You know when something bothers you, but you really don’t know how you start to say about it? Well, pretty much this is about that.
I’ve been reviewing for the past 10 years, and with regard transparency, a lot of the reviews I’ve done were press evenings. These normally take the format of one performance at the start of a run where all manner of press people, be they print, radio, television or blogger, get invited so a little bit of publicity can be gained. I mean, how often have you heard the breakfast show on a local station talk about where they were the night previous – yep, that’ll more likely be a press night! Granted, local breakfast shows are now few and far between, but that discussion is for another time.
But on the flip side of press evenings, I’ve also reviewed shows or gigs that I’ve gone to away from being required to review.
But what makes a good reviewer? How often so you look at reviews of things, be they shows, music, or films and ask yourself, why does the reviewer think their opinion matters? How are they qualified to give an opinion on what they’ve seen, heard or read?
This is where this article comes in. Like I’ve said, I’ve been reviewing different things for some time, but why? Why put myself up to be shot down if someone takes umbridge to something I’ve written or said? I think a part of it is I like sharing my knowledge or experience. Honestly, if my English teacher could see me know, they’d be quite surprised – granted, my reviews aren’t A* quality, but I think I’ve come a long way from the boy that could only manage a D in his English language and literature GCSE exams.
Okay, so we’ve found that out, that my writing credentials are far from A*, so what else have I personally got to offer?
Anything you do or say in life has to be backed up with a belief. Whatever your belief is, you’ll stand by it, and although one man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh, as Robert A. Heinlein said, this can be said about reviewers.
My reviews are my belief, and for this intent, what I blog is all about my life, and my ideals, ideas, what makes me smile, what annoys me, the whole nine yards whatever life is.
It won’t come to any surprise (although it might), this post was started June 2019 (before the world went to cack!), and now November 2021, I’m finishing it. I suppose this is a part of a piece of me that I sometimes show to the world, but more often that not, keep hidden, and when I do show, I tend to think “should I”.
So, that was the Reviewing the Reviewer post – a bit of something and nothing I suppose.
Thanks for checking me out.