Who's just phoning it in this week?

Who's just phoning it in this week?

Everyone I know has been telling me that they're basically on autopilot as far as their 9-to5s are concerned. Usually that'd be the case for me too, but this year a flurry of activity seems to have whirled it's way across my desk. I confess I actually find this a little comforting, since it keeps me busy, and helps me forget that it's cold and dark outside, and keeps the days whizzing by when they would usually be inching their way towards the holidays with each second feeling like an eternity.

Huh, I just realized I have three music-related deadlines tomorrow; I have a review to finish for UR Chicago (easy), my top albums of the year for donewaiting (difficult), and my critic's poll ballot to get in to Idolator (erm, easy once I finish that donewaiting list). I swear, I've never had so much trouble coming up with a year-end list, but this year there's just been nothing that has, well, really stuck. It was a good year for good music, but a lousy year as far as any one album making it into any sort of permanent rotation as far as my personal listening experience is concerned. Plus, I look at all the other critic lists and have to wonder if they're just cribbing from each other. It's either that or the critical consensus has calcified to such an extent that these year-end lists have just become completely meaningless. (One notable exception would be Lizz's "Ryan Adams is bat-shit crazy" list. That one, I liked.)

Enough griping, before I fall back into one of my "everyone thinks they're a critic, but no one seems to remember what a critic actually is anymore" rants. Although now that I've said that remember my definition of a critic extends beyond someone simply having an opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion when it comes to music. In order to be a critic you have to be able to put music into a certain critical context, and that includes things like theory, history, other artists within (and outside of) genres, and being able to back up your opinions with something other than "I like it." Well, something like that, if you want more on this, I go into greater detail about the whole thing here.

Now, onto something else that everyone seems to be these days; DJs. It's Thursday, and my health is back to 90% capacity, so I think I'll be fit enough to join Lisa and Sean in the DJ booth tonight at Liar's Club.


It'll be fun. And if you're one of those folks phoning it in this week, what's your excuse for not showing up?