haterade Archives - David Mark Brown

Jackasses Will Always be With Us

February 15, 2012February 16, 2012 by David Mark Brown

Haterade image for Get into the Head before Jock For the fourth and final installment of The Green Porch’s Guide to Courteous Critique, I’m expressing my confusion. Is it fashionable to hate apples because they don’t taste like oranges? So why do people think it’s legitimate to read pulp fiction and then hate on it because it isn’t teen romance?

And has anyone noticed hate-nastics often include all the same buzz phrases? Are these auditions for The Next American Jerk-A? Look, I get it. It’s easier to sound smart when criticizing something than when praising it. Every monkey loves his banana. But to describe it as thick-skinned, moldy and lacking pungency makes me sound like one cool gorilla.

That’s why part four of the guide is about ignoring the inevitably erroneous critiques when we get them.

Ignore them, they won’t go away.

What was it Jesus said about the poor? That they will always be with us. This wasn’t intended to let us of the hook when it comes to caring for them, but it was meant to help us prioritize. If Jesus were writing this post he would tell everyone that jackasses will always be with us.

Haterade is for Sipping

September 24, 2012February 13, 2012 by David Mark Brown

Haterade image for Get into the Head before Jock As part of the Green Porch’s continuing efforts to help guide human behavior toward more sustainable ends, we bring you rule number three in our series, “Guide to Giving Courteous Critique”…

But before we get to that, I thought it would be worth mentioning a few things I’ve discovered, as of late, I don’t hate:

As a matter of fact, I love the above three things and will be blogging about each in turn over the next few weeks. Ahhh. Now doesn’t that feel therapeutic? Get on the love train folks, because it’s time for rule three of giving courteous critique:

Haterade is for Sipping

There, I said it. Now don’t get me wrong. Haterade is a powerful elixir, and has its place and purpose around the sphere of artistic endeavor. Where would we be if Milli Vanilli hadn’t received the heavy dousing of haterade they so rightly deserved? Or if reality T.V. hadn’t gotten booed from the primetime stage… (oh, crap).

Compliment Someone, Stupid!

February 6, 2012February 6, 2012 by David Mark Brown

Haterade image for Compliment Someone, Stupid Learning the skill of critique in our po-mo (post modern) world is handier than a grave digger learning how to sharpen a shovel. Bitching and moaning has become a competitive sport and a matter of pride. Without spending more than a few seconds considering this statement, it’s the only thing that unites every generation from youngest to oldest.

But sadly, most people think genuine critique is as simple as farting his or her gut’s first-churnings onto paper or into the digital aethers. Not so. Today we will deal with the first rule of courteous critique:

Compliment someone, stupid!

Match your slash and burn with at least an equal amount of praise.