I’m not sure how often you folks check the comments for each blog post, but I do fairly regularly. I guess that kind of makes sense since this is sorta my blog.

Anyway, I wanted to pass along this little gem because I’d hate to think it had been overlooked.

Here it is, from “Ted,” in response to a post entitled A-Hole:

Who let this loser be a music writer? Its bad enough that we have toendure his idiotic musings in the paper every week. Now he’seditorializing about A-Rod? Glad you think he’s a total douche. Why notfill up this space with other original red sox fan opinions like “JeterSucks, A-rod swallows”? I could go on endlessly about how a certainloud mouthed red sox picher is by far the douchiest player baseball hasseen in decades…but I’ll save that debate for when I’m sharing a beerwith my buddies, and leave this space open for those who want todiscuss local music.

Well, “Ted,” I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always write about music, local or otherwise. In fact, it seems to me that Solid State has a fairly long-standing tradition of branching out beyond the stated “ramblings of a musical kind” to cover a wide variety of subjects. Casey liked “House,” I like baseball. Deal with it.

I’m happy to spend more time discussing local music. But only if I can fit it in between writing my idiotic musings — you know, the ones about local music. Surprisingly, being a loser takes up an awful lot of free time.

In the meantime, take a deep breath and read this. I think it’ll help.

Dan Bolles is a culture coeditor at Seven Days. He joined the paper in 2007 as its music editor, covering Vermont's robust music, comedy and nightlife scenes for a decade before deciding he was too old to be going to the Monkey House on weeknights to see rock shows for a living. He became assistant arts editor in 2017 and culture coeditor in 2021. Bolles has received numerous local and national awards for his writing on Vermont arts, sports and the occasional celebrity canine murder mystery. He loves...

15 replies on “Sticks And Stones . . .”

  1. You get only partial sympathy from me, as I’m not a big sports guy.I did enjoy using this space to write about psychotropic drugs and dying cats, though.

  2. Fair enough. But I’m not really looking for sympathy.Obviously, I do like sports and, from time to time, I’ll write about it. Feel free not to read those posts if it doesn’t interest you. I really don’t mind. There’ll be plenty of other topics to slake your thirst for music-y stuff. After all, this is supposedly a music blog.However, as much as this space is centered around music coverage, it’s also built around and populated by the local music community and it’s interesting — to me, at least — to read the viewpoints of other “music guys” and gals on unrelated topics. Even, daresay, sports.I get the historical divide between band geeks and jocks — I went to high school too — but I know I’m not the only person around here who is passionate about both music and athletics — or movies, or literature or dying pets. I mean, some of my best friends are jocks — and dead pets. I even play sports with a bunch of local musicians — and dead pe . . . oops.In any event, I know I’ve been pretty lax about the volume of posts, so the off-topic ones kind of stand out. That’s my bad. But I’ll make you a deal: I’ll write more, you stop calling me — or anyone else here, for that matter — childish names. ‘K?

  6. I think not-so-childish names should only be allowed if you use your real name when you post. Because, otherwise, you’re just being childish.And “total douche” is still pretty childish. I think I remember calling Dan that in a fight over the Sega Genesis a good 15 years ago. He always wanted to play the sports games…

  7. Hey, I played a fair amount of Sonic The Hedgehog and Altered Beast too.I’ll concede that “total douche” was pretty base. The fact that he’s a Yankee doesn’t help — though I have immense respect for Derek Jeter — but I’ve never been an A-Rod fan and until this season, most Yankees fans I know weren’t either. He plays the game like a spoiled brat which, at 25 mil per year, perhaps he is.By the way, the original post had very little to do with my opinion on A-Rod. It was about a statistical anomaly. It seems that got lost somewhere. Oh well.

  8. As a fellow music blogger who often posts about sports too, obviously, I have no problem with the sports posts. However, I don’t understand calling A-Rod a douche and a spoiled brat. I’d accept “sackless bitch” or “Danny Tartabull 2.0 on roids” or “gutless wonder” but I don’t see douche or brat.And I’m a Yankee fan.

  11. Bottom line — it’s yours. You do what you want. Other people are free to complain, but hey….if you feel like Baseball, Baseball it is.

  13. Well; i have no interest in sports or sports posts – but i don’t really think it’s the sports that’s the problem with your blogging, essentially. It’s just a matter of writing for your audience. A way of writing that includes them and makes the audience feel invited and part of your world… While Casey did bitch and moan about some things that i couldn’t give a big girl turd about, he bitched and moaned in a way that was at least entertaining and gave some open insight into his personality. Which, i despise, btw 😉 “A-Rod Blows” only says so much about a personality. infact i’m with Cathy – i don’t enjoy the posts so much, but when the comments are more than (10) than i check em out.that being said; keep em coming!

  14. Point taken. Thanks for you candor, Tanner. See that, folks? There is a way to get your point across without devolving into petty name-calling and personal attacks. Much appreciated.

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