Author: James McNally

Critiquing the Rise of “Democratic” Criticism

Professional blogger Jason Kottke is taking part in a panel discussion about the rise of citizen critics. This is an idea I floated for a SXSW panel about three years ago. Never got the callback, but I still think this would be a great panel. I mean, I’ve got friends who swear by Metacritic, but I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. I’m much more comfortable with the recommendations of trusted friends or professional critics whose tastes I’m aligned with.

If you’re in NYC on November 3rd, check it out and let me know what you thought.

Spoon 2005, Part 2

my ticket stub

Just got home from seeing my favourite band. It was a bit surreal tonight because earlier, I’d emailed Britt Daniel (singer/guitarist) to ask if, as usual, he’d save me a setlist and also requested a song. In the middle of the show, they played it, and Britt said, “This one’s for James McNally, who’s come to every one of our Toronto shows, even back when we were playing with Jimmy’s Chicken Shack.” (That was in 1998, by the way). So I felt like a groupie. Afterward, there was a large group of people waiting to talk to Britt, and he actually had to ask if I was there. After I meekly raised my hand and got the setlist, a couple of drunken new fans wanted to shake my hand. I hung around a bit longer until Britt wasn’t so mobbed, and actually got to talk to him for a few minutes.

It’s so weird to think that the first time Spoon played in Toronto, it was for about a dozen people, and I hung around afterward to sort of console the band. I remember speaking to all of them individually, just begging them not to give up on Toronto, or on the band. It seems like a long time ago, which it was, but it feels good to say that the band are more popular each time they come. Makes me feel older and odder, though.

They played a very good set tonight, Britt seemed relaxed and he commented that he thought the crowd were really great. The song they played for me was 30 Gallon Tank, from their 1998 album A Series of Sneaks, and they hardly play anything from that era anymore. Britt said he had to talk Jim (drummer Jim Eno) into it, because it’s a very challenging song for a drummer, and he was tired. But I think it’s good for all their new fans to hear some of the older stuff, too.

Anyway, a good time. And one of the rare occasions when I get to be a fanboy, er, fanman. Check out the playlist, linked at the bottom of my 2001 interview with Britt.

UPDATE: For a photo, and another take on the show, read Frank Yang’s always-excellent Chromewaves. I thought I spotted him there last night.

Harper’s On Torture

Harper’s is going from strength to strength recently, taking on the Iraq war with ferocity and honesty. Here are the last two paragraphs of an article about torture entitled “What We’ve Lost” by William Pfaff that appears in the November 2005 issue:

International illegality, the deliberate repudiation of international law, and torture, gratuitously employed in defiance of the moral intuitions of ordinary people, all show that the Bush Administration has chosen to place itself outside the moral community of modern Western democratic civilization. This is not an unwarranted or outrageous judgment; it logically follows from the evidence. It seems a strange choice to have been made by an American government that more than any other in history identifies itself with righteousness and with Christianity.

In that respect, if one is to invoke religious judgments, I would cite André Malraux’s remarks to the novelist Georges Bernanos, who had returned to France from wartime exile and asked what judgment Malraux made on Europe in 1945. Malraux replied, “With the camps, Satan has visibly reappeared over the world.”

Why aren’t the mainstream media talking this way?

Can You Trust Wikipedia?

This article in the Guardian might make a really interesting ongoing series. “Experts” examine articles in the user-edited Wikipedia and rate them on accuracy and comprehensiveness.

I know the whole idea of the Wikipedia has been the subject of debate, but here the focus is on the nitty-gritty. Are the articles actually useful? From my own experience, I love the way everything is cross-referenced and linked, but I think I’d be a little more comfortable with some editorial oversight, old snob that I am.