Apollinaire: the critics of the critics of the critics

The arts consultant who goes by the alias "August Savage" wanted to know whether others have complained about the Time Out New York issue Judgement Day, in which artists, arts publicists, and artistic directors rated New York arts critics.

So I went a-googling.

August will be happy to learn that though people may not agree over whether there's any point to the exercise in the first place, they are unanimous in their skepticism over the results.

Among these people are fellow AJ bloggers Terry Teachout (scroll down to Tuesday Dec. 7 entry, "Turnabout") and Lee Rosenbaum, a.k.a. Culturegrrl, and dance critics Rachel Howard and Leigh Witchel. Witchel's DIY guide to critiquing critics is worth checking out.

Theatre blogger Playgoer's readers raise more objections to the judging criteria--and do a little experiment, where they eliminate "Influence" from the five criteria and see where that lands critics in the numbers game. [Update: One of the readers, Isaac Butler, has his own interesting post. In case you want to go there directly, here it is.]

Wicked Stage blogger Rob Kendt finds all this tableturning a dubious and guilty pleasure. But should we believe him when he also finds my name "preposterous"? Could people kindly lay off my name? It's not, in case you were wondering, a nomme de plume. It was my parents' idea--and one of their better ones. (But I should be charitable. If I'd been damned with a name as dull as mud--I mean, as Rob-- I'd probably be going around insulting people right and left too!)

Pop (music?) critic Jason Gross is uncomfortable with the whole premise that critics are out to nail artists and are now getting their comeuppance. He points out that many critics "care deeply about the artists."

Alright. That's the only substantive commentary I found. (There were complaints about the results for the food critics, too, but this being an Artsjournal blog, I think I'll leave those be.)

If anyone finds additional critics of the critics of the critics, please send the links my way. And, of course, I'm always happy to receive homegrown comments.

December 14, 2006 11:26 PM | | Comments (0)

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Topics on Tap

Apollinaire, Saturday July 5: Neil Greenberg's surface unconscious
Apollinaire, Wednesday June 11: Premieres by the Bolshoi's Alexei Ratmansky, Twyla Tharp, and Michael Clark--lot o' thoughts
Saturday May 17, Apollinaire:  Eleanor Bauer's refreshing and expansive "At Large"
May 10, Lori Ortiz and Apollinaire: war dances and the new Inertia Movement
Tuesday May 6, Apollinaire:  The unbearably anxious "Watermill"
Sunday, May 4, Apollinaire, Paul, and Claire Willey: What's going on with the loss of so many critics?
previous

Contributors

Eva Yaa Asantewaa 

has written dance journalism and criticism since 1976, published most notably in Dance Magazine, Soho News, The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Gay City News, and on her own blog, InfiniteBody.

Paul Parish 

is a regular contributor to Danceviewtimes and San Francisco magazine, and has contributed to many other publications. He was a Rhodes Scholar same time as Bill Clinton. He lives and dances in Berkeley.

Me Elsewhere

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by foot in mouth published on December 14, 2006 11:26 PM.

An arts consultant responds: The Time Out survey is "deplorable" was the previous entry in this blog.

Apollinaire: neighbors Doug and John over at Diacritical is the next entry in this blog.

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