Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

51K is median HOUSEHOLD income in NYC

average NYer just ain't living

Not super-shocked by that, though. The internet is full of upper-middle class/fully upper class folk imagining a 6-figure income is the "middle."

It usually takes the form of morphing an actual fact ("The cost of living is higher in NYC.") into a self-serving fantasy ("100K in NYC is 50K in every other city.")

That's not even touching the issue of bennies

this whole thing just makes me very YOU AIN'T GOT THE ANSWERS, SWAY! because it seems like he's just scolding anyone who's not doing the exact thing he's doing without suggesting any real alternatives and frankly, we don't all have the amazingly hypnotic hair it takes to be a vlogger.

Think there is somebody missing from this thread: Sticky-Uppy Hair

these videos resemble joe pesci in jfk more and more

The New Yorker is also a huge loss leader for Condé Nast iirc

― 乒乓, Sunday, December 1, 2013 9:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a good thing imho?

tbh i think it's the "he has to offer an alternative" that fucks this all up -- he DOES offer an alternative, it's just dumb and misguided, and the whole thing would've just been better as a floating rant about how badly the industry has changed wrt the branding and the money (this has happened in every industry but w/e). maybe he's smart enough to know that nothing he says in his dumb vlog is ever going to change the way the venture capitalists and whatnot act, and he needed SOMEONE to yell at, so, uh, why not the plebes feeding the machine? guess he's not smart enough to know that there'll ALWAYS be people willing to make 5 cents a word to replace all these new tumblr martyrs? idgi

there really is nothing he can say to anyone that'll change the way the system works. he just ends up coming off as a dude using an otm rant about capitalism to cover up his baseless disdain for certain writers

also jfc how old is chris? how can he possibly have this super-old-person "you have the whole internet at your fingertips! your opportunities are endless! the world wide web is a real game-changer!" attitude? this is so close to my mom telling me that i need to start making tutorials for things and putting them on youtube "i don't know how but i think you just have to put tutorials on youtube and you'll start getting money"

when the vid started in on those bands from the early-mid 80s i thought "oh wait was that his scene, i guess he has been around for a minute" and then lol headfake his 'scene' was shittier bands from way later. also i thought those early-80s bands were pretty good sounding from the clips and i was thinking maybe he'd big-up them or something?

he's vehemently arguing for the status quo, basically.

i'll bet that most everything he rails against now is pretty similar to the way things worked in the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, etc. every era has some big magazines or sites or what-have-you that become well-recognized gatekeepers/taste-makers, and i'd bet those magazines or sites invariably become too cozy with their favorite labels or acts.

brb, i gotta go dig out my copy of clap-your-hands-say-yeah.

Thought those bands sounded fine too, guess I fell for the lol head fake.

lol yeah my biggest takeaway from the whole thing was "wow i want to listen to the oysters"

Haha, me too. In fact head fake fits in with the whole shinola-grin wearing "I know something you don't because I have a third eye that allows me to distinguish among things that are otherwise identical DO U SEE?" vibe.

anyone know where this guy is from? i kinda figure he's from Boston, woke up one morning, read the story in the NME and got super bitter that it was this new scene and not his old scene that's having a moment, and that's why he zeroed in on the Pelly/NME piece.

also, yeah, some dude w/ the lol line of the thread

alpine static

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/node/8599

this piece did this whole steez much more effectively imo

I gave up midway through the video. I was getting a weird feeling that Ott was trying to channel Professor Brian O'Blivion in Videodrome and then I couldn't stop laughing.

His argument feels stale. I'm sure I read something similar in Maximum Rock & Roll in the early 90s.

http://www.cartoonito.co.uk/sites/www.cartoonito.co.uk/files/imagecache/Image-Character-280-280/robbieroten-mainimage.jpg

It's weird that he thinks that writing an article in NME equates to letting us all know about something.

and that P4K was covering Radiohead before Spin and Rolling Stone

yeah that was bizarre

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-2428040-1283501627.jpeg

http://images.45cat.com/les-baxter-his-chorus-and-orchestra-wake-the-town-and-tell-the-people-capitol.jpghttp://images.45cat.com/les-baxter-his-chorus-and-orchestra-wake-the-town-and-tell-the-people-capitol.jpg

So he slams the NME for covering a young, obscure, interesting band that the editor and writer both love because "It doesn't translate at scale" and somehow he's the truth-talking dreamer? Sheesh.

lol at "be strong enough to be alone on a Friday night"

never 4get

https://twitter.com/shallowrewards/status/368973419829673984

Wait his Twitter avatar is 'The Orc'? I'm glad I missed or forgot that.

"What does the orc say?"

"GODDAMN KIDS *wracking tears*"

ott ends one of these videos crying in a snowy field to slowdive's "blue skied an' clear" so i like to believe that is the sole content of his every vlog

one sad thing is, when he tries to be the change he wants to see in the world, sitting sans advertising in a snowy field discussing the merits of the Curve oeuvre, no one cares. It's only when he goes drunk uncle and curses the darkness of his fellow writers that other critics and nerds go "oh right, he exists." When he lights a candle, it's just him and a candle.

Brutal but accurate

That's a fair point. I actually do like passionate, enthusiastic Ott better than "Musicians/writers are fucking shills and evil and P4K and ..." Ott

this wouldn't be sad, of course, if he was fine sitting with his candle of wisdom, waiting for the young and deluded to come to bask in its glow. but instead he grumbles about how everything's changed and he's seen it all before, arbitrarily shitting on whatever scribe made his radar.

never 4get

https://twitter.com/shallowrewards/status/368973419829673984

― goole, Monday, December 2, 2013 12:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can I just say that every time this comes up I laugh my ass off

The solipsistic self-regard with which this guy gazes into the camera to disdain and dismiss everybody's epinion but his own reminds me of that one gif of Geir as every single child in Village of the Damned, which I can't look for right now.

can't wait til the day this guy returns to ilx

http://www.dominicanablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Albrecht-Durer-The-Revelation-of-St-John-12-The-Sea-Monster-and-the-Beast-with-the-Lambs-Horn.jpg

I wonder how he spends his time besides being dumpy. Maybe he stands behind his friends while he makes them watch videos of himself ranting.

http://i.imgur.com/lqNziP6.png

was 'besides being dumpy' meant to say 'besides being grumpy'?

oh I hope not

'I wonder how he spends his time besides being dumpy' is a funny sentence either way.

I meant dumpy, yeah.

k i'm finally watching this and am DYING to know what ethical, non-capitalistic company he gets his 94k and bennies from

^^ exactly

Google

Pitchfork.tv should remake "A Woman Under The Influence" recasting Ott as Mabel.

"the largest fashion corporation....in england"