43: Constructive Criticism

[Bucho]

Originally Posted by Enunciated Piffle

I'm not sure you can teach someone how to write a good/ original metaphor; or an analogy for that matter. Danny has a gift with words. His writing being critiqued out of left field was just kind of odd.

I think you can have gift of a mind for metaphor the same way a cinematographer can have a gift of an eye for framing or an architect can have a gift of vision for 3D spaces, but that doesn't mean it's not useful for a gifted person to receive feedback from someone who knows the game, and she seems like she knows that game. It was "odd" in this case in that it was unexpected, but it was also "odd" funny, because of Danny's other gift of creative jokery and comedic timing.

The funniest interview I've ever heard wasn't with a comedian but with David Yow when The Jesus Lizard came to NZ in the mid-late 90s. He came on Auckland's student radio station, at least half cut, a couple of days before they were to play a festival sharing the bill with Rage Against The Machine and about 85% of the 12-15 minute interview was Yow pretty much roasting RATM mercilessly. "Objectively" it probably was less funny that some comedian interviews but I've always remembered it because it was so unexpected and it was the first interview I ever heard which had me bent double with laughter.

At the start of their set a couple of days later, on a huge stage in a big stadium at about 5 in the arvo on a summer's eve, The Jesus Lizard kicks into gear and David Yow walks from the back of the stage to the front of the stage, then just keeps walking out onto the heads and hands of the crowd, all while delivering his particularly David Yow-type of vocal performance. They proceeded to blow RATM off the stage and I proceeded to become a fan for life.