We get stacks and stacks of letters

I have been terrible about updating this thing lately, and I feel kind of lame about breaking the silence just to answer an angry letter about one of my OC Weekly columns. But… Well, what the hell. This is my goddam blog, after all.

So this passes for edgy and irreverent when it’s just crappy writing [“Not Negotiable” by Greg Stacy, April 11]. It’s not about yourself, fool, but what you’re seeing. I thought this crap went out when Commie Girl still masqueraded as an art writer.

Anonymous, via e-mail

Thank you for your thoughtful and well-reasoned argument, Anonymous!

I was never really close to Commie Girl. I rarely worked with her and we haven’t crossed paths in years, so I’m not gaining anything by defending her. But as a reader, I did enjoy her art columns. So much art criticism is silly, pretentious garbage, and Rebecca did the same thing I try to do: she made it lively and funny, smart but also grounded in real life.

I don’t write the way I write out of any affectation. I write the way I write because… Well, this is how I write! And it is also the kind of thing I want to read.

Commie Girl was not masquerading as an art writer, and neither am I. We are both professional art writers. Like it or not, we have convinced our bosses that our opinions matter enough to publish them. We have our soapboxes, and we’re not bitter cowards who are stuck firing off insulting, anonymous emails to people.

You think you’re so smart, go get your own art column.

Dork.