C/D: Writing about yourself in a review

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It's generally a dud, right?

― Tape Store, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:14 (eighteen years ago)

Context = all. (So, not for my AMG reviews, but depending on mood/goal entirely appropriate for longer pieces.)

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:21 (eighteen years ago)

w/all due respect, total DUD

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:24 (eighteen years ago)

I felt said when I read M. Coleman's post, and I reflected on this at great length when reviewing it.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

Said = sad. But I like the idea of felting said.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

(smiles knowingly)

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

"felting" sounds like some arcane sexual practice referenced by william burroughs or dennis cooper

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

It probably was at that. What the Knights Templar really did before Dan Brown made them all out to be Newtonian physicists. I hate that bastard BTW.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:39 (eighteen years ago)

Wikipedia appear to have deleted the entry for Miss Amp :(((

― DJ Mencap, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:40 (eighteen years ago)

Are there any Everett True articles where he doesn't do this?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

Wikipedia appear to have deleted the entry for Miss Amp :(((

Now that's some bullshit.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:42 (eighteen years ago)

The Village Voice in the early 80s was a hotbed for the autobio approach to music reviewing, to the point where it became de rigeur and gratuitous. Younger critics would include personal data whether or not it was relevant because well that's what you were supposed to do.

blame it on Bangs. or maybe Pauline Kael.

do Pitchfork reviewers indulge in this?

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:48 (eighteen years ago)

what's funny is you almost never see reviewers in other genres do this.

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

"Traffic was terrible and I was so late in arriving at the screening that I didn't have a chance to buy my usual bag of mixed Jelly Bellys on the way in..."

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:53 (eighteen years ago)

i do it a lot. thus, classic.

― scott seward, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:54 (eighteen years ago)

Miss Amp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miss Amp is the pen name of British journalist, dubstep MC, pirate radio owner, singer, and stable girl Ann-Margaret Parabahn (born 1978, Winchester). Her areas of interest are femininity in rock, modern hip-hop, equine matters and lower division football. She is a vocal and prominent fan of Oswestry Town, and in 2007 ran for the position of club chairman.
Contents

* 1 Work
* 2 Involvement With The Insane Clown Posse
* 3 Controversy
o 3.1 Horse Death
o 3.2 Wrestling Injury
o 3.3 Tim Pope
o 3.4 Fictional Cannibal
o 3.5 Criticisms of Criss Angel
* 4 Personal Life
* 5 Trivia
* 6 Noteable Articles

Work

As well as writing for Plan B and Marmalade about bands as varied and wide as Ten Pole Tudor and Obie Trice, Parabahn runs her own zine website SuSu. She has sung in now defunct London-based alt-pop group Bunnybrains. She has also written in a freelance capacity for The Guardian, The Times, Power Slam, Drowned in Sound, The Wire, Hip Hop Connection, Horse and Hound and When Saturday Comes. One of the articles on Susu, about "great British icons", was later adapted into the adverts for meat that feature Ian Botham and Allan Lamb. Parabahn was not paid for these adverts, but did supply the voice of Dickie Bird on the most recent commercials. Her time as an intern at Melody Maker in the mid 90s coincided with an interview with Trip Shakespeare. The lead singer of TS later used Amp as the inspiration for a single by his new band, Semisonic, entitled Closing Time.

Involvement With The Insane Clown Posse

Amp claims her mid-teens as "one long lost weekend". Many speculate this was because of her involvement with American rap group Insane Clown Posse. She was crowned the UK's no 1 Juggalo in 1998 and was briefly president of their UK fanclub around the same time. ICP rapper Shaggy 2 Dope described her as "a real cool kid", and also encouraged her to "stay in school" and not to "mess with drugs".

Controversy

Horse Death

Parabahn also works as a stable girl for Henrietta Knight's yard, and is believed to have attempted suicide after the death of Best Mate. It is believed that she was roused from her drug induced coma by Craig T Nelson.

Wrestling Injury

Parabahn is the niece of Kenta Kobashi and spent six months in a wheelchair in 2001 after goading him into performing the Burning Hammer on her by talking in a comically exaggerated Japanese accent for the entirety of that year. Parabahn attributes her survival to Kobashi's use of a less dangerous wrist-clutch variant of the move.

Tim Pope

In April 2006, a hoax spread alleging that Tim Pope was fashioned entirely from paper; it later emerged that Parabahn had started the hoax with an April fools piece in the Village Voice. The joke backfired when it emerged that a disillusioned Cure fan had committed suicide as a result.

Fictional Cannibal

It has been alleged that the character of Annabel Way in Hanif Kureshi's Word And The Bomb is based on Parabahn. The character, a journalist and zinester who uses the alias Ultragrrl, is fairly similar to Parabhan but eats human flesh. For this reason Parabhan laughs off the comparisons. In a recent article she stated: "I'm not a cannibal. Nor am I fictional. For those reasons alone it would seems a mistake to label me a fictional cannibal!"

Criticisms of Criss Angel

In a February 2007 article in The Guardian, Parabahn called for the rape and torture of US stage magician Criss Angel, based on Angel's opposition to her plans for Oswestry Town, which included an expansion of their home ground and an audacious bid for Aston Villa reserve team striker Zoltan Stieber. The piece was met with widespread condemnation, not least from Angel, who is anti-rape.

Personal Life

She is currently dating Darren Mitchellstork, chairman of Plan B's soccerball team. She was at one point engaged to Kenny Lynch. She has recently stated she wants to adopt a Chinese baby and that people should do this rather than get pets.

Trivia

Parabahn has a tattoo of Jomo Kenyatta on her left buttock.

Parabahn's similarity to Kanye West has earned her the nickname "Kanye East".

During her teens, Parabahn was a leading advocate for the inclusion of dominoes as an Olympic sport.

Parabahn's favourite single of all time, according to a post on her blog, is "Movin' Out" by Billy Joel

Noteable Articles

Her Articles Include:

From Caliban to the Taliban: Literature in the War Zone, The Times May 2004
Loving The Alien: My Life As A Zak McKracken Devotee, RetroGamer, April 2004
Horses for Courses! The Myth of Equine Intelligence, Horse and Hound July 2004
Lights, Camera, Zach-tion! How Braff Took On Hollywood and Made Indie Rock Cool, TV Times December 2005
No Name, No Gimmicks: Introducing Obie Trice, Plan B August 2005
God of the Hammers: My Uncle and How Pro Wrestling Noah Saved Wrestling, Powerslam December 2005
J Dilla! J Dilla! J Dilla! RIP We Hardly Knew Ye, obituary Sunday Times February 2006
Paper-l Infallibility: Is Tim Pope Made Out of What He Claims to be Made Out of? Village Voice 2006
The Blood On Our Hands: The Correlation Between 'Scrubs' And The Excesses of Late Capitalism, New Statesman, January 2007
Hit with the Magic Stick: Why Criss Angel Is Ruining Welsh Football, The Guardian, February 2007

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:56 (eighteen years ago)

gee how have I lived this long w/o knowing about her

― m coleman, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:59 (eighteen years ago)

If grammar preferences had lobbyists/supporters the way political preferences did, I would have a "First Person Rights" t-shirt.

This thread needs a long, classic discussion of the tension between subjective and objective, that ends finally, where Ned begins: "Context = all".

― Maria :D, Saturday, 28 April 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

One of the publications I write for it doesn't allow you to use the first person in your reviews. On the one hand, this eliminates a lot of potential bullshit where the reviewer goes on at length about some personal anecdote because they don't know how/don't feel like reviewing the CD. On the other hand, it seems silly to me to prevent somebody from using the first person when, let's face it, an album review is pretty much that person's opinion structured within a greater social/musical framework. So, some personal context can be helpful, at least in giving the reader an idea of where you're coming from.

― Jeff Treppel, Sunday, 29 April 2007 01:09 (eighteen years ago)

when it's in fashion, dud
when it's not, a push

― Hans Rott, Sunday, 29 April 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

I hate seeing it, but am totally willing to admit that it's a) one of my odd tics, and b) something I'm hypocritical about, since I've used the "I" in print.

I hate seeing it for reviews because 90% of the time, I couldn't give a shit about the writer's fucking life. I don't care if you were homeschooled, I don't care if you were enjoying a house party, I don't care about what your girlfriend thinks of the band. The "I" is implied— it's your fucking opinion. It just smacks of showy bullshit, like the very performative act of having an opinion makes a worthwhile read. Every asshole has an opinion— I read to find out what informs that opinion and to see whether I'll agree or disagree or be compelled or what have you.

And yeah, that means that you can get away with it every now and then, but it's like playing a Chapman stick— rare at best, and only when absolutely fucking necessary.

― I eat cannibals, Sunday, 29 April 2007 01:24 (eighteen years ago)

But then again, I was just editing the op/ed section for my college newspaper, so maybe my anti-first person argument is tainted by poor sample. And I'll admit that I feel better in seeing it in a review than in a feature story. I just read something in a local weekly where the lead was all about how the writer had convinced this hardcore rapper to wear fake kitten ears for the photoshoot, because OMG, the rapper was hard and the picture was therefore awesome. But aside from the retarded premise, what irked me was how much of that was about how brilliant the writer's idea was for the photo.

― I eat cannibals, Sunday, 29 April 2007 01:27 (eighteen years ago)

My innate formalism makes me cringe at "personality," but Ned is generally OTM about the efficacy of the first person in longer pieces.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 29 April 2007 01:30 (eighteen years ago)

Classic for Lester Bangs when he wrote about Lester Bangs. Classic for other critics also (i.e., when they write about Lester Bangs).

― M.V., Sunday, 29 April 2007 04:06 (eighteen years ago)

I'm going to write about myself in this Avril Lavigne review...It's for a high school publication no one will read, so experimentation should be ok, I think.

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 04:07 (eighteen years ago)

I have mixed feelings about personal anecdotes, side-notes, etc. in album reviews, but it should be absolutely banned from live show reviewing. You're supposed to be a fucking journalist and apply your critical and observational faculties to the event you're observing rather than to yourself.

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:01 (eighteen years ago)

If you talk about yourself and totally ignore the supposed subject of the review, classic.

― libcrypt, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:09 (eighteen years ago)

xpost, agreed. I remember reading this one review of a friend's album, and the writer said one nice sentence about the music and then followed it with six sentences about a swimming trip...I don't remember the whole thing, but I know that his story ended with him getting high in some celebrity's backyard. IT WAS THE BEST REVIEW EVER.

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:22 (eighteen years ago)

Who gives a shit? Who says that music reviews should follow some kind of rigid structure or guideline? Surely if it's presented in an interesting and informative way then that's what matters, end of?

― the next grozart, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:24 (eighteen years ago)

Well, if I want a job...(I agree with you, though)

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:28 (eighteen years ago)

C/D: Writing your record reviews in Arial 10pt or Helvetica 12 pt?

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:29 (eighteen years ago)

Seriously, it seems like there's an underlying beef in the original question that isn't being stated. Writing about yourself how? And in regards to "apply your critical and observational faculties to the event you're observing"--um, aren't you part of that event?

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:33 (eighteen years ago)

Who gives a shit? Who says that music reviews should follow some kind of rigid structure or guideline? Surely if it's presented in an interesting and informative way then that's what matters, end of?

These rhetorical questions are totally irrelevant. This isn't about following a "rigid structure" it's just about whether or not it's irritating to read someone's blathering about what they did at a show instead of what the band did. And 99% of the time it is, and unless you're an established, experienced music writer you probably just shouldn't aim to be in that other 1%.

um, aren't you part of that event?

As far as the reader cares, NO! No more than a New York Times reporter is "part" of a Bush press conference.

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:36 (eighteen years ago)

HI DERE
http://www.powells.com/images/klosterman130.jpg

― gershy, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:38 (eighteen years ago)

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:40 (eighteen years ago)

Well, if I want a job...

That's a fair enough point. A lot, if not most, editors (or maybe it's publishers, whose mandate just seeps down to the editors?) at professional publications definitely prefer reviews where the writer keeps their own personality at arms length.

um, aren't you part of that event?
As far as the reader cares, NO!

That's plainly ridiculous. What value does a review have, then, that a press release can't give the reader?

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:42 (eighteen years ago)

Seriously, it seems like there's an underlying beef in the original question that isn't being stated. Writing about yourself how?

Well, I already hinted at it, but the reason I asked the question was because of a review I just wrote for my high school newspaper...I couldn't decide what to use as an introduction--a story about me trying to be a punk star circa 6th grade or a somewhat boring "When Avril first came onto the BLAHAAAAA." I chose the former.

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:42 (eighteen years ago)

Also--the reader too is part of that event, merely by reading about it.

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:43 (eighteen years ago)

x-post

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:43 (eighteen years ago)

"The Post's correspondent continued to press the president on what he meant by "progress" on Iraq, but to be honest my foot was itching so bad at this point that I started to lose the train of his answer."

Amusing example, but by your preference, newspapers should just print straight transcripts.

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:45 (eighteen years ago)

That's plainly ridiculous. What value does a review have, then, that a press release can't give the reader?

But that question is plainly ridiculous. It's just taken as a given in any criticism that the author is bringing subjective view point and interpretation to an event, so there's no need to use "I" at all. Furthermore giving a personal take on something is completely different from talking about the weather on the night of a show, what one's girlfriend or boyfriend thought, how many drinks one had, etc.

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:47 (eighteen years ago)

Amusing example, but by your preference, newspapers should just print straight transcripts.

wrong

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:47 (eighteen years ago)

I asked the question was because of a review I just wrote for my high school newspaper...I couldn't decide what to use as an introduction--a story about me trying to be a punk star circa 6th grade or a somewhat boring "When Avril first came onto the BLAHAAAAA." I chose the former.

I'm thrice your age, I suspect, and I haven't figured this out either. I often try a bunch of approaches and then just submit what seems to flow best (and then beat myself up when the thing's published because I should've chosen the other).

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:47 (eighteen years ago)

I guess the bottom line is relevance.

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 05:51 (eighteen years ago)

I wouldn't disagree with anyone that there's a lot of obnoxious reviews out there that have nothing to do with the music, but the problem is with the writer, not the format. Some writers pull off some kinds of writing well, others pull off other kinds of writing well. Arguing about the approach itself is about as relevant as arguing about font size, and I can't imagine that some of the people here saying "writing about yourself in a review" is a "dud" would not find many exceptions to that rule if they really thought about it.

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 06:05 (eighteen years ago)

But I think it's better for a newbie writer to avoid it altogether.

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 April 2007 06:06 (eighteen years ago)

x-post
{then again, i know that exceptions are a given, blah blah blah, and generalizations can serve a larger point, but still...)

I don't agree as a rule about a "newbie" - that might be what that person does best, why the hell squash it?

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 06:07 (eighteen years ago)

if you're an editor, and it's clearly NOT what someone does best (or what you think they do best), then I would agree it's a good idea to maybe steer them in a different direction--but at the outset, as a rule...i just don't agree.

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 06:09 (eighteen years ago)

I hate my use of the word "relevant" a few posts above--I'm not stating this well at all.

― sw00ds, Sunday, 29 April 2007 06:14 (eighteen years ago)

i only use it carefully, and generally for comic effect.

i'm talking mostly about movie writing here, not music... and i definitely use it all the time when writing about restaurants. i don't see the point in really contrivedly writing AROUND the "I" just so you don't use it.

― s1ocki, Sunday, 29 April 2007 06:52 (eighteen years ago)

I dont do it so much in reviews, but half my articles are about (the very solipsistic) act of listening in one way or another, and so it's pretty essential to that side of what I do.

― Scik Mouthy, Sunday, 29 April 2007 07:06 (eighteen years ago)

When I was an aspiring music journalist writing for the student newspaper back in the day, I once wrote a review of going to the dentist to get an abscessed wisdom tooth removed, instead of going to and reviewing the Kingmaker gig I should have been at had I not been undergoing painful emergency dental treatment at the time. I was a sad student wank though, and obviously never pursued a career in any sort of journalism once I grew up and realised that such japes just weren't very funny.

(it *was* only Kingmaker though, and I think we can all guess my "hilarious" parting shot viz listening to Kingmaker vs getting your mouth poked at by sharp pointy hurty things)

― ailsa, Sunday, 29 April 2007 10:43 (eighteen years ago)

blood diamonds to whoever did miss amp's wiki.

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 29 April 2007 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

it's okay if you're good at it but most people aren't. it is quite amazing everett true STILL writes the way he does; hasn't he ever had an editor?

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 29 April 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago)

If by "an editor" you mean "a creepy fascination with musicians and journalists who despite being in their mid 20s act as if they're sexually precocious 14 year olds", then yeah.

― Dom Passantino, Sunday, 29 April 2007 11:11 (eighteen years ago)

On a blog: classic, and indeed recommended.
In print: dud, with very occasional exceptions.

― mike t-diva, Sunday, 29 April 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

blood diamonds to whoever did miss amp's wiki.

There may have been a shadowy cabal of people with a lot of spare time

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Sunday, 29 April 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

This is a major point of contention with me and I vacillate on the issue.

Some of the pieces that I wrote that I enjoy most do use personal interjections of some sort. However I also see this as a form of ego - it wouldn't surprise me that the critics who do this most often have the biggest egos. And I hate music writing that feels like the writer is more important than the music because, really, you're (and I'm) not.

A lot depends on training as well. I came up from doing a fanzine and my formal training for journalism was limited to a single journalism class my senior year of High School. While I remember some lessons there - notably that one shouldn't speak about one's self in a story! - doing a Xeroxed fanzine overrode what little I learned. However people who actually went to college and took a lot of Journalism classes (or even as a major) tend to do it a lot less.

The most telling thing (to me, at least) happened to me as an editor of (mostly) college-aged writers. I was sick of reading stories that used personification really clumsily and in a ham-fisted way, so much so that I sent out a harshly-written email to everyone banning the word "I" from stories in an attempt to eliminate what I deemed the poor influence of Blogging (it goes back farther than that of course but I think that is the influence on my writers, more so than the Voice or Bangs).

This decree lasted about three weeks before I gave up: They just couldn't stop.

― NYCNative, Sunday, 29 April 2007 17:44 (eighteen years ago)

classic if done well. it is not an either or thing, but even still I think its best to avoid "i" statements.

― artdamages, Sunday, 29 April 2007 17:54 (eighteen years ago)

one of the best responses i got from a review (i am not a pro btw) was talking about how i'd fall asleep to artist's last album all the time. people love that shit.

unfortunately the shins have changed life as we know it.

― artdamages, Sunday, 29 April 2007 17:56 (eighteen years ago)

...and sometimes making people wince is a good thing. i think thats why i used to sit through jerry springer episodes.

― artdamages, Sunday, 29 April 2007 17:57 (eighteen years ago)

see now i am talking about myself and its hard to stop.

― artdamages, Sunday, 29 April 2007 17:58 (eighteen years ago)

Not to change subjects, but I've recently enforced a second person ban in my entertainment section (mostly because everytime I see second person writing from a high school writer, it's a very weak use of it).

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

Can a third-person ban be next?

― Mark Rich@rdson, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:35 (eighteen years ago)

I want to create a fourth person!

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:36 (eighteen years ago)

(and then ban it, obv.)

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:36 (eighteen years ago)

Haha - it seems like there should be a division here between going off into tangents about your own life for the sake of "entertainment" and using the first person to discuss something that might be particular to you but could also resonate for others. I think it's sometimes OK in a review to give a bit of background on a given point, especially if you have more words, so that readers know where you are coming from. But it's something that needs to done w/ caution, obv.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Sunday, 29 April 2007 18:44 (eighteen years ago)

it seems like there should be a division here between going off into tangents about your own life for the sake of "entertainment" and using the first person to discuss something that might be particular to you but could also resonate for others

Absolutely. I'd say there's a significant difference between "unrelated wacky story to convince you of my writing prowess" and "wacky story that colors my perception of this album."

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 29 April 2007 20:56 (eighteen years ago)

if ur reviewing a film it's kind of more honest to say "it scared me" or "i lolled" than "it is scary" or "it is funny", but that's as far as i'll go.

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 29 April 2007 21:19 (eighteen years ago)

I do this all the time when I can because a) I'm not Alex Ross or some musician, myself and my own taste is all I really know, and b) I don't like the arrogance of "This Is The Truth", more like "This Is Just My Opinion", and c) it's easier than maintaining the fiction of impartiality. But when editors say don't do it I don't do it.

― Dimension 5ive, Sunday, 29 April 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

My teacher didn't like the first person review, but her edits were (I think) pretty terrible (e.g. ME: "...a surprisingly t0uching song with a killer mel0dy and a believable vocal perf0rmance" HER: (circling 'believable vocal perf0rmance') "Give example." - There was a much worse edit, but it would basically involve pasting the whole article, which I probably shouldn't do yet)

― Tape Store, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:34 (eighteen years ago)

Very few writers can pull it off well, so I say dud. I don't like novelty reviews of any sort. They make me feel as if the writer were compensating for a lack of true insight.

― Moodles, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:02 (eighteen years ago)

sw00ds and 5ive especially OTM, but so is everyone else on this thread so far. To sum up: self-awareness yay, self-indulgence boo (unless it's done right). But what about this -- Acting like your subjective experience is unrelated to your subjective response: C or D?

― dad a, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:18 (eighteen years ago)

I feel really stilted and forced and false when I try and exclude myself from a bit of writing. But I hate writing reviews anyway.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:12 (eighteen years ago)

I'm fairly new to the game, but have been told to keep myself out of the reviews. Good advice or Stalinist oppression(, man)?

― Matthew H, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:29 (eighteen years ago)

Blah blah blah learn the rules before you break them blah blah blah.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:30 (eighteen years ago)

IPC rules are that you're not allowed to use the first person under any circumstances.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

I accidentally read Marcello's post as "ICP rules are that you're not allowed to use the first person under any circumstances." I was going to chime in with an OTM, but then I reread it. Foiled again.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:56 (eighteen years ago)

That is what he said.

― braveclub, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

No, it isn't. As much as I wish it was.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:00 (eighteen years ago)

Whoever ICP are, unless he means the Dutch improv collective.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:01 (eighteen years ago)

haha i had to reread all of the last three posts twice to work out wtf people were saying. i get it now!

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:01 (eighteen years ago)

Insane Clown Posse?

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

I used the phrase "I think they're terrific" in the Stylus Electrelane review yesterday.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:03 (eighteen years ago)

ICP = Insane Clown Posse. Yes. Forgive me, it's 6:00 AM here, and I haven't slept last night. I find the possible ICP elimination of the first-person narrative really, really funny at the moment.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:05 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, them.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:06 (eighteen years ago)

if yrself = someone i want to punch, dud

if yrself = someone i do not want to punch, classic

― strgn, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:07 (eighteen years ago)

in other words, i would rather not read marcello carlin writing about himself in a review of any kind.

― strgn, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:08 (eighteen years ago)

Writing about yourself = always Classic.
Writing about Lester Bangs, or someone else, and pretending you're writing about yourself = Dud.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:19 (eighteen years ago)

Is it that time of the week again already?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 10:23 (eighteen years ago)

On a blog: classic, and indeed recommended.

I cannot imagine a blogger ever stooping to writing about themself.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago)

I don't do it that often, but I felt like it was merited at the end of [Removed Illegal Link].

― unperson, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:57 (eighteen years ago)

The illegal link in question:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0718,freeman,76501,22.html

― unperson, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

hey, does anyone think everyone should write like they're lester bangs? just wondering if it's a good idea! thanks

― s1ocki, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:01 (eighteen years ago)

Not advisable, in an Insane Clown Posse/New York Dolls sense.

Since I don't write reviews any more, it thankfully doesn't apply to me.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

Finally, ICP make an appearance.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

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