tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post1545196763537116777..comments2024-03-27T21:41:50.122-07:00Comments on Iron Tongue of Midnight: Bloggers, Critics, and PresentersLisa Hirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-62714072435978683132012-03-25T22:33:45.490-07:002012-03-25T22:33:45.490-07:00Oh, goodness (whacking self in forehead)! Thank yo...Oh, goodness (whacking self in forehead)! Thank you for the reminder of something I once did know!!!Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-51967909673529176252012-03-25T22:21:06.164-07:002012-03-25T22:21:06.164-07:00The Philadelphia Inquirer still has two classical ...The Philadelphia Inquirer still has two classical music critics on staff, David Patrick Stearns and Peter Dobrin. <br /><br />That statement is a bit misleading, though. At this point, Dobrin is as much culture reporter (covering music and non-music subjects) as music critic. Stearns does most of the profiles of musicians coming through town and the greater share of reviewing. (He does almost <i>all</i> the reviewing of local groups that aren't the Philadelphia Orchestra or the Opera Company of Philadelphia.)MEWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03553201225739288581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-36687836935809986852012-03-20T09:56:27.974-07:002012-03-20T09:56:27.974-07:00Excellent observations as usual, Lisa, which make ...Excellent observations as usual, Lisa, which make me want to add my two cents. For awhile, I reposted almost everything I'd written on my blog onto the local Examiner.com site (under my real name) and arts organizations and PR companies for performers quoted from it left and right, as the "Examiner" imprimatur seems to convey some sort of validation, despite the fact that anyone can write for them and many of the people who do are seriously bad writers or just plain boring.<br /><br />After it became too cumbersome to follow their rules and because I didn't want to be associated with the other local coverage on the site, I bailed on it. Now it's very rare to see a quote lifted for publicity from A Beast, and almost every other blog I know of, with LAO being the one consistent exception, even though there's no qualitative difference between what I wrote on the blog vs what I placed on the Examiner site (except for ommitting the character narratives found in the blog).<br /><br />I think this is a shame for the companies themselves, who seemingly have decided to not call attention to positive coverage of their events found in blogs, even though here in the Bay Area there are usually more bloggers covering performances than there are representaives from the more "traditional" outlets.<br /><br />And yet we do have an effect- a case in point being the debut of Urban Opera a couple of years ago. Their production of Dido and Aeneas received almost no advance coverage before the performances, and at opening night the only writers I recognized in the audience were bloggers, but by the final night it was sold out, and I would posit the great reviews from those who did attend the first night helped spur not only additional coverage (it ended up on Kosman's 10 Best list that year), but also helped drive ticket sales for the remainder of the weekend. Of course that doesn't happen all the time- the companies have to put on something that's actually worth raving about- but it does happen.<br /><br />As you know, I'm the blogger who was refused addition to SFO's press release list, no doubt for some negative things I've written about Gockley, which is stupid on their part. Their prissiness is not going to make me stop going or writing about them because I do this as a labor of love, so to speak- and they obviously don't realize that when I do like something they put on, or commend Gockley on something done well (hey, it's happened), at least my readers know it must be good, and not just a puff piece like those commonly found on a site that shant be named.John Marcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17616296400880495672noreply@blogger.com