By popular demand, the comment of the century: FRANCESCO | Date: 5/3/2006 18:12 | Rating: — | Album Rating: —
Chronicle of a foretold death... I returned yesterday from the hospital where I spent almost 5 grueling days, and upon my return, I saw the uproar unleashed by my latest copy-paste reviews. All true, and I'm not here to justify anything (or almost). In these 5 months, I reviewed about 77 albums, of which only the last 7 have been more or less copied or reworked from existing comments or reviews. Because of these 7, I have obviously been discredited for all the work done since the beginning, being accused of "always" copying, which is NOT TRUE. More than 90 hours dedicated to Debaser wasted in the span of a couple of days. The question everyone is asking is: Why did I do it? I will try to explain it briefly and let's see if anyone manages to understand me: it’s called "the urge to write," wanting at all costs to talk about THAT album without having the necessary time or patience, it’s also called performance anxiety, the frantic fever of "being there." In fact, a kind of drug, a desire to communicate to others, and before others, certain discoveries of mine (see Paul Simon with his Graceland, not yet reviewed by anyone!) and doing so with "shortcuts" that, seen today, make me smile at the naivety with which they were done. What can I say: I believe (or I like to believe) that this "trauma," in addition to the "real" one, wanted to send me a strong and clear signal: perhaps it's time to stop. It's time to downsize this "review fever" that lately was consuming me more and more, making me spend 2, 3—sometimes even 4 hours a day behind DeBaser and thus neglecting family, work, and my child... A genuine madness!! Not all evil comes to harm, and this has been a strong and clear sign for me: it's time to quit, and that’s what I will do. So, with this farewell of mine (which I suppose is definitive), I want to thank everyone I've introduced to albums they had never heard before (see Carmina Burana, Stephen Micus, or certain gems of minimal electronics, my great love) regardless of the review, and I want to apologize to everyone I knowingly "tricked" with cut-and-paste Frankenstein reviews, and who felt in some way "betrayed" by a sacrilege too strong for everyone, creating an insurmountable ethical and moral issue (and I’m on this... without exaggerations though?) By popular demand then (and perhaps rightly so) Francesco, or rather francesco with a lowercase f, is leaving. He’s closing the doors of DeBaser. Disappearing forever. "Dying." Perhaps I really asked for it (it’s not like the other reviews I was taking pieces from were "that" hidden, just a click aside and it would immediately jump out at you) and I tell myself that, almost certainly, maybe unconsciously, deep down I strongly wanted it. I "wanted" someone or something to stop me from this productivity fever, to get me out of this tunnel of pressing anxiety where I had to "always" prove something more to myself than to others. A perverse and alienating game that led me to ruin (like it happens with gamblers or those who ruin themselves with bets). Thus, a trauma, an incident, a scandal was needed. Well, in one week not one but two incidents occurred: a "physical" incident and an "intellectual" one. Serves me right. If you still feel offended or this isn’t enough for you, I apologize again; I can’t do more... And with this, I light the last cigarette of the condemned and say goodbye to you "forever." Goodbye and thank you, francesco.
