Ron Berry is a new friend here in Austin. He is the artistic director of Fusebox (@fuseboxfestival). He doesn’t go anywhere without a smile, kind words and an impeccable eye for really intriguing artists. He tends to gravitate toward performance that incorporates music, video, spoken word, visual art, or whatever else the artists can get their hands on. I would say that some of the material bends toward odd, but I think that is just my New York-Broadway snobbery rearing its ugly head. The works are contemporary, current, modern.

Above all, Ron is a consummate listener. He always wants to hear what others have to say, and then rather than responding in words, he responds in his own work and in programming. But I respond in words, and this is my response to a panel discussion on Friday where arts writers continued the lament for their overworked, status-quo writing that has plagued film writing over the past months, years. It’s truly frustrating to hear people say that only arts writers are qualified to write about art. I’m paraphrasing the discussion since the same argument is being made for film critics, and again, there was no acknowledgment of the fact that plenty of people, like me, are out in the world responding to the things we see and other people are reading, watching, and talking with us. I have no pedigree other than having had mentorship in the field, the drive to produce even if I’m not being paid and no one was reading, and opportunities to watch lots and lots of movies.

Via GreenCine, there is yet another bloggers v. critics discussion going on over at The Guardian. I wanted to comment on the post but The Guardian requires that you register with the site in order to comment (blog error #1, as far as I’m concerned, along with not feeding whole articles in favor of headlines). I don’t need to get too deep into this but I do want to add one thing that I haven’t heard discussed much. From Jay Rayner:

How do [bloggers] describe what they do and what do they think about those who are paid to do what they do for free? It turns into an intriguing and complex dialogue. The problem with such arguments is that they risk becoming terribly binary: you are either for the critics or for the bloggers; happily the responses from both sides in this debate are more complex than that. Read the whole post>>

There is no editorial mandate for a blog. What you read here is entirely what I choose to post. I tend to skip talking about films that are weak, unless I think there is some compelling reason to discuss what I don’t like. I prefer to support the work I am excited by. While I’m the last person to argue that there is any objectivity in news these days, I’d venture that there is at least an attempt at objectivity in broader outlets. The Guardian will choose to review as much as they can afford to and probably pick the movies, dance, art, food that will appeal to the broadest audience, but they’ll post all those reviews, good or bad. There is value in that. Newspapers help guide us to the culture in our city. How many blogs would you have to visit to get such an overview, and if you are looking for reviews, sure, it’s easy to Google but how do you know to trust this blogger or that one?

I’d also add that Rayner mentions Rotten Tomatos and Metacritic as free sources for information, but behind both of those sites are veted critics. They don’t compile just anyones opinion. If the papers lay off those contributing critics, the opinions on those sites will either be reduced to fewer contributors or they will have to open up the ranks to bloggers. I’m just saying that those engines are fueled by the so-called professionals.

One last thing to keep in mind, blogger doesn’t equal unpaid. I know plenty of bloggers who make money, and even their living, off of writing online. I don’t make money on this site specifically, but it has fueled many other writing opportunities that I do get paid for. In a sense, this site is my advertisement for myself and I never got asked to write before I started it. If you like what you read here, maybe you’ll hire me for something. The returns have been many, financial included.