RE: What's wrong with loops

["Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)" <emile@foryourhead.com>]

At 9:53 AM -0800 12/27/05, David Gans wrote:
>>
>
>I have a tendency to approach music (as other forms of art) on its 
>own terms.  I know a few self-styled critics who love to tear 
>something apart for not being what the critic would have created if 
>only he'd had the time, blah blah blah - but to me it makes more 
>sense to let the art define its own terms, and find out what it's 
>trying to say.

Well put.

I'd add that it also makes sense to accept the fact that one's lack 
of interest in what the art is trying to say does not  imply that the 
art is 'bad'. I'm sure we've all had the experience of hearing music 
we really liked at the time and then rapidly grew sick of.  I know 
I've had the opposite experience of hearing a disk I just couldn't 
get, putting it on a couple of years later and wondering how I could 
have missed it.

>(That's the best way to deal with the Grateful Dead, of course: they 
>built a universe of their own and succeeded mightily in there, and 
>the fact that so many found their music incomprehensible or worse 
>made no difference to their ability to earn a handsome living doing 
>it.  I know what's good about GD music and what's good about other 
>music, and I don't confuse the two.)

For me (at least) there are points of overlap with many other forms of 
music.

>
>
>>What did the music critic say after his preconceptions wore off?
>>Hmmmmm.  That might be interesting.

I'm trying to recall a case where I actually read of a music critic 
admitting that his preconceptions have worn off. OTOH I recall a very 
useful review by a critic who didn't like a disk, but was able to 
describe the music fairly and well enough to make me realize that I 
would.

OK -- time to stop procrastinating and get back to the art.
-- 

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two 
opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the 
ability to function."

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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                Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D.
Video Producer                  Image Processing Specialist
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