Thursday, May 21, 2009

The DVD that got me fired from PopMatters

Well, screw them, I reviewed it for Blurt…and they made it a feature.

It’s actually a pretty wonderful DVD about Tinariwen, with concert footage, a couple of documentaries and a long interview with the band’s founder. I was particularly fascinated with the extra features, writing, “The landscapes of Northern Mali and Algeria come to life in these extra features, their wild, sparsely populated expanses, traversed by camel caravans, torn by war and rebellion, stunted by famine and drought, but ultimately the source of inspiration for all of Tinariwen's art.”

Read all about it here .

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Why would that get you fired, J?

jenniferpkelly said...

Well, it probably wouldn't have, if I'd written it for PopMatters and sooner.

It got shuffled down a bit in my priorities and the editor got pissed at me and we had some words. (During the week that she was being a tough editor bitch, I had written a live review and a long piece on Akron/Family, but she either didn't know or didn't care.)

I hated them anyway, for the most part. (There were a couple of really good guys ...Kevin Pearson who did events and Justin Cober-Lake who runs features...but the top management was more interested in relating crap culture to social trends than in actual music.)

But let's not focus on the negatives.

Unknown said...

ah, that makes sense. F 'em.