MY LIFE AND THOUGHTS

OK, so I may not be the most politically conscious person you will meet all week (see previous post), but I did decide to vote today. Since they’re asking, I figured, I might as well let them know my opinion about whether it’s a good idea to build a $1 billion “peace center” on Alcatraz Island.

My favorite part about voting is that my registered polling location is literally inside some dude’s garage.

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After my recent post about Vampire Weekend, I got an email from my friend Sam Frank (a former copyeditor of n+1, a current music reviewer for Dusted, and a future editor of Triple Canopy), forwarding me the links to two reviews of Vampire Weekend—pro- and anti-—in the Village Voice. Reading these pieces, I found myself musing upon the reasons why I don’t like music reviews, which is what I’m going to write about today.

The main reason I don’t like pop music reviews is their increasing bent towards political criticism. Music reviewers have developed a whole lexicon (“precious,” “twee”) to pass off sociopolitical critique as aesthetic critique. It’s true of course that music can be an effective instrument of social change, but it’s not like there aren’t other, more direct instruments out there (teaching in schools, lobbying Congress, etc.). So why has social progressiveness become the privileged benchmark of musical merit?

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During the three months of its existence, this blog has received over 160 hits from people Googling “Keith Gessen” (image, right, from Gawker), and I feel the time has come to recognize Keith’s fans for the interest they have shown in my life and thoughts. Let me begin by individually thanking the Googlers of the following phrases: keith gessen biography (Washington, D.C.; 8 min., 27 sec.); keith gessen blog (Winooski, VT; 7 min., 20 sec.); and keith gessen crisis (Denver, CO; 4 min. flat).