Nitsuh pulls off referencing other materials or other cultural aspects in a much better way than most "intellectual" reviewers, imo, because he's gotten quite good at summing up why a particular reference is relevant, concisely, without the reader having to have a detailed background to get what he means and without casting the referenced material in the wrong light.
It always makes me feel much better reading that style than something too philosophical where I'm having to interpret exactly what is trying to be conveyed, or more pandering work like Malcolm Gladwell where I have no idea if he's used his references or evidence correctly because he tends to throw out a lot of (relevant) context in order to make dubious points.
― mh, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
The thing is, as countless editors and publishers have said to me over the years, writing a blog is different from writing for a wide audience. Sometimes if the blogger's canny they overlap but more often than not they're two entirely separate activities which require two entirely separate approaches. For a "mass" readership the piece ceases to be about "you" because it involves teamwork; editor, subeditor, readers, fellow writers and so on. Whereas you can get away with a lot more stuff on a blog because you're generally writing for a known minority of readers with shared knowledge and you can go off on wild tangents without fear of being pulled up for it. But it helps to have the knowledge in the first place and also, and more importantly, the ability to communicate it. Ekphrasis (a work of art inspired by another work of a different discipline of art, e.g. a piece of literature inspired by a piece of music) is a fine thing but not everyone is Hazlitt and can pull it off. It takes discipline, years of falling over and making mistakes, and a hell of a lot of application to make it work. Otherwise you come up against this situation: "they brought the arc lamps to the scene of the crime with commendable promptitude." "'With commendable promptitude'? Does Dexter mean 'quickly'?"*
*Edmund Crispin on why he wouldn't provide a cover quote for Colin Dexter's first Morse book
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:17 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah the JH album is pretty nice. I probably wouldn't have paid attention if it weren't for ILX having fun with that deranged review.
― s.clover, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 04:14 (eleven years ago) link
DJP otm - but it's not news that pop/rock writers seem to feel above learning musical terminology. not above using some of the words. but above doing the groundwork of knowing what they mean.
― same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 08:54 (eleven years ago) link
the escalating stack of Venn diagrams
This sounds like a great way to serve pancakes.
― oppet, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 09:44 (eleven years ago) link
https://twitter.com/#!/shit_rock/status/192619557075165186
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 16:23 (eleven years ago) link
They've noticed!
Cokemachineglow@NedRaggett Alternatively - and I know we're asking a lot - you could actually read what we publish and, y'know, draw your own conclusions.
@NedRaggett Alternatively - and I know we're asking a lot - you could actually read what we publish and, y'know, draw your own conclusions.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
good marketing strategy: I know you've heard we're reliably terrible, why not find out for yourself?
― rob, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:17 (eleven years ago) link
T/F: People who use the word "alternatively" are the worst people on Earth
― an independent online phenomenon (DJP), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:18 (eleven years ago) link
what about if Chris Lowe used it?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
that would hurt me deeply in my heart
― an independent online phenomenon (DJP), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
you know the logic of that tweet--don't trust the opinions of your knowledgable peers--eliminates the need for music reviews. granted, they don't seem to be in the business of publishing those, so n/m
― rob, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:23 (eleven years ago) link
lol was that tweet in response to something specific Ned, or are you just the public face of ILX?
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
The "thanks for participating in our podcast" tweets they have seem a little odd. Do artists personally respond to requests for music and send websites audio for the podcast?
I'm assuming they mean "thanks for letting us use your song / thanks to your publicist for sending a song to promote you with" or in the worst case "dude, we put your song in a podcast, hope that's cool"
― mh, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:26 (eleven years ago) link
xpost -- specific, but I had linked here.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
Ned, you need to send dude a link to this and say "you lost this game before you published your first review"
― an independent online phenomenon (DJP), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:34 (eleven years ago) link
Lordy.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:34 (eleven years ago) link
:)
― mh, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:46 (eleven years ago) link