06:58:18.123-04:00

SEATTLE AS THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE No, no, no, not another story about that guy from Mother Love Bone. It's EMP's Pop Music Studies Conference. The proceedings kick off in the Seattle Weekly with a special edition of Jukebox Jury, in which music editor Michaelangelo Matos plays DJ for conference organizers, Ann Powers and Eric Weisbard. With a neat twist in the song selections, and some

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081951951808324892004-04-14T10:12:00.000-04:002004-04-14T10:17:28.076-04:00

SEPARATED AT BIRTH? (More off-topic stuff. But hang tight, there'll almost certainly be more stories ahead with such scintillating topics as "What is the Mandatory Retirement Age for People Writing About Pop Music?" and "Has Rock Criticism Lost its Edge?" and "Will It Ever Come Back?") First thought when I turned to this column in the New York Observer today: Is George Bush mutating into

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081949058882422102004-04-14T09:24:00.000-04:002004-04-14T09:32:01.610-04:00

THE ONION USED TO SET GOOD EXAMPLE TO HELP STOP PROMOTION OF GAY AGENDA IN SCHOOLS I suppose I'm (to relay the kind of business parlance I'm subjected to all day) "out of scope" with this one, but it's too good to resist, and anyway, I was born and grew up in London, ON, the plaza-on-every-street-corner capital of the universe where this occured. Trustee seeks apology for spoof photo. By

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081903810535486902004-04-13T20:50:00.000-04:002004-04-13T20:53:00.483-04:00

THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME... I plug the rockcritics sounds page which I'm rather unreasonably and pathetically proud of! (Hey, I'm a Wedding DJ--bringing the noise is one of my occupations.) The link for this will remain on the sidebar, and I will do my best to post new samples every few days, though I'll stop waving my arms around and telling you about it. Note: this is not a page for

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081902130634937402004-04-13T20:22:00.000-04:002004-04-13T20:26:04.340-04:00

MALFUNCTION? I've received three e-mails in the last week from people claiming they can't access this site. I'm thinking it might be because I went a little crazy with the graphics--hence, my removal of some of the jpegs on those earlier posts. Hopefully that has helped, though I suppose if it hasn't I'll never know, and neither will they.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081877483839051942004-04-13T13:31:00.000-04:002004-04-13T13:34:13.763-04:00

MUSIC FOR THOUGHT Chapter & Verse: A Journal of Popular Music and Literature Studies. Described as "a new web journal that explores the creative intersection between popular music and the written word--novels and short stories, plays and poetry, journalism and criticism." Edited by Simon Warner, hosted at Popmatters, and featuring Simon Frith!

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081873988796436422004-04-13T12:33:00.000-04:002004-04-13T12:43:54.686-04:00

BOB MOULD'S "TWO SMALL WORDS" I was alerted through the Yahoo Girl Groups list to this recent blog post by Bob Mould: "Thursday night, as usual, Green Lantern. A packed house, Spring is here, the men are out, and I have to ask, why in the hell are there always a couple of guys who think it's really really cute to bring their 'fag hags' with them? Boys, it's a bummer, OK? Does that make me a

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081855175860327392004-04-13T07:19:00.000-04:002004-04-13T07:22:25.700-04:00

MORE SOUNDS TO LISTEN TO I'm not sure how long I'll have access to the rockcritics main server--the main site may be moving, it may all end up on a blog, it's a bit up in the air right now--but while I do, I'll continue to post the odd music sample (it's my fun new thing to look forward to). I posted a new one--or rather, an old one. A bootleg (in the original sense of the word) called "Exile

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081822301674375752004-04-12T22:11:00.000-04:002004-04-12T22:14:31.233-04:00

BRAZILIAN MUSIC BLOG I have some updates to do on the blogs page soon, in the meantime, here's an interesting new one: Allison Bojarski's the brazilian muse. Providing your daily dose of all things Brazilian...in New York City. ("Everything from samba to forro to MPB [musica popular brasileira] to Brazilian rock.")

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081793368747022832004-04-12T14:09:00.000-04:002004-04-12T14:16:57.780-04:00

LARRY NAGER VS. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, PART 3 or 4 Newspaper Rock Critics Face the Music on Ageism By Shawn Moynihan in Editor & Publisher, via Romenesko. (Sidebar Question: When should aging, jaded bloggers throw in the towel? Is there a retirement fund at the end of all this?)

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081788735553917892004-04-12T12:52:00.000-04:002004-04-12T12:59:57.360-04:00

DYLAN'S UNDERWEAR AD Tangled Up in Boobs: What's Bob Dylan doing in a Victoria's Secret ad? By Seth Stevenson in Slate. Pretty good puzzled-reaction piece about the commercial (which I still haven't seen; the one I did catch was 15 seconds long and showed his CD at the end). Still, I think the only thing riskier than ascribing any particular motives to what Dylan does is to ascribe the

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081784953935657692004-04-12T11:49:00.000-04:002004-04-12T11:52:02.560-04:00

CORRECTION Sorry, it's Kill Your Idols, not Kill Yr. Idols. I've got those canon-smashers Sonic Youth on the brain.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081778201744716462004-04-12T09:56:00.000-04:002004-04-13T10:20:30.856-04:00

DEBUNKING THE CLASSICS There's a column in a British magazine, I think it might be Uncut, by someone (or more likely some they) dubbed the 'Grim Reaper' (I haven't flipped through any glossy British music mags in over a year, so for all I know the column might have vanished). Essentially, the premise is this: this so-called Grim Reaper takes a canonized album or movie and sets out to debunk

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081746641002708182004-04-12T01:10:00.000-04:002004-04-13T02:13:30.000-04:00

THIS IS A TEST I'm not sure if this will work...a friend of mine (the mysterious "DJ Shoe") e-mailed me an mp3 "promo mashup" he made and asked me if I would disseminate it on rockcritics. I didn't think I was capable of doing that sort of thing, but it ended up being easier than I thought, and from home anyway it seems to work properly (I assume you need the right kind of mp3 player to hear

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081722757151857112004-04-11T18:32:00.000-04:002004-04-11T18:35:25.280-04:00

RICHARD RIEGEL WRITES: Glad to see the rockcritics daily blog continuing its long march through the wilds of the consumer village. I think it's great that you've been writing about movies and film criticism lately, if that's what interests you at the moment. Believe me, all your work in maintaining rockcritics.com is appreciated by those of us out here in the hinterlands. Speaking of which,

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081866289269366632004-04-10T10:59:00.001-04:002004-04-13T10:27:39.246-04:00

FILMOGRAPHY COMPANION TO THE DREAM LIFE I'm close to finishing the aforementioned Hoberman book (dozens of people have e-mailed wondering about my progress in this area) and because my previous post about it was vague in so many ways, I figured the least I could do was provide something of a companion viewing guide: a list of many of the key movies the author writes about, with a few choice

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081457080705076852004-04-08T16:44:00.000-04:002004-04-08T16:50:30.733-04:00

ITEM NUMBER 3716059964 "Rock Critic" Pet Rock--Original Akron Rocks. Starting bid is $4.99. "'Rock Critic' can survive a hard rock lifestyle much better than most other pets. You can forget about him for weeks, drop him down the steps, or even run over him with your car. He will survive most anything a rocker will dish out." Oh, and, uh, this. [I'm not related to these potato people....

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081431775062384822004-04-08T09:42:00.000-04:002004-04-08T10:02:41.983-04:00

THURSTON, AXL, AND ME (THE CRUCIFIXION OF GUNS 'N ROSES) When the Edge Moved to the Middle. By Thurston Moore in the New York Times Yeah, I know, I wouldn't give this a second thought minus the byline, but it's interesting primarily for two points: 1) Labelling Guns 'N Roses "hair-metal." (Cheeky!) 2) The phrase "Disney-damaged pop idols," which puts a glorious new spin on the (

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081367646946238272004-04-07T15:54:00.000-04:002004-04-07T15:56:50.670-04:00

LINKED FROM ROMENESKO RIMSHOT: Life in the Hustings. (Commentary in STLtoday.com.) "Now comes The New Yorker, with its vaunted fact-checkers asleep at the wheel, to say St. Louis is to rap what Nashville is to country and Motown is to, well, Motown. Sweet of them to notice, though, out here on the prairie." (I don't know the context here, i.e., what piece in the New Yorker they're referring

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081360462336430122004-04-07T13:54:00.000-04:002004-04-07T15:35:12.763-04:00

JUKEBOX OF THE MIND I'd still like to explicate at some point about Mark Coleman's Playback: From the Victrola to Mp3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money, which I noted here a couple months ago, then got too busy to think--or write--about properly (oh, and just in case you're wondering, I scrapped that "rockcritics books" page I started around that time because the idea that I would keep

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081350527211131182004-04-07T11:08:00.000-04:002004-04-07T19:23:42.496-04:00

THIS MORNING'S (TYPICALLY BLANDLY EXPRESSED) FUNNY "Let's understand something--the Canadian music industry is the second most important music industry in the world." Prime Minister Paul Martin, quoted here via Aaron Wherry's blog.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081304956059817912004-04-06T22:29:00.000-04:002004-04-07T08:45:59.390-04:00

MONEY QUOTE "I certainly make no apologies for my organization being the first bank in North America to offer customers a stand-alone, full-service e-banking option. It was called mbanx, and we launched it in 1996 with lots of ballyhoo--as well as a bit of controversy regarding the slogan and theme song: Bob Dylan’s 'The times, they are a-changin'.' "As it turned out, the times had not

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081289057102236352004-04-06T18:04:00.000-04:002004-04-06T20:27:57.373-04:00

HOLIDAY IN MANCHURIA Scouring the web for conspiro- movie-related stuff and came across this! With Denzel Wash- ington, Jon Voight, Meryl Streep (in the hardest-to-surpass per- formance, perhaps), and directed by Jonathan Demme, who, along with being a fine director in his own right, is probably the bravestkindestwarmestmostwonderfulhumanbeingI'veneverknown.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081170829676038122004-04-05T09:13:00.000-04:002004-04-05T09:17:30.796-04:00

INTERVIEW With critic Francis Davis. By Beppe Colli in Clouds and Clocks.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1081163614866939412004-04-05T07:13:00.000-04:002004-04-05T07:51:24.530-04:00

A TALE OF TWO KURTS Voice of a generation and all that (hint: read sentence number two).

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080978549192165662004-04-03T02:49:00.000-05:002004-04-06T17:38:32.733-04:00

EARLY THOUGHTS ON HOBERMAN'S THE DREAM LIFE    [Disclaimer: Not Finished Reading Book] I haven't read a lot of J. Hoberman's movie criticism over the years and I don't currently own any of his books, but as soon as I can afford the cover price I intend to pick up a copy of The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties. (Luckily, I was able to secure a copy from the Toronto

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080977039700030622004-04-03T02:23:00.000-05:002004-04-03T11:26:10.763-05:00

LINKS PAGE... Has been updated. Two more blog additions and one new 'zine (Global Pop Conspiracy).

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080939585867854402004-04-02T15:59:00.000-05:002004-04-02T16:11:34.500-05:00

WEEKEND RESOLUTIONS Avoid this. Try and cram in more of this. That's all. If I can accomplish at least half of one of those, I'm set.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080617085243237552004-03-29T22:24:00.000-05:002004-03-30T00:52:38.966-05:00

MOVIE CONTENT I'm pleased to announce some new--relatively speaking; that is, "new" as opposed to ancient--movie-related content on rockcritics.com (no fault of the writers for the time lapse, trust me). 11 years ago, a 14-year old named Brian Abrams did something rather startling: he called up more than a dozen well-known movie critics across America (that's right, he picked up the phone

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080562497588796902004-03-29T07:14:00.000-05:002004-03-29T10:45:38.950-05:00

JOB POSTING Alternative weekly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida looking for published music writers (preferably living in or around Fort Lauderdale or Miami) to report on local indie rock, hip-hop, reggae, Latin, and anything else that strikes your fancy. Send all questions and queries to Audra Schroeder.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080535599624460642004-03-28T23:46:00.000-05:002004-03-28T23:50:31.500-05:00

THE AUCTION HAS ENDED We all lose.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080369076660395702004-03-27T01:31:00.000-05:002004-03-27T01:36:09.890-05:00

BANGS BADGE SALE UPDATE Time left: 1 days 21 hours.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080313645848105182004-03-26T10:07:00.000-05:002004-03-26T11:56:53.030-05:00

C'MON GIRL LET'S ROCK THIS...MORE BLOGS & STUFF The links page has been updated with three blogs. All of them look interesting, but I want to throw in a special word for Laura Levine, which, oops, isn't really a blog, but a web site (you may remember those things, a short-lived cultural phenomenon from the late '90s). I haven't looked closely yet at all the pages on Laura's site, but was

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1080142527728436112004-03-24T10:35:00.000-05:002004-03-24T10:40:49.200-05:00

INCREASE YOUR POWERS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION No. of bids for this item: Zero.

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1079361957876070292004-03-15T09:45:00.000-05:002004-03-15T09:48:32.263-05:00

BLOG ADD-ONS FYI: New blogs have been added to the links page. I missed a couple that are sitting in my inbox at home; will get to those on the next round. sw

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1079137511687713632004-03-12T19:25:00.000-05:002004-03-12T19:30:43.403-05:00

PORN TO BE WILD J.D. CONSIDINE WRITES: When Neil Strauss decided to dish the Dirt with Motley Crue, his bosses at the New York Times made no complaint. When he followed Marilyn Manson down the road to hell, his bosses at the New York Times gave him a free pass (despite occasional appearances of conflicting interest). But when he wanted to help Jenna Jameson teach America how to make love like

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1079122040362383492004-03-12T15:07:00.000-05:002004-03-12T15:09:38.716-05:00

FROM THE DESK OF STEVEN WARD ROCK JOURNALISM'S SECOND BIOGRAPHY If Lester Bangs was the godfather of rock criticism, surely rock writer Lillian Roxon would be considered the godmother, right? Well, if there was another trailblazer of rockcrit who actually deserves a bio, Roxon is that person. So, check out author Robert Milliken's forthcoming Roxon book, "Lillian Roxon: Mother of Rock" at

s woodsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5514916.post-1078201347602646752004-03-01T23:22:00.000-05:002004-03-01T23:37:21.873-05:00

BREAK I'm taking a little breather from this thing. Anyone else with the login id and pswd is free to jump in and take over. Will continue occasionally to update the links page, and there are a couple small features in the works for rockcritics.com, either later this month or sometime in April. In the meantime, try and track down a copy of this song. It is one of life's greater mysteries. sw

s woodsnoreply@blogger.com