Came across two great pieces today, via Twitter, neither of which has anything to do with music (well, the roundtable features at least one music critic), both of which are absorbing reads that will interest any critically-minded person (I assume):

• In “Reviewing Altman,” Jim Emerson takes on Richard Schickel for a much-blogged-about tear-down Schickel wrote recently of a Robert Altman biography (though more to the point, it’s a thinly-veiled tear-down of the director himself). Lots of comments here, too.

• Still working my way through this massive  comics critics roundtable but it looks pretty amazing. Features Gary Groth, founder of Comics Journal, one of the greatest ‘zines ever published in any field (I own and treasure a bunch of copies and know next to nothing about the world of comics… it’s that good).