If you've not already heard, excellent news on the blog-roll front: Jesse Goin has begun one with a far cooler title than mine, crow with no mouth. Please go check it out.
Thanks, Brian. Just Outside is an endless experience of aperiodic reinforcement for me- I check the site, no new content. I check the site, no new content. I check the site, no new content. I check the site, new content, thoughtful, incisive, mordantly witty, occasionally surprising [last year's inclusion of your stellar paintings]. I check the site, no new content... This is how I am hooked.
Jesse, having studied the traffic habits to and from my site it works like this...
People come here to Brian's pages, but no new content, so they click the link to my site (or one of the others) and read something of secondary interest before hitting the back button to check if there is any new content at Brian's site yet...
If no new content they do it all again...
Writing a blog in this tiny corner of music you just accept that the best you'll ever get is second best ;)
Hello everybody. Jesse - I uselessly tried to post a comment (receiving an error message) in your beautiful blog, regarding this statement you wrote in the instructions for the submission of reviewable materials:
"I was initially shocked when I learned many *critics*/reviewers admit they give 1-4 listens to what they submit for publication. That is lazy and, whether intended or not, a pretty thoughtless response to work that may not even open itself up without greater commitment from the reviewer."
Well, it's not always so. As there are musicians who memorize a piece of music after listening to it just once and are more or less able to understand/reproduce it instantly, so there are writers who only need three or four sessions - to have a clear picture of what they just listened in their mind, and I consider myself belonging to this category. I think that a number between three and five spins is perfect for a review (for complex records, I mean - easy-to-digest ones may need just one). Each one of us has different methods of course, but if I had to listen to every record 8-10 times it would do more harm than good to a writeup, because the music's sense of freshness would somehow get lost in the process. When I listen thrice to a CD they are three intense, attentive listens. Laziness could very well lie in listening eight times without the necessary concentration, even while doing something else (which surely is not your case, Jesse). Curious to know what Brian, Richard and others think about this.
Thanks, Brian. Just Outside is an endless experience of aperiodic reinforcement for me- I check the site, no new content. I check the site, no new content. I check the site, no new content. I check the site, new content, thoughtful, incisive, mordantly witty, occasionally surprising [last year's inclusion of your stellar paintings]. I check the site, no new content...
ReplyDeleteThis is how I am hooked.
Hmmm...thinking of changing the blog title to: no new content.
ReplyDeletehoping to have three reviews posted later this evening....
Jesse, having studied the traffic habits to and from my site it works like this...
ReplyDeletePeople come here to Brian's pages, but no new content, so they click the link to my site (or one of the others) and read something of secondary interest before hitting the back button to check if there is any new content at Brian's site yet...
If no new content they do it all again...
Writing a blog in this tiny corner of music you just accept that the best you'll ever get is second best ;)
Hello everybody. Jesse - I uselessly tried to post a comment (receiving an error message) in your beautiful blog, regarding this statement you wrote in the instructions for the submission of reviewable materials:
ReplyDelete"I was initially shocked when I learned many *critics*/reviewers admit they give 1-4 listens to what they submit for publication. That is lazy and, whether intended or not, a pretty thoughtless response to work that may not even open itself up without greater commitment from the reviewer."
Well, it's not always so. As there are musicians who memorize a piece of music after listening to it just once and are more or less able to understand/reproduce it instantly, so there are writers who only need three or four sessions - to have a clear picture of what they just listened in their mind, and I consider myself belonging to this category. I think that a number between three and five spins is perfect for a review (for complex records, I mean - easy-to-digest ones may need just one). Each one of us has different methods of course, but if I had to listen to every record 8-10 times it would do more harm than good to a writeup, because the music's sense of freshness would somehow get lost in the process. When I listen thrice to a CD they are three intense, attentive listens. Laziness could very well lie in listening eight times without the necessary concentration, even while doing something else (which surely is not your case, Jesse). Curious to know what Brian, Richard and others think about this.
This aside - great job!