This Phoenix won't rise from the ashes

No more Phoenix, apparently - although we've heard this rumor before, this time it's apparently true. The paper that hijacked the counter-cultural bona fides of what became The Real Paper, and then ruled the alternative-paper roost for decades, is finally no more.  Hmmm. I guess the "personal" ad market finally dried up.  Oh well - will this mean fewer critics (let's hope!), or just more second stringers and hangers-on at whatever print outlets and sites survive (meaning fewer spots for fresh voices)?  Or (oh God no) more blogs?  I can't wait to find out . . .

And the Critical Darwin Award goes to - Sharon Steel of the Boston Phoenix!

The kind of genius you just won't see at Allston Skirt Gallery!

Just when I'm pondering establishing a new "Nuremberg Award" for local critics, with Kate Johnston Chase as the first winner, I come across this gem from the July 6 Boston Phoenix, in a review of Allston Skirt's "Pull My Finger" by one Sharon Steel -

Last February, former–Boston Globe critic Thomas Garvey suggested on his culture blog, “Hub Review,” that Allston Skirt Gallery owners Randi Hopkins (a Phoenix contributor) and Beth Kantrowitz had some kind of a vendetta against artists with a Y chromosome. “I don’t know why, exactly, these two rarely feature men,” wrote Garvey, “but I think it’s safe to assume it’s because they hate them.” Zane, whose work had already been featured at the gallery, thought Garvey’s insinuation was absurd. “When they asked me to curate a show,” says Zane, “I naturally thought to try to do a comedy show of sorts.”

I just howled when I read that - I'm sure Beth and Randi (whom I adore) did, too - or at least I hope they did; could working at the Phoenix have begun rotting Randi's brain? Anyway, the offending piece is here - and what can you say before such bald, irony-free stupidity except, please, Sharon, keep writing!!! And Joe Zane (curator of the current "Pull My Finger") - I dunno, dude, I'd be careful around those two "wymyn" when they've got knives in their hands (and not just when they're cutting the cheese!).

(Artists with a hankering to design a suitable statuette - see image above - should email me immediately!)