Many of my esteemed fellow bloggers — including, but not limited to, Lisa at Iron Tongue of Midnight and Brian at Out West Arts, just to name a couple — have taken Spring for Music to task for their little contest.  Good for them.

I was going to refrain from any comment whatsoever because I barely have time to write/blog about things I actually care about, let along things that I don’t care about.  In addition, a lot of what I was thinking was already mentioned by others.

Well, I broke that intent already by commenting on Brian’s post earlier today, and after some discussion with a non-blogger whose opinion I value, I was gently prodded to offer up my own reactions in a little more detail since they differ slightly from some of the things others have said.  So here goes. . . .

My general reaction to the contest was/is:  “Whatever.”

• First of all, I didn’t really feel like writing about their first topic, so given my statement above about having limited time to write, I immediately lost what little interest I may have had.
• Second, it’s a silly way to go about their stated goal of finding “(North) America’s Best Arts Blogger.”    I’m not nearly as outraged as some others are about this, and I’m a fairly competitive person, so the fact that there is a competition of some kind doesn’t particularly phase me.  But a contest for that purpose that requires you to write on a specific topic?  It’s laughable.  If you want to make some grandiose pronouncement as to who the best arts blogger is, fine — just read and judge the actual blogs.

The music/arts blogs that are most compelling to me are that way because I appreciate the quality of the writing AND the specific topics they choose to blog about.  I trust their ability to create and curate posts and topics that will be interesting and worth my time.   A writing contest to determine best blogger that limits the topic on which someone can write is, therefore, inherently counter-intuitive and counter-productive.

To put this most pointedly:  Making people write four essays about topics they’d likely never blog about on their own isn’t a blogging contest, it’s a college admissions application.  

“. . . while we as Americans are inherently a competitive culture, these kind of “best of” lists — whether it is a ranking of orchestras, sopranos, Sports Illustrated swimsuit models — are usually most enjoyable when not taken too seriously. When they are (e.g. college football rankings), the results are typically non-sensical at best and self-defeating at worst.”

Instead of using valuable time and brain cells any more on this topic, may I suggest some other, more light-hearted and amusing contests to follow, and even become a judge/voter, if you so choose:

• Laurie Niles over at Violinist.com has started a fun little tournament pitting one violin concerto against another.  First up:  Sibelius’s only vs. Prokofiev #1
• Zagat still is accepting votes and comments for their 2013 LA /SoCal restaurant guide.  You have until April 8th to weigh in.
• For something a little more irreverent, our friends at Esquire present “The Ladies Tournament 2012” (or #MarchHotness if you are hashtag inclined), this year’s rendition of their annual bracketological attempt to find the hottest woman of the year.  (Don’t act shocked. I never promised to be politically correct. Besides, entrants did not have to write an essay to be entered.)
• Like its basketball brethren, the first round of “Ladies Tournament 2012” has already seen its share of upsets:  most notably, in the “Movie” bracket, Emma Stone, America’s reigning red-headed sweetheart, lost to 15th seed Taylor Kitsch — a GUY.  There are even more upsets in the “Television” and  “Royals” brackets, though “Models+Music” largely went according to seeding. You still have time to impact the Second Round, so vote NOW!!!
• If it were up to me, Charlize Theron (#1 seed in Movie bracket) would win this year and every year, forever and ever, amen.  But it’s not up to me, and therefore my fearless predictions are:
  • The Final Four will consist of  Jennifer Lawrence (#3 seed Movies), Sofia Vergara (#1 seed Television, narrowly defeating #14 seed Katharine McPhee in the Cinderella story of this year’s tourney), Katy Perry (#4 seed Models+Music, beating #1 seed Kate Upton because even though she’s hot, wives and girlfriends are pissed at her because she did a Carl’s Jr commercial), and HRH, The Duchess of Cambridge (#1 seed Royals).
  • The Final will be Jennifer Lawrence v. the former Kate Middleton
  • The winner:   Princess Kate.  In a year that has been kind to Kates of all kinds (Upton, Perry, McPhee, etc.), it is by far The Duchess’s Year.  Who knows — maybe she’ll do an interview and a tasteful photo spread for Esquire if/when she wins . . . . I’m just sayin’ . . .