THIS IS PHI BULANI

A Telephone Interview

Noph: I had a convo with PHI today over the phone in respose to his fan Newsletter The PHIfan

About Reviews

NOPH: I see in the newsletter that at WWW. PHI BULANI. COM you've added some reviews of past performances, knowing how you feel about critics and reviews-

PHI:-"Well i haven't personally, but i've ok'd it."

NOPH: -Care to comment?

PHI: "Not really-

NOPH: ok then-

PHI: Just kiddin y' first of all, i've actually had a lot more positive reviews than negative-

NOPH: Yes... but the positive ones can't be the problem?

PHI: " Well here's the thing," reviews"-everybody reads 'em, sometimes we pay attention, sometimes we don't. I have no problem with them, when they are thoughtful, interesting, or well written- the various artforms, and artists need them, the reviews, the pr,- no such thing as bad press etc.etc. Whats whack to me is what masquerades as review, or artistic criticism, because what you have too often is a ' go- don't go approach.' And now we have people going on virtual archival digs- which is a bit concerning because an artist is now subject and vulnerable to repeated critical exposure, by that same critique, -for an old review! To better illustrate, if some crack ass critic reviews a performance of mine, and time passes- maybe years, and now present day- someone "googles" my name and they get exposed to that review... of yesteryear; now the googler in question might be a relative, a long lost friend, or maybe one of the phifans or something -and it hurts their feelings you know, or worse yet, a director or producer and they're thinking of working with me- so what i actually have a problem with is this type of shelf life- particularly with the so called bad ones haha, lol. I'm pushing this to an absurd extreme obviously-for effect, i don't think it's enough to say dems the brakes. Seriously though, think about it- some ass writes a review, and i get to live with it, and may have to work against it! While they go on and write another review, or get moved to sports... i mean c'mon, it's a bit out of line... so i'm just trying to balance the scales a bit- i think it's only fair- cause lady justice doesn't read reviews."

NOPH: Any review, or reviewer specifically??

PHI: "No! Whaty'think im nuts? plum loco? lol. No. like i said, i just don't think there should be a half life to that shelf life, for instance, i don't think i should have to see some crap review from some student "news"paper have a longer life than a good review from a local or national paper... or vice a versa for that matter. And where's the reviewer now, whats he or she doing?"

NOPH: Do you really think it matters that much?

PHI: "Yes i do, one of the first thing people do now a days is "google" somebody."

NOPH: Don't you think the said "googler" can tell the difference?

PHI: "Well you'd hope so, but whats driving them to "google you" in the first place, why not just meet, or see, or buy a ticket, and make up their own minds. I'm not the only artist who feels this way- and its not that im oh so sensitive, i'm just of the mind that it's an imbalance."

NOPH: So it's part n' parcel.

PHI: "Or is that art n' arsehole.'

NOPH: Nice one- haha lol

PHI: [Still lol.] "Yeah that was pretty good. lol Well hey, i gotta go google myself some more-

NOPH: Don't go blind!

PHI: hah-nice one!"

NOPH: I'll bet it is!

PHI: Ooh well done- a double header.

NOPH: oooh really??

PHI: Hah.lol " your crackin' me up- always could. lol. Peace nophy."

NOPH: [laughing]"'Always could- ??"-. Peace.

PHI: What are you laffin at?

NOPH: O' nothing-


NOPH: So there you have it, watch for your newletter in the mail- it is a nice one!