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

I mistakenly thought that the interview was old. Y’know, like from his self-loathing and closeted years, making unto straight white guitar heroes some sort of unattainable ideal. That might have almost made some sense. But … Jesus. Hope this turns into a pod ep of Bad Gays

those of you who know me, mark my words: if I ever meet Jann Wenner, and it's not outside the realm of possibility, weirder things have happened in my life, I'm gonna punch him in the mouth for the shit he says in his NYT interview here.🕸

I never knew how much I needed a wenner episode of bad gays

it's like he went out of his way to confirm all of the worst rumours about him

I haven't read that sticky fingers book but apparently he didn't learn a thing from that experience

sounds like he hasn't learned a thing since 1972

he's turned into Glenn Frey

i could barely read that interview after reading the segment posted here upthread.

lord, what a cumquat

the part where he says maybe he should have included "one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism." the fucking nerve

for whatever reason i can only hear that bit about 'philosophers of rock' in longmont potion castle's voice

lol

i feel like ilx has existed for 23 years almost purely for this moment of apotheosis & righteous fury haha, or at least this thread has. Nemesis hath arisen, slavering

end boss of rockism

the audacity of him mentioning Curtis Mayfield as being lacking compared to these dudes is just infuriating. Mayfield was a genius, maybe one of the most talented musicians of the century....he literally did everything better than those guys, he was a producer, arranger, songwriter, amazing guitar player, produced tons of stuff for other artist, ran a record label. he even had his own guitar tuning he invented himself. fucking Bono? Jagger? these guys aren't even in the same realm as Mayfield

(guitar tuning article)
https://www.premierguitar.com/digging-deeper-curtis-mayfield

the audacity of him mentioning Curtis Mayfield as being lacking compared to these dudes is just infuriating. Mayfield was a genius, maybe one of the most talented musicians of the century....he literally did everything better than those guys, he was a producer, arranger, songwriter, amazing guitar player, produced tons of stuff for other artist, ran a record label. he even had his own guitar tuning he invented himself. fucking Bono? Jagger? these guys aren't even in the same realm as Mayfield

(guitar tuning article)
https://www.premierguitar.com/digging-deeper-curtis-mayfield

wow, just in time for the ever-growing backlash against "poptimism" (or at least the strawman version of it)

What the fuck does someone like Jagger know about how rock changed the world or whatever? He's been a millionaire for longer than most people have been alive.

wow rude

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

wenner fears black people and hates radical politics so turn of the 70s funk must have really terrified him, I think that's the crux of his issue with CM

imagine how much more expansive "rock" could have been without people like this calling the shots

the part where he says maybe he should have included "one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism." the fucking nerve

I think Alfred will agree with me here as to what this quote most reminds me of:

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/21/Interior-Secretary-James-Watt-drew-laughs-when-he-told/1131432964800/

roffle

i feel like even Mick would cringe at being called a "philosopher" of any kind. Dude has never been particularly articulate, he seems to just coast whenever anyone tries to ask him anything meaningful. Which is fine! That's how Mick Jagger should be!

idk I’m holding the dulux chart up to a pic and he looks v Articulate to me

Jagger's contributions to Harriet Vyner's book about Robert Fraser, Groovy Bob, are actually quite thoughtful and interesting, perhaps because he's not talking about the Stones specifically.

Jeb Lund on Bluesky:

my wenner story is that i once found a guy in my editor's office who radiated the pre-indictment energy of every real-estate crook i've met & was dressed as if he'd asked "what's the most expensive looking version of this i could wear" and immediately put on whatever the answer is, and that was jann

i am gonna be the guy who says, “why is anybody surprised that this guy is among the biggest assholes ever, and the Times is doing puff pieces for him”

If that's supposed to be a "puff piece", I really want to see the guy's hatchet jobs because uh, this is exposing Wenner's assholishness to entirely new audiences, going by what I'm seeing on social media.

they would've gotten someone other than marchese if they wanted a puff piece

Yeah. NYT interviewer went pretty hard during that section, at least

lol the preview text and the headline definitely made it seem like a puffy, i didn’t read it cuz fuck Jann Wenner

The interview is the definition of give em enough rope

We have a new contender in this review of Boston Lyric Opera’s updated production of Madama Butterfly:

https://www.classical-scene.com/2023/09/18/correcting-butterfly/

Among all the horrors of war, the experience of Japanese Americans in camps seems relatively mild. Yes, 1,800 people died from medical problems while in the camps and about one out of every 10 of these people died of tuberculosis—the given cause of death for Cio-Cio-San’s baby in the current version. How many would have died had they remained in San Francisco’s densely populated Japantown?

I’m amazed that this was written and published without the author ever rereading it and thinking “is this REALLY the hill I’m dying on today”

It reads like he accidentally pasted Facebook group posts he made under an anonymous account

that is an amazing passage in a review of a 120yo opera anywhere

It’s an updated production that moves the setting to San Francisco in the 40s so there’s context that makes it comprehensible but nothing about it actually makes sense

I got too out of breath trying to find the end of the sentences in the first paragraph and gave up.

Don’t ever upset the opera queens.

Counterpoint: upset the opera queens as often as humanly possible

that part that omar quoted is

O_O

Why did BLO depict the Poston camp with a sharpshooter in a guard tower taking aim at Suzuki during an argument? A Wikipedia article on the Poston camp said that “the site was so remote that authorities considered building guard towers to be unnecessary.” Did the conceit lay a guilt trip on us?

of all the things I expected to show up in this thread, "interning japanese-americans during ww2 was good, actually" was not one of them

You’d think “internment camps are bad” would be considered fact at this point in time but you don’t expect “but they weren’t THAT bad” as a kicker

lol the comments are getting lively now

claims he's not taking down posts for any reason other than valid emails, took all three of mine down within seconds!

lmao

lol

"Ashley"

The eleven singers (six of whom had Asian-sounding names)

lmao

It’s the job of a journalist to question received wisdom, event sometimes when he personally agrees with it

also the writer responded to someone who criticized the piece by saying "you didn't seem to take umbrage when we reviewed your performances positively in the past!" like....what?

"we gave you a good review, you have no right to criticize us!"