From: "Phillippe L." To: Subject: My introduction Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 04:22:49 -0400 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal Someone I know quite well recently told me via IRC: "People think you are a self important, ostentatious, Oscar Wilde-like bore; and that annoys them." To which I replied: "They're too stupid to realize I'm only half serious; besides, they're more than welcome to compete in the Wilde lookalike contest with me if they've the brains or the inclination to do so, all of the ppl we know *like* him and yet would have withered in his presence and prb hated him had actually *known* him.. People who like sarcasm and snarky elitist behavior think it's all terribly amusing until it's directed at *them*; *I* never complain when criticized, intellectually out-gunned, or flamed. Shame on them for thinking so much more highly of themselves than I think of myself, who's the elitist now? I can't be bothered with their frail egos." If you don't want to read the rest, don't bother. I think I sd it best right then and there. That's me. Up there. In a nutshell. But, if you require more detail, read on, gentle reader.. The man, the myth, the mystery, the ostentation.. (Me, not Morrissey) :) Clever, annoying as hell, laughing alternately with or at you, all unforgivable by any double-subcultural standard you personally might have. But that's me. Always and ever, body and soul, Amen. This is perhaps the umpteenth intro I've done. Why I would write one is only cos I was asked to. Contrary to popular delusions I have about how I am perceived, I'm not just difficult to be so. I will do things if asked. He's proof. Other delusions I have regarding one of my main pet peeves; why no one ever actually *responds* to things I post, other than moderator poo-pooing of my rakish conduct, I can only imagine it's b/c people perhaps construe I'm a prick. And I am. Guilty as charged. But I'm *your* prick, people! Perhaps if I possessed more in the way of coin of the realm via image, interests, or associations (.net or otherwise), this might not be so. Perhaps I'm wrong, and the new scene(s) is/are PC enough to make the likes of me unwelcome. I don't know. And I can't say I really care anymore. So, all that being said, assuming you possess the remotest shred of a shard of interest about me, or perhaps some morbid curiosity about that which you hate (which I must confess to having in spades) here are some facts and figures about me. I was born, I grew up, and I went to clubs. Goth-esque clubs. I was involved in most of the places you've seen the other Great Old Ones mention; Communion, Building, Ward 6, Bank, Damnation, Purgatory, Mission Bar, at least two of Michael T's nights, and others, prb.. To be honest, I'm clipping these names as they ring the "Yes I was there" bell from other ppl's intros, cos if you asked me to actually remember the names of the places I'd been to w/o being prompted, I'd be utterly unable to in 75% of the cases. It's not that said places were all that un-memorable; it's just been many many years, and I just have a poor memory for that sort of thing at any rate. "Why may you be here, might I ask?" some of you might be saying. To which yrs truly would respond; "Thinking in such a manner places you alongside me rowing the SS Hypocrite into oblivion, so best stop rocking thine boat.." After a few years, I cycled out of the scene, as any self-respecting hipster should. Of course, I somehow managed to slither back in, attending some of the finest last gasp parties there were, including, but prb not limited to: Sanctuary, Murder, Absolution, Sumerland, Click, that thing Althea had at CIH, Downtime, Bank, who knows and who cares, *really*, what else. At this point the uselessness of things tangential to g*** had reached critical mass, and I unsubbed at some point; only to return, I cannot at this point remember why. At this juncture in time I would like to refer you to bits of 21.8 seconds over new york with a screwdriver and a dram's intro, points 2, 3, and esp. 4; as well as bits of 10 and 11. Mr. Zino speaks for me with an eerie synchronicity. I suspect that he, I, and Harlan Ellison perhaps share some unspeakable and heretofore unknown pact with the Luciferian forces of Truth and general Ball-Breaking in the name of Quality. I cannot make the claim others have made to me that we are all one in the same, however, since I have met both of the aforementioned personages 3 times each. Todd writes what I don't have the effort at this moment, at the level of erudition I have become accustomed to. "...gradual disgust toward most of the music, movies, beverages of choice, self-important drama, fashion, activities, and spiritual practices that inform the median peer-pressured goth." "I am not sure why I stay here, considering I wince at almost every intro (if I have to read one more person who thinks liking synthpop and Bowie is 'eclectic'...) ... I guess I just have no pressing reason to leave;" "Besides, leaving is too easy. ... goths in general ... one of the most fantastic cultures of self-parody this side of gangster rap. ... "gothic" and "industrial" sensibilities ... the spirit has been carried on in the works of people ignorant to (or contemptuous of) goth scene followers, and usually ignored by said vermin." "I'm not an asshole, I'm just honest. .... It exasperates me to no end that people honestly think they 'see through' all this foolishness, but that it somehow does not apply to their chosen peer group. I do enjoy good debates with fellow 'thinkers', but I'm finding them few and far between these days -- either because they feel the need to put on a 'dumb' act when out and about, or because they really are that lame (how's that for giving benefit of the doubt?)." "...I do believe in the difference between 'learned excess' and 'tunnel learning'. ... most people still let inertia and dogma dictate their 'tastes'. I don't believe I know everything, much less anything. Knowledge is often toxic and will ultimately make you all the more aware of how complicated and uncertain all our notions really are." I would lastly like to refer those with a potentially unsettling degree of interest and fortitude to the following, which contains one of my oldest intros: http://www.nycgoth.com/discussion/intros/geist.html I hate a lot of things, but nowhere near all things. That's a self-parody all it's own; and while I love self-parody, this isn't one of those moments. People who think such a thing do not realize I merely hate most of what they themselves are about. Most people I encounter in this subculture simply don't have the ego to withstand my disapproval, which I find amazingly disempowering. I find this subsculture to be one of amazing contradictions and a source of endless amusement for me. The good angel of social interaction and the bad angel of rampant elitism and condemnation (or is it the other way around?) war ceaselessly. Some days you get the good, some days you get the bad. That's all there is. - Rob