Linda Bukowski on MySpace? Plus; P Howard/Bon't try/BOSP/jazz... (3 Viewers)

...Blake, said that she was glad that Mitch Hedberg, and Bill Hicks died before MySpace because she would have hated to see them asking to be anyone's friend.
Eh...okay. Well, I have to go with Jordan on this one. That says more about the ego of the person saying it than the state of the internet or comedy in general. It's like saying, "Gee, I'm sure glad John Lennon was murdered, I would have hated to see him do a grunge record." What the fuck?!

Point.


I like Bill's response to Jordan. Friends are not to be collected like some badge of my worth. Which is funny, because I make everyone on Buk.net my friend. I'm the Tom of Buk.net. LOL!

You know, the "exposure" MySpace affords? Arguably, MySpace created Dane Cook.

I suppose there are worse things in life, than being Dane cook. * gack* *koff*

From a technical standpoint MySpace blows. MySpace has consistently been voted among the top very worst sites on the web.

Hey! Great thread !
 
I was going to post something witty about "Bon't Try", thinking that I was the first one to make the connection. Seems like I'm way fucking late. I guess that I Bidn't try hard enough...

Bill
 
Mercury Retro - - -

Some days I hate to go to work.

For when I'm gone:

Listening to: Nekromantix
Reading: The Sun
Eating: The usual . . .
Who hates me: Almost everyone
Who loves me: Almost everyone
Favorite Author to Quote today: Shakespeare.
and all the other threads I'll miss. . .

- -
Okay,
Father Luke
 
You know, the "exposure" MySpace affords?
Arguably, MySpace created Dane Cook.
Yeah, it's done the same with a thousand marginal bands. It's changed the way a lot of crappy entertainers pattern their careers. But the same can be said for the internet in general, or more accurately, the web. There have never been more bad artists, musicians, poets, jesters, dog trainers, chimney sweeps or stunt car drivers than there are now. The web has allowed mediocrity to flourish.

I used to think that was not a problem, but now I'm not so sure. I always thought that the best would continue to rise to the top, regardless of how large the pool was that they had to climb from. But it appears that the larger the audience, the more room there is for crap (to bring it back around to someone like Dane Cook), and the audience for the good stuff stays the same size it's always been (small).

But maybe I just don't know what's good anymore.
 
All you need now is an idiotic picture of you looking over your shoulder...you really need to re-create that if you want to be Tom here. Ha.
 
People still say that? You'd think it's almost become common now. Carol and I "met" through email over the old smog.net, and this was back in 97, 98, so you can imagine it seemed weird to a lot more people back then. But no one has freaked out over it. Not to our faces anyway. Then again, this is Los Angeles, so I suppose there are truly weird ways we could have met.
yes, they do still say that. but on the other hand, plenty of people have been totally supportive and positive.

as for myspace and the internet: it's like that old cliche about guns - it's not the internet that's dangerous; it's the people who use it. in everyday life in the 'real world' i have to wade through a ton of shit to find the good stuff, with both people and art. but i live in one tiny city in one tiny part of the world, and the internet operates in the same way for me - i visit/occupy one tiny part of it. all it takes is finding one good site, and then you're linked to a bunch of other good sites and through them to others, and so on (which is the point i made in that essay i wrote about the impact of the digital age on the small press scene).

and as for the creepy questions myspace asks of underage children: myspace does not come uninvited into your house and prey on your kids. there are plenty of other media forms asking kids creepy questions about their sexuality - magazines, tv programs, movies. there is no way to absolutely shield children from any of these media, so all a parent can do is teach their kids how to navigate safely through them.

i have a myspace page (although i rarely use it now), jordan has one. plenty of awesome, interesting, nice people i know have one. i don't go looking for self-absorbed, shallow myspace users, and anyone who has approached me who seems that way can be/has been deleted out of my internet realm with the mere click of a button. if only the 'real world' worked the same way!
 
... anyone who has approached me who seems that way can be/has been deleted out of my internet realm with the mere click of a button. if only the 'real world' worked the same way!

It does, only instead of "button" they call it a "trigger."
 
but no one is really sincerely interested in what you're doing. they're only interested in what you're doing in hopes that you'll be interested in what they're doing.

totally illogical. look, i don't give a fuck what you're doing on your website, yet you talk quite a bit about it over on one of the other boards. it doesn't have to be promoted on myspace for me not to care about it.

put another way, how is what you just said specific in any way to myspace? are you somehow impugning the users of that site as vapid in a way that no one who participates in any other online community is? it leads me back to my original question of what your fuckin problem with myspace is in the first place. you keep lobbing these overly general platitudes about it (including your problem with the OPTIONAL question of one's sexual orientation), but you seem incapable of pinning down any criticism directed at the site itself- only the stereotype of its users that YOU INVENTED IN ORDER TO CRITICIZE IT.

sweaty armpit- that's a good one; i'd ask you if you thought of it yourself, but you already said you didn't.
 
All you need now is an idiotic picture of you looking over your shoulder...you really need to re-create that if you want to be Tom here. Ha.

He will come up with a looking-over-a-shoulder-picture. Don't worry.
2553098846_24e01d894f_o.jpg
 
They made a Myspace for the corgi
It's listed as my home page right now bebebitt

By the way Bill the corgi is not a mongrel, I hope you'll accept him for what he is. I can say he never told me he was a racist or a breedist. ;)

I think the best part of Myspace, in my humble opinion, is that it has given a voice to those in our families that wouldn't have one. It's about the four legged, well for the most part, beings that make us smile. (not to forget those that have claws, fins and suckers)
heehee:D


good one Father Luke......
hold on I'm still laughing....:D
 
I could make a TV series about people getting insulted there. He is just an unusual man that does not seem to like most people. He probably did not like me, but his level of dislike did not rise to the level of him insulting me. He tolerated me. He was actually cordial, in ways, but I can see how it could have easily have gone very badly. If you were never able to get thrown out of Red's Store, this one would be the next best thing....

Bill: selling used books to a shop has to be one of the worse experiences on earth. I've done it hundreds of times and only had maybe one or two times where I didn't walk away feeling worthless and disgusted with myself. Book dealers have a weird irrational hatred for bookscouts especially and for anyone bringing them books in general. Why, I have no idea, but I see it all the time. On Red, I wasn't thrown out of his store, but I did walk out telling him to go fuck himself. I bought once or twice there, knew what I was looking at, treated him with respect, and he was cold and unfriendly. That last time I brought my wife and our two well-behaved little girls, and he came unglued and wanted them (the kids) on leashes or something. They were quiet and didn't touch a thing but he kept mentioning how they must be "very very quiet." I finally got fed up and told him off. It was highly satisfying. The man is not a hero to me. Maybe if I was an actor or whatever, it would have been different. I can picture you standing there, squirming, selling your books. What an image.
 
I'll let Jordan describe it. I was looking at it from the inside of my eyeballs. Jordan got a great view of the whole thing. I'll let him tell the story and Jordan, hold no punches. I know that it looked very, very bad. Frankly, I thought that it was funny after I had time to calm down, go to the bathroom and throw away my underwear....

Bill
 
honestly bill, it wasn't as bad looking on as it must have been in your head. i have tried to sell books to peter before, not realizing he's mr. important in the used book world. he told me i must be out of my mind to offer him the price i was asking, and acted like he wasn't buying them out of respect for me.

he did give bill a good interrogation about the signed edition of bottle and how easy it would be to forge, and bill was clearly made nervous by his attitude (which isn't really mean spirited as much as it's just really self satisfied and blunt), but i think he (peter) clearly respected him. for instance, bill gave him a copy of SA Griffin's Hope is Hip broadside, and peter reciprocated by giving bill a nicely printed copy of an article he'd written about a famous book collector. i was talking to jeff maser about it, and jeff said that peter doesn't really have a "nice" mode, although he makes gestures (like giving bill the article) that suggest that he might be.

also, peter's reasons for not buying the books weren't total bullshit (at least they weren't in my mind), which made the whole situation seem better to me. it would have been worse if the sweat of bill's fingers got passed off with some bullshit thing about poetry not being popular or whatever, but he seemed to make sense, even if it was snide sense.

so, that's my account- a defense of bill first and foremost, who took it in stride and handled himself better than 95% of people who probably try to sell books there. when bill said, "wow, that was like a job interview," that summed it up pretty well.
 
So, to clarify, Bill: were you selling your own BOSP titles, or used/rare books? And was it a sale of convenience, or one of desperation? The more you need the money, the worse a book buyer is likely to treat you. They can smell the fear, the need, and they have no respect for it. If you're rich and don't need the money, then they think you're a swell person, a jolly fellow. It's a sick business.

Oops -- didn't see Jordan's post. Okay, Bill was selling BOSP stuff. That's probably going to get him treated better by the average dealer than if he was some shmoe with a box full of used books.
 
Oops -- didn't see Jordan's post. Okay, Bill was selling BOSP stuff. That's probably going to get him treated better by the average dealer than if he was some shmoe with a box full of used books.

Not if you are as poor of a salesman as I am. I never seem to sell books EVER. I spend all of this time making the books (and they sell well via the internet), but if you judge by the pitiful response that I get from the bookstores and poetry fans in person, then you could conclude that I am completely wasting my time. I truck them around to these readings in Cleveland & California, usually selling between $5 and $25 worth of books.

Poetry is a tough sell, indeed...

Bill
 
put another way, how is what you just said specific in any way to myspace? are you somehow impugning the users of that site as vapid in a way that no one who participates in any other online community is? it leads me back to my original question of what your fuckin problem with myspace is in the first place. you keep lobbing these overly general platitudes about it (including your problem with the OPTIONAL question of one's sexual orientation), but you seem incapable of pinning down any criticism directed at the site itself- only the stereotype of its users that YOU INVENTED IN ORDER TO CRITICIZE IT.

i guess i cannot pin it down to any criticism directed at the site itself because it just generally gives me a bad feeling. i don't know. it's just an opinion. it's not like i'm going to go gun it down or anything.

what i find more strange than my dislike of it is your vehement defense of it.

use it don't use it love it hate it whatever. you love it and that's great i have no problem with you, jordan. my very best friend in the world uses it. she thinks i have social disorders. she's probably right. why do you hate me because i dislike myspace?
 
Poetry is a tough sell, indeed...
Yeah, but you're selling through the internet, and you can be successful that way. Just as successful as selling through stores (if that wasn't true amazon.com would have failed).

It's nice to have the books on the shelves of stores around the country, but if you build a strong audience on line, you actually reach much, much further. So don't sweat the bad salesman part. It would probably take 6 months to sell your hardcovers through stores, but you sell them out in hours online. You win.

I miss book stores and record stores, no doubt, but this is where we are. Everyone has to deal with it. You're working it well.
 
Vodka, not that it matters, but I think myspace blows chunks. I dislike the interface. I dislike that when I go to a page there I'm blasted with shitty music and sometimes I can't find the goddamn player to shut it up. I detest most of the pages I'm reluctantly going to because there's so much WYSIWYG bullshit splattered all over the pages that I can't find what the hell I was asked to look at in the first place.

The only reason I have an account with it is because there are a couple people I am friends with (friends as in, I know them personally, physically as a human, as opposes to the, well, you know) that do neat stuff but only on myspace. If it weren't for them, I would give a squirt of beerpiss to put the fire out on it.

But, I still buy vinyl albums and wear homemade tyedye shirts, so I'm just an old hippie geezer who don't give a shit to catch up to modern times and my opinion don't matter much.
 
Yeah, but you're selling through the internet, and you can be successful that way. Just as successful as selling through stores (if that wasn't true amazon.com would have failed).

It's nice to have the books on the shelves of stores around the country, but if you build a strong audience on line, you actually reach much, much further. So don't sweat the bad salesman part. It would probably take 6 months to sell your hardcovers through stores, but you sell them out in hours online. You win.

I miss book stores and record stores, no doubt, but this is where we are. Everyone has to deal with it. You're working it well.

True. The BOSP hardcovers would just sit on the shelves in stores -- nobody would notice them, as beautiful as they are. To sell out an edition online in a matter of hours is phenomenal. The best I've ever done selling my own books at a reading is $42 the last time I read -- that's my record. I wasn't even trying to sell them. If I tried, I would have done poorly, I'm sure.
 
i guess i cannot pin it down to any criticism directed at the site itself because it just generally gives me a bad feeling. i don't know. it's just an opinion. it's not like i'm going to go gun it down or anything.

what i find more strange than my dislike of it is your vehement defense of it.

use it don't use it love it hate it whatever. you love it and that's great i have no problem with you, jordan. my very best friend in the world uses it. she thinks i have social disorders. she's probably right. why do you hate me because i dislike myspace?

true, my vehement defense of it is pretty strange. mostly, it's a response to your line of argumentation that went from obnoxious and over the top to logically ambiguous to watered down and ambivalent over the course of a few posts. i have no problem with you as a person (or anyone on this site who i've argued with, except for certain people who've been banned). also, myspace does have personal resonance for me... if you met your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/partner whatever (i definitely DON'T want to ask your sexual orientation, like a certain evil website does) at a baseball game, and then got to know them over a succession of baseball games, and fell in love with that person in the process, you'd probably be uppity if some asshole stormed in and said, "baseball games are for losers- losers who are self-absorbed navel gazers who only care about promoting themselves!!!"

so there you have it.
 
It's fair for you to defend where you have met rubyred, and I think it's great. My best to the both of you. I cannot take away the validity of myspace from either one of you, no matter my opinion of it.

The band that I am in has a page, and I avoid it as much as possible. Just not my thing. I'm entitled to hate the whole scene without raining on your happiness, nor is it my intention to do so. So, my best to the two of you, and I hope you wish those who disagree the same happiness. I do.

Vodka, not that it matters, but I think myspace blows chunks. I dislike the interface. I dislike that when I go to a page there I'm blasted with shitty music and sometimes I can't find the goddamn player to shut it up. I detest most of the pages I'm reluctantly going to because there's so much WYSIWYG bullshit splattered all over the pages that I can't find what the hell I was asked to look at in the first place.

The only reason I have an account with it is because there are a couple people I am friends with (friends as in, I know them personally, physically as a human, as opposes to the, well, you know) that do neat stuff but only on myspace. If it weren't for them, I would give a squirt of beerpiss to put the fire out on it.

But, I still buy vinyl albums and wear homemade tyedye shirts, so I'm just an old hippie geezer who don't give a shit to catch up to modern times and my opinion don't matter much.
Yes, yes.
 
ps, if i ever disagree with you, just pull the whole "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??? JOHN MARTIN, THAT'S WHO I AM!!!" thing, and i'll stand down.
 

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