Just kidding. This is not a poll about that. Although we can do a poll about that, too, if you want.
As Brendan cryptically mentioned earlier today, he and I were talking this morning about the timing of “preview” pieces. I kinda think Brendan worded his poll so as to favor his point of view, and since I wanna win that $2, I’m fighting back. Exciting behind-the-scenes background so you can help us settle this: The Stranger‘s arts coverage is a mix of previews (we haven’t seen the thing yet but we think it’s going to be interesting or not interesting for this or that reason, and here’s when it is so you can check it out); reviews (we saw the thing and here’s what we thought, and you can still go see it, or it’s over and you missed it); and random beautiful fantasias not tied to any dates (like, I dunno, Jen’s piece about Seattle being a giant work of land art).
OK, now: We’re just talking previews here—previews of music shows, art shows, theater pieces, etc. When should previews appear in print? Let’s say, for example, there’s a hot-shit theater company in town called Satori Group known for staging plays for one person at a time (seriously! It was so cool!) and they’ve decided they’re gonna use all their theater skillz to make a spooooooky haunted house for you, a person who wants to get the shit scared out of you. That sounds cool, right? By the way, it’s true! They’re using their theater skillz to make a spooky haunted house for you. It’s called Spookhaus. And it’s one night only, on Friday, November 1. And it will include this guy with a chainsaw and something horrifyingly called a “bed bug room.”
So let’s say a Stranger writer is going to go to a Spookhaus rehearsal and maybe going to write a preview of Spookhaus, if they think, based on the rehearsal, Spookhaus is a thing The Stranger should preview. The question is: Should the Spookhaus preview appear in The Stranger issue that’s dated October 30 (but isn’t technically on streets in every neighborhood until October 31), giving you only one night, maybe two, to plan ahead? Or should the preview appear a whole week earlier, in the issue that’s dated October 23, so that, if Spookhaus sounds cool to you, you have enough time to grab your kids, grab your wives, grab your tix, etc?
That’s the question Brendan was getting at with his “When do you read The Stranger?” poll. Since it’s crucial that you side with me here, let me make my bias clear: I would argue that the preview should appear a whole week earlier, because life is complicated and it takes time to make plans, and also because readers don’t get enough time to learn about worthy shit if they have to read The Stranger the second it comes out in order not to miss it. Who wants to pick up the paper on Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, and read about an awesome thing they should’ve done on Friday night, and that they totally would have gone to had they known about it? That’s a totally different question than what day of the week you like to read The Stranger. In summary, Brendan is a reckless, dishonest pollster who should be killed (and eaten!), and whose data collected so far is useless to solving the question at hand. But that’s just me. It’s up to you to settle this.
Now then, to the polls!
