Bill's good shit and the guy has class. Thanks for the heads up, D.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Derek! That's some welcome good reading for sure. Shoemaker is a name that seems real familiar with positive assocations, one of those rock-solid avant/mainstream crossover writers, and it's nice to see a person's thoughts all in one place to take them as a unified viewpoint and a personal representation.

I'm not with you on the e-mag prize thing, though, because as much as I've gotten into a weekly groove enjoying OFN these days and easily give it the prize for design/formatting, my vote goes to PT for content.

One thing that bothered me in my reading just now is Shoemaker's editorial explaining that he won't review Horn_Bill: Reed Solos because it would be a conflict of interest given that a snippet of something he wrote appears in the liner notes. I think that's a sad subjugation to the superficial conventions of journalism. If a person has some content to offer on a topic, the content speaks for itself and the person's associations with the topic don't impinge on that. I would love to hear Shoemaker give the explanation he implies he'd like to give for his assessment of the Lou Gare solo as "revelatory". It might give me an insight to use in re-approaching a piece I found by far the least revelatory of the bunch and hearing it differently. I think that's one of the functions that justifies music commentary.

This conflict-of-interest mentality is just a holdover from the obsolete authoritative stance of "criticism". The fact is that even the most knowledgeable critic is just offering a personal response to a work of art, nothing more and nothing less. The conflict of interest only exists if the discourse is being positioned as a marketing tool and there is a meaningful economic or other direct profit at stake for the writer. And even in that case, the writer can simply explicity acknowledge the conflict of interest and still proceed to offer content to be taken by the reader however they may. It's the content that justifies the text's distribution and the reader's attention. But a case like Shoemaker's represents no such conflict of interest and strikes me as contrived submissiveness to the conventions of journalistic respectability in a context where the writer is innovating their discourse role and has the freedom to not function as a marketing tool, precluding any such conflicts right out of the gate.

If someone was writing an academic journal article and discussed someone else's journal article in which they themself were quoted extensively, it would be business as usual, not a conflict of interest. The relationship between the discourse agents is perfectly well understood by all parties. The case at hand doesn't need to be any different. Note that doesn't mean it isn't different in practice, past or future, but that the option exists for it not to be different.

The name "Point of Departure" was also used by Ludwig van Trikt for his weekly radio show in Philly for a number of years, a splendid avant-jazz oasis I was able to tune in many times.

I won't get into e-mag prize awards since I don't exactly have objectivity on my side, but per Martin Davidson, Moholo's mother passed away earlier this year, leaving him with head-of-family status. He doubled his surname in accordance with a cultural tradition that reflects said status.

Scott, thanks for the lowdown on Moholo-Moholo. Not to slight PT in any way, shape or form (Dan runs a tip-top ship and his masthead is teeming with swabbies I’d be honored to call my mates) but OFN still holds the crown IMO. Though in the interest of Mike’s full disclosure and to avert any chance of a drive-by by a gat-wielding, objectivity-decrying Adam Hill I should also admit my own bias on the subject :)

Well, aside from questions of conflict of interest, it's kinda tedious to write a second time on something one already wrote on, because you either have to just plagiarize yourself, or else try to avoid repeating what you said the first time. I've had to review something twice on a few occasions & it's something I really hate doing (unless the two pieces are aimed at completely different styles or audiences--e.g. a scribble in the blog vs. a formal magazine writeup).

Hi Nate, the bit from Shoemaker in the liner notes wasn't written specifically about the disc at all, but a quote from an earlier context, so it wouldn't be a duplication of topic. You certainly have a good point in general, but if you read Shoemaker's editorial, you'll see he's actually lamenting not being able to write about the disc. Since there's already a Bags entry on that release, I guess he could always post informal remarks there without feeling that conflict of interest. After all, anybody can drop in on the Comentellen and share their feelings about a disc even if they're the musicians or label owners! In my opinion, those are often the people best suited to generate content on the topic and have given that discourse context some of its best moments. So conflict of interest is moot there.

On the topic of OFN, Derek, I have to say I've found some real gems in the archives with your name on the byline, not to mention a host of other precocious pundits. If anyone hasn't perused the OFN archives, it's time very well spent!

Likewise for Dusted, a recent discovery for me, with a ton of great pieces by Derek, Jason Bivins, Marc Medwin, and other Bagophiles. Highly recommended and (literally) infinitely cheaper than buying back issues of ink publications for sure! I suppose most people already know about this stuff, but I mention it just in case because until I started poking around on the internet about these musics this past winter I was completely oblivious to these goldmines of commentary and information...

Any other key sites besides PoD, Dusted, PT, OFN, and AAJ? I've stumbled on the occasional gem in Stylus, but it's slim pickings and a real messy, unwieldy site. Pitchfork is similar in terms of tendencies toward mainstream/predictable content and narrow coverage, not really worth visiting in general. I suppose we ought to have a reference guide to online music publications somewhere.

Speaking of Sam Rivers Tuba Trio.... I downloaded a live version of this group from Dimeadozen.org a while back. Great stuff indeed. Also, someone there recently has been trading a six-disc live series of Sam Rivers stuff from the late-seventies through the late-nineties.

But thanks for the note on Point of Departure, its a welcome addition.