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April 19, 2006
usenet, rec.music.christian, and reverend phool
i used to post a lot in the usenet group rec.music.christian back in the day. sometimes it's funny to go back through some of the stuff i wrote. on occasion i was pretty funny, if i do say so myself. (i guess it's a good sign i like my sense of humour.) while i also wrote a whole bunch of reasoned arguments, and got into some hellaciously long-winded (and mostly fruitless) exchanges, some of my favorite stuff was the satire and sarcasm created by the persona of "reverend zechariah phool" i developed over the years.
here's the first instance of my using the good reverend (linked from google groups):
rec.music.christian (feb 22 1994)
anyway, i decided to try and find the first time i ever mentioned creating a web site. and now...*drumroll*...here's the reference from google groups:
rec.music.christian (nov 17 1995)
this set of pages, preserved pretty much as it was back when i wrote that message, is now available here: http://www.failure.net/tol
and just for the record, here's the very first recorded post i ever made on usenet that's archived in google groups:
...which was actually me arguing for the creation of the rec.music.christian newsgroup. (before this, i'd been using listserv mailing lists.)
and here's my first ever post to rec.music.christian:
rec.music.christian (may 6 1991)
some of my statements and opinions made over the years in r.m.c make me cringe these days, but there is a lot of stuff in there i still agree with and/or find funny.
Posted by TeRRY at April 19, 2006 7:45 PM
Comments
I look back at some of my old posts on RMC and am quite embarrassed at times. They make me chuckle at other times, and I don't know if that's because they were genuinely funny or I haven't grown up yet.
Those preserved web pages... little did you know you had an excellent future in designing myspace pages!
Keep up the good work, right reverend.
Posted by: Michael A. Vickers at April 20, 2006 8:26 AM
Ahhh, the memories of scatered few and one bad pig.... My brother went to church in Austin with one of the members of one bad pig. I think he led the music. My brother often helped the band set up or tear down. He said it was funny to see one bad pig written on a lot of the equipment and cords.
Posted by: redkev at April 20, 2006 9:28 AM
i'm certainly not going to claim that my ongoing appreciation for some of the stuff is due to my refined and sophisticated sense of humour. :)
when i made those pages i was intentionally trying to make them a bit lame, but i exceeded even the level of bad design i'd intended. i hadn't thought of the myspace thing though. if only they'd had embedded music markup back in 1995... i wonder if tom used to read r.m.c...now that i think about it his pic on myspace *did* kind of remind me of "clueless" chuck pearson... ;)
i still dig on scaterd-few. they're nice. but i have a secret shame my blog entry sort of brought into the open -- i used to like one bad pig. i was young and naive. i was just getting into the xian scene and there weren't a lot of choices. and obp got worse with each album they released. but none of that washes away the shame i feel. i try to not think about it.
i wonder if our brothers knew each other in austin? have we discussed this in the past?
Posted by: TeRRY at April 20, 2006 10:19 PM
OBP... I still get a kick out of listening to "Let's Be Frank". "'In the beginning God', a fancy that would pass. I know how it began, I believe in gas!"
Never could get into Scaterd Few. I also tried Spyglass Blue and it didn't wear off on me.
Myspace, minus the embedded music, looks just like the web did 10 years ago. I think it's just a tool for teens to put web pages together, with all the CSS and HTML skillz they have.
Posted by: Michael A. Vickers at April 20, 2006 10:42 PM
Yeah, I actually liked Scaterd Few, and probably still would if I had any of my old tapes or a way to play them. OBP, I also chalk up to the ignorance of youth. They were fun for a while though, but there weren't many choices then, were there.
I used to find a record label I liked and just looked for new bands coming out on that label. The funny thing is that I now take deliveries for one of those record labels. Tooth N Nail is located here in Seattle, and is one of our clients.
Posted by: redkev at April 21, 2006 12:55 AM
obp's demo _a christian banned_ was their best thing, imo. followed by _smash!_ (which "frank" was on). then _swine flew_. which is also chronological. but the 2nd and 3rd are only guilty pleasures, really. i'm glad the scene and my knowledge of it got better.
scaterd-few i dug a lot. (_sin disease_ was an amazing album...nothing else from scaterd-few hit that level imo.) spyglass blue i didn't dig as much but i still liked it. (kevin -- i can probably get you a copy of scaterd-few...it's out of print. let me know.)
with smaller/underground scenes, labels are definitely a good guide for picking music. usually they're run by one person (or a few people) and are either dedicated to a certain scene/style or they're picking stuff they like, so if you like one album you have a better chance of liking more on the label.
i used to really dig tooth and nail. i was so excited when they came around and starting shipping nice looking product, as they actually understood the market for that stuff. i don't think i've bought anything from t&n in a long time though.
Posted by: TeRRY at April 21, 2006 5:37 PM