[NewMusic] breathtakingly bad

[Phillip Greenlief]

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Sarah - 21 Grand
Subject: [NewMusic] breathtakingly bad

- Well, uh, speaking as someone who has written harshly about art I
didn't
enjoy and made said writing public ... I tend not to write about art I
dislike that just "isn't my cup of tea." There are things I dislike
because
I find the genre/medium boring, conventional, things that just are at
odds
w/my personal aesthetic/sensibility, things that are mediocre made by
someone or shown somewhere I'd expect no more from. I don't write about
these things. I'm not going to write a scathing review of sloppy
collages
shown at a café. I'm not going to write a negative review of an
installation
that has whimsical birdies on model tree branches that's really just too
cutesy and fey for my tastes.  I'm not going to write a negative review
about derivative ab-ex painting - mainly because I'm not that interested
in
painting to begin with, and as a piece of writing, what would that
really
contribute to any discussion or give the reader something interesting to
think about. Yep, people are still imitating ab-ex painters from the 40s
and
50s ... most of the current stuff sucks. It's kinda like dissing Phil
Collins' mid-80s output here.

PG:
Thanks for expanding on my point - this is a more complete statement on
my previous thoughts on the subject. Most of my critical writing has
been on film - and as you all know, there is just so much bad
film-making out there...it's too easy to say what isn't good - it seems
harder to find things that have some value. So I tend to write about
films that take us to new places, or films that have something valuable
to say, regardless of how it's said or expressed visually.

On that subject, there are some new Criterion releases coming out that
are really outstanding: hordes of classic 60's Japanese cinema and a
fairly new Ozu box-set; Tarkovsky's first effort from 1962, which is
really one of my all-time favorites (My Name is Ivan - or as it is
sometimes called Ivan's Childhood); Chris Marker's La Jetee and Sans
Soleil; Melville's Army of Shadows, along with Les Enfants Terribles -
his collaboration with Jean Cocteau; two Jarmusch releases; and GW
Pabst's outstanding Three Penny Opera. Since this is a music list, I
won't bother saying why these films RULE, just that they are worth
checking out.

More info here:
http://www.criterion.com/asp/new_releases.asp

Sarah
- However, thinking about my rationale for writing and publishing harsh
critiques, I decided the following:
- My primary impetus to do so is based on the work failing or being
deceptive on its own terms, the terms themselves, or the goals the work
has
set for itself, or the ideas it's trying to explore are things that
interest
me.
- In order for the critique to be fair (and relevant), I need to look at
it
in the context it set for itself, its intent, similar work/projects in
the
same genre, etc. I won't write about something I don't know enough
about.
- and some of it is about taking something down a notch ... I might not
have
written one of the harsh show reviews I did if it had been at some
artist-run gallery or warehouse, but because it was Yerba Buena, I felt
better about it.

PG:
Fair enough - those are fine critical guidelines to follow. 

Anyone been down to LA to see the Flavin retrospective? I enjoyed seeing
those pieces nicely displayed, although so much of LACMA's permanent
collection is out of reach at the moment (they're doing big-time
renovations), it may not be worth your while - there isn't much to see
these days there other than the Flavin.