problems and solutions

living in the band

I hadn’t been on the poconut.com website for a week or two, but a couple of days ago I felt like checking it out when I was at work, so I went there. Most messageboards and webmail and so on are blocked at my job, but since theirs isn’t linked to any of the big sites, and it doesn’t seem to be using stock BBS software, it slips through.

When I got there, I found a fairly sizeable thread about how the board (not the whole site, but the discussion part) was going to be taken down, permanently, that night. It was a little vague as to why, but it was pretty clear that some people were doing bad stuff (on and/or off the board), creating hassles and possible legal problems for the band and the people who host the site.

Well, we argued and debated and pleaded and cajoled and persuaded for the rest of the day, and eventually it was announced that the band (who were obviously reading everything) had decided that the board would be taken down for a week, after which everybody would have to re-register, stipulating that they alone were responsible for their words, not the band and not the hosting company.

(I have to look up the quote from Edward R. Murrow about how he and Fred Friendly were solely responsible for what he was saying, and that they were being responsible in the saying of it – I could use that as my new sig.)

Anyway, this announcement was greeted with much relief, as you can imagine. People were madly exchanging email addresses and setting up Yahoo lists, but with well over 1,300 people (last time I looked), there’s only so much you can do in a few hours. In the course of this, by the way, we set the all-time record for number of people on the board at the same time (66).

And I think the argument was persuasive (many people made it, including me) that the board is really hub of Poco fandom in the world, and has had a lot to do with the resurgence of the band in the past few years. It was mentioned from the stage at both of the gigs I’ve seen this year. So, they would have been hurting themselves by not finding an alternate solution.

the wedding march

Speaking of music, I’ve finally solved the question of what music will be part of the upcoming wedding (it’s in the next chapter, so remember to dress nice when you’re reading it). Rock and roll is not a possibility, but what other music (if any) would be appropriate under the circumstances? I finally came up with an answer, though it required me to do a little research (not my favorite thing to do, but wikipedia is pretty painless).

And, no, Poco are not going to be playing at the wedding (though it is an amusing thought).