It will be no secret to good friends of mine that I've long harboured a "being a rock star" fantasy. Of late, since I've gotten into more art writing and criticism, the fantasy has taken on a "hey, maybe I could be a rock star singing about art criticism" turn. Maybe even in a band with other art writers -- we could call ourselves "The Critics" and do really horrible performances or something. Nothing I wanted to make too real, mind you, just one of those little flights of fancy.
Well... imagine my surprise to read Jonathan Goldsbie's Torontoist report about Newzapalooza, a benefit concert put on by—you got it—bands of writers/journalists. (The kicker -- the benefit isn't even to help save print media!)
In any case, reading about this event has re-sparked my "The Critics" stage-rocking fantasy. The only question left now is... what art-crit-relevant songs are appropriate? I'm open to suggestion, but here's the ones I thought of to start with:
For the painful/bad art viewing experience: "Every time I see your picture I cry" by Luba
This one's more for when you're trying to get a hold of an artist or other for an interview, without success: "867-5309" by Tommy Tutone
For the nasty-letter receiving critic/hurt artist situation: "Do you really want to hurt me" by Culture Club
For general errata-related discontent: "Tribulations" by LCD Soundsystem
A few more ideas:
"Fake Headlines" by the New Pornographers for that sense of surreality and the line "I Filled the Whole Front Page/ With the Catchiest Words I could Find"
"The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem also is suitable in terms of plagiarism concerns.
And for a general sum-up of the main critics--at least in Toronto--and of course I am VERY included: "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic.
Any other suggestions? My ability to sing other's people's words poorly crosses all genres and time periods.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Building an Art Critical Playlist
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