Hearing the same thing twice

Howdy!

The art critics for Toronto's daily newspapers are all over themselves about Vito Acconci's talks tonight in their fair city. Sarah Milroy writes an article that twists itself into all sorts of interesting shapes in order to show her glee at being able to have a phone interview with the man. Peter Goddard writes a slightly more restrained article that covers an awful lot of the same ground (duh! what would you expect in preview articles?).

The thing I find most fascinating is how Ms. Milroy leads with a paragraph about Mr. Acconci's voice;

"his voice is his brand, unforgettable to anyone who knows his now legendary video and performance work of the sixties and seventies. It's a deep, gravelly, overfilled ashtray of a voice and it emanates an almost predatory intensity (the voice chasing down thought). Acconci's voice comes in hectic, incantatory bursts, and he often repeats phrases, adding to them in waves of language. Listening to him is like watching shapes take form in the air in front of you, miraculously concrete and fully formed. You remember that he started out his life as a poet."

And how Mr. Goddard ends his article with a paragraph about Mr. Acconci's voice;

"Acconci's resonant, rich Bronx-y accent connects the surface of his art — the design work or the surfaces of his body — with a whole lot of soul beneath. It's a classic American voice, part precinct detective reminiscing about a case and part actor filling a roll as if it were a cathedral and the sound of his voice was an entire choir."