Dear Jim, Garth, Dan, and Roman
Your assembly of commentary in issue number 44 (my first) was comfortably lined up in order of shit, to shittier, to shittiest - oh wait, I mean cheese, to cheesier, to cheesiest. Bravo!
First off, there was Garth Ferrante's drabble on his attempted Opeth pirating ring. That whole column stunk to the heavens of a "dear mommy" redemption letter a 6 or 7-yr. old would write after accepting fault for, or being caught doing, a "booboo." It's only saving grace was in the fact that only a couple of people actually bought copies of the ripped record. The rest of the visual community probably saw the proposition just as deplorable as I. C'mon Garth, please don't tell us that your motives were pious, and that you were harboring no sinister feelings for saving 14 bucks on an un-released album. Sure, I stole issues of Playboy from the local newsstand with the clear intent of buying the back issue when I was old enough.
"Critiquing the Critic Information Affirmation" was the sort of trite and linguistic self-gratification that I would expect... from the days when I was an editor at my high school newspaper. Please Dan, do not give me your criteria for being a "writer" just because you call yourself one. Glossy adjectives and casual parenthetical references don't sell readers that easily. And please don't waste wonderful column space by being redundant. But alas, I was held at bay with Dan's smooth transitions and overall mantra of informative criticism, even if he didn't seem to exercise it himself. I look forward to seeing what this guy writes about in the future.
If I may reference a line Jim, that you used in your review on Gamma Ray's set at ProgPower, then I will say that Roman Temin can "eat my shit" for his meaningless "Pot Shots" column. I will never understand where columnists get off wasting the paying reader's time by filling their space with incoherent banter. This sort of school-yard "yo mama so fat" commentary was cool when it was an inside joke at the high school publication, but c'mon man, take your job seriously! You might want to take some advice from Dan, and use that space that Jim pays you for for, hmmm, let's see, information? ("I fear and loathe critics who try to make themselves into a celebrity by shitting on other people's work in the effort to be "funny." Dan 'numbskull' Berger)
I have no doubt about the professional integrity of Garth, Dan, or Roman (well, I don't really know about Roman). Save for these three columnists skewed take on journalistic creativity, I was very pleased with my first issue of LotFp, and I do look forward to reading my future copies.
-matt
Your assembly of commentary in issue number 44 (my first) was comfortably lined up in order of shit, to shittier, to shittiest - oh wait, I mean cheese, to cheesier, to cheesiest. Bravo!
First off, there was Garth Ferrante's drabble on his attempted Opeth pirating ring. That whole column stunk to the heavens of a "dear mommy" redemption letter a 6 or 7-yr. old would write after accepting fault for, or being caught doing, a "booboo." It's only saving grace was in the fact that only a couple of people actually bought copies of the ripped record. The rest of the visual community probably saw the proposition just as deplorable as I. C'mon Garth, please don't tell us that your motives were pious, and that you were harboring no sinister feelings for saving 14 bucks on an un-released album. Sure, I stole issues of Playboy from the local newsstand with the clear intent of buying the back issue when I was old enough.
"Critiquing the Critic Information Affirmation" was the sort of trite and linguistic self-gratification that I would expect... from the days when I was an editor at my high school newspaper. Please Dan, do not give me your criteria for being a "writer" just because you call yourself one. Glossy adjectives and casual parenthetical references don't sell readers that easily. And please don't waste wonderful column space by being redundant. But alas, I was held at bay with Dan's smooth transitions and overall mantra of informative criticism, even if he didn't seem to exercise it himself. I look forward to seeing what this guy writes about in the future.
If I may reference a line Jim, that you used in your review on Gamma Ray's set at ProgPower, then I will say that Roman Temin can "eat my shit" for his meaningless "Pot Shots" column. I will never understand where columnists get off wasting the paying reader's time by filling their space with incoherent banter. This sort of school-yard "yo mama so fat" commentary was cool when it was an inside joke at the high school publication, but c'mon man, take your job seriously! You might want to take some advice from Dan, and use that space that Jim pays you for for, hmmm, let's see, information? ("I fear and loathe critics who try to make themselves into a celebrity by shitting on other people's work in the effort to be "funny." Dan 'numbskull' Berger)
I have no doubt about the professional integrity of Garth, Dan, or Roman (well, I don't really know about Roman). Save for these three columnists skewed take on journalistic creativity, I was very pleased with my first issue of LotFp, and I do look forward to reading my future copies.
-matt
