Back When I Reviewed
Some of the best times I had writing was back in college, reviewing music for the Georgia State University newspaper. When I realized again how happy that reviewing made me, it dawned on me that all my interviews and reviews (and now blogging) are an effort to recapture that creative happiness.
I can’t relax easily. It’s just a fact with me. My brain is always typically going in about 20 different directions with a poor ability to focus. But when I literally sat down to review an album (this was the late 1980s…) there was no stopping me–I had clear tunnel vision on that track, that voice, that instrument. And sometimes I recapture that feeling when I’m blogging. Rarely though and that bothers me. With this newfound realization, I’ve got some ideas to consider for this blog. I might try my hand at music reviews again. Or I may try something new. Clearly once I know what to try next (in addition to continuing my interviews with folks), you’ll be the next to know. (Just to clarify, I love doing interviews, it merely requires a different set of brain muscles and provides a different form of satisfaction than writing can offer me.)
What partially got me thinking about my reviewing days was Bob Harris’ post at Paper Cuts (the NYTimes Book Blog), Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing. The post, which offers some of the most overused words in reviews, really got me to consider what my “go to” words were when I reviewed. The comments section to the post is impressive, with 202 comments so far, many of which offering other words that folks hate to see misused or overused in reviews. If I do return to reviewing, I’ll do my best to avoid some of these words.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:55 am
“prove” is one of mine, as in “‘21′ proves to be surprisingly sluggish.” Because it’s an action verb that can sort of substitute for “to be” or “is.”
March 28th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Curt, am I correct in thinking that Kevin Spacey’s film career has been negatively impacted by his Old Vic gig?