Ian wants to know why Pazz'n'Jop is such a big deal. Personally, it's because I get to send a bunch of comments to the critic most responsible for my career as a writer (influence, inspiration, encouragement, all that). He hands them over to my favorite critic of all time, who then, for three years now, picks one to three paragraphs for public perusal. This allows me to do the "I've made it" dance.

Hell if I know why everyone else cares. The poll itself is pretty boring if you've been paying attention to rockcrit throughout the year. Half of us vote for albums and singles that are barely available to the public. The other half vote for their favorite pre-approved alt-rock icons and often don't even bother with singles cuz they hate the radio, the future, etc. The nice thing is that the pinnacle of p'n'j conservativeness - voting for U2 AND Green Day AND picking no singles - is still somebody who remembered to vote for Kerry. Maybe this is why Christgau sounds so mellow this year, aside from the fact that the top two made his top ten.

If you're a writer and you vote for something that you've neither written about nor could suggest a decent review of, YOU SUCK. You're just name-dropping. You aren't enlightening anybody. People shouldn't be able to ask what the big deal is - our job is to explain that. I've never seen anything that explains why I Am The World Trade Center's The Cover-Up deserves a spot on my ballot and I've never written a word about it. I suck.

If you want to read all the chucklehead bon mots I sent in this year, click here.