gabe's been around as long as i have, for the record. if not longer. back in the day, spud was a contributing member, even.
as i recall i'm entering my 6th or 7th year "around".
s/
> Holy shit. It just crossed my mind that I've been subscribing to > this list
> for, like, five years or something. How sad is that? >
> Hutcheson's been here longer though..... >
> Reuben
Then Gabriel:
Ah yes, the founding members remember.
Twas a hot summer evening curtly described as 7:53 PM EDT on June 20 1996 (aw shucks, imagine the marbled loveliness had I subscribed a mere four days earlier), that I, one Gabriel Thy signed onto this now fabled list, then called simply THE SPECTACLE (truth in advertising I suppose). But I promptly forgot about the possibilities of becoming the mountain because it wasn't until August 9, according to my unscrupulous records, that somebody who thought he was having trouble signing on began and ended complaining about computer problems, and the great divide between Windows and Macs.
I responded:
LOVE THE ONE YOU ARE WITH...
"I fought with my twin, that enemy within, 'til both of us fell by the side..."
Bob Dylan
Another month of quiet on the nothingness backburner droned on until on September 9, when, as life would have it, another fine pilgrim popped into place noting surprise that he'd received anything from the list he'd thought clinically dead. That person was none other than Laurent Oget, responding to a seed named Heidi who claimed to be having trouble loving the one she was with in complaining about certain uncertainties of the sign-up process on a unsettling list where the writing and the riddles had yet begun to strike their mighty blows for freedom among us.
But lo and behold, suddenly, in a gust of curious whispering, wistful activity was now thrust upon us!
Five or six notes in about five or six days from a pool of about five or six people (now that excruciating details hardly matter), were swapped, followed by another lengthy spell of silent days and lonely nights. During the last few truckloads of late September another three or so notes got passed around. But I soon needed a swizzle stick to mix my fantasy sunrises as another spell of absolute, uninterrupted silence, dead air, spectacular timidity, whatever, came rolling in off the lumpy horizons of who's busy now. Records show it wasn't until the very end of October and early November, 1996 that the list finally grew into its motivational wingz...
Looks like my old friend Sam made November 5, his debut as one of the "first wavers" in crackling response to one of my own rather feeble repackaged jokes about two kinds of people. But December and January were also virtual lockdowns in nothingness withdrawal technique, with February 1997 accelerating to a trickle. The pantomime past burst into the long-awaited noise in March, as the second and third waves rushed the beach head with footprints enough for a snapshot in three-quarters time. The rest as they say, is history.
Making a list, checking it twice,
Saint Nix
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