Extended Thoughts: Let’s Talk About ME!

So, today’s extended thoughts are going to be all about ME! Yaaaaaaaay!  Basically, there are a few things I want to get out in the clear, and since I’ve been having trouble coming up with new and interesting ideas for Wednesday posts, I decided to go the hilariously narcissistic route.  Yes, I do feel a little skeevy about this, but almost all of the following is in response to questions people have asked.

ANONYMITY

So, first off, I want to say a few things about my anonymity.  When I started this site, I really didn’t think too much about the anonymous aspect of it.  I knew that this would be separate from my other internet selves, but that’s just because I find it easier to have multiple twitter accounts for different things, than many different things going on in one account.  And to be honest, I really wasn’t thinking too much about any backlash against my “real” self (as a side note, I don’t quite understand that line of reasoning – I mean, I’ve still received a few ad hominim attacks – what does it matter at which internet persona of mine they are directed?) – I mean, I don’t have much of a reputation to tarnish anyway.  Really, I was more wanting to keep my other self separate from this one, because I didn’t want it to distract – basically, if you’re going to take issue with me, I want you to take issue with what I’ve said here, because otherwise I fear a lot of opposing viewpoints becoming not much more than “Well, I don’t see YOU doing anything better!”  Also, my true identity is quickly becoming the worst kept secret in wizard rock, and I haven’t tried too hard to stop it.  I’ve flubbed it up more than a couple times now, and you can probably wheedle it out of someone (though your response will probably be “Wait, who?”).

MY GRADING SYSTEM

God, I love that thing.  Anywho, I’ve received a couple questions about my grading system, and it is as such – I go by the classic grading system, and all that that entails.  So, A = 90-100%,, B=80-90%, etc.  Where the percentages come in is pretty much the percentage of songs I liked.  Now, that’s not my hard and fast rule for grading things, but it is for example, why I gave Onward and Upward an F.  Yes, I did love a couple songs, and could listen to four more, but that’s still 6 out of 12, which is 50%, which is an F.  I also don’t offer “extra credit”, so an album with the three greatest songs I’ve ever heard in my life and and seven bad (though not the worst) songs, I’m still going to give it an F.  And then I’m going to recommend that you buy just those three songs, because iTunes lets you do things like that.  Also, the grades mean to me, on this site, what they originally meant – a C is average.  It’s a good score, and a grade of a C means you should pick that album up if you’ve got 10 spare bucks and want some music.  B is above average, and you really need to get this album, and should consider passing up a few cups of coffee to save up the money to buy it.  A is excellent, and means that you should go out and buy this album right the fuck now.  You don’t need food, this album is so good you will be able to absorb nutrients from its sound waves.  I don’t hand out a lot of A’s – and that’s not a dig at the wizard rock community, I’m a very hard grader in general – I mean, my entire life revolves around Harry Potter, and I’d give the entire series as a whole a B, maybe a B+.  Lastly, I am well aware of the Harry Potter grading system, but it doesn’t have as universally accepted (and precise) definitions for each letter.  If I’m looking for a bit more flexibility, I may eventually go with that system, but for now I’m gonna stick with the muggle way.

MY SCHEDULE

So, first of all, you can check out my schedule at any time via the link in the sidebar, but I might as well go over it again here, on the front page.  Basically, on Mondays I do reviews, on Wednesdays I do extended thoughts on something about the wizard rock community at large, and Fridays are a grab bag, but they usually will have something to do with lists.  Also, for every day that I am late in posting an article, I will post another that week.  Hence, look for another article either tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday or whatever.

REQUESTING REVIEWS

So, I’ve already received a few requests for reviews, and I want to give a few “guidelines”.  Basically, if you ask me to review your album, I will definitely do it, but I will do it in my no-holds-barred style.  So if you want a critical analysis of your work, hit me up, I’ll see what I can do.  But if you just make wizard rock for fun, then you probably shouldn’t come to me.  I have nothing against making wizard rock for fun, but I know that there are plenty of wrockers who make it for fun, but also for something else, too.  Also, you can request a review of an album that you did not make, but it will be lower priority than requests from people that actually made the album.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE FUTURE

So, here’s an extremely flexible outline of what to expect in the future: The extra post this week will be continued discussion of the concept of meta-wrock, next Monday will be the review of The Butterbeer Experience’s Beedle the Bard EP, the Monday after that will be a review of JFF’s Half-Blood Pizza album, and within the next couple of weeks, one of the Wednesdays will be tackling women in wrock again, and one of the Fridays will be my top ten (or maybe twelve) EPs from the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club.

A NOTE ABOUT THE ACID QUILL

So, I came into the wizard rock fandom in late 2007, and I completely missed the Acid Quill drama llama.  The first thing I will say about them is that while I don’t agree with what they did or what they were about, I do think they had a cool name for what they were doing.  There has been some concern that I will turn into AQ, and that’s warranted, I guess, but this blog is all about the music.  I couldn’t give a crap about what wizard rockers do in their personal lives – that’s personal – unless, of course, they make a concept album about it.  So, don’t expect many posts from me about “couch-romping” or whatever.

SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU

So, now that you’ve sat through me talking about myself, I have a couple questions for you guys.  It was brought to my attention that the previous article needed some serious editing, and I’ll admit that I did absolutely no editing whatsoever, because I wanted to finally get the article up.  So, here’s my question for you guys – would you rather have consistent M-W-F updates that might sometimes need editing, with the possibility of better, edited versions later, or edited versions on an inconsistent “hopefully there are three updates this week” basis?  Also, if you chose the later, would you truly keep coming back to read with such a system in place?

Also, I have a question about the format of the main page – do you like having the full articles there, or would you prefer a more ‘pedia-esque way of things, with “jumps” and all that?

Thanks for sticking with this little experiment so far, and I hope to see you tomorrow! Or on Friday!  Whatever!  Peace out!