Re: Lovehounders

[Jon Drukman <jsd@ramona.cyborganic.com>]

: It's not just a "fear of flame" that precludes a lot of posting, but a
: gewneral atmosphere of worship that pervades the group such that it feels
: like a pointless effort to write anything critical about KB's work (I still
: feel awkward referring to her as "Kate").

my advice (hard won over 9 years of love-hounds experience) is: just
ignore those who would shout down your opinion.  or if you have a lot
of time on your hands, shout louder.  the best way to become a
kick-ass love-hounds shock trooper is to develop a good layer of
callus on your opinion gland.

i find it not entirely without amusement value that chris is now seen
as one of the ogres, when one of his first letters way back when 
chastised me for being too nasty to the newbies.  full circle.

: A high percentage of the postings
: here (flamewars omitted) tend to be emotive responses to the music --even
: when making particular comments about songs, etc. there's usually an
: overtone of "...and this means *so* much to me...'

it's interesting, isn't it?  the list started out as a very vitriolic,
dangerous discussion forum for kate and all sorts of challenging
music.  despite the fact that almost all the original posters have
moved on to greener pastures, and kate herself has devolved from a
challenging art-rocker to some kind of MOR pap dispenser, the
confrontational tone still lingers.  "this house is full of m-m-m-my
mess."  indeed.  a real "Shining" kind of thing going on here.

: For instance, I for one thought the film of "The Line..." was,
: well....artistically speaking....aside from the backing music and the pretty
: colours and the ever-lovely aspect of Ms. Bush....pretty embarrassingly
: awful.  I bought it..., true...but not for the right reasons.

i think a lot of people here want to put kate on a pedestal so high
that they can look up her dress (apologies to steve martin).

and this behavior tends to make them irrational.  ignore it.  if you
think it sucks, good.  it sucks, get on with it.  kate is an
exceptional artist.  she still screws up from time to time.

/jon