Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer; talking to Eddie Van Halen and Bill Paxton on the flipside

Aside from being a film writer/director, I had a fun chance to be a music critic at Variety for a number of years. My pal Bruce Haring was one of the editors at the time, moving over from Billboard, then leaving for more pristine pastures; he roped me into writing music reviews under the moniker “tini” during the early 90’s, then under my own name during the late 90's.

I saw it as an opportunity to turn my 150 words into an experience for people. Filmmaking can take years — writing, casting, directing, putting it into theaters — I enjoyed being able to craft an experience, and have it published the “next day.” (Search “Rich Martini Variety” for some examples). I also played in a band full of “rock critics” who played the House of Blues three times and various venues on the strip.

If anything, I was chastised for not being “critical enough” — because I felt “If people paid this much money to see their favorite act and are standing on their seats” then my job was to translate that experience into words for people who couldn’t see the show. And I saw a lot of shows that people were wild about and I was amused by how much fun they were having. It I could translate that into a phrase, or a sensation, I was happy to do so.

(Plus I hated being reviewed negatively, still stinging from Siskel and Ebert giving me a “thumbs way down” for my film “Limit Up” — so likely I avoided putting my thumbs out there for anyone else’s work.)

I can pretty much say out of the dozens of shows I covered, only a handful got the “negativity” from me, and always for technical reasons, or the laziness of the artist who didn’t show up at the tech rehearsal, or just lip synching their way through the set.

I had the privilege to review and meet up with everyone from Sting to Prince, from Paul Simon to an impromptu set at Johnny Depp’s club by Eddie Vedder. (Which I was fired over, because “no journalists” were allowed — and they didn’t know I was invited as a filmmaker, by a filmmaker — and the agents were in a tizzy over my “sneaking in” to review the show.) That last review in in the “Variety” link above.