But every once in a while, one of Pitchfork's reviewers writes a piece so misguided that it lends total credence to the leagues of Pitchfork detractors and makes me feel like a fool for defending the site as much as I do. Today's review of Childish Gambino's Camp was one such piece and speaks to a larger problem with music criticism in general. I'll explain why after the jump.
12.02.2011
Pitchfork's Review of Childish Gambino's Camp is a Textbook Example of Why People (Justifiably) Hate Pitchfork OR It's Time We Give Pop-Rap a Break
Let me start off by stating that I do not count myself among the people referred to in the title of this blog post. I love Pitchfork. Read it everyday. I find its reviews to be generally evenhanded, if a little too English MFA-y in style. I like that it operates in a milieu slightly below the mainstream but well above the underground, which is where my own tastes lie. I find the regular columns (particularly Poptimist and Resonant Frequency) to be of uniformly outstanding quality.
7.18.2011
The "Socially Liberal / Fiscally Conservative" Code OR Two Relatively Brief Political Diversions In a Blog Normally Unconcerned with Politics
It is not, generally speaking, my custom to write about politics in these pages. I once wrote a piece about my experience attending Barack Obama's inauguration, but that piece wasn't explicitly "political" in the sense that I did not write it to advocate a particular point of view. I'm not sure that this piece is political in that sense either, although I will be advocating certain points of view. I am writing this piece for two reasons:
- To try to better understand why people identify themselves as "socially liberal but fiscally conservative," and
- To clear up a partially valid but embarrassingly delivered point I made in the context of a mortgage-crisis discussion I was having at a bar the other night with two (possibly three, my recollection is regrettably imperfect) new friends that I consider both highly intelligent and deserving of an explanation.
12.13.2010
2010!
Welcome! It's been a long time! Too long. You look great! The year has truly been kind to you. Please, have a seat. Would you like some hot chocolate? Some gingerbread, perhaps? Some gingerbread flavored hot chocolate?
I also have Matzah.
By all accounts, 2010 was a year and things happened in it. So many things. Like vuvuzelas. That was a thing. And Stieg Larson. What a name! And disasters. Some really great disasters. I am of course using the word "great" to mean "large or immense." I use it in the pejorative sense. I still want to know where my Haiti money went, Wyclef.
I also have Matzah.
By all accounts, 2010 was a year and things happened in it. So many things. Like vuvuzelas. That was a thing. And Stieg Larson. What a name! And disasters. Some really great disasters. I am of course using the word "great" to mean "large or immense." I use it in the pejorative sense. I still want to know where my Haiti money went, Wyclef.
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