[Industrialblog,
April 21, 2004]
Random Worstness
Michele'spicked a bunch of songs as the worst ones ever. I won't list their names here for fear of attracting hits.
You know what's funny? When I found out that Blender Magazine had their survey on the worst songs ever, my first thought was their No. 1 song, too: We Built This City by Jefferson Starship. Glad I wasn't the only one. Jeez that song sucked. I thought Jack and Diane is up there, too, for its mindless stupidity. Note I wasn't include any songs by bands that never had a good song. That's just picking on the weak.
But music isn't my expertise. Writing is. And who is currently the worst writer in North America? No, it's not Mark Morford, but that's close. Morford is not the worst because Morford is always bad in exactly the same way. He only writes one column, over and over again. Besides, Morford's talent level isn't terribly high.
No, the worst writer in North American for the past eight years or so is Gary Kamiya of Salon.com. Kamiya has real talent. But he has one fatal flaws as a writer: He's a horse's ass.
Example One. He wrote this:
That was a year ago. Maybe he and all his morally sensitive people are happy now that things aren't going so well in Iraq.
You know what's funny? When I found out that Blender Magazine had their survey on the worst songs ever, my first thought was their No. 1 song, too: We Built This City by Jefferson Starship. Glad I wasn't the only one. Jeez that song sucked. I thought Jack and Diane is up there, too, for its mindless stupidity. Note I wasn't include any songs by bands that never had a good song. That's just picking on the weak.
But music isn't my expertise. Writing is. And who is currently the worst writer in North America? No, it's not Mark Morford, but that's close. Morford is not the worst because Morford is always bad in exactly the same way. He only writes one column, over and over again. Besides, Morford's talent level isn't terribly high.
No, the worst writer in North American for the past eight years or so is Gary Kamiya of Salon.com. Kamiya has real talent. But he has one fatal flaws as a writer: He's a horse's ass.
Example One. He wrote this:
"I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings."--Gary Kamiya
That was a year ago. Maybe he and all his morally sensitive people are happy now that things aren't going so well in Iraq.
On the other hand, he did use the phrase "morally sensitive people" seriously, which should be a hanging offense.
Kamiya also wrote the worst lead for a story I've ever seen, but I can only vaguely remember it. It contained 10 times as many words as it needed ... tried to be edgey in a coarsely sexual way but just sounded like a little boy swearing. I dunno. It'll come back to me.