1 post tagged “egos”

Or did it? 

Amusing blast at NY Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay on James Wolcott's blog today.  Macaulay has had it coming.  His latest piece on the Kyra Nichols farewell certainly was ludicrously overripe.  Especially since I was not able to attend, I had hoped for a more objective blow-by-blow account of the evening than he offered.

Still, I don't totally agree with Wolcott's critique.  The most annoying thing about Macaulay has not necessarily been his display of ego or over insertion of himself into his reviews.  It's that his frame of reference in the context of New York culture (and in regard to New York City Ballet in particular) has been so limited and tedious.  Enough with the nostalgia already.  You're being paid to be reviewed what's in front of you.  Even sometime Anglophiles are bored. 

That said, I've also found Wolcott's own cultural criticism to be a tad myopic lately.  Or his taste questionable at the very least: relentless partisanship of a certain Soviet ballerina who shall go nameless and equally endless hyping of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, which went downhill a long time ago.  Anyway, it was never the overrated Vincent D'Onofrio's Goren who made the show rock back when it still did, it was always Kathryn Erbe's Eames who made it a must-see and hear.