The new *Da Capo Best Music Writing 2003* book is almost out...

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AND WE'RE NOT IN IT THIS TIME!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, a list of the stuff that's going to be included is at Scott Wood's site.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

(Sorry, that's Scott Woods)

I'm a little disappointed that they didn't include Mark's humongo noise piece instead of the more petite Xenakis one.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

you say that like it's a good thing, Michael

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Christ how many of those pieces are remotely about music that came out in 2002-3??

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't imagine Matt Groening gives a shit whether or not rock is back.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

taking your question as literally as I can (meaning 2002-3 music is dealt with in some manner), let's see...no, no, yes, yes, no, no, yes, no, yes, no, no, no, no, no, yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes, yes.

so 9 of 21 pieces do.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

and yes, I think that's a problem too.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Why am I not in it? Oh. Don't answer that.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

AND WE'RE NOT IN IT THIS TIME!

...except for SINKAH, which is a good thing. Though I certainly could have used the phantom fifty buxx.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Even though I've just committed myself to a writing project almost entirely concerning old music I still think most of the really good stuff I've read this year has been reacting to this year. But that sort of writing doesn't neccessarily anthologise well.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Are these good choices? What would you have had? How many have you read? Does that Yo La Tengo Onion piece fetch up a little awkward after that high-profile concert fire in the US which resulted in a lot deaths?

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

(Does this mean Matt Groening likes Mark or would he have been coached?)

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

you say that like it's a good thing, Michael

I thought you liked that Noise piece...or is the syntax of my original comment all fucked up? (To recap, "Math Destruction" good, "The RISE and SPRAWL of HORRIBLE NOISE" awesome.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Does that Yo La Tengo Onion piece fetch up a little awkward after that high-profile concert fire in the US which resulted in a lot deaths?

No.

― st tremaine, Monday, 22 September 2003 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

They sure like the New Yorker!

― rob geary (rgeary), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

That Susan Orlean one is way cool, though. I can't believe I missed something on James Brown- I read the damn thing every week.

― rob geary (rgeary), Monday, 22 September 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

no no no I meant "you say no ILX posts like it's a good thing"--I nominated that Sinkah piece!

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

biggest most egregious thing they missed: http://www.citypages.com/databank/23/1130/article10606.asp -- easily my favorite 2002 music piece.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

damn, forgot about that citypages piece. Seconded.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm rather fond of Doug Wolk's "I'd Rather Go Blind."

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait! Wait! I mean DOUGLAS. Ack.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:38 (twenty-two years ago)

by the way, a list of the Other Notable Essays for further reference: I'm in it yay!

Harry Allen, "Rhythmic Hearts of the Kings of Rock" (Voice 11.6-21)
David Cantwell, "Mountain Range" (The Pitch, 8.8)
Julian Dibbell, "Ghetto Fabulous" (Voice, 9.4-10)
Cliff Doerksen, "Same Old Song and Dance" (Chicago Reader, 10.11)
Sasha Frere-Jones, "Fountain of Youth" (Chicago Reader, 9.27)
Bill Friskics-Warren, "The Fabulous Johnny Cash" (No Depression, Nov-Dec)
Adam Gopnik, "The In-Law" (The New Yorker, 10.7)
Howard Hampton, "Out of the Past" (Voice, 8.5-12)
Andrew Hultkrans, "Not the Little Boy I Once Knew" (Tin House no. 10, Winter)
Janis Ian, "The Internet Debacle--An Alternative View" (Performing Songwriter, May, though I believe it's also available at janisian.com)
Eric Idle, "Eric Idle Honors George Harrison at the Hollywood Bowl" (speech, 6.28; I think it's online somewhere too)
Ashley Kahn, "The House That Trane Built" (JazzTimes, Sept)
Monica Kendrick, "Driven to Fears" (Chicago Reader, 9.20)
Dale Lawrence, "Put 'Em Together and What Have You Got?" (Chicago Reader, 8.9)
me, "Monster Mash" (Baltimore City Paper, 9.11-17)
Chris Ott, "Joy Division: An Ideal for Listening" (Pitchfork.com, 8.26)
Robert Polito, "Shadow Play: B-C-D and Back" (Tin House no. 10, Winter)
Simon Reynolds, "The British Can't Rap, Haven't You Heard?" (NY Times, 10.20)
Andy Serwer, "Inside the Rolling Stones, Inc." (Fortune, 9.15)
Laura Sinagra, "White America" (City Pages, 6.26)
Nancy Dewolf Smith, "Kurt, We Hardly Knew Ye" (Wall Street Journal, 11.20)
Kate Sullivan, "Rock 'n' Roll--a Love Story" (City Pages, 5.22)
Pete Townshend, "Why He Died Before He Got Old" (The Observer, 11.3)
Carl Wilson, "A Double Shot of Waits" (The Globe and Mail, 5.7)
Chris Ziegler, "Pay to Cum" (Punk Planet, Nov/Dec)

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

of these, I'm a big big fan of the Julian Dibbell, Janis Ian, Dale Lawrence, and Andy Serwer pieces. the rest I'm either not familiar with or not quite as knocked out by.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Congrats, Matos. Pitchfork.com should sell a lot of feed off that mention. Hopefully that's not what the actual edition says, but I fear it will be.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Monday, 22 September 2003 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

considering the da capo's tendency to avoid record reviews maybe it'll encourage editor's to do the same with their music sections (ie. their are ways to write about music besides record reviews and show previews, many (most!) more interesting than record reviews or show previews)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 22 September 2003 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Congrats to you too Chris. I was using shorthand above; the galley I have of yours sez, verbatim:

Chris Ott, "Joy Division: An Ideal for Listening" (Pitchfork, August 26, 2002)

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

or rather the galley I have sez of yours, verbatim

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah but you didn't like it. :`(

You're in batch 2, right?

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

hey did that eulogy to the cassette assfare make it? (I forget its name)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

and how come scott woods don't hang out here no mo?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't say I didn't like it! I haven't read it yet. (yes, I'm in batch two--Valentine's Day, both of us, haha! after all we've been through together, awwww.... handed my final revisions in this morning. three weeks of work + book writing, ugh.)

happy to say no passive-aggressive cassette eulogy in this one.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm just going to say that, even more than previous editions of the book, I find most of the choices above (including the *Voice* ones, which strike me as weirdly random) both dumfounding and depressing. Next year maybe I won't even nominate anything - What a waste of time.

― chuck, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

why you do find it depressing? (I haven't read much of it so I have little opinion either way)

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:57 (twenty-two years ago)

god that american spectator piece has to be the best thing they've ever run

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Sadly, I have to confess my hopes at hearing Groening was editor have been completely dashed by his selections. I seriously wonder how much time he spent on this; not that I consider my own writing superior to anything that made the *ahem* final cut, but the idea that that inconsequential Van Halen piece beat out Idle's speech, any Reynolds freakout or Pete Townshend's piece doesn't sit well.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

AND WE'RE NOT IN IT THIS TIME!

You mean the world will miss out on those heated arguments about whether Beyonce is more fuckable than Madonna? What a loss.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:08 (twenty-two years ago)

god - is that what that thread is? (I haven't looked)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:09 (twenty-two years ago)

(I haven't looked)

You're lucky, then.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:13 (twenty-two years ago)

(Actually not the major topic of discussion on that thread, just one of the many elements that made it DUMMM)

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I looked (you were right)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Who the hell thinks Madonna is currently fuckable?

― ham on rye (ham on rye), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

yay mark!!

i think this book woulda been way better if it had a) scott seward and b) dave q

― geeta, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

and c) the NOISE piece.

― David. (Cozen), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Holy Crap that McInery New Yorker article on Fat Possum was possibly one of the worst pieces of writing!
Whattadrag.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

>>why you do find it depressing?<<

See what Geeta wrote, for starters. Then work from there.

― chuck, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

or what tom wrote for that matter.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't mean to make my first post seem like some kind of jab at ILx, by the way. I was just trying to make a parallel to the earlier thread on the 2002 Da Capo book.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

At the risk of sounding a little self-serving (I started the dang thread after all), I might as well also mention that someone nominated a few things I did for this year's book as well. (Thank you!)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

What things of yours were nominated Michael? (It'd be cool to know where can I read more of your stuff outside of your blog? Or was it your blog-pieces that were nominated?)

― David. (Cozen), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

that Keith Harris piece is awesome (although the title of it is so unoriginal and lame that I nearly skipped reading it when it came out.) .

As an aside, Harris is such a good writer. Why is he leave the Reader?

― don weiner, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

There are a lot of great writers who post to ilx who probably should have been in this book, didn't mean to imply otherwise by my somewhat snide post upthread. Geeta otm regarding Dave Q.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Don -- Keith currently contributes capsules/previews to the Reader (like Matos used to). Unless you're saying that he used to be on staff and wrote longer pieces -- that I don't know about.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 18:54 (twenty-two years ago)

he used to be the music editor and now freelances. I'm still writing for them--just stopped for awhile, am starting up again soon.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The travesty of that list is the inclusion of Elvis Costello's fucking horrible PBS middlebrow travel through his shitty record collection that ran in Vanity Fair.....yuck....and I say this as a huge Elvis Costello fan!

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 21:51 (twenty-two years ago)

that's because you haven't read the Beck piece, Matt

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 21:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Yikes, now I'm scared!!! SERIOUSLY???

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I like his writing, but I'm too stupid to ever understand what the fuck Griel Marcus is talking about anymore....

Real Life Rock 10

1) Bob Dylan Blows His Nose Onstage
The Hollywood Bowl, August 10th, 2003

The old lion in winter, stranded in a world he's not capable of understanding, the world he helped create. As he bitterly blows a tuneless trumpet into a lace hankerchief, his snot speaks multitudes. But, as always, the story is in what it doesn't say.

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

second person hell. imagine the most annoying Esquire piece ever published. now...actually, just imagine the most annoying Esquire piece ever published.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

(using "Esquire" as a descriptor as well as an indicator of where it ran, natch)

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0218/wolk.php

The Elvis Costello piece that *should* have made the book (or, at least, it was one of the many I nominated that are nowhere above.)

First line: "Elvis Costello is such an asshole."

― chuck, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

That pretty much nails elvis....

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Glad to see that the book will have a piece on Zevon. I'm not a huge fan, but it WAS hard to see the physical pain he was in on Letterman. Like that impending car crash you couldn't help watching.....

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

that is a terrific piece, absolutely. the Wolk I went for is "Cliches for a Reason": http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0204/wolk.php

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that was *another* one of the ones I nominated. Jeez.

― chuck, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:28 (twenty-two years ago)

my piece wz only included as a big thank-you from da capo for never finishing my anti-hornby tract

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Silly Sinker;> Still, we get to read it. That's a plus....

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 22:38 (twenty-two years ago)

But we could have bribed you with lizards and Buffy dolls!

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

That Vanity Fair piece was unspeakable, unspeakable.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

and that "Clichés..." piece is super, thanks, I hadn't read that!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

That Beck piece was utter shit. Esquire, which is a magazine dear to my heart, can be so fucking full of itself...I get the whole idea that the writer can be the star and everything, but I often wish they would only profile people I have never and will never hear of. That way I will just be able to enjoy the writing and not ever know if the writer is full of shit.

Re: Keith Harris (and yeah I know he shows up around here from time to time) I was more wondering why he left the editing role and went back to freelancing, although I suspect I know.

― don weiner, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 01:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I hope I'm not out of line by saying this, but there were family things Keith needed to attend to.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

um, I hope you weren't out of line for that either Matos. I feel bad for asking now. durn.

― don weiner, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 02:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Nobody's out of line. Just wanted to move closer to my family for a while, and to have more time to write. Thanks for saying nice things about me, by the way.

As far as Da Capo goes, I suppose a middlebrow project like that is unfortunately going to lean toward Good Writing as opposed to the ideas of uncivil discourse that a lot of us were brought up on. I'm actually more surprised at the good stuff that makes it in.

At least the honorable mentions always make for an interesting reading list--especially Wolk's list from the first edition.

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 02:41 (twenty-two years ago)

cheers then Keith. I assumed you missed writing. I miss your writing anyway.

Da Capo is a nice book because there's not really anything else like it as far as the scope, is there?

― don weiner, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 02:52 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe (hopefully) they'll get mr. eddy to edit next years (or at least someone who writes about music for a living)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 06:36 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

If it at all matters -- Matt Groening's interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air will be broadcast later today.

http://freshair.npr.org/

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 18 December 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

WHERE'S MY $50?!

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 18 December 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

he just read an excerpt from that Onion story about the record-store clerks missing at a yo la tengo show. that's it for the book.(i think. now he's talking about the simpsons)

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 18 December 2003 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Yo Strongo, I'll send it to you as soon as I start my new job. (Did all that actually go down 2ish years ago?) (Damn.)

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 18 December 2003 18:24 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...

Jeff Chang takes aim: http://www.sfbg.com/38/15/art_music_white.html

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

he needs to engage what "quality writing" means as a standard -- what in the modes of expression of hip-hop writers is distinct from the "literary" mode favored, so it doesn't just become this essentialist race thing but becomes a *contextualized* race/culture thing.

also i don't get this "miscegination myth" thing as real. like this is a NEW thing to introduce race into music discourse!? what the fuck is WRONG with celebrating racial integration and how does that necc. mean coded segregation?

and how the fuck does Bangs' "White Noise Supremacists" lurch up into this, since the point isn't about the miscegination myth but outright hipster faux-racism-verging-to-the-real?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

also wtf is with this hate-on-the-voice, hate-on-the-voice then cite one of yr. three shoulda-been-in articles as a VOICE article!?

dude.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

You know what's an even more vile cliche than mentioning c*ugh s*rup in conjunction with Lester Bangs? Saying "If Lester Bangs were alive today, he would..." Well, guess what? This is not something we can know with certainty. Why? Because he was a mercurial bastard when he was alive, and even more pertinently, HE'S FUCKING DEAD NOW. Like, isn't all that kinda OBVIOUS? Guess not.

Saying "If Lester Fucking Bangs was still alive, he'd probably be mentoring a young girl of color from New Orleans etc." is like saying "If John Lennon were alive today, we'd probably be like best friends and we'd go shopping and tell each other secrets and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh some more..."

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

what the fuck is WRONG with celebrating racial integration and how does that necc. mean coded segregation

i think (if i understood correctly) that this isn't what chang's saying. i think he's taking issue with cohn's notion of presenting brooklyn disco youth as a national geographic anthropological study (at a time when this was more cute than offensive) and then repeating the faux pas some 20+ years later with an "infiltration" of another alien culture. and it's not so much the claim that these are distinct cultures or tribes that rankles but the claim that cohn can effectively slip in and out of their worlds and report back as an insider.

your other points are OTM though (daddino too). but sterling, didn't you go to Cal? what did you think of chang's articles in the guardian? i remember being impressed (though - in retrospect - he was a little overboard on kool keith / dj shadow).

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Exactly what qualified "Soljas" as one of the best music writings of 2002 anyway? The fact that it was first published in Granta, a British literary magazine? The fact that he was Nik Cohn? I ran downstairs for some blog therapy.

― robert crunkgau, Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

What about Chang's observation that writers(presumably young and non-white) for hiphop publications aren't voting in the Pazz & Jop poll. Do Chuck Eddy and Xgau need to reach out more---or are they doing so and just not getting ballots back? I think the Voice guys try to reach out harder than the Da Capo book folks do based upon some comments I've read over the years.

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

if bangs were alive he'd be mentoring anthony decurtis.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

and filing restraining orders on derogatis.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 20:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"The earliest pieces on hip-hop were written by impassioned black and white supporters in outlets at the fringes of music writing, like the East Village Eye and the City Sun, and in a small number of titles in the center, notably the Village Voice and Billboard. But when the time came for the new generation of writers to ride – the most diverse group of music writers ever – they chose not to fight their way into the rockstream, a strategy that would have promised endless war and a dubious payoff. Instead they opted out and embraced separate-but-equal. "

The above statements by Chang hit at the tough issues. The writers that Chang wants to be included in Da Capo and in the Voice poll don't seem to care about being included in the 'rockstream." Or at least that's Chang's view that they (he doesn't say who "they" are)don't care.

Sterling, you're right that somebody needs to be mentoring Anthony DeCurtis. Have you seen him on that CBS Sunday morning program plugging predictable slightly hip babyboomer music choices. Ugh.

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm bursting to post something frank kogan wrote in relation to ilx and blogland and perhaps 'the writers Chang wants to be included in Da Capo' (i don't know, i haven't read chang just yet) but i won't just yet; he knows we're here and he can post it himself if he thinks it's apposite. and if he doesn't, well eventually, then i will i guess.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Asian pop is at least as huge as hip-hop, yet its perennial absence from the various best-music-writing outlets (except for occasional fits of exoticization) doesn't seem to bother anybody (besides me, still bitter that my piece about Thai pop didn't make the final cut for a Da Capo a few years back). Ditto several other musics. Which leads me to wonder: is there anybody out there who agrees with Chang's point but who doesn't really care for hip-hop? It'd help the position along, since at core much of what he's saying is "I don't care for this kind of music! The music I listen to is more important!" i.e. rockism.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

If Lester Bangs were alive today hopefully Matos would fire him, too

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:21 (twenty-two years ago)

John, on his blog Chang pushes for more coverage of genres with non-English lyrics, and he urges those who write about such genres to get in touch with him.

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"he needs to engage what "quality writing" means as a standard -- what in the modes of expression of hip-hop writers is distinct from the "literary" mode favored, so it doesn't just become this essentialist race thing but becomes a *contextualized* race/culture thing."

So Sterling if Chang could cite "literary mode" writing about hiphop or Asian pop or dancehall or rai or reggaeton or something you'd be more convinced by his argument? We need more multicultural "New Yorkers"(the magazine) and a more multicultural "New Yorker" I guess...

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 8 January 2004 05:01 (twenty-two years ago)

No steve, but if he could acknowledge that the reason certain things are selected is BECUZ of the literary mode they're written in and then argue for why the literary mode is NOT as ideal a form of music journo as imagined and also why difft. genres get difft. sorts of writing in the difft. venues, maybe then?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 8 January 2004 10:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I see Sasha Frere-Jones commented briefly on Chang's article on his blog...Seemed to generally agree but didn't say much.

I see what you mean Sterling, thanks. Chang keeps plugging Rob Kenner who writes about dancehall for Vibe. Most months Kenner has a column highlighting stuff but certainly nothing written in a New Yorker literary mode.

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Friday, 9 January 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Da Capo anthologies - surely intended for demographic of 45-year-old lapsed Springsteen fans who like to think that, by reading it, they're "still in touch"?

― Phoebe Dinsmore, Friday, 9 January 2004 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

Go ahead and post it, since I don't know which thing you're referring to (though one can predict that it says that something-or-other sucks).

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 13 February 2004 06:20 (twenty-two years ago)

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