You may have noticed a bit of controversy today surrounding last weekend’s Vicious Circle. I’m here to tell you it’s all true.
When Sebastian and Bitter pulled a few snippets out of an hour-long podcast and presented them without context, absolutely NOTHING was twisted or outright tortured into an interpretation out of line with the spirit in which it was said.
No sir, when we talked about the crowded and loud conditions in the Happy Hour bar (which were no one’s fault), conditions that made it virtually impossible to move about the room or even hold a non-shouting conversation with someone directly next to you, that was a direct, personal shot at Bitter, Sebastian, and Michael Bane himself. In fact, the REAL reason we were angry about the crowding was that it kept us from marching over and spitting directly in Mr. Bane’s face! And there’s absolutely NO WAY that discussion could be interpreted as the sort of “constructive criticism” that Bitter and Sebastian want, such as “maybe someone should ask the bar ahead of time if their venue is suitable for a group of 50 people who want to be able to hold casual conversations.”
And when Alan described the press room conditions as being somewhat lacking (I personally found it a very nice place: free refreshments, wifi and power strips for bloggers with laptops, and none of the noise and crowding of the show floor) and I challenged him by asking if he expected bathrobes and blowjobs, that was definitely NOT my way of saying that he had unrealistic expectations. No, that was a straight-faced demand for fellatio from the NRA staff in the room. Really, I can’t see how it could be interpreted IN ANY OTHER WAY.
On another absolutely unambiguous point, when a group of socially awkward introverts who often spend upwards of 12 hours a day hanging out on IRC describe themselves as “the cool kids”, no reasonable person could detect a trace of irony in that. No, surely these folks stuck together out of pure elitism, and NOT because they already knew each other pretty well and preferred to keep a low profile rather than play social butterfly. That would just be preposterous.
I also should point out that Bitter absolutely did NOT reject out-of-hand my repeated suggestions that she actually TALK to Alan and the Atomic Nerds directly, as a way of resolving any disagreements or hurt feelings. No, that never happened at all. And CERTAINLY not 5 or 6 times.
Finally, I find it an absolutely BRILLIANT tactic to find a podcast offensive and insulting, and rather than talk directly to the people involved (see last paragraph), to instead bring it to the attention of hundreds or thousands of people, when it would ordinarily attract perhaps a dozen listeners and quickly be forgotten. I don’t see how this cunning plan could possibly fail!
And that’s my last word on the subject. I’m looking forward to Charlotte in 2010, even if I have to do it without a fancy badge and free hummers.
Yeah, that’s about what I thought.
TD, you are made of WIN sir.
I added my two cents, because I could.
This whole thing is ridiculous.
Well………your week has certainly been more interesting than mine. Now I’d really like to go to one of these things, just for the soap opera and guns ambience.
Quoted For Truth.
It looks like a Win-Win for everybody!
Damn, look at all the stuff I missed…
Conversation at the bar in Reno after dinner one night at the Rendezvous was pretty thin and mainly shouted – which at that altitude and level of dehydration (there is NO moisture in the Nevada air) quickly lead to hoarse and sore throats that had nothing to do with BJs either. Oh well, maybe next year – not!