Yes, I will critique your blog. That's a service I am willing to provide. At some point, maybe provide for a fee, sure. But to start out, though, maybe a little pro bono work just to get my foot in the door.
Anyway, how it works will be: post a comment here on this post asking me to do it. If you've got more than one blog, please pick one and specify. And it's got to be something that links from your profile! I don't want any of you pranksters siccing me on the unsuspecting. But barring such chicanery: post your comment, then I'll go over to your blog and critique every post there for the past month, or 30 posts, whichever comes first.
Now by "critique," I don't mean I'll just go to town on it with insults, or be witheringly, devastatingly negative. No way! I mean a real critique. Pointing out formal, aesthetic and thematic aspects, and such. Something like:
(sample comment of me Critiquing Your Blog):
Heck. I like that quite a bit! I'll probably find a way to work that particular critique in on at least one of your posts.
But hey hold on there! I don't mean to give the impression that it's going to be all soothing salve and rose water! If I have some on-point suggestions of things that maybe could have been done differently, I will not shy from shooting from the hip on those! Let's revisit the above example with that in mind:
There. Now that's a bit more of a balanced picture. After all, it would hardly be a worthy service if I stinted on the actual pointing-shit-out aspect!
So! Who's up for some constructive criticism? Any critiques I make that you don't care for, I won't be the slightest bit offended if you delete 'em. I'm an artist, after all. I understand the sensitivity involved when you really get ripped on an incisive and exceptionally valid critique that's a little bit truer and more close to the bone than maybe you were ready to handle just then. But if you do delete a given comment? Save it. Copy paste it someplace. For later. That's a favor from you to you, for the future.
CAVEAT: of course I am aware that if I just show up, critiquing a whole slew of your blog posts right straight out of nowhere, any regular commenters you may have are probably going to think I'm Captain Dick Phallus of the Right Cock Brigade. If you want to set 'em straight, or if you want to just leave it hanging out there unaddressed, I leave that to you. Now, I won't take it too kind if you yourself retort with abuse after asking for my help! But as far as any bystanders go, I can take the heat.
Anyway, how it works will be: post a comment here on this post asking me to do it. If you've got more than one blog, please pick one and specify. And it's got to be something that links from your profile! I don't want any of you pranksters siccing me on the unsuspecting. But barring such chicanery: post your comment, then I'll go over to your blog and critique every post there for the past month, or 30 posts, whichever comes first.
Now by "critique," I don't mean I'll just go to town on it with insults, or be witheringly, devastatingly negative. No way! I mean a real critique. Pointing out formal, aesthetic and thematic aspects, and such. Something like:
(sample comment of me Critiquing Your Blog):
dogimo said...
Nice build. I like the way you develop your two primary themes, and then introduce the thesis almost as if in counterpoint.
OCTOBER 13, 2009 11:11 PM
Heck. I like that quite a bit! I'll probably find a way to work that particular critique in on at least one of your posts.
But hey hold on there! I don't mean to give the impression that it's going to be all soothing salve and rose water! If I have some on-point suggestions of things that maybe could have been done differently, I will not shy from shooting from the hip on those! Let's revisit the above example with that in mind:
dogimo said...
Nice build. I like the way you develop your two primary themes, and then introduce the thesis almost as if in counterpoint. It might have had a bit more impact if you recapitulated the initial themes again at the end, but in a way that illustrates how our changed understanding of them has transformed the entire nature of the question. Maybe try to develop that angle in a followup post?
OCTOBER 13, 2009 11:11 PM
There. Now that's a bit more of a balanced picture. After all, it would hardly be a worthy service if I stinted on the actual pointing-shit-out aspect!
So! Who's up for some constructive criticism? Any critiques I make that you don't care for, I won't be the slightest bit offended if you delete 'em. I'm an artist, after all. I understand the sensitivity involved when you really get ripped on an incisive and exceptionally valid critique that's a little bit truer and more close to the bone than maybe you were ready to handle just then. But if you do delete a given comment? Save it. Copy paste it someplace. For later. That's a favor from you to you, for the future.
CAVEAT: of course I am aware that if I just show up, critiquing a whole slew of your blog posts right straight out of nowhere, any regular commenters you may have are probably going to think I'm Captain Dick Phallus of the Right Cock Brigade. If you want to set 'em straight, or if you want to just leave it hanging out there unaddressed, I leave that to you. Now, I won't take it too kind if you yourself retort with abuse after asking for my help! But as far as any bystanders go, I can take the heat.
Comments
I will at a minimum consider every assignment offered. That's my guarantee.
If I put that in latin, could be a motto of mine!
But task-wise, I don't know, most folks' month's worth of posts is not a huge number. If a ton of people took me up on it, sure I'd probably have to turn it into a limited-time offer REAL fast! But so far, no takers.
I have to warn you though - if I can come up with some "BIG THEORY" to try to "tie it all together," I'm going to take a crack at it! Hopefully some of the details I come up with will be useful food for thought, even if I might get a little invalid in the big picture aspect.
I like to look at it like Roger Ebert - he always says he critiques a popcorn shlocker differently from an arty Swedish existentialist flick, because they're each after different effects.
Happy Halloween!
Therefore I declare this a limited-time service offer effective immediately: no more takers.
But for you of course, I'm going not going to welch the other half of the task. Instead of continuing on into the latter half of October, though, I'm going to go backwards to cover the first half of the road trip you chronicle.
Your blog is very good! Very entertaining, the photos engage and your humorous observations are so often right on the spot. Deserves better than the effort I've got in me to muster forth, critique-wise.
You know what I think the problem is? Your blog is not pretentious enough. I think I'd be much better at critiquing blogs that have some kind of axe to grind, vis-a-vis artistic, aesthetic theory. It's easier to critique something when somebody sets themself up with a mark like that you can grade against.
Still. Looking forward to part 1 of the trip I just saw part 2 of!