Playing canasta in cold rooms

[MTARR@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU]

Hi.

For the past week I've been enduring this latest battle in the gaffan wars,
and unlike the rest of the times, I find myself unable to ignore it and post
stuff relevant to Kate, even if it's redundant, just to help the flow of
worthwhile information along.  Every time I read .gaffa I feel more and more
like I need to add my two cents, and tonight I can't resist any more.

*If you're sick of this like I am and don't want to read any more about the
creation of the new mailing list, STOP NOW, skip this, and find a post about
Kate Bush or other good music and enjoy it.  This is for my own sanity.*

The creation of Warmroom, in my mind the Byzantine mailing list (anyone
who knows anything about church history will know what this means), would
have been a good thing if its inception weren't for such an infantile reason.
Jorn's reaction to the tone of some posts to .gaffa of late reminded me of
a schoolyard scene: one third-grader gets tired of a bunch of other kids
who are bugging him, so he goes to the opposite end of the schoolyard and
gathers a crowd of new friends around him, making a huge noisy stink about
it the whole way.  Maybe your intentions were more mature than this, Jorn,
but the language of your posts on the subject was simply too puerile for
words.

Sure, a mailing list to share information about Kate Bush.  Good idea.  Like
Bill said, subscribe to love-hounds-digest.  This whole "emotionals" vs.
"cynics" bit, the "Rudis" against the "Homegrounders" (that last one had
me rolling when I first read it), is bullshit, and has been nothing but bullshit
from the beginning.  So Vickie wants to pour herself out all over the keyboard.
You don't like it?  Stop reading the post when it gets too much for you.
So Cynthia is having PMS on the net.  See above.  Richard and Melissa driving
you crazy?  Ditto.  Drukman's sarcasm make you want to puke because you're
not in the mood for it today?  Bag it in the middle.  Hell, put me in a kill
file, I don't care.  Just don't whine at me or try to make me change who I am,
because that's asking the impossible.

You can't force a cozy, emotion-conducive atmosphere on anything, much less
a mailing list.  You wait and see what kind of people you get there, because
ultimately the people on the list are going to create that atmosphere.  If
you get a bunch of people who end up making the thing drip sweetness and
light, fine, but don't go into it expecting that, because you run a huge
chance of disappointing yourself in a major way.

This group exists for the purpose of disseminating information and opinions
about Kate Bush.  The more opinions, the better, but when people start bringing
their personal vendettas into the fray, it gets old real fast.  Sometimes
I wish Kate really did lurk around here- but not now.  She'd write her fans
off as disparaging lunatics immediately.

I've met a number of love-hounds.  Hell, if it weren't for this group, a
very important part of my life wouldn't be there at all.  It's a cool
bunch, and sometimes I wonder what would happen if every single one of us
got together for a night.  Somehow I think we'd discover some people aren't
the assholes some people see them as being, and vice versa.  Some of us would
realize for the first time how silly all of this has been, when forced to
meet our victims face-to-face.

By running away, and stating your intentions with the tone and choice of
words you did, Jorn, you're not solving anything.  In fact, you're making
yourself look pretty bad.  

I know I've said absolutely nothing new here, in fact Drukman here and Angelos 
on ecto have summed up my feelings on the subject pretty well, and a lot more 
eloquently and efficiently.  I know I'm going to regret adding to the very fray
I've been passionately trying to avoid the minute I hit "send", but sometimes
you just gotta do it.

"Is there so much hate for the ones we love?"- KaTe Bush
	        *---------------------------------------------*
                |      	         Meredith Tarr                |
	    	|                      ***                    |
	        | "Living in the gap between past and future" |    
	        |   	       	       ***                    |
	  	|	   mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu           |
	        *---------------------------------------------*