Music Banter - Spill Your Guts: What You Really Think About MB members

Like most of everything I do (or at least, write) this was much thought-out and planned, and run over many times in my confused brain before I committed anything to paper (yeah, you remember paper, don't you?) but now that I have a chance here are the votes from the Irish jury:

Oh, and thanks to those who have had such nice things to say about me in their posts here.

I should qualify this by saying I can only judge people on the basis of how I've interacted with them (obviously) or observed them doing so with others. I have never participated in the ShoutBox --- I have my own ShoutBox here: “I need some warm milk! Close my door! Where are my painkillers? What time is it? There's a bluebottle in my room!” and so on, which really leaves me little chance to carry on a realtime conversation, let alone update my journal as much as I like to --- and so am probably missing some of the deeper nuances and personality traits of most members, so don't be offended if I judge you incorrectly, as I can only go on my own impressions, which I've only recently experienced, having spent most of the last year, as Jackhammer says, in my cave and only recently emerged blinking into the light, to find there is a whole world out there in the forum.

By the way, this list is in no real order, other than the first member who now follows, for reasons which will be obvious.

JACKHAMMER --- My man! The very first, and at the time only, friend I had on Music Banter, back in my “first incarnation”, when I got a bit stroppy about musical elitism, which seemed to be rampant, and decided it was all directed against me personally. He helped me to see that was not the case, and was actually a large factor in my rejoining last year, a decision I have never regretted. I know he has had really hard times recently, but has still managed to both hold down a job and raise his kids, while at the same time dispensing both his wisdom and humour throughout this forum. He also is the human being with the single most diverse music taste I have ever met, or probably ever will. He's always ready to lend a hand, and he is (or was) one of the few people who commented in my journal near its inception, his first comment being to welcome me back. [Girly moment]That really touched me.[/Girly moment]

I can see he's highly respected on this board, and rightly so, and it continues to amaze me that no matter the genre, from light jazz to grindcore, punkabilly to prog rock, or classical to shoegaze, Lee always seems to know something about it, and yet he never comes across as a know-it-all, always ready to help people discover new music and to encourage moving beyond often pre-set boundaries. I honestly believe you could go around the world, stopping in every major and minor country, collect an ipod from each, and give them to him to listen to and he would know at least one artiste on every one of them. He also seems quite unflappable, a worthy talent here.

UNKNOWN SOLDIER: Always has to get a vote from me, and be near the top, as he was the only other person to post regularly in my journal (though not recently), working through it from the start and letting me know his thoughts on each section of interest. I miss those posts! He has a fairly similar music taste to mine in some respects, with metal, AOR and some prog rock, though he's vastly more knowledgeable about the first two, (I think I may have the edge on him with prog rock however) and is into a lot “heavier” heavy metal than I would be. His posts are always entertaining, always without exception intelligent and well thought out. I particularly enjoyed reading his views on Euro 2012 and the English team. He has introduced me to some great music, and I hope I've been able to return the favour.

KI: One of my new friends, another who posts regularly in my journals and introduces me to new music. He's also big into some of the prog rock I'm into. I don't know that much about him, though his original “Schizo” journal was a little worrying. Glad he's pushed past that to create a more music-based journal, and I hope his personal demons are gone now, or at worst, taking a well-deserved holiday. I also believe he lives in a basement, which is pretty cool: shouldn't all prog rockers live either in basements or attics (or hobbit holes)?

Geekoid: Perhaps the most analytical mind I have crossed paths with, Geekoid's grasp of the DNA if you will of music leaves me breathless. I'm often left with a sore brain, trying to follow his entries which sometimes come across as lectures (though in a good way) or school exercises, but he certainly knows his stuff. For one of the newer members here, he's quickly established himself and is well on the way to having one of the most unique and interesting journals on Music Banter.

Pedestrian: I can probably add little to what others have said of her: great mod, very fair, totally committed to her job here, yet always ready to share a joke or get involved in a topic that interests her. As someone else has said, she is generally the first to welcome newbies in the “introductions” thread, which just proves how effusive and I guess maternal in a way (hope that's not taken as an insult: nothing to do with age!) she is.

Blarobbarg: I miss the cute rabbit avatar! Seriously though, Blar is one of these rare people who are prepared to share their (often troubled) life story through their journal, and this I feel makes him more “real” than perhaps others who remain shrouded in privacy (who, me?) --- it's a very hard thing to do, expose yourself in a literary sense, and you invite all sorts of strange reactions in doing so, though generally I think the response to Blaro's life story has been positive. Another one always ready to hear/accept a point of view, a real jazz fanatic from what I read.

Janszoon: Ah, the mighty! Describing himself in his latest avatar as a “blockhead”, Jansz is nothing of the kind. Intelligent, compassionate, level-headed and able to arbitrate any argument, he's often the “damping rod” between two volatile and opposite views, with a rare talent for not taking sides. He's always ready to help, and responds to PMs quickly, in my experience. He too has a wide musical taste and is another for whom, unlike myself, jazz holds no terrors.

Howard the Duck: A quirky personality but next to impossible to take offence from him, Howard is always ready with a joke or witty retort, and I would like to point out here for the record that those three newbies he adopted could just as easily be visiting their relatives. Just because they haven't been seen for six weeks is no reason to throw suspicion on the guy. And so what if he happened to have a deep, soundproof cellar built just recently in his house? Really, people, if you'll insist on listening to rumour and innuendo...

Mr Dave: One of the most articulate writers on MB, it kind of doesn't really matter if you're into his music or not, as his journal is more a personal thing, something like Blarrobarg's (though Mr Dave was doing it before him), with wise and often bitingly satirical observations on music, family and just generally life. I've said before he should be a writer, or with his talent for description and his seemingly colourful past, a movie director. Some day, the story will be told. I look forward eagerly to each new chapter of his journal, and it's gratifying to see the hope he snatches from seeming despair at times.

Anteater: THE most articulate writer we have here, Ant's prose just knocks me over sometimes. I'm staggered at how knowledgeable he is about music, particularly my own favourite, prog rock. In fact, I'd call him the go-to guy for prog. If he doesn't know the band, they probably don't exist, or deserve to. His journal is updated sporadically, but always worth checking. His new light jazz one doesn't push my buttons but I read it for the wonderful flowing language and his almost hypnotic descriptions of the artistes he features.

Burning Down: Another mod who really knows her stuff. Have to keep reminding myself she's female, as her avatars have always seemed to be male, and the mind just clicks into that mode. Another mod who takes policing the forum seriously: cross her at your peril! But she's always ready to discuss music, and she plays a mean flute!

Mrd00d: I feel a real affinity with this guy, can't say why. He just seems the epitome of cool, and a real nice dude. That is all I have to say.

Salami: A great guy, one of my first guest reviewers, and one of the few people here who will stand up for Bon Jovi. Richie rules!

Conchobar: How could I not include a fellow Irishman? Though his music is generally not to my taste, and some of his drug-related references are lost on me, he's always thought-provoking, interesting and intelligent in just about everything he writes. He may only pop into a thread to deliver a short, one-or-two word comment, but it's always right on the money. A credit to us Irish.

Urban Hatemonger?: I think he harbours some sort of mysterious resentment of me, I don't know why. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems that way. I know he doesn't like my musical tastes, but really, kidnapping Stacey-Lynn and forcing her to undergo such sexual degradation was just taking it a little too far. I wanted to do that! We must sit down and have a serious talk sometime. His music isn't to my tastes either, but I like his writing, sadly not enough of it at the moment. I'm not sure why there's now a question mark in his name: is the hatred diminishing? Perish the thought!

Tore: I really miss him. He's another prog rock guru, and I've had some interesting conversations with him, though he hasn't been around recently, at least that I've seen. I miss talking to him.

This forum could be such a male-dominated one if it wasn't for the efforts of our resident ladies, and though I don't know them all as well as I might wish to, I would like to give an appreciative “shout out” to those whom I have not yet already mentioned, they who brighten up our lives by their very presence in this forum. Vanilla, Wolfwolveri – oh, you know her!, Hermione, and of course Nonsubmissivewife, even though she doesn't visit as often as she used to, young people these days, I dunno, never enough time grumble grumble zzzzzzz....

The Batlord: What can I say? He's evil (version 2.0 of course)!

Seriously though, what follows is just a list of names of people I've met/read on MB but with whom I've had little or no interaction, or not enough to say I know them well enough, so can't actually form a proper opinion, but I'm sure they're all great people. Perhaps I'll get to know them better as time goes on.

Anticipation, Bob, Goofle11, Loathsome Pete, Canwllcorfe, Stp (formerly fazstp) , Terrible Lizard, Flyingpig437 (can't actually believe 436 other people chose the name “flying pig”!), Frownland, Electrophonic Tonic, Cledussnow, Holerbot6000, Fred Hale Sr., Screen13, RVCA, The Big3, Freebase Dali, Conan, Eric generic, Plankton, Satchmo and if your name isn't included here or above it's simply that I didn't think you were worth mentioning.

Nah, seriously: I tried to fit everyone in but probably missed out some important people. Feel free to send a letter to our complaints dept...
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