Well, i was going to post a public apology, but then it got lost to a shuffle of copy and pastes, so here’s the condensed version.
I slagged the new Patti Rothberg record on the 11th of January. I didn’t like it. Since then, i’ve grown to like it, but it’s my stance that i don’t reccomend albums that i don’t like on my first listen to the general public (though i still have kind words for them to fans), so i never updated my review.
This week Mr. Freddie Katz, Patti’s current guitarist and songwriting pal, found my site via Google and read my scathing review and my indictment of him as the fault behind why i didn’t like the album. He emailed me and basically pegged me as the kind of fan who isn’t. It hurt. But, it was true, because what i said hurt him, and as a member of the general public i shouldn’t have that right.
Whoever knew someone mildly famous might randomly search down their name on my website? Certainly not i. Anyhow, i replied to Freddie and apologized, and informed him that i quite like the record now, which is true. I honestly would have rather heard Patti produce herself, or play every guitar on the record again, but she’s the artist and he claims the record met her artistic vision … which is enough for me.
Anyhow, my best wishes to Patti and Freddie in the future. I’ll still be listening. I dunno if either of them ever want to talk to me again, though. I think what this all proves is that i’m a shithead… yep. In case you hadn’t figured it out already.
consume
The aforementioned Biz Stone has a link to the movie site for Plan B, which happens to be the title of one of the most disarmingly entertaining books i’ve read in the past year. A cursory glance at the site would seem to indicate that it doesn’t have anything to do with the book, which sucks, because i was really hoping for a movie version of it! The book is essentially the story of five friends who are all about to turn 30 while still being totally miserable and unadult. One of them happens to be a movie star, and his cocaine addiction brings the five of them together for some arson, car accidents, fisticuffs in the middle of the road, and sex. Just pretend that Joey on Friends was slightly more intelligent and a much better actor, and then you might have an idea of the relationships all of the other characters have to each other. Anyhow, i was really excited for a second there. Also, Biz Stone seems to rock, so go read him.
Wow, that was a long day. I’m not sure where it all went… i ushered for two concerts and talked a little bit to her and wound up in the recording studio engineering someone’s Senior Project.
Have you ever seen the second Batman movie? You know how Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are dating each other and fighting each other as Batman and Catwoman at the same time? The scene that always stuck out for me is when they’re making out at Bruce’s place and as they grope each other they catch all of the scars that they’d left on each other in their battles. Of course, neither of them says anything since their identities are supposed to be secret.
I was thinking a lot about that scene today. I don’t know exactly why, but it just felt accurate… like each of us had our Superhero selves in public and only ever revealed our secret identities to each other when we were all alone – and now when we’re alone all we can do is poke and prod at each others wounds without the other ever being able to say a damn thing about it.
Does that metaphor work for you? For additional metaphorical material, see Ani DiFranco’s “Superhero” or “Pulse.”
There’s a Tori Amos song from Boys for Pele called “Marianne” that is a partially fictionalized account of a girl that Tori used to be good friends with. The song portrays Marianne as a suicide, but to hear Tori tell the story she was just a beautiful girl who was too engrossed with the wrong people and eventually succumbed to some sort of overdose while she was still in highschool.
Recently a large discussion on Precious Things erupted over the details of the situation … people wanted to know who Marianne really was. While their interest was rather non-threatening at first, some members of the community kept on pushing … when the overdose was mentioned by someone who is familiar with Tori’s hometown community some people immediately wanted to know what the overdose was on and the circumstances it was under, and i found myself thinking … Is that fair? It’s none of our business who this girl was, and we only know anything about it because Tori decided to divulge something about her so that the song could be viewed fully in the context of what occurred in actual life. But, just because Tori wrote a song about Marianne doesn’t make her life public record, despite what some of the more obsessive fans seem to be thinking.
It’s like… i’m reading a book about a woman that Goethe wrote a novel about, and it’s all about how everyone hounds her over forty years later because of what they assume her to be from Goethe’s work, when she never intended to be written about in the first place. It’s one thing to open yourself to close examination by making yourself famous, but that doesn’t give the public a right to scour your entire life for the people who have motivated and inspired you – and to impose upon them similar treatment. It’s not quite the same with someone who’s passed away, because they don’t have to endure the inquisitive public but they do have to suffer the constant pressure against the memories people have of them.
I don’t mind the plotting out of my own Behind the Music, but i don’t know if i’m comfortable with the idea that every album of songs i write opens up the door for someone to track down the person they’re about decades later… it’s especially unfair when that person doesn’t even know what sort of inspiration they’re causing. Oh well… something for all of you overly chatty storyteller songwriters to think about…
Apparently i was supposed to “hunker down with a pair of headphones” and closely examine Kid A, but i frankly don’t have the time. I’ll be the first to admit that there are hundreds of albums that i would fall in love with if given the chance, but when artists like Sarah Harmer can grab me in a half a listen i don’t know why i should waste my time on an album that i spent hours listening to while only ever really liking two or three songs. It’s one thing to tell me that i shouldn’t just discard an album after a single listen, but i gave Kid A more than just a casual listen at work (where i’ve discovered tons of my current favourite discs, from Ben Folds to Portishead) and it never took hold. Maybe i’m just too into riffs and songs that can be broken down to a single acoustic guitar; god knows i loved Pablo Honey from the first time it ever entered the shop’s disc changer. or, maybe i just hated kid A more and more as i found out from Pablo that Radiohead really was the next best rock band and that they obviously failed us horribly before they could ever prove their point. Or something? I dunno.