Last Friday night saw the culmination of seven months of pent-up artistic frustration. At around 6 p.m., local singer-songwriter Sterling Witt, clad in a women's blouse, arrived at the sidewalk outside The Pitch office to retaliate against an accurate -- sorry, unjust and cruel -- review that I, Jason Harper, had written of his latest album, Sea Things, this past March.
I now see how wrong I was. Sterling Witt is not merely a crafter of nautical knicknacks and forgettable acoustic-guitar-based love songs. He is a man of passion. An artist. A protester. A true folk hero. The way that he sings carries the tradition that Christ himself started when he cried out "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!?" ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?") before he died upon the cross. In fact, I don't think it's appropriate to continue referring to Sterling Witt as just Sterling Witt. Henceforth, he shall be known as the Artisan.
Wearing in penance the Artisan's T-shirt upon my back, I shall go forth proclaiming His greatness to all of creation. But first I must devise a symbol, a brand that I may burn into door frames and on the palms of infants.
This shall be that brand.
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Long live the Artisan!
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I hope you know this punk has a new cd, I've been waiting to hear you rip it apart. assuming it sucks of course.
Hey Jason
You no good cock sucker. You can not copyright an asterik fuck face. Consider youself sued. Fag ass.
Mr. Harper, I loved the Vonnegut ref.! Though I'm sure it flew high above the head of Sterling or any of his fan base. Which, by the way, seems entirely composed of people he went to school with and his family. Jamey, I recently found out, is his sister, not some random fan with ecclectic taste in music. If I had a brother and he was an awful musician, I'm sure I could convince myself he was talented, too. I stumbled across Sterling a few months ago at a place that normally has great musicians playing, I left immediately. It appears he's made quite a joke of himself in this town lately. I hate mainstream music, but I'd listen to an hour of Justin Timberlake over ten minutes of this guy's garbage. Oh, and to John I say- two minutes is more than enough to get a feel for how bad he is.
Seems to me, there is no such thing is bad press. even if you hate him, or disagree with the protest. Sterling has suceeded in one way. People are talking about him....
Um, guys - Mr. Witt put his music out. To the public. In fact, unless I am mistaken, he took the time to send it directly to the Pitch....
Do you get my drift here? You decide to be in the public eye, you kinda have to take the sweet with the sour. Jason Harper doesn't like Sterling's jams. Ok. Maybe the next periodical will fawn over the music. But protesting a review from a reviewer you sent your CD to?
Hmmm...Jason Harper has to use Vonnegut's picture of an asshole? Can't draw your own because you're afraid it might come out looking like you? Just give a dude some props for taking a negative and making it a positive. Though it is sort of cute how cheap your shots are at his expense.
There you go again, Jeff. Always confusing your homoerotic fantasies with reality.
So, I happened upon Jason Harpers MySpace page earlier and I noticed a pic of something that appears to be a penis within inches of his mouth. Very Curious
Jason, I really don't see how you have any basis to even write a review of the protest show. You see... I was there, and I actually WATCHED the show. You, on the other hand came bounding out of the buildin (your 1.2 megapixel Boost mobile camera phone in tow) just in time to capture the last 2 minutes of his set. This is in NO WAY an accurate representation of his performance.
I'll make absolutely no comment, positive or negative, on Mr. Witt's music...
But the fact that one of the tags is "ass clowns" has almost made my day.
I wondered how long it would take for the SW fans to show up to defend their icon.
Jamey- what you may not realize about the vast majority of us is that we indeed listen to a lot of music most don't consider 'mainstream'. In fact that probably makes us better qualified to judge good music than most of the idiots permanently glued to their American Idol and Mix 93. (Not saying you're one of them...just an example).
That being said, taste is subjective. So if you consider SW to be the most talented person in the music world today, that's your right. But don't expect the other 99.9% of the KC music community to agree with you.
Those of you who don't enjoy Sterling Witt are just afraid to listen to something that not main stream. He has creative talent that you only wish you had. He puts on one hell of a show and gets to know all his fans.
ROCK ON STERLING WITT, THOSE OF US WITH TASTE IN MUSIC LOVE YOUR SOUND!!!
The first time I read Sterling Witt�s � My Worst Press Ever� by Jason Harper, oddly enough was on a Sterling Witt T-Shirt. On the back of the shirt in a cryptic hand painted font was an invitation to the �Pitch Weekly Protest Show Nov 2nd 6pm�. At this time I had never heard Sterling Witt�s music. However I was intrigued enough to show up at the Pitch Weekly building at 6pm last Friday to see what it was all about. I found 30+ Sterling Witt fans standing around on the sidewalk in the bitter cold. A few minutes latter a skinny blonde kid showed up with guitar in hand & performed approx 40 min right there on the street. I had never seen anything like that before, I thought to myself, who in the hell is this guy? I liked his music, but even more interesting to me was how he used negative press as promotional material & chose to �Protest� your publication.Pure Genius, if you ask me.
too bad the buses weren't loud enough to drown out his wailings. and my mom wants her shirt back.
teeheee...i heard about this 'protest' early on friday and was just waiting for your response.
i say you just out and out declare war upon the sterling witt army for their offenses against good music in this town. i can see it now...a very west side story-like showdown in an alley in the crossroads.
In the printers world, there was a symbol that is very similar. It is called a dingbat.
TMI
Stevo
Josh, send us your address on a postcard bearing an image that evokes, for you, the essence of the Artisan (i.e., the Greek god Apollo), preferably accompanied by an inspiring message, and we will send you one of the shirts.
DAMN!!!!
Now that is the true way to protest a bad review! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!
btw - the people in the background look like they really don't want to be there. they must be some good friends!
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