SYTYCD Miscellany

A couple of things I overlooked in my rush to post last night.

First, can anyone recommend SYTYCD blogs/sites that are worth reading? I have a strong prejudice against poor writing, though if the content is sufficiently engaging, I'd make an exception. Many of the sites that meet these criteria are defunct or currently under the auspices of lesser writers, and the one that I do try to keep up with is the coverage on AV Club, which still tends to make conclusions that I find fabulously wrong. (Tangentially, I'm not quite sure why I become such an inflamed hemorrhoid of a pedant on the subject of SYTYCD.) Maybe Melanie LaPatin will be back on EW.com when the season starts?

Second, trooper6 left a comment/reproof that corrects my brief (and possibly glib) discussion about the Damon and Deon//Les Twins controversy and the ensuing pearl-clutching that I characterized as bourgeois:

I don't think taking people's stuff without payment is always a righteous blow for sticking it to the man. It really depends on whose stuff you are taking. [...] I think it is problematic that at a time when underprivileged people are now getting the access to intellectual property rights (albeit in limited ways), that we decide that honoring intellectual property rights is too bourgie.

I don't have much of a response for trooper6, since IP rights are a non-trivial blindspot for me and rather beyond this blog's scope -- and indeed are a field that I feel I have almost nothing of interest to say about. (For instance, I have no idea how access to they've been broadened to people who don't have corporate financial muscle backing them!) One point to consider further, though, is how the Internet complicates legal and artistic obligations and the IP integrity of creative works. (Barry has a thoughtful take on the technological angle with respect to digital media, focusing mainly on the culture of techno/house mixes.)