Best Music Writing 2012

^^

Tbf per curmudgeon a simple response might have indicated good faith

This whole thing is a bummer tho I liked these

katherine otm obv

a silent year's grace isnt good faith enough, shame on all u kneejerk vultures

The culture of vice magazine and tweeto-da-fé can get pretty gross but yknow what $17k is a lot of money that might have stayed disappeared without said culture

this is basically the thing, isn't it?

I feel like you don't get to spend that money (in my case, an advance from Da Capo) on food, rent, Netflix, weed, etc. You put it in its own bank account and use it for project-related expenses only. If this project never went anywhere, that money should have just been sitting there untouched, ready to be sent back to the donors.

for all we know what she has already spent - which she's going to be paying back - was used on project-related expenses. I seriously doubt the money came in and she just kicked back and did no work on the project, engaged no-one else to work on it, did nothing towards the setting up of the publishing company that would have required money, etc etc etc.

also ppl come on $17k is not _a lot_ of money. not when u can step up your game and make $94k with bennies.

xp-to-self
like, it seems like she planned badly and then it made her full of terror and panic and she couldn't think about it and so on. But I doubt she realised how badly she'd planned until she was quite some way into producing the book, a process which will have eaten up a lot of the money.

"like, it seems like she planned badly and then it made her full of terror and panic and she couldn't think about it and so on. But I doubt she realised how badly she'd planned until she was quite some way into producing the book, a process which will have eaten up a lot of the money."

exactly, but what I'm seeing isn't this but "look at this writer who absconded/made off/took off and ran with $17,000!" (all paraphrased actual tweets) or, y'know, "I can just see her lying on a bed of cash in Zuccotti Park."

for all we know what she has already spent - which she's going to be paying back - was used on project-related expenses. I seriously doubt the money came in and she just kicked back and did no work on the project, engaged no-one else to work on it, did nothing towards the setting up of the publishing company that would have required money, etc etc etc.

That's why communication is good. If she had been open about her struggles, way more people would have her back. Lots of participants in this drama don't know Daphne well enough to presume good faith.

oh for fuck's sake. the descending of the vultures here is and remains really gross and I am disappointed in basically everyone for doing it

Speaking as someone who has never met Daphne but who tries really hard not to be a snarky internet vulture asshole, the reactionary fury of some of the people who have Daphne's back is completely bewildering.

some of these posts are a lock for best disingenuous point-missing of 2013 (plz donate to my kickstarter)

"a simple response" is never so simple tho. Daphne: ...it has taken additional time to write to you, but I hope you understand that this was due to a sort of panic about how to save the title." This is so familiar. The feeling that "it still could happen!" is always there and it's a major step to have to write to backers to say "we've run out of money and I don't know what to do" because it basically is an admission that you're on the hook for 17K

"Now that the circlejerk crit circle have co-signed her to be the nicest and most reliable person ever, her radio silence is nothing in retrospect!"

i'd bet that personal level of outrage towards daphne carr (including demanding one's own $20 back) correlates strongly with self-identification re personal fiscal responsibility

@ sean, speaking from personal experience, the people I know who've received a grant to "make a thing", and that thing is not made, and the money needs to be returned, that money was spent 100% on expenses and rentals and labour, not spent on Netflix. I guess it makes sense that punters would assume that you automatically get a lobster dinner upon receiving a grant but that has not at all been my experience.

the reactionary fury of some of the people who have Daphne's back is completely bewildering.

― sean gramophone, Friday, 23 August 2013 17:47 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

ya this is it

I'd say it has more to do with self-identification re one's fight vs. flight response

let's just say we're all projecting our bullshit on a fucked up situation

mostly

also, I... don't think this is the "circlejerk crit circle"? the lines are being drawn in weird places compared to what I've seen. honestly, and at the risk of burning bridges: the crowd of people who write for VICE is much more of a circlejerk crit circle.

i didn't donate to this but had i contributed i would've been fine just assuming that shit got fucked up and not getting my money back, but the opposite response is totally understandable/justified

da croupier otm

@ sean, speaking from personal experience, the people I know who've received a grant to "make a thing", and that thing is not made, and the money needs to be returned, that money was spent 100% on expenses and rentals and labour, not spent on Netflix. I guess it makes sense that punters would assume that you automatically get a lobster dinner upon receiving a grant but that has not at all been my experience.

for the record, def not my experience! so many artists and creative types are bad at money management, and chronically broke, which makes them shitty at managing sudden windfalls.

in this case, by "shitty at managing", i mean "wasteful and prone to rewarding themselves for years of ramen with several lobster dinners".

I can just about imagine doing this and then hiding under some coats for a year so I can sympathise, but eventually I would have to face the music, and the least difficult part of that music would be twenty people on a message board saying "this could have been handled better". Sorry about your mate but chill

Xps

I also can't be the only person for whom this Kickstarter con story was fresh-in-mind.

"chronically broke"

because the default state of someone in the publishing industry in 2013 is something else?

^^^

also maybe they were "development grants" :)

xp
What are you talking about? That's what I mean by "bewildering fury". Katherine: I wasn't criticizing anyone. I was just noting this reality.

I guess that's the thing: "con story." To me, "con" says that someone is deliberately out to screw people over. (The legal definition of fraud certainly says so.) And to me, that's a hell of an accusation to make of anyone without ironclad proof. It's not about cronyism, it's not about cliquishness, it's about maybe starting from the assumption that people weren't scammers (or lazy ne'er-do-welling spend-it-all-on-weed types).

I don't think anyone is disputing that this is a shitty situation that could have been handled better, but I also don't think the "reactionary rage" is where people say it is. I'm not furious at all; that's what baffles me, is how people read fury into this side (I hate the term "side" in this context but whatever) of the discussion.

there's just no point to this "fight the real enemy" shit. Sympathetic narrative or not, someone took 15k and wouldn't tell anyone - even the people who were working on the project - where it went. We only found out AFTER people got mean, which sucks, but makes it a weird time to start calling out the meanies. Daphne's said what she's going to do to fix the issue, no one appears to have a problem with it, so this "well i'd still like to vent (even though i'm not personally aggrieved)" vs "well you know who's WORSE?" debate is just hot air. but hey what's a discussion between critics without that.

I'm just glad my long-delayed Kickstarted book didn't have a year in the title. Of course, I raised less money. Also, I didn't give other cranky writers hope of being awarded with prestige for their writing upon completion of my project, which seems like the comically obvious subtext of this particular outcry.

@ sean, speaking from personal experience, the people I know who've received a grant to "make a thing", and that thing is not made, and the money needs to be returned, that money was spent 100% on expenses and rentals and labour, not spent on Netflix. I guess it makes sense that punters would assume that you automatically get a lobster dinner upon receiving a grant but that has not at all been my experience.

― ship who you wanna ship (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, August 23, 2013 12:52 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in the less creative more "government grants for something something energy something something security" research world, i'm told that some people are fond of expensing as much in the way of meals and travel as they can.

Katherine, a simple response to any of the folks who politely inquired over the last year long before the Vice article might have indicated good faith, but she never did

Well that and the money xxp

Anyway, if Katherine defended Carr the whole time instead of Whiney, I'd be less offended, what with all the "you're just upset you lost $30 get a real job" bullshit.

I mean, "offended" is the wrong word but w/e

I get that. I really do. But, like, I have emails I've been meaning to send for about three years now if not more, and my not having sent them probably makes me look like the worst person, but if I send them *now* it'll just be humiliating and crushing and impossible to even think about. I suspect lots of people do. (Or maybe I just tell myself that.) I'm not saying it was the right decision -- no one is, anywhere -- and obviously $17,000 from however many people is much higher stakes, but it's a decision I have more than a little empathy for.

xp: no, but it really is silly in a few select cases how outraged people are getting over the cost of a Seamless meaL

I hate that people are automatically jumping to the conclusion that she spent the money on self instead of, say, having any understanding of how things are made, and approaching a failure on that end with anything less than a compassionate attitude. I did not donate to the Kickstarter but I would happily donate $ to Daphne to help cover for her losses

More at the Poynter link from Daphne, who was interviewed by Andrew Beaujon.

And FWIW

http://no-trivia.tumblr.com/post/59112390393/we-dont-want-our-money-back-google-form-telling

http://drew-york.tumblr.com/post/59112578875/we-dont-want-our-money-back-google-form-telling

If you’re not a total shitlord, submit your name, and let Carr off the hook.

i totally understand telling daphne you don't want your money back when she contacts you but this is some misguidedly pious shit

in any case, i'm not looking forward to the false equivalency salon piece contrasting this and amanda palmer

If we're going to tar the sources of things said that may or may not be true, I don't really give any fucks about what the person who slagged Ebert like, half an hour after his death was announced, thinks is the "decent" thing to do in this situation.

Anyway, I could really use $50 right now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

for what it's worth (I guess now we're disclaimering?)

- I don't remember what I donated, probably $15?

- I filled out that form because my first thought when I read the kickstarter update was "can I use this email address to tell you to keep my donation because if I can spend $15 on a cab I can spend $15 on reducing someone's crushing monumental guilt a tiny bit," and I appreciated that someone had streamlined the process. I don't agree with shaming people into what they should do with their money in most cases, which is why I didn't reblog the thing.

- I've met Daphne a few times at EMP or wherever and she always seemed friendly and professional -- which means something, but not the grand conspiracy some of the peanut gallery seems to think it is.

@katherine

It appears that almost half of this project's contributions came from those who donated 50 or less, coming from 85% of the total backers of this project. What may be the equivalent of a Seamless meal or six-pack to you is still money. People's attitudes towards money, spending, and their motivations for donating are really complex, and dismissing their contributions seems disingenuous. Without their goodwill, trust, and financial support, the project would have never succeeded on Kickstarter in the first place.

I get that. I really do. And I've tried to make it clear I'm not talking about A) people who genuinely need the money or B) people who have significant personal/financial stakes in the process. But, like, I dunno, I just find it tacky if a person is tweeting about their expensive vacations or nights out, and then suddenly $10 is a travesty.

Those are all completely different spending scenario's where a person's expectations, feelings, etc all vary greatly.

Whiney's stance on this is fucking unconscionable. I don't give a shit if Daphne saves 10 people from a burning building every day, she ran off with people's money and spent it on her own shit. Until and unless Whiney just sends me money for work I haven't done and keeps his mouth shut when I spend it and don't make a deadline he can zip it. "I don't like the people who got fleeced" is the last refuge of dudes who literally deserve to have their shit stolen from them imo

Shit Lord is not the best A$AP Mob release, but still probably my favorite since Cum Lord