A show review, or a review of shows in general? (Preface)

This is not a music-blog. There are far too many sites floating around the internet dedicated solely to concert and record reviews, thus I feel that my addition to that dogpile would be superfluous.

However, this blog IS dedicated to multi-medium art-criticism, and as a musician and a reluctant (and extremely critical) music "fan," music IS one of the multiple mediums that this blog occasionally covers.

As an art critic who is versed and educated primarily in literary scholarship, the scope and format of the majority of mainstream, journalistic music reviews are of very little interest to me. My attempt with the "reviews" that I post on this site, therefore, is more akin to what I consider to be viable and noteworthy literary criticism. The goal of this, in my eyes, is not to merely explain and cast judgement on the work being examined, but to use the individual work as an example to demonstrate broader, more "important" topics about art and culture in general.

Therefore, I have several "reviews" slated for this blog of shows that I have recently attended/ will attend and records that have recently been released. This has mostly come about because, as I wrote among scribbled notes about the performers and the crowd while sitting at the bar between acts at a recent show that I attended, "I seem completely unable to leave my work at home lately" (as anyone who's recently spotted me sitting at various pubs around Phoenix on busy nights with stacks of books and notebooks in front of me can attest to). So, I may as well make critical use of the ideas that strike me, and scribbles that I go home with, when I go out at night, right?

My first entry (or set of entries) of this nature, for which I'm currently sifting through a hap-hazard set of notes, will address questions of the purpose of entertainment and entertainment "scenes" (and, yes, the identity-constructions that come about by way of them) as they pertain to two recent shows that I attended (the first couple that I had been to in quite a while); Today is the Day, et al, at the Stray Cat, and The Red Elvises at The Rythm Room.

And, the next time that you're out in Phoenix and see the wierdo sitting amidst the crowd at Rosie Mcafrees or the Dubliner studying for the GRE's or editing a thick packet of dry typescript with illegible scribbles all over the margins, stop by and say hi.