OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

I completely get that. I even agree with almost all of it! It's bullshit that people get criticized for "fangirl" writing on style-not-substance, it's bullshit that the person writing this blog is undoubtedly facing a lot of sexist crap because she's a woman writing in a particular way (not from people in this thread but in general, in the same way it always happens -- I mean, for all the thinkpieces involving race and pop, the main takeaway the majority of people took from the Miley Cyrus fiasco was "oh my god she's such a slutty slut slutting it up," it's THOSE people). But it's also bullshit to then accuse the women who take issue with this blog that they are secretly just being jealous. Even if the reason it's so easy to get caught up in that, supposedly, is that worrying that you won't get readers or a book deal ever usually means worrying that you won't be able to pay rent / have a career in five years / save for retirement / other completely rational worries during a recession (zoom_in_on_my_empty_wallet.gif and all that), what you're essentially implying is that these women are in the anti-sexism game just for their own personal gain, which is some Tracy Flick shit that is really crappy to apply en masse.

(I'm not in the UK so I don't really know who the UK equivalent of NPR twee would be. Cath Kidston twee? I feel like that might be more analogous to Vera Bradley twee. But then literally a foot away from me are things by both of them, so even though it was a gift from my sister I AM TOTALLY NOT A PERSON TO TALK ON THIS MATTER. Again, their "NPR lifestyle" is literally the least offensive part of this. I don't give a fuck how much Ikea they display, they can fund the entire country of Sweden through the furniture in their apartment for all I care.)

Hi, please can you not use government names, thanks, I'll ask a mod to zap it. Cheers.

I once got invited by a friend to write something for Jeffrey Goldberg's shortlived "jewsrock.com" site. I actually interviewed Norman Greenbaum, but I couldn't get him off of his canned interview answers, partly because he's a canned guy and partly because I was too timid to him off his canned answers. So I canned the project. And that site failed. It was a stupid idea anyway, probably about as stupid as the idea of a "lady" music blog.

i applied for a grant for maura magazine last year and this site got it instead http://boxxmagazine.com/

and... well.

(also, I don't know who you are, or at least I don't know if I know who you are, but I would read a hypothetical music book by you based on the posts of yours I've read, so take that for whatever it's worth.)

I completely feel your frustration(s) for being pushed towards a certain narrative and a certain way of presenting! Which is what makes it so hard for me to discuss this without coming across as table-pounding. But it's a dose of "how do you combat a stereotype (without pissing on people who do, by design or accident conforming to it)?" This is what I mean by "you lose either way".

Nina Persson is trying to make a kale salad with the least amount of noise possible.

Also http://boxxmagazine.com/category/male-boxx/

i think there has to be some combating that's perceived as pissing on the people. which may seem unfair, but that's why 'punching up' is more smiled upon than the reverse.

the people who conform. at the very least, that pissing might make them think about the world outside their sphere.

The author reminds me of enough people I've met irl.

There are people IRL?

I guess my point is, that I don't know that this particular woman is actually "punching up"?

Or rather, that pissing on this woman, in particular, is "punching up".

When her "stupid" book about her husband's "stupid record collection" sells as much as JK Rowling, then it might be punching up. But I don't know how much blog crossover books even sell.

i mean again it boils down to whether or not you see critiques of her tone that would happen to any other writer whose prose is elevated to a particular level of popularity as 'pissing on.' and please don't tell me that she should be protected because it's 'just a tumblr' — tumblr is a publishing platform with a lot of potential for having its authors widely read and passed around (and it's not like writers at a lot of sites these days have their work edited, either)

"tumblr is a publishing platform with a lot of potential for having its authors widely read and passed around" = "it'll be great exposure"

(and it's not like writers at a lot of sites these days have their work edited, either)

Or authors of books

We're going round in circles at this point, but I don't think she should be protected for "being just a Tumblr" but more like "criticising a specific women's tone" is a lose-lose proposition.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one, because I can't state that any more clearly than I did in the long post above.

if criticizing a specific woman's tone is a lose-lose proposition then women lose extra because they'll never be given the opportunity to grow for fear of offense. good luck with your job interview.

Lol wait did these chuckleheads really get a book deal

no, people are just preemptively mad in case they do

So everyone's just jealous of a fictional publishing contract from the future & that's why they don't like this shit blog, cool

Oh, for fuck's sake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXVPlrY974

that might've been fair when the blog had like 9 readers and her best friend but it's legitimately viral now, it's not like it's some one-in-a-million possibility

yeah, katherine otm. especially with the npr connection, i think the odds of them getting a book deal are 50/50 at least

p What's up with this kohlrabi? It doesn't even seem like a proper vegetable. Is it trying to be a proper vegetable? Are people just pretending to like it? I don't get it.

― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 11:56 AM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

doesnt' taste like a proper vegetable

Except the ppl criticising it now itt are the same ppl who were criticising it then. So were they jealous before?

kohlrabi is a root not a vegetable i thought?

root vegetables are vegetables. vegetables are just any edible part of a plant that isn't the fruit.

right?

Right

yes!

is that like anti vegitransgressive normativity. cabbage-shaming is real ppl

To piss or to punch up, that is the question.

root vegetables are vegetables. vegetables are just any edible part of a plant that isn't the fruit.

right?

― Treeship, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 12:38 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is blowing my mind. vegetables are just defined by their absence of seed. fruit/vegetable

Are you guys being faux naif?

while we're at it... what exactly is a legume?

they are a musical. . . fruit

Then what are pulses?

pulses are the ones with open-ys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTxMZG-lQG4

Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad

;_; rip

Depending on what else is in the fruit salad couldn't it work? Like with cherry tomatoes or something? Wisdom ain't shit.

why do i hate that artist thing that people keep posting on my facebook so much? why am i such a jerk?

Yeah I mean some things that are technically fruits are classed as veg (aubergine,cucumber &c). When it comes to usage theres no hard & fast rule

BlogHer Food '14 is coming to Miami on May 16 & 17 -
and you are invited

really tempted to go down to the animal shelter and bring home a tiny chihuahua for my tumblr-to-book "my owner's stupid record collection"

Could be hip.

it'll be problematic when the writing voice of your chihuahua matches well to that of a 1997 taco bell commercial

I have absolutely no problem with this couple undertaking this blogging experiment and they can write it in whatever tone they want! But when people share the heck out of it, and it's brought to my attention in the social media sphere multiple times and mentioned much more than other, more insightful projects, that don't happen to conform to a male/female couple dynamic that enforces a certain status quo then yeah, I think it is worth evaluating why this person's writing is both popular and inquiring as to why they are making certain stylistic choices.

It's easy to paint our media, especially our entertainment media, as a system that is top-down with the powers that be reinforcing stereotypes and the status quo through their choices of programming to broadcast/print. The other half of the reality is that people will popularize grassroots ventures that reinforce these things, too. I'm sorry if it's ugly and I hope people aren't getting in the faces of this woman and her husband, but feedback is deserved when the stage is large.

maybe someone should just write them a nice letter saying that a lot of people are enjoying their blog because they think she is a silly woman who doesn't get music and he's an idiot manchild who hoards objects he doesn't even listen to and that's how their words are read