The Advocate And Me

OK, so it's happened. I've been here at The Register for more than three years, and for the first time, I think, I've been blasted in the Advocate, sort of. It's kind of fun. The blog Arnott on the Arts didn't like my column on Ideat Village and Arts & Ideas. Damn.

Take a look at Chris Arnott's blog entry here for the full post. It's really just full of pithy, creative quoting, not much else. He says I "utterly trash a $3.5 million festival of which (my) employer is a key media sponsor." I wish I knew where I "utterly trashed" the event. Here's my original column; let me know where the trashing begins. He says I have a disdain for all arts other than local music. Yeah, clearly.

You would think that a writer as opinionated and usually upfront as Arnott would find it refreshing that I give an honest opinion about not liking dance. Sorry, I don't like it and I'm not going to pretend I do.

Is dance all the "other arts?" I love Ideat Village and what it does for the city. Sue me for making my opinion known in a space dedicated to publishing my, um, opinion.

If you've followed Chris' coverage of the festival, you know he's been incredibly supportive of it. Incredibly. He loves all the dance. I, on the other hand, understand why the festival directors filled their program with dance, but that doesn't mean I have to talk lovingly about it in a column.

I could liberally quote from his piece and write about why he's just grasping for things here, but that would be too long and I have too much work to do. I'll give you my two favorite examples, though. Here's Chris' comment about me linking A&I with Ideat:

Considering that many A&I events involve tickets and reservations, and that Ideat is a low-budget affair that doesn't even pay its participants, you wonder why anyone would even mention them together, let alone choose the oft-seen local bands over therare international visitors.

Why would anyone mention them together? Oh, I don't know. Maybe because Ideat was started as a reaction to A&I? A second festival going on at the same time as, arguably, our city's biggest event would seem like something to compare. But, hey, what do I know?

And here's a quote from Chris' entry about my piece on the seven things I was most looking forward to at A&I (again, another purely opinionated story):

He says he's doing this "for folks like me who can appreciate the way great dance is coming to the city, but actually doesn't want to see any of it" — then makes a modern dance piece, the Headlong Dance Theatre's Cell, his number one choice.

Chris then goes on to say that I clearly didn't do any research and just took a cursory look at the program. He says I could have read his piece on "CELL" and learned more about it. I did that. And, you know, I also happen to sit next to another arts editor who wrote a great piece on "CELL," so I knew very well what the event is about.

His obvious point is that I've made my opinion quite clear on dance, yet I still choose a dance event as the thing I can't wait to do most. Oh, and he did an article that I could used for reference so I really knew what "CELL" was about.

Well, you see, the problem is that I've experienced "CELL" (and I loved it), and there's little dance, as I knew. This whole thing is about letting your inhibitions go and experiencing the unknown. It's about what you think is going on around you, and what really is happening. At least that's the best I can describe it without giving away any details.

I could have told Chris all these things, but, you know, he didn't call me for a quote or anything.