Re: The Death of Emotion

[nstar!bluemoon!bsbbs!nrc@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (N. Richard Caldwell)]

katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie) writes:

>   Richard, if I were to show randomly selected examples of your posts to
> strangers on the street, I feel confident that the vast majority would use
> the word "cynical" if asked to describe their general tone. Can you
> honestly claim the same for my posts? I have several un-admirable qualities
> (arrogence, no clothes sense) but cynicism is not one of them.

Forget random samples, they might miss some of your best moments. 
Give them the whole stack since day one.  Yes, I can be cynical
at times (I've never denied that) but my guess is that most rational 
folks (not the guy who sleeps on your front step or out back by the 
dumpster) would see that it's just a twist in a healthy shot of 
realism, fairness and frankness.  I'd also guess that they'd recognize 
more than a tinge of cynicism to go with your arrogence and lack of 
clothes sense.  Aren't you shocked that we disagree on this?

> > I don't always disagree everyone, just you.  Ok, so sometimes I
> > do agree with you but I do my best not to let on.
>  
>    Lord, how dull. What a sorry excuse for entertainment. I try to mention
> the worthwhile points you make, no matter how stated.

Uh oh, now who's being humorless?  >sigh< What's gaffa coming to
when our last great bastion of good humor falls by the wayside.

>  A confession of a spur-of-the-moment conversation in a loud, crowded club
> should not be judged by net-post standards. You were not at the convention
> and, as the only report was my own, I don't see any basis for you to
> characterize it as a tantrum. My statement was not judged harshly by the
> Love-Hounds that were standing around Lisa and myself.

You said that you made an ass of yourself.  You said yourself 
that you got a bit frantic.  You said that Dave Cross suggested 
that you write a letter of apology to Lisa.  Are you saying that 
Dave Cross suggested that you write a letter of apology for a 
reasonable statement delivered in a rational manner?  By your 
own description it sounds like a tantrum to me.  If that doesn't 
suit you we can just call it one of your turns.

>   The contents of the Box Set were entirely Kate's choice. The guy from
> EMI lost Andy's list of suggestions and Dave Cross had to make up a list
> overnight. Kate blythely crossed out any number of rarities that fans
> would consider killing for (well, wounding at least) like "Maybe", the

Sorry, next contestant please.   All you're saying here is that
Kate had an essentially different idea of what her set was to be
than what _you_ think it should have been.  Kate created an
anthology of her released work to date and that set is
reasonably, although not ideally, complete.  What you're pining
for is a collection of unreleased tracks and Kate simply did not
do that sort of collection.  This Woman's Work is very much to
Kate's complete work what The Single File was to her singles.

As I said, there are good, rational, criticisms of the boxed set. 
Things like price (which is quite reasonable now that the initial
gouging has passed), the omission of some released tracks and the 
lack of lyrics for the B sides, for example.  None of these things 
make The Woman's Work a rip-off, however.

> P.S. On the subject of adsurd overzealousness, I have not yet recieved
> _any_ correspondence from anyone at AATHP/Little Light, let alone the
> promised "proof". In fact, they have been entirely absent from the net
> since I posted the comparison between their "statement from Kate" and
> Kate's "message to Bush-Con." Am I to take their silence as an admission
> of guilt and/or complacency that no amount of fudging can cover up?

Since when have you needed any sort of evidence, let alone
admission of anything?  Your tact from the very start has been to
accuse first and ask questions later.  

First of all, you are incorrect.  They did post one or more articles 
from Little Light after your comparison, just as they had before.  
Second, it is ridiculous to suggest that "guilt" would be the only 
reason that a person or group would stop participating here.  In 
fact their absence is apparently a matter of Jeff Tucker, their sole
source of net access, becoming disillusioned with the Kate fan 
community due to the conflicts here and within AATHP.  

According to Bill Barwick, Jeff Medkeff has been ousted from both
organizations for his handling of this affair and his botching of the
video party arrangements and communications in general.  Bill Barwick 
says that Jeff Medkeff is "the sole possessor of the original message 
from Kate" so it appears that in spite of Jeff's ouster AATHP is 
maintaining the position that "the message" is legitimate. 

Suspicion seems reasonable in the wake of these events and the
way they handled -- or rather failed to handle -- the message in
their last issue of Little Light.  That does not mean that
outright public accusations of fraud are justified at this point 
and it certainly doesn't mean that they were any less reproachable
at the time that you made them. 


            "I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store             
             Laying tackless stripping and housewives by the score
             I loaded up their furnature and took it to Spokane
             Auctioned off every last naugahyde divan"

                          --  Warren Zevon "Mr. Bad Example"

"Don't drive too slowly."         Richard Caldwell
                                  The Big Sky BBS (+1 614 864 1198)
                                  {n8emr|nstar}!bluemoon!bsbbs!nrc
                                  nrc@bsbbs.UUCP