Tonight – Friday, 29 June
• Article/interview: David Malitz talks to Daryl Davis [Washington Post], whose Daryl Davis Band performs at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre.
• Interview: Steve Kiviat on Soundclash, the monthly reggae night at Marx Cafe in Mt Pleasant [Washington CityPaper].
• Interview: Marie Gullard talks to Regina Belle [Washington Examiner]. At Blues Alley Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
• Profile: Christopher Porter on Jazz in the Garden [Washington Post Express]. Every Friday night through 8/31.
• Preview: Sarah Godfrey on Maiesha and the Hip Huggers [Washington CityPaper]. At the Howard Theatre.
• CD Review: Jukebox the Ghost: Safe Travels. Reviewed by Mark Jenkins [Washington Post]. At the 9:30 Club.
• The saga around BYT‘s “Write a suicide note to win Morrissey tickets” continues. Here’s a summary: BYT posted a contest on Monday asking readers to write suicide notes in order to enter a contest to win tickets to Morrissey’s show at Strathmore. I wrote about this in Tuesday’s Music Notes. The Washington CityPaper picked up the story later that day and got some quotes from BYT managing editor Logan Donaldson. On Tuesday night, BYT quietly changed the contest to say “string together a couple of paragraphs using only Morrissey’s lyrics”; I printed the full text of the new contest and a rant from their Assistant Editor Stephanie Breijo in Wednesday’s Music Notes, and DCist picked up the story, getting an additional quote from Donaldson. THEN, BYT took its contest down entirely (if you click on the contest link now, you’re taken to a login page). The Washington CityPaper reported on that, with an additional statement from Donaldson.
• The Washington CityPaper picked up the commentary I wrote yesterday about BYT’s ridiculous “write a suicide note to win Morrissey tickets” and talked to BYT managing editor Logan Donaldson. Donaldson’s response is fair, but it’s somewhat negated by this response on the initial BYT post, from Assistant Editor Stephanie Breijo. I’m not going to repost the link, but I will copy/paste her text:
Hi, all–
In defense of this post and with full disclosure I’m writing to say that I, a BYT staffer fully in support of this giveaway prompt, have lost two people–with whom I was very close–because they committed suicide. One of my closest friends in high school OD’d in Los Angeles after a fight with her boyfriend. One of the first boys I ever kissed joined the Air Force and after a long tour in Iraq hanged himself over the side of a boat (in a very public place, no less).
Suicide is very real and it is TERRIBLE. I have experienced suicides first-hand but I’m writing to say that this does not place me above humor. Is it morbid? Entirely. So is Morrissey.
I have a newsflash for all of you: You are going to die. Everyone you love is going to die. Everyone you have ever met or interacted with is going to die, and this includes myself, the author of this post, and all its contestants. The fact that others choose to bow out before their time is sad but it is their decision. Sometimes all you can do is laugh, no matter how shitty the circumstances may be.
A quick google search will show you we are not, in fact, the only online publication discussing suicide in this fashion, in this week alone:
To Catherine Lewis of Showlist DC–I am truly sorry if we have offended you. But if you cannot see the humor in this, you probably shouldn’t be reading our site or, quite honestly, caring what we write about. It is our site. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. No one is pressing a gun to any reader’s head (perhaps more suitable for a Nirvana giveaway of some sort?). No one is being forced to read, nor are they being forced to participate.
That being said, we appreciate your input nonetheless.
Wishing everyone the best for the remainder of your days (however many you may have left),
Stephanie Breijo
Assistant Editor
So, to summarize, (1) it’s OK because Vice did it first. Also, (2) it’s OK because someone at BYT knows someone who committed suicide. And finally, (3) BYT apparently has more than one person on staff with the title of “Editor”. Who knew there was any actual editing going on at BYT?!
Anyway – BYT has changed the text of the contest. It’s no longer “write a suicide note to win tickets”; it’s now this:
TO WIN: Since there is no longer any truth to there being a light that never goes out (oh, song title puns!), and Morrissey has (has not? whatever) announced he’ll be retiring in 2014, why not string together a couple of paragraphs using only Morrissey’s lyrics. Okay, you can use The Smiths too. If you must.
• Interview: Janet Yaceczko talks to Becky Warren [DC Music Download]. Performing at The Black Squirrel Songwriter and Poet’s Series in Adams Morgan on 6/28.
• Interview: Ross Bonaime talks to Yeasayer [Brightest Young Things].
• As you know, I share all the music-related giveaways I can find down at the bottom of these posts every day. Well, here’s one I’m going to post only once: Brightest Young Things is doing a giveaway for Morrissey at Strathmore on 12/7. The contest is for everyone to write a suicide note, and BYT will pick a winner (they wrote: “Best suicide note wins”). Wow. I get that Morrissey and the Smiths’ music is mopey, and I get that BYT is trying to be cute and edgy, but this is pretty screwed up. It’s not just that it’s a morbid contest (which it is, and Shauna at BYT actually responded to one of the entries by writing, “PLEASE DO NOT GO KILL YOURSELF . XX BYT”). It’s that it makes light of suicide, and anyone who’s lived through a friend’s suicide knows what that’s like. It sucks. It absolutely sucks when a friend or loved one takes his/her own life (full disclosure: my friend Jeff killed himself last month and left a public suicide note on his blog). So maybe BYT thought this was funny or some kind of joke, but guess what: writing pretend suicide notes– even to get free concert tickets– isn’t funny and isn’t a joke. I guess this is just another example of how BYT, despite being one of the biggest entertainment blogs in this area, just doesn’t get it.
ADDITION: In order to prevent encouraging the linkbait nature of this contest, I’m pasting the BYT text below, in italics. Read the text here so you don’t increase their web hits count by clicking on the link above.
To say I/we/BYT/everyone loves Morrissey is probably the biggest understatement ever made on this website. So when I/we/BYT saw Morrissey was coming to STRATHMORE on December 7th, we just knew we had to get in on the ground floor. Tickets go on sale this FRIDAY @ 10AM, so get your itchy trigger finger ready and prepare your tear ducts for defeat. This is going to be a heartbreaker to end all heartbreakers.
Oh, and yes… we’ve got a pair of tickets BEFORE THEY GO ON SALE, ready for your taking. Thank you I.M.P.!
TO WIN: Since there is no longer any truth to there being a light that never goes out (oh, song title puns!), and Morrissey has announced he’ll be retiring in 2014, go on and tell us how you would end it all along side him. Best suicide note wins. Really, you’re going to want to think long and hard about this one.
Winner will be selected by Friday @ 9AM. Use a real email address when you comment and lease don’t commit suicide in the process.
• Chris Richards writes of Young Jeezy, President Obama, and the White House’s complicated relationship with hip-hop [Washington Post]. The zingers were zinging at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, but one seemed to fall a smidge flat: President Obama’s promise to start singing Young Jeezy songs in public if he wins a second term. “In my first term I sang Al Green,” the president said, referencing his off-the-cuff performance of Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at the Apollo Theatre in January. “In my second term, I’m going with Young Jeezy.”
• If you’re planning on using the IMP-sponsored Rock & Bus to get to shows at Merriweather Post Pavilion this summer, do your homework first: the service was a disaster at this weekend’s Sweetlife Festival [Washington CityPaper].
