spookychan: siriuslymeg: zeiferrei: greykitty: Sword Fight with… UR MOM. lmao how fitting. Married to… Voldemort Well this fucking sucks. Host a tv show with Wall-E.  O_o “Replace the human population with Santa Claus.” Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not fair! That dude is always hogging my bday! I think I can live with switching places with Harry Potter, but I won’t be getting rid of that Elder Wand…
The Problem With Music Critics eve-barlow: Dear Will Hodgkinson, I write this letter with the utmost respect, really I do. I wouldn’t go out and buy The Times every Saturday if I didn’t maintain that the quality of its journalism is undoubtedly outstanding. I have one bugbear; something that sits across the music press but which is highlighted by your review of Rihanna’s Talk That Talk this week. More people are accessing more music in more varieties from more sources than ever before. It’s a thrilling age for music fans; a vastly increasing demographic whose tastes have become highly unpredictable. Beyond this, in the digital age music lovers are accessing previews of records online, reading widely around them via the blogosphere and are making their minds up before the music press goes to print. The quality of these blogs aside, it’s clear that the people behind them are getting the point of music releases; they’re exciting. The fact that the blogosphere is conveying a text-speak written but nevertheless enthusiastic zeal for music (and one that comes free of charge) makes it a constant threat to intelligent and informed music journalism. Before you assume this a gripe about the need to be EXCITED! ABOUT! ALL! MAINSTREAM! AND! POPULAR! RELEASES! REGARDLESS! OF! REAL! OPINION! ALL! THE! TIME!, please bear with me. Plenty people won’t be won over by the Rihanna album. To that effect, it’s a 3-star album. Those who enjoy that sort of thing will, but those who don’t won’t. Fine. Not fine. Those unaffected by the Rihanna release aren’t going to be really interested in what journos have to say, are they? Those most likely to read the review are the listeners anticipating the release, who may have heard some of it and await a professional’s entertaining and argued assessment. To me, there is one key ingredient lacking across the board of music titles and newspaper sections, which has nothing to do with star ratings. I am filled with dread by the concept of five star rating systems; the amount of 3-star film reviews I’ve written in the past year is embarrassing. This is about the reviews themselves, and more importantly, the reviewers commissioned to write.   Read More

The Problem With Music Critics

eve-barlow:

Dear Will Hodgkinson,

I write this letter with the utmost respect, really I do. I wouldn’t go out and buy The Times every Saturday if I didn’t maintain that the quality of its journalism is undoubtedly outstanding. I have one bugbear; something that sits across the music press but which is highlighted by your review of Rihanna’s Talk That Talk this week.

More people are accessing more music in more varieties from more sources than ever before. It’s a thrilling age for music fans; a vastly increasing demographic whose tastes have become highly unpredictable. Beyond this, in the digital age music lovers are accessing previews of records online, reading widely around them via the blogosphere and are making their minds up before the music press goes to print. The quality of these blogs aside, it’s clear that the people behind them are getting the point of music releases; they’re exciting. The fact that the blogosphere is conveying a text-speak written but nevertheless enthusiastic zeal for music (and one that comes free of charge) makes it a constant threat to intelligent and informed music journalism.

Before you assume this a gripe about the need to be EXCITED! ABOUT! ALL! MAINSTREAM! AND! POPULAR! RELEASES! REGARDLESS! OF! REAL! OPINION! ALL! THE! TIME!, please bear with me. Plenty people won’t be won over by the Rihanna album. To that effect, it’s a 3-star album. Those who enjoy that sort of thing will, but those who don’t won’t. Fine.

Not fine. Those unaffected by the Rihanna release aren’t going to be really interested in what journos have to say, are they? Those most likely to read the review are the listeners anticipating the release, who may have heard some of it and await a professional’s entertaining and argued assessment. To me, there is one key ingredient lacking across the board of music titles and newspaper sections, which has nothing to do with star ratings. I am filled with dread by the concept of five star rating systems; the amount of 3-star film reviews I’ve written in the past year is embarrassing. This is about the reviews themselves, and more importantly, the reviewers commissioned to write.

 

Read More

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  What would a child’s drawing look like if it were painted realistically? Artist Dave DeVries says: It began at the Jersey Shore in 1998, where my niece Jessica often filled my sketchbook with doodles. While I stared at them, I wondered if color, texture and shading could be applied for a 3D effect. As a painter, I made cartoons look three dimensional every day for the likes of Marvel and DC comics, so why couldn’t I apply those same techniques to a kid’s drawing? That was it… no research, no years of toil, just the curiosity of seeing Jessica’s drawings come to life. The Monster Engine is the 48-page outcome from that curiosity, and it looks wonderful. He describes the process as follows: I project a child’s drawing with an opaque projector, faithfully tracing each line. Applying a combination of logic and instinct, I then paint the image as realistically as I can.
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