From the Observer, thoughts on the wild new lingo that’s taking the indiesphere by storm. Lynsey Hanley writes, “I’ve found myself scratching my head at some of the words and phrases used by bloggers to describe things that once would simply have been described as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s brilliant fun and completely baffling at the same time.” Just “good” or “bad”? I think, say, Arthur Danto, Greil Marcus, Pauline Kael, John Lahr, et al. might have another point of view. Anyway, continues Hanley:

You could never get away with this level of obtuseness on such an august title as the New Yorker, which prides itself on bringing the same sort of acts championed by Pitchfork – Dizzee Rascal, MIA and Lady Sovereign, among others – to the attention of doughty Manhattan [what means this “other four boroughs”?] intellectuals. In print, the magazine’s pop critic, Sasha Frere-Jones, can explain the cultural significance of East End rap collective Roll Deep in terms that your parents would understand, but uses his website, sashafrerejones.com, as an outlet for a style of writing which, though utterly infectious in its enthusiasm, is also often impossible to follow.

He drops street slang and music-insider references into his musings, calling, for instance, Burt Bacharach’s new album ‘dire bougie make-out piffle’ and, later in the same entry, referring to a promotional video by ‘smooth jazz footsoldier’ Brian Cuthbertson, complains that ‘dude is a turbochoad’ who speaks in ‘marketing pre-cum’. Come again?

‘Nobody’s paid to read my blog; nobody has to sit through it to get to The Sopranos,’ says Frere-Jones of his idiosyncratic blogging style, ‘so if I sometimes write in an unfiltered way, it isn’t likely aimed at other critics, but is simply a reflection of how I think when no one is watching.’

Asked if he hopes one day to transfer some of that unfiltered quality into his print journalism, Frere-Jones quips: ‘I hope to use the jaculation “Christ on a plastic dolphin!” in the New Yorker soon.’ Don’t we all, dude.

I don’t think Frere-Jones’ blog writing is like anything else I read online, or anywhere. I find it occasionally elusive (I skipped half a decade of pop music when I learned to lindy hop), but it’s fun to see people in different writing modes—memo to co-Eyebeam panelists, there are different writing modes—and if you get really lost, there are pictures.