Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Check it out: A negative review of me and a video I made! I would warn you about spoilers but to a certain extent the description of what happens is inaccurate. She also gets the title of the piece wrong. I am described as nerdy-looking, which is not inaccurate, but the reviewer doesn't make the connection that I am the person she is describing thusly. I am not going to respond to any of her actual critiques.

11 comments:

Emilie said...

Is there a place on the internet where I can view the video?

Brian said...

Nope!

laura said...

what's "embarrassingly college" is writing one sentence, calling it a "review" and offering no actual critique. after reading that you can't really respond because you don't know what SHE'S responding to. bad reviews are awesome, by the way. and that's one of my absolute favorite of your videos- i think it's beautiful. TAKE THAT TACOMA.

Brian said...

Oh, no, I know exactly what she's talking about. I'm not responding to her critiques because of the fact that the language she uses sort of demonstrates interests anathema to my own- talking about the cartoons as clever, but the setting on fire is not that. It's not supposed to be. As Alex put it, not only is it not clever, it's straight-up not smart, in that it's dangerous. Also, she describes the whole thing as college-y, which, while it's meant to be dismissive, is accurate inasmuch as I did make that video while I was in college.

It would've been rad if she had tried to get at what she viewed the piece as being about, but that's kind of too much to expect from someone who didn't enjoy the piece and is writing about it for a newspaper's blog.

laura said...

If you're writing for a newspaper blog, as a sort of entertainment writer, it IS your job to provide reasons for your opinions. I would even go as far to say that it's more important for her to elaborate on something she doesn't like, because endorsements are theoretically going to draw people to the art so that they can experience it for themselves, whereas being dismissive potentially turns people away--in this case without offering a reason. I think this is pretty fundamental logic, although in another vein I'm sure the VP debates tonight will glorify the vague, undefended opinion.

Brian said...

There's a huge difference between offering an interpretation and offering reason behind her opinions. And I can absolutely see her rationale, as there are a great many things I dislike because I view them as having culture references for the sake of cheap recognition without having a reason or voice behind it. If she doesn't want to delve deeper, I can understand her disliking the piece on a shallow level: She is older than me, and has a different relationship to the symbols I'm using than I do and might not be able to parse what I mean by them. Although she seemed to think those references were "arch," which is weird. Actually, she didn't seem to dislike the animated stuff at all.

I appreciate you defending me as a friend, but she totally wrote more than one sentence, and she's not super-dismissive. I heard she called the last video work to show at the Tollbooth "inane" which is the sort of language much more likely to dissuade investigation than saying there are culture references a nerd with a shirt on fire.

Brian said...

Alternately, her reaction is not that different from my mom's, who said she thought that my animation was "more artistic" than the rest of the stuff (because she wasn't trying to look for a meaning to the piece as a whole and would not recognize the conclusions I had come to that led to my making the video anyway) and didn't like me setting myself on fire because it was dangerous and freaked her out, but still asked people she met in Olympia if they had seen it.

I should also say that saying I appreciate you defending me as a friend I also appreciate you saying this as someone who liked the video and thought it was beautiful. Obviously that is very nice.

laura said...

What makes this a difficult conversation to have is that you made the video and I am a friend that really likes that video. I feel like your objectivity is more apparent than mine, but I'm actually speaking generally here. I read a lot of reviews--this is something I think about. I have a book of reviews written about the Velvet Underground, it's fun to sift through and think about context, looking at this synthesis of different publications talking about the same thing in a very different time (this is also fun to do with archived magazines-substantial reviews say a lot about the culture). Negative reviews are often more interesting; I think this tends to be consensus but criticism is maybe something I appreciate more having missed the hell out of it as an undergrad. That being said, I still don't agree with you. The difference between interpretation and offering reason for your opinions becomes crucial when you're publishing that interpretation. Interpretation is this very personal reaction you have to stimuli, reasons being offered for that interpretation being something you provide people with so they can better understand your idea about "x" and "x" itself.I don't think it's asking too much for this to be expected upon opening a newspaper or seeking out a certain editorial web space. This is maybe where my argument weakens due to internet culture.. the ease with which these opinions are expressed...but it does still strike me as completely inconsequential, and at its worst, irresponsible.

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Anonymous said...


Недавно задумался: а смогу ли я в России хоть когда-нибудь приобрести для себя новое жилье? И пришел к выводу, что это не смогу сделать ни я, ни, скорее всего, мои дети, когда вырастут. Даже во время кризиса цены на квадратный метр не упали до такого уровня, чтобы можно было не то чтобы накопить на квартиру (даже небольшую, эконом-класса), но даже чтобы можно было воспользоваться ипотекой (проценты-то по ней просто неподъемные). Есть у меня большие подозрения (да это и эксперты многие подтверждают), что рынок недвижимости у нас – просто «мыльный пузырь», и цены на нем в несколько раз выше, чем, по идее, должны были бы быть. Слышал что в Казахстане, к примеру, установлена фиксированная цена квадратного метра, которая регулируется государством, и выше которой никто из застройщиков не может продавать жилье. К тому же там и ставки по ипотеке вроде как намного ниже. Кто-нить из форумчан имеет более подробную инфу по этому поводу, действительно ли это так?
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