Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Tangent on Sabbatical
Don’t forget the CONTEST!
If you’re not (A) a Tangent Online reviewer, (B) a friend of a Tangent Online reviewer, or (C) a friend of one of the main combatants, then you probably don’t know about the amazing shitstorm of the past 36 hours. You certainly won’t learn anything by checking out the Tangent site, nor has former editor Eugie Foster spilled on her blog. And you won’t get much enlightenment from me, either.
In Eugie’s words, she was “summarily dismissed.” I gather there were irreconcilable differences at the top echelon. Anyway, in the last twenty-four hours . . . wow. LOTS of people using their “REPLY ALL” button when they ought to have used their “REPLY” button, and as a consequence, we’ve all been witnesses to and participants in this mass desertion from Tangent. Turns out lots of other people feel the same way I do — wait. No. There’s a hell of a lot of emotion out there. I think I’m one of the few Vulcans.
***
I had a 2.5 hour general medical staff meeting this evening. Don’t ask. But the dream I had last night strikes me as a premonition.
It’s my mom’s Mustang, only it looks a hell of a lot better than my mom’s Mustang ever looked. And it’s mine now. But for some damned reason, I decide to drive it out of the parking lot while sitting in the passenger seat. Not surprisingly, I can’t control the car. Can’t steer worth beans, and I’m having a hard time getting my foot to hit the brake rather than the accelerator. I need to do a three-point turn to get out of the parking lot, and at each point, I’m bashing one thing or another — industrial garbage can here, some badass’s fancy truck there. I’m in big trouble now.
And my Mustang doesn’t look so hot anymore.
No, no major disasters at the meeting, but I feel like someone’s cleaning my ears with ice picks.
D.
P.S. Know what’s depressing? If it weren’t for this boob photo, the fact that I linked to these nude photos of Heather Graham, or my posting of J. Lo’s big ass, I’d be getting something like twenty hits a day.
Don’t believe me? Post those three photos to your blog (or just link the Heather Graham nude photos, like I did) and watch your hits shoot through the roof. It’ll take some time, but it will surely happen.
PPS: This cheered me up: Itzhak Perlman Plays Klezmer.
The maestro joins four klezmer groups: Brave Old World, The Klezmatics, Andy Statman and the Klezmer Conservatory Band for a joyous get-together with unforgettable Klezmer melodies. As he says of the experience, “I caught the bug!”
. . . maybe now I can get to sleep.
Turns out lots of other people feel the same way I do
Which is? You don’t actually make this clear. Is the exodus/expulsion a good thing?
Online publications seem to suffer from this sort of explosion more frequently than paper ones. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but as soon as I read this I thought ‘oh, another one’.
You’d be getting more than twenty hits a day. I myself probably kick your hitcounter twice. Not that you should stop posting naked Heather Graham (nice!) or JLo’s ass. The cult that is JLo bugs me, but I do think that ass is cool.
Klezmer is underrated as a musical form. I should buy some, because every time I’ve heard it I’ve really enjoyed it. I heard the Klezmatics for an extended listen one time on CBC Two (or is it One, hell, I don’t know, CBC-FM) and really liked.
Dean: There was some drama at the online mag JPGMag a while ago, when (IIRC) one of the founders ousted the other two founders, then apparently edited the History section of their About Us information to make it look like they’d had nothing to do with the magazine. So there were some hard feelings and no shortage of fallout, mostly happening on the message boards of Flickr.
Doug: I’ve been wondering how the Tangent thing was going for you. I contacted Eugie Foster a long time ago*, but never really got back to her about possibly becoming a reviewer.
_____
* …in a galaxy far, far away…
I was so surprised that some people were so eager to air their opinions on the Tangent matter so openly. I don’t know the whole story so I’m not replying like that. All I do know is that I’ve enjoyed working for Eugie, and I told her that. Kinda bummed that I can’t get to the site anymore though…
Dean: oh. Sorry. Bad editing on my part. After writing the initial post, I went through and cut out a bunch of stuff, just in case I was saying more than was prudent. ANYWAY bottom line, most folks are siding with Eugie over Dave, and I do, too. Judging from the email landslide, there’s a mass exodus of reviewers from Tangent. It will be interesting to see if Tangent can weather a blow like this.
Pat: I’ve enjoyed reviewing, for the most part. The most annoying part: thin-skinned writers who have no reservations about slamming the hell out of you (on their blogs, other billboards, etc.) if you give them a negative review. Welcome to the world of SF Ego.
Paul: I have some uncharitable thoughts about folks who use the “Reply All” button, but I’ll keep those thoughts to myself. How are you doing, by the way?
SF Ego is alive and well, even in the pro arena, Doug. Sorry, but it’s one of the ‘perks’ of the biz. Yippee! 😉
I don’t understand why it’s bad to get 20 hits a day. We’re all your friends, and people who love you. Just because people drop by doesn’t mean they care. Think of it this way, a gazillion folks can drive by your house to see the monstrosity plunked in your yard, but only your friends actually come up to the house and join you for an iced tea and conversation.
Me, screw the drive bys, I’d rather just have the friends. 🙂
But then again I do live on a dead end dirt road, so you pretty much gotta be someone we know to actually drive out here. lol
I didn’t mean to suggest I don’t love my twenty per day (or whatever it is). I have wonderful “regulars”. So do you. But there is a small disappointment factor when you think 1000+ people per day are reading your words, and you discover that 980+ of them have one hand on their mouse and the other hand on their weasel. If ya get my drift.
You want to know what picture gets the most hits on my blog? It’s Alfalfa. No lie. A lot of Germans seem to like Alfalfa.
Hard to look at that pic without remembering — Alfalfa was one of my mom’s nicknames for me when I was that age. We shared quite the resemblance.