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

#pioneer

http://skotrok.blogspot.com/2012/01/rufus-and-scott-review-90s-indie-rock.html

Is that the website in which Maria asks skot about his record and paperback collections?

scott's writing is the best because he's heard all kinds of wild shit and writes impressions off the cuff

I most appreciate when he makes a comparison to something I'd never think was related but it totally makes sense

scott's writing is like faux-naive-cubed, or it's not really faux-naive at all, it's just super loosened up, almost unhinged

yeah, I don't think it's naive at all, just loose

its fuckin sweet is what it is

yeah it has an "i've listened to too much music and gone a bit mad" quality that makes it charming, although I'm gonna stop now bc I feel weird about talking in the third person about you scott as you are in this thread

sup scott

Hey Maura, it's Rob K, yr former co-worker.

What is the result that you want out of this? Should the woman apologize for doing a project that caught more eyeballs than likely she and annoying "OOH look at my All in the Family record, that will impress the WFMU dealers" husband did. Was she supposed to know that doing this project was going to play into an admittedly fraught context that makes making a living for you me and a lot of people reading this even more difficult? Should she have been stopped from doing the project? the internet, mass culture and the interstice of both frequently result in stupid shit: being defensive about a project this admittedly unlettered and hapless woman enacted with no malice that I can discern seems counter-productive.

well this didn't just get totally uncomfortable and weird

Wasn't under the impression that she was unlettered? 400 books, etc.

What is the result that you want out of this?

this like one step above accusing someone of being pro-censorship because they object to some discriminatory or prejudicial aspect of a song or film or etc

really glad a man stepped in to speak truth to power

this admittedly unlettered and hapless woman

...um, did I just read this?

http://eyesareout.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/meh-ro7354.gif

unlettered and hapless!

90% of music reviewers are male writers of all kinds
10% are twee women

the problem isn't the twee woman

delete yourself

sorry, that should read "music reviewers that are widely shared this week"

there are women who are excellent music reviewers who do it for a living but they're getting a lot less attention than this one

This was a fun thread once

look I'm not going to play the zing game with you guys: sneering is the default setting for Mr W, and I do not wish to develop skills as such.

I was asking this of ME, as I used to work with her, and I tried to phrase it respectfully and not mansplainy. As for the question re: the result, I'm curious and I fail to see how the above phrasing is at all accusatory. 72 hours into this and there seems to be unwarranted defensiveness; it's chum for a nest of disaffected rock critics feeding off one another, struggling to accept that that writing about music for $$$ is more difficult than it used to be.

If ME feels like me addressing her as a former colleague is uncool, then my bad. Here and on my FB feed there are debates that are raging re; this, and I wanted for her to see my question without wading through tons of comments, and this seemed to be the easiest way to achieve that.

Mr raggett and Mr Sotosyn : "hapless" and "unlettered" refers to the woman's observations on music. She said stuff that was dumb, which I thought is the reason that everyone is annoyed with the project? I forgot momentarily that she is a librarian.

debates are raging/dudes are mansplaning

popcorn.gif

I like how the initials make it read like cookie monster

see I don't know about her intentions but her reviews read to me like she was playing a part, and I didn't see the point in her doing so.

writing about music for $$$ is more difficult than it used to be.

you don't say!

ook I'm not going to play the zing game with you guys: sneering is the default setting for Mr W, and I do not wish to develop skills as such.

go hard or go home

its 2014 ffs have we not gotten over mansplain

No, because it is something that actually exists, contrary to what you and I have experienced as men.

hi rob! i think i've said like 10x that i just wish women who weren't writing with a ladyblog-ready gimmick would get even half as much shine as this site has. i really do think viral culture has made the marketplace for reading a lot more stereotype-cleaving, and the reaction to this site only makes my theory more plain.

(and her defensiveness about nobody talking to her seems misplaced, since her husband was more than ready to leap to her defense on twitter and metafilter and other places too.)

look I'm not going to play the zing game with you guys: sneering is the default setting for Mr W, and I do not wish to develop skills as such.

go hard or go home

― open-y, ob-la-da (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 5:55 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

srsly you don't step in the arena and then say I'm not here to gladiate

(to wit: https://twitter.com/maura/status/445769042633445376)

omg got murgsplained

Unlettered and Hapless should have been what Morrissey called his autobiography.

Wanted to ask some M some questions. didn't come to fuck with anyone, gladiate, whatever it is you henny youngmans do…

do you not got email on that thing

henny youngmans

i'd have to read a lot more of the tumblr to get a more solid opinion, which i probably won't do, so gr80 otm probably. wu-wei, man.

i'd be more forgiving if the writing were more insightful about the music, if there was some spark there about what happens in the room when these particular records are playing. but on that level it didn't grab me.

or if there was some kind of interesting or funny window into these two people's lives as such but what's there didn't do much for me either -- admittedly this falls into a bunch of minefields and i doubt i'd be moved by something more 'personal' anyway.

i haven't ventured out into the wider internet on this (let alone FB, fuck) but there's absolutely no doubt this woman is generating a shitton of misogynist energy in response. that's bullshit, of course. but i don't see any of the posters here on ilx engaging in that. i really don't. this couple is already a living breathing ilx stereotype and the thread here has been pretty respectful of them as people.

again i think j. and maura have been pretty much right: both in form and in content this is another example of one li'l bit of america's elite talking about itself to itself w/o much wit or zip to make it worth it.

is this thing really all that viral anyway? I haven't heard about it from anyone outside of this thread.

*christopher nolan twist*

is this thing really all that viral anyway? I haven't heard about it from anyone outside of this thread.

― james franco tur(oll)ing test (Hurting 2), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 6:11 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^this

i know chris isn't on facebook, but it's all over there

ok, maybe my friends just don't really post stuff about music crit very often

i wouldn't want to be "friends" with anyone who posted that Tumblr in earnest

what if they were nice ppl and loyal friends and were nice to you?

what if their sandwich artistry was just superb

yeah i went back to that well but come on

wow between the people who posted that tumblr in earnest and the people that made fake coachella posters, whiney must have like no friends anymore

xxxp i've heard about it on multiple music nerd/industry lists/threads/facebooky type things. it hits all the right notes for people who care too much about the things that we do but probably renders as near invisible to anyone who doesn't.

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

and... well.

― maura, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 11:04 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow

I'm not in the same music crit circles so the only people I've seen posting about this are ILXors.

the ppl that are gonna share this sincerely are no doubt the ppl who shared that stupid STRANGERS MEET AND KISS video