Paramount Theatre
Caligiuri's Ill-Considered, Vicious Garbage
RECEIVED Mon., March 24, 2008
Dear Editor.
Please, enough of Jim Caligiuri.
I was very upset at Jim Caligiuri's review of my own CD last year ["Texas Platters," Music, Jan. 26, 2007], then gratified so many wrote in to protest it. That led to him trashing me again on his blog in the middle of South by Southwest ["An Attack in Geezervile," Earache! Music blog, March 14].
I won't defend my own work here, but, for example, he has now written a destructive (and way off-base) piece about Hayes Carll ["SXSW Platters," Music, March 14], a very well-respected if not legendary musical artist, not to mention Caligiuri's past trashing of Jimmy LaFave and others.
Whether this reviewer is simply a curmudgeon or genuinely clueless, he is doing real damage to legitimate artists who are trying to get work.
When an artist is Googled by a club owner, and the first thing that comes up is Caligiuri's ill-considered, vicious garbage, which he apparently spews out without even listening, half the time, to the music he's writing about – sorry, I'll calm down – my point is, this stuff lives on, on the Internet, in perpetuity!
Rather than just writing something that's in a recyclable medium (paper) the next week, the comments of Mr. Caligiuri become part of any musical artist's "permanent record" and can make the difference between getting hired or not, for everything from festivals to a gig in the next town, so he or she can buy gas to get home.
I was under the impression that writers wrote and editors reviewed, before things go out over the infinite Net and into print. Please, assign a competent editor to put Mr. Caligiuri's reviews in a little better context, or (of course, preferably) reassign him to where he can do less direct and actual damage.
The people being trashed by Mr. Caligiuri are real, bill-paying human beings who are, in the so-called live music capital, actually trying to make a living playing music. Since we generally have to also travel out of town to do that, where we may be less known (or are trying to gain a foothold), there is major injury done by the ravings of a Jim Caligiuri.
I may or may not be as good as I think I am, but I know Mr. Caligiuri is way off in his estimation of other artists, and he has now again proven his penchant for viciousness far exceeds his value as an objective journalist (which, in any case, he clearly is not). Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Please, enough of Jim Caligiuri.
I was very upset at Jim Caligiuri's review of my own CD last year ["Texas Platters," Music, Jan. 26, 2007], then gratified so many wrote in to protest it. That led to him trashing me again on his blog in the middle of South by Southwest ["An Attack in Geezervile," Earache! Music blog, March 14].
I won't defend my own work here, but, for example, he has now written a destructive (and way off-base) piece about Hayes Carll ["SXSW Platters," Music, March 14], a very well-respected if not legendary musical artist, not to mention Caligiuri's past trashing of Jimmy LaFave and others.
Whether this reviewer is simply a curmudgeon or genuinely clueless, he is doing real damage to legitimate artists who are trying to get work.
When an artist is Googled by a club owner, and the first thing that comes up is Caligiuri's ill-considered, vicious garbage, which he apparently spews out without even listening, half the time, to the music he's writing about – sorry, I'll calm down – my point is, this stuff lives on, on the Internet, in perpetuity!
Rather than just writing something that's in a recyclable medium (paper) the next week, the comments of Mr. Caligiuri become part of any musical artist's "permanent record" and can make the difference between getting hired or not, for everything from festivals to a gig in the next town, so he or she can buy gas to get home.
I was under the impression that writers wrote and editors reviewed, before things go out over the infinite Net and into print. Please, assign a competent editor to put Mr. Caligiuri's reviews in a little better context, or (of course, preferably) reassign him to where he can do less direct and actual damage.
The people being trashed by Mr. Caligiuri are real, bill-paying human beings who are, in the so-called live music capital, actually trying to make a living playing music. Since we generally have to also travel out of town to do that, where we may be less known (or are trying to gain a foothold), there is major injury done by the ravings of a Jim Caligiuri.
I may or may not be as good as I think I am, but I know Mr. Caligiuri is way off in his estimation of other artists, and he has now again proven his penchant for viciousness far exceeds his value as an objective journalist (which, in any case, he clearly is not). Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely yours,
Mandy Mercier
Mandy Mercier