Is it the reviewer, or the editor who is at fault?

[rshankar]

While we have people finding fault with usually well written reviews by generous, concert-going amateurs for a few respectful Sris, Sirs, vidvAns (http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=6393), I wonder how these factually incorrect reviews from so called professional reviewers are allowed to see the light of a printing press:

Hindu, Delhi Edition:

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/08/15/stor ... 080200.htm

The part I have issues with is:

[quote]“Nan Enna Thavam Seithenoâ€

[mohan]

"Diskhitar"
Perhaps disk hitting is a new sport to be launched in the Delhi Commonwealth Games!

[arasi]

Well said, Ravi.
Some of the 'lovers' (amateurs) of music on rasikAs who write
reviews know more about CM than some reviewers in big name dailies. Not only do they know, but they want to share their experience with us. They arrive at concerts directly from work, note things down seroiusly, and do not write about the pieces they missed. A 'professional' would do that, I suppose!
As one of their cheer leaders, I feel annoyed when people do not realize the value of such reviews and find fault with some of our seasoned reviewers .

[rbharath]

why go all the way to delhi?

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/08/15/stor ... 250200.htm

Dikshitar's 'Sri Venkatesam'!

[malavi]

The day the review appeared in the hindu i pointed out the mistake to the secretary he told me by the time the review appeared in the hindu the reviewer had realised the mistake and named the composer as RSI .
There was another review about Hydrabad sisters concert at KGS.the riview says Padma shankar was the violinist.But in the picture it looks like vittal ramamoorthi.when i asked about that i was told it might have been a file picture taken during some other concert. when we come across such reviews we are sure to get some doubts.someone has to clear them.

[vanamali]

This morning, i was reading the latest edition of Sruti magazine. There was an article on Palani Subramanya Pillai's birth anniversary. In that article, there was a line that said "Mannargudi Balaji recited a verse in tamil...."!! Now I am not sure who Mannargudi Balaji is. I know only Mannarkoil Balaji, and there was a picture in that article of a person who looked like Mannarkoil Balaji (his face was only half visible in the photo).

How can Sruti magazine make such a mistake in wrongly publishing the name of a mridangam artiste?

[Nick H]

Once upon a time, copy was written and checked. It was then sent to a typesetter, who returned proofs, which were checked against the copy. More time consuming, more labour intensive, but there was a discipline.

Now, all that is needed to be a publisher is a computer and one or two software packages. The whole thing may be done by one man, and even if he is careful, it is hard to spot one's own errors. The disciplines of language, accuracy, typography are lost. Instead we have information so much more freely available, whether on the web or on paper.

The freedom is wonderful; the losses I regret very much.

[arasi]

The person in question is our own Balaji (mridhangam).

Nick,
Couldn't agree with you more (this old journalist)! It is a question of quality versus quantity. We win some, we lose some--and it happens to be quality which is at stake!

[blackadder]

Two pairs of eyes being better than one? Absolutely!! It is like a programmer testing his own code rather than passing it on to a dedicated QA team/person. He takes the optimistic path - in the belief that he can do no wrong - and leaves it to user QA. Some publications will take a similar stand - "You know who it is. We know that you know. Why bother?" Such is the state of journalism today.

[blackadder]

On further thought, in this era of outsourcing, maybe the proofreading is outsourced to the reader.

[vasanthakokilam]

[arasi]

A good one, blackadder!

[Nick H]

The skill of the typographer and the typesetter is the skill of never being noticed. All the many rules, some of which I used to know, are aimed at making type exist for the purpose of communication, rather than showing itself off.

The rules are, therefore, quite unknown to the reader who has never worked in publishing or had anything to do with typesetting.

To be frank, even Word for Windows does a more than reasonable job! the computer programs really are wonderful --- but nothing substitutes for some of the old knowledge.

(In terms of checking one's own work, by the way, the worst thing I ever did was to put the wrong date block on one page of a calendar, that went to print and was sold --- deeply embarrassing. And yes, as designer and typesetter, I had puts lots of work into making it look right! Luckily that calendar didn't sell very well, so the complaints were limited.)

[rshankar]

Here is another that sparked some ire: http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/04/02/stor ... 830300.htm

Issues (points that SHOULD have been checked - and not having checked/confirmed some of them reeks of disrespect)
1) IIRC, the artist spells her name as Rhadha.
2) I wonder when vazhuvUr was renamed vizhivUr
3) madurai Sokka kauttuvam became madurai chauka kauttuvam (the meaning is completely different - making me try hard to figure out a connection between madurai and oDissi - )
3) What rAga is Sankara varanam - I guess a rAga used to ask Siva to come (SankarA (nI) varaNam)?
4) If anyone figures out the padavarNam please share.....

[keerthi]

Here is another that sparked some ire: http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/04/02/stor ... 830300.htm

4) If anyone figures out the padavarNam please share.....

Aemaiya la Adaenar is not the portuguese varNam it appears to be; it is the venerable, home-grown 'E mAyalADi rA'

Not to flog a deceased equine, but a few more gems from this article -

The jathi defining the bool “Ta Ta tad hi”

the author's solkaTTus (bOls) seem to invoke bool(ean) algebra.

always in tenacious control

??

Genuflect to this veteran dancer for bringing in Javali - a repertoire in Bharatnatya which is gradually being replaced with theme-based productions.

a. Does it merit genuflection?

b. is it a repertoire??

The dancer concluded her recital with a Kedara tillana composed by Vazhivoor Ramaiah Pillai followed by Sri Annamacharya's sloka “Ksheerabdhi Kanyaku” which proves her tremendous devotion towards Lord Vishnu

a. does choice of songs reflect the artists devotional leanings?

b. the song , not sloka is on LakSmI, not ViSNu.

The overall slow pace with complete support from the orchestra ensemble aggrandised the overall effect of the evening's performance.

And such comments reflect the overall competence of the reviewer in writing an overall review (one should wear overalls too, in case things, overall get dirty ).

[If i'm being brutal, I may as well go the full madisAr length yards]

[rshankar]

Keerthi - I am in stiches! Yes, we should go the whole hog!! The reviewer (and/or the editor) have worked 'hard' for this skewering!...
I am still trying to understand the bol/solkaTTu - wonder if it is 'tai ha tai hi'...

[keerthi]

Could it be tAritakkukuNaM jhari - the beginning of the chittaswaram passage.

How it metamorphoses into Ta Ta tad hi...?

Ta Ta (sanity..) tad hi (= that alone is) satyaM (imminent)


another such verbose review, with fewer bloopers, though -

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/03/26/stor ... 170400.htm

with my alkaline comments in the concert review thread post #8 -

http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12715

[vasanthakokilam]

Quite hilarious, you two!!

[Nick H]

How sad*.

I read a review, of a Hindustani concert, in a British newspaper which did not even get the names of the instruments right. I wrote enquiring if they would send a reviewer to a Western classical concert who was incapable of recognizing a piano or a flute. Of course I got no answer.

Technical ignorance is one thing --- but when mixed with a healthy helping of aggrandisement (If I may borrow the word) resulting in shear gibberish, the result is unforgivable. The Hindu should know better.

*and funny, of course!

[arasi]

Great going, Ravi and Keerthi! A good friday for laughs. But 'tai hai, thigh high' would take the dance into the 'can can' mode, wouldn't it?
I repeat: our rasikA reviewers, whatever their views, go about their work earnestly, expressing their views honestly.

[rshankar]

Another one from today's Hindu: http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/04/09/stor ... 090200.htm

Similarly her controlled alapana-pattern of Ritigowla (‘Cherarava Demi Ra'),

I sincerely hope Sri Tyagaraja was not calling out to Demi (Moore)!

[rshankar]

I had to revive this topic to point out this gem of a review - once again, the reviewer and editor need to shoulder the blame between themselves....
The issues are so egregious, let me start the skewering: When 'varamul(u)osagi' becomes a call out to a dear friend (varamulo sakhi), when the beautiful 'heccarikaga rA rA hEy rAmacandra' becomes 'heccarikara srI rAmacandra', when serving morphs into imagining as in 'dEva dEva kalpayAmi tE' instead of 'dEva dEva kalayAmi tE', when 'gurulEka yeTuvaNTi' morphs into a yAdava maiden perhaps as in 'gurulEkha yeduvati', you know the skewering was hard earned earned and very well deserved. I also came to know that pUrvikalyANi has to sung only by the young, for why else would this statement appear? 'Disregarding the constraints of age she essayed the raga Poorvikalyani, the main raga of the concert.'

[ramanathan]

...when serving morphs into imagining as in 'dEva dEva kalpayAmi tE' instead of 'dEva dEva kalayAmi tE'...

Whoa... hold your fire for a second! While I agree with most of the errors you have pointed out, 'dEva dEva kalpayAmi' is indeed a wonderful Atma nivEdanam composition of the Maharaja in Nadanamakriya, distinct and separate from the popular dEva dEva kalayAmi in Mayamalavagaula. I am sure Ponnamma mAmi must have sung the former. The late Pudukode Krishnamurthy used to sing this quite movingly...

http://www.swathithirunal.in/htmlfile/56.htm

[srikant1987]

Maybe it's just we who are at fault. We should just lol at these reviews, and enjoy them. :tmi:

[rshankar]

Whoa... hold your fire for a second! While I agree with most of the errors you have pointed out, 'dEva dEva kalpayAmi' is indeed a wonderful Atma nivEdanam composition of the Maharaja in Nadanamakriya, distinct and separate from the popular dEva dEva kalayAmi in Mayamalavagaula. I am sure Ponnamma mAmi must have sung the former. The late Pudukode Krishnamurthy used to sing this quite movingly..

Thanks for pointing that out -- mea culpa - did not notice the rAga, which should have given it away.