I saw an interesting movie the other night.  It was called Heckler and it was hosted and produced by Jamie Kennedy.  Jamie is a stand up comedian and actor and at one point had a Candid Camera/Punk'd-type show on the old WB network.  His movies include Malibu's Most Wanted and Son of the Mask.  Heckler was a documentary about people who heckle comedians and other performers but it also explored critics, professional or otherwise, whose job it is to essentially tell you what to think.  That's where I come in.  People have suggested that I do CD reviews on this site.  I say, what's the point?

The way I figure it, if I play something on HonkyTonkJunkie.com, obviously I like it.  If I didn't like it, why would I play it?  Oh, you want to know why I like it?  Who fucking cares what I think?  Maybe I like the words, maybe I like the melody, maybe I like the steel guitar solo.  Whatever.  It doesn't matter what I like.  It's not my job to tell you why I like something and in a lot of cases, I have no idea anyway -- maybe I just do.

By the same token, if I dislike a CD or song, why would I waste time writing about it?  All I would really be doing is giving something I dislike some free publicity.  That's kind of stupid.  Someone, somewhere liked it, otherwise it never would have seen the light of day.  I know there are people out there who liked the movies Gigli and Freddy Got Fingered because I'm one of them.  They certainly weren't the greatest movies but I found at least parts of them to be entertaining in one way or another.

My first job out of high school was at a video store.  Every single day someone would come in and ask me to recommend a movie or two.  I was young, I fell for it, I gave my opinion.  More often than not they would come back and tell me it was the worst piece of shit they had ever seen.  Well what did you ask me for then?  You can read the box.  Decide for yourself, don't ask me. 

I view lists the same way.  Somebody is always coming out with top 10 this and top 10 that.  Does anybody really care what Joe Jerkoff from whatever-it-is dot com thinks?  These things are ridiculous.  Form your own opinions.

Some of you might be thinking, "Hey, wait a minute there's a section on HonkyTonkJunkie.com where you recommend books and movies.  That's kind of hypocritical, don't you think?"  It might be if I liked everything on there.  I don't, though, and that's the difference.  That section is meant to be more of a resource guide for people who are interested in books and movies that have some sort of relevence to Honky Tonk or Country, or Americana or that you might find interesting.  There are actually things on that page that I am not a fan of but I also know that others might not think the same way so I put them there for you to check out and form your own opinion.  It's also not complete.  As I think of or come across more items, I will gladly add them whether I like them or not, so don't think of it as a list of my favorites. 

So Jamie, keep doing what you're doing and ignore the critics. I've always believed everything should be tossed out there to let the people decide what they like or don't like for themselves.  That's just my opinion, though.  No one should really care what I think anyway.