Comments on Blake Lewis' Audio Day Dream

he looks like he's gained 20 pounds. remember when he came to the office totally high? i bet the two are connected.

and should i even go into the "wolverine-if-wolverine-was-a-queer" facial hair?

that side view makes him look like he's wearing some blue eyeliner. zoiks!

weird that this is coming up again, in a totally different post, but the cover reminds me of commons latest, finding forever.

@2, yes, and you should use the phrase "more like Audio Gaydream" if at all possible

#5: Is he combing it? Why does it look like his beard has been stuck on with spirit gum? Why is it there in the first place? What fucking focus group told him to butch up? I liked him better as a lipstick lesbian. It also looks like they gave him extra eyebrow hair there near the middle. I guess he got overwaxed. And like, it also looks like they photoshopped his skin to look worse.

There are just so many unanswered questions.

He looks like a faggy Fred Durst. That's what it is.

he wasnt stoned, ari. we'd been drinking coffee and interviewing for the hour and a half before he came into the office.

ari spool: you are a hateful bitch

everything you say sounds like you are a girl that knows she won't get beat up

which you won't

but jesus, you are a bitch

Someone tell me how Ari Spool has a job? Her writing sucks, she has no insight to anything, and she's a bitch. Is being a bitch enough to get her a job at the Stranger? Not to bag on her. I've been reading the Stranger for the last year and everything she writes is horrible. Seriously, it pisses me off when I see her name on anything because she's such a hack. She must be Savage or Frizzelle's cousin.

its funny how everybody hates success.

@12 - I'm confused: was that in regards to the Blake-hating or the Ari-hating?

WOW. ndrwmtsn, are you THAT big of a Blake Lewis fan? Did I miss him being somehow really loved and respected by the local hip hop community? Is the local hip hop community even more honkytastic than I thought it was?

You sound like a whiny 12 year old cheerleader telling the funny smart tomboy girl to stop talking shit about your boring vapid preppie friends who totally deserve to have shit talked about them.

"LEAVE BLAKE ALOOOOOONE!!!!! WAHHHH!!!"

Also, I'm a guy, soooo .. I guess it's okay for you to kick my ass for saying mean things about Blake fucking Lewis? Is that how it works? Explain, please.

Ari, you are hilarious. But you don't need me to tell you that.

i like it how the first 8 comments are just could've just been a conversation in the stranger office.

how is the music?

we try to talk to each other as little as possible, rob, and communicate through comments on line out instead.

hey eric, can i borrow your stapler?

wait, theres music? oh yeah, i forgot what we were talking about in the first place.

havent heard it. but that album cover--oy!

Blake who? Oh that stupid guy that "beatboxed" a lot on American Idol. Yeah, I expected a lot better artwork from this guy. Yep.

@14:

are you fucking serious? yeah i'm a huge b-shorty fan. fuck outta here.

however lame he is, you think it's cool that ari feels entitled to call him a fat stoner out of nowhere? i hate how much energy she puts into hate.

easy targets lampoon themselves. ari spool is so not classy with this shit.

and yeah, 14: i'm gonna beat you up because you're not a girl. fucking idiot. i meant that ari writes shit like she doesn't need to answer for it.

ari thinks: breaking eggs, making omelets

ari does: write checks her ass can't cash

who wants to party with 14, huh?

am i right?

Andrew Matson has always been nice to me to my face. I love the internet.

Matson, you're a fat white boy dying for cred in a scene you'll never be anything in but a hater. It's looking like the only place you can get published now is on internet forums. Go back to Spokane, where white boy hip hop writers matter, no one is listening to you here and your hating on Spoll is pathetic. Ari could, and probably should, kick you oversized lilly white dough boy ass right out of town.

PS - Blake Lewis cover: cheesiest local band cover EVER!

yeah ari, we can talk about stuff like this. does that sound like a lot of fun to you? i love the gossip too, but do you think we are on the same wavelength about what's funny and what's rude? that's not a coversation i was dying to have.

i don't care for some of meinert's doings either, but i'm nice to him in person. it's understood: we differ.

if i see you at a concert or a joyous occasion, i really have nothing invested in yelling at you. i don't think about you writing offensive shit until you do it.

you obviously have no other calling than to write about music, so i applaud your grind/grizzly/etc, but IT IS MY OPINION THAT you are a habitual snark/hate line-stepper.

Matson, I don't even know who you are, don't bring my name into this. I love Ari Spool, your shit talk is treading a thing line with me. Watch yourself little one.

21, who the fuck are you?

i'm not from spokane, moron. nice try. i get published in the paper, fool, where i write saccharine shit about big tunes and brandi carlile and i'm good at it and i get paid TONS OF FUCKING MONEY. so FUCK YOU.

and who are you calling fat? do you know how hot i am right now?

now is a good time for you to talk about my whiteness.

or the fact that you are clearly a talentless rapper.

At least Matson can write. Ari masks her lack of writing skill and lack of knowledge with big cuss words and this fake badass mentality. (Hint to Strager - It is lame. Ask anyone.)

I dread hearing the new Blake Lewis. How over produced do you think it will be?

I think what annoys Stranger readers about Ari Spool’s whole bullshit vibe. She can’t write, she doesn’t really know any type of music well, she has no experience, and she just seems really stupid. I agree with 11, it’s a slap in the face when I see her in print. And yeah this is stirring it up (which the Stranger likes), but this is the bad kind of stirring it up. This is readership saying “Her stuff totally sucks.” And “It totally brings down the paper.”

bri knows whats up

and that's clearly a fake meinert alias

Meinert, please once and for all, shut up.

You are greedy self serving bastard. You are interested in music for the wrong reason.

You love Ari Spool because she might say something nice about the bands you have interest in.

I just gotta say - I don't know Matson. I don't know Ari.

I can read. I have a brain. That is all.

And if anyone is calling anybody fat, have you looked at Ari Spool lately?

i want to see the exact same cover but using ARI's face instead of blakes. Lets see it!

maybe i should start writing shitty uninformed hate articles like Matson so I can make tons of fucking money too. By the way - I loved how you called Skerik a "wierdo" in the earshot preview, I could tell you did a lot of research on that. Brilliant piece of writing.

BTW - Blake looks like the wolfman...

Mtsndchbg, $25,000 a year might be a lot for your white trash home town, but it's jr. league in Seattle. You're a lame writer, struggling to make it in the 'big' city of Seattle. You got dumped from the Stranger after one article. You're washed up before you even started, and for some reason think you're going to get some attention for attacking Spool on a web forum. Grow up and go get a real life, douchebag.

fckmtsn:

"whitetrash hometown" huh. yeah i'm psyched to live in the big city. u obviously know nothing about me. i get whatever attention i deserve, and i didn't get "dumped" by the stranger, fucker.

25G's? are you serious? have you seen my minivan? I'M BALLING. I HAVE EXCELLENT HEALTH INSURANCE.

yeah, and the picture was of skerik bugging out his eyes trying to look like a freak. weirdo? hella apt.

to set the record straight: matson did not get dumped by the stranger, he went to the times, who demand exclusivity.

now were all gonna shut up about this and move on.

"have you seen my minivan? I'M BALLING. I HAVE EXCELLENT HEALTH INSURANCE."

OK, now you're just stealing lyrics from Kanye. That's not cool.

again, Matson, you literally personify what you seem to hate in Ari. It's a beautiful irony that a lot of people are aware of. And I think there's a term for people who are nice to ones face and the opposite behind their back/on the internet...

Levislade ftw. And, people, can we please focus on the matter at hand? Blake Lewis is in fucking OUTER SPACE with his own CLONE!

Ari is an excellent, entertaining writer, but an incredibly rude and self-absorbed dipshit. That's why many, many people don't like her. Her bad manners and myopic viewpoint are gonna bite her on the ass hard on her inevitable way down.

Oh yeah, back to the album cover: My friend and I decided yesterday that what it really needs is for the profile in back to be Blake as a werewolf. Right?

WOW. everybody make out like friends already.

Ari i think you live across the street from my bus stop. nice scarf.

mtsn, write a blog already you fat white slut.

I don't know who Matson is, but Ari Spool is definitely NOT entertaining. She is not a good writer. She seems lazy and uninformed. She never has anything to say, except that she thinks she knows what she's talking about. Ugh. I'm so glad to see other people speaking out about it. I love the Stranger but they gotta get her outa there. It's like she tries to have this schtick, but it's not schtick. It's just aweful and unpleasant for people to read. I don't see how Frizzelle and Savage let any of it get by them.

Wow, I leave the internets for a few hours and it all goes to hell.

I'd just like to say, regarding the next person who I hear or see in print say "Don't be a hater," in all seriousness, to someone who is simply expressing their own negative critical opinion about something, that I would like very much to crack that person's chest cavity open and take a huge steaming taco plop in their lungs.

This is not something I will actually do, mind you, but the desire to do it is immense in my heart.

Besides which, does making fun of someone's hilariously shitty album cover really qualify as hatred, in the strictest sense of the word?

Also, to be frank, the only music writers I've ever found interesting are the one's who write "like they don't need to answer for it." The rest are usually shamelessly toadying shwag hounds that never give something less than three stars and write for middle brow daily newspapers. Oh wait, SNAP!!!

Don't get me wrong. That is a really bad cover for an album and I don't listen to Blake Lewis.

My comments about Ari Spool's terrible writing aren't a negative critical opinion. They are the truth. She's a bad writer. She has no business writing. It's not controversial, it's not pot stirring. Everyone I've talked to agrees, she sucks.

I'm not a hater, I'm a reader of the Stranger. I skip anything written by Ari Spool because she is fluff and lame. She brings the paper down.

easy targets lampoon themselves. ari spool is so not classy with this shit.

vs

ari spool: you are a hateful bitch

everything you say sounds like you are a girl that knows she won't get beat up

which you won't

but jesus, you are a bitch

very classy, matson.

Wait, Eric, but Ari is a bitch! She tries to be a bitch. It's no secret. Eric, you are a good music writer. Can you honestly tell me Spool is a good writer?

this is all jay-z's fault (this is true)

My opinions of Ari Spool's temperment and/or writing skills have litereally nothing to do with my take on Matson's above inconsistency re: keeping it classy.

Well, your silence speaks volumes.

I don't even think Ari would argue that she's a bitch. I don't think she's hiding it. Why is Matson at fault for pointing out the incredibly obvious?

Also, litereally...it's like really literal really.

litereally is the miller lite of really.

in his heart, grandy knows whats up

matson is inconsistent and definitely not classy, but at least he writes like he knows how

but he is fat and white tho, and from the suburbs

ya'all are bitches.

I thought we were talking about how faggy this album cover looks.

And, for the record: I like Ari. I think her writing's funny.

But, yeah. Look at the faggy fagtastic album cover! What a fag!

You all are crazy. That cover is GREAT. It's like, he's audio-daydreamin!! All this audio stuff is just floating around his head all day long! ALL HE THINKS ABOUT IS MUSIC!! It's like the patch cord, microphone and studio monitor is an actual extension of the Man's mind! Like, whoah- I totally get it. Maybe some of you just missed the connection. HE'S AUDIO-DAYDREAMIN!!!

OMG! You guys! The school newspaper is fighting with the year book staff in the lunch room! C'mon let's go watch!

NERDWAR!!!

*Adult me comes in, rolls up sleeves, turns a chair around and sits on it backwards*

Now, I know everyone of you in outsie of here and I gotta tell you, you're all such fun people in person. You also have the potential to be so uncharacteristically snarky in text. Every one of you.

It's part of your job I guess but let's be real, this isn't about your writing styles or your onscreen vs real world personnas. This is about your prejudices...

Right?

Everyone hates Grandy because he's the dude from the friend 'em then fuck 'em over in print school of music journalism and Grandy hates Matson because Matson's the white suburbanite who thinks covering rap music should be his calling and Matson hates Ari because Ari's the jaded hipster who's fallen out of love with everything to the point thateverything is a joke and Ari hates Blake Lewis because he let a dumb album cover happen and Blake hates himself because now he has to be rich and content.

Alrighty then gang. Good rap session, right? Just remember that I can't help you if you don't help me to help you.

We good? OK, good. Ready?

1,2,3, GROUP HUG!

See! Doesn't that feel great?

See ya next week.

Wow...that was like The Breakfast Club Part 2.

cue Anthony Michael Hall's racist 'blues' voice! That was great.

PS I was actually on yearbook

I don't hate Matson, especially not for being a white suburbanite who thinks music writing is his calling, cause you know...pots, kettles, black. It is good to know everyone hates me, but guess what? If we're not friends now, we never really were. That group hug was nice, though.

just when i thought it couldnt get any better. thx bukake.

this thread is now officially the longest ever on line out. way to go, audio daydreamers!

*cue beatbox outtro*

we should remember the last time there was a thread this long, it was also matson's fault.

blakelooks like robin williams.

Eric, your literally being a literalist. Put your subtext glasses on.

The edgy writing persona can come off great when it's done correctly, but when it comes off as a half ass gimmick to cover what amounts to a complete lack of creativy, and an insipid, boring personality it's wack. She is taking the easiest pot shots, why don't you flex your cap hill sardonic liberal muscles and come up with some shit that's kind of funny

i find spool's stuff very boring. i don't think she's edgy. she's sludgy. i skip right over when i see her name. i am a music fan and spool stinks it up. i give her big thumbs down and a meh.

Ari's actually really funny I think, but when you put her in the context of sardonic hipster, well then she-like anyone else-of course comes off as bitter and humorless.

But this Blake Lewis album cover? Fucking priceless. Without it we wouldn't have hilarious gems like post #55. That shit made me do the tiniest real life spit take and I almost lost it while I was reading it. This thread is choice.

I like Ari's writing and Ari, in that order.

Guess what?

My paper. I win.

he's wearing a vest. racist.

Ari isn't an editor, she's just a serf writing boring crap with no point of view, which is all that her job description entails. Stranger articles have a 7 day shelf life. The only creative requirement of a Stranger piece is that it exists, to fill space between ads, and Mr Savage must know that if he is hiring such blowhards.

She is also a huge bitch and anybody in this small pathetic town will tell you so.

But who the fuck cares? So there's another mean spirited gremlin-like four eyes demi-girl in Seattle. Big surprise. The only shining star in Stranger music writer history - Jennifer Maerz - moved on to a better job in a less retarded, inbred city. Segal, another gem, moved on too. That we have Zwickel is an anomaly and a godsend as he has really changed things up for the better around here and brings a creative, inquisitive and honest critical voice to this snarky hipster shit-rag.

I guess my main question is, single out Ari when the entire music staff besides Zwickel is grossly incompetent and unqualified?

I really like Ari. She's young and hasn't had that much experience, but she can't be faulted for that. I wonder how many of you haters out there are just jealous? Perhaps even bitter that you didn't get a job at The Stranger?? Blake Lewis does look like a faggy Fred Durst, Ari was right.

That cover looks like a Sprite commercial and is going to sound like one too I'm sure.

Not jealous here - Just an informed music listener and Stranger reader. I have a good job.

Ari Spool is a joke of a writer and a journalist. Did the Stranger really think people wouldn't notice? Things that she writes fall way way short of being interesting. I find her lack of skill, experience, and knowledge insulting when it's slammed down my fucking throat. Sorry. Call me crazy.

I skip her writing too. Is that what you want?

And with all due respect, Dan Savage, you lose, because she's that bad.

@ #68:
"I guess my main question is, single out Ari when the entire music staff besides Zwickel is grossly incompetent and unqualified?"

AYE FUCK YOU JOHNNY!!!

SOYGNH

@ Savage #66...

Show him what he's won!

"It's a new copy of Audiodaydream"

*cue TPIR theme*

ndrwmatsn if youza real nigga talkin shit about my girl you gota bang me out and sqeez cuz me and some wild niggaz gon put that thang where ya tunge at and spray on you!!! you beta bedr b hard when y9ou get what comin on you

i ain't no hollaback girl you bitch ass nigga

i have the market cornered on snarky girl shit-talking commentary.

but then, i'm also pretty sure i write better than ari spool.

of course, i don't get paid for it but then, my health insurance is even better than matson's.

SOYGNH, tho.

www.206proof.com

lyrical gangbang

"That we have Zwickel is an anomaly and a godsend as he has really changed things up for the better around here and brings a creative, inquisitive and honest critical voice to this snarky hipster shit-rag."

That's the funniest shit i have heard in a long time. keep kissin that ass matson!

What do you think he's looking at up there? I think it's a spaceship.

Blake's a total stoner. And a tweaking homo. And that's what I like about him.

what I don't like about Blake? He takes himself way too seriously considering he has very little talent. he can't sing. he's fat. He thinks he's an artist. Which is only a problem because he isn't. And his album cover is the WORST ever.

Expect more danceable dreck from 19 Productions.

Can't wait for Melinda Dolittle's first JAM. Oh, wait. Yes, i can.

Ryan, I think he's looking at Chris Richardson's ass.