A Word From A Blogger

I probably don't fit the stereotype of the average blogger, according to some celebrities who must've had their feelings hurt by a blogger or two. According to them, the average blogger is a fat, thirty year old virgin guy who lives in his parent's basement and is mad at the world.

I'm way over thirty, not really fat, own my own home, and have been married for 21 years. I don't write in my basement, I write in my upstairs study (the middle room to be exact). I don't think I'm angry at the world. I just happen to have an opinion... an opinion I can now share with the world.

The reason for this post is that, I was watching an interesting documentary on television the other night called "Critic". It was hosted by Seth Green, that master thespian. He was whining about the criticism (some of it bordering on personal) that he has gotten in the print media (newspapers, magazines, etc.), on television, and now on the internet (via Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Joining him in this 90-minute whineathon was comedians Lewis Black, Roseanne Barr, Andrew Dice Clay, Carrot Top, Jon Lovitz, Andy Dick, and Patton Oswalt. They all talked about the evils of being a critic, how nobody grows up wanting to be a critic, and how critics basically criticize what they themselves are too cowardly to do. I'm not saying that I totally disagree with everything they were saying, but what bothers me is that it seemed as if some of these people were against any and all criticism of their works.

There was a few film producers and some actual critics themselves on this documentary talking about what they do. Then, they got to talking about how it was bad enough to have to take criticism from the traditional print and electronic media, but now the internet was making everybody a critic... in particular, Bloggers. They gave all of the arguments I've heard before... Bloggers aren't journalists, bloggers are mostly everyday people with computers, and bloggers hide behind aliases on their computers, and so on, and so on.

Okay, I get that, but check this out. Ten years ago, before anybody was blogging on a regular basis (if at all), I go see a movie... I don't like the movie... I say, "This movie was a load of crap!" Then, I tell my wife, who might tell one of the people she works with, "My husband saw that movie and he said it was a load of crap!" And, that might go to five or six people. Out of the five-six people, maybe two might say, "Well, I'm going to see it for myself anyway. What does Keith know? After all he went to see Scooby Doo II. How knowledgeable can he be?"

Now, let's jump ahead to the present. I see a movie and I say it's a load of crap. Only now, I'm writing a post and hundreds, maybe thousands of people read my post. What's really different? Maybe a certain percentage of my readers might say, "I'm still going to see that movie myself"; or they might say, "Well, if Keith said it was crap, I ain't wastin' my money." The point is people are going to have opinions whether they put them on a blog, Twitter, or Facebook and it's not going to make any difference whether someone is reading it on a computer, in a newspaper, in a magazine, or watching Gene Shalit on television. People, whether a so-called "qualified" critic or just John Q. Public, are going to like something or not like it.

This documentary sounded as if these people didn't want any kind of criticism and further more, didn't think anybody was qualified to criticize their work. One guy said that he watched or went to every Lakers game for twenty years or so, but that did not qualify him to coach the team. He is absolutely right, but that doesn't mean that he can't have an opinion and share his opinion with others.

Good work speaks for itself. If something is good, people like it and they will pay money to see it, listen to it, read it, or whatever and it doesn't matter what a critic or a blogger says. So, Seth Green and Carrot Top, Make a good movie that doesn't make people want to hurl or immediately ask for a refund and you'll see the level of bad reviews and criticism drop!