Originally published at: Ballet director who spread dog feces on critic's face gives a half-assed apology | Boing Boing
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Well, that won’t do. A half-assed apology for a full-assed faceful of dogshit. On the other hand, me, I’d have trouble accepting any explanation from the shitheel pulling that stunt in the first place. 0_o
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That first paragraph was a treat.
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“In retrospect, I am clearly aware that this was a disgraceful act in the heat of the moment and an overreaction.”
Was he carrying the dog-poo around with him, or did he source it for the attack? This doesn’t sound very “heat of the moment”.
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Came to say the same. He keeps saying it was heat of the moment, but who carries paper bags of dog shit around with them?
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He is German, so maybe that’s a thing over there? 
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Ah - Hundscheißepapiercarrien
Of course.
(Awaits our German friends’ arrival to give the correct form of dog-shit-paper-bag-carrying.)
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The dog poop is apparently from his own dachshund. In principle we here in Germany like it if people clean up after their four-legged manure machines – many dog owners could be a lot more conscientious about this than they actually are. Normally however, one would bin the nasty stuff at one’s earliest convenience, instead of carrying it about in one’s pocket to use it to assault hapless art critics.
Incidentally, we hear that the Hanover State Ballet has now fired the guy.
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I’m not at all surprised that this guy would provide nonpologies of deepest insincerity; but I do find his theory of critics as pernicious attackers on the ‘whole cultural sector’ rather curious.
My impression was that ‘high culture’/‘real art’ types treated the presence of critics in their ecosystem as one of the factors that distinguished them from kitsch and hallmark cards on the one side(neither of which respond all that well to criticism; but from which so little is expected that they are mostly beneath criticism) and summer action blockbusters and made for tv movies on the other(which do get reviews; but which openly treat commercial success or failure as the only review that really matters). Even when some of the reviews are bad; the whole point is that you merit critics because what you do is significant and interesting enough to be worth analyzing and responding to; not just totting up ticket sales.
Is this just an asshole with serious main character syndrome conflating himself with an entire cultural sector; or is the belief that Art cannot survive an attack on its feelings an actual thing?
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These days, where some people apparently consider themselves God’s gift to humanity at large and nobody is supposed to attack anyone’s feelings about anything, probably both.
Artists who believe the critics are out to get them should perhaps remind themselves of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’ observation that “no statue has ever been erected in honour of a critic”.
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Me. I have a doge and it is the height of bad manners to leave the poo on the ground here. Like I have actually called on people I don’t actually know to get bags because they have a dog and I didn’t have a bag when the boy shat. It’s less socially embarrassing than leaving dog shit on the ground.
Yes, of course, you do (and a pox on those fuckers who don’t) but:
A.I’d be surprised if you use paper bags, as this dickhead did, apparently, and
B. You don’t take them to the theatre with you when going to see a ballet
Just like people bringing rotten tomatoes. If you do that, you’ve decided what you think before you actually see/hear the thing.
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Also…
Good criticism can actually make art and culture MORE enjoyable, not less. Is there a lot of shitty criticism… for sure. Is there some good stuff out there that helps us to better engage with culture, without a doubt!
I’m gonna guess that the genre of critic that just spends their time tearing shit apart rather than trying to understand culture is made up of dude-bros who read Lester Bangs and thought that his most bitter and caustic essays was the most valuable part of his work…
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Do paintings count?
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Useful criticism is hard and takes a lot of knowledge and understanding and the ability to share that in an accessible manner.
Everyone’s a critic, but not everyone is a Critic.
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I’m going to say “yes’” because it is creative work, you put the effort in to find it, and because it will piss off the purists.
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