[Noisebridge-discuss] About last night / I join the ranks of the Malcontents

[Tony Longshanks LeTigre]

I realize this may matter little in the, uh, wider context of things going
on right now—or actually, it probably fits right in!—but last night some
stuff happened that I think was most Unexcellent & made me regret
belittling the concerns voiced by others in previous threads I can't think
of the names of right now.

Dan & Mik got in a fight & took it outside. According to Dan, Mik pulled a
knife (or box cutter) & made a comment along the lines of "you seem like
the kinda guy who'd bring a gun to a knife fight." This is Dan Freeman,
whom I've nicknamed Dan Chinaski <http://www.thebuk.com/buk_novels.html>,
and Mik/Mitchell McAllister, who calls himself the Reverend Mik. These two
cats have been spending an awful lot of time in the space for quite a while
now, & both have a strong influence on the space, Mik through being a
constant watching hostile presence who brings scuzzy, aggro characters into
the space & Dan through a sort of quirky charisma & sheer volume: he talks,
or rather shouts, continuously all day & all night, occasionally lapsing
into a napping state for an hour or so on one of the chairs in the Church;
his talk being a garbled blend of shit talk, warnings to others not to talk
shit, glimmering fragments of humor, advice he would do well to take
himself, occasional sudden flashes of quasi-profound insight, & other
assorted psychobabble—though he is notably able to contain himself when
necessary, for instance at the meeting last night (indicating he's clearly
not as "insane" as he pretends to be). Prior to this blowup, I'd noticed
both of these two careening out of control. The night before (Monday) Mik
bitched at me for taking out the bins early & replacing them with temp
compost & recycling bins to hold their place while the regular bins were
downstairs which I'd labeled as such (10 mins before another person had
thanked me for doing the same thing), then proceeded to angrily wash all
the dishes in the kitchen with such an aura of hostility radiating from him
that no one else wanted to go in the kitchen while he was there—I actually
watched several people approach to wash a dish & back away, such was the
violent attitude emanating from this character.

Mik....you weren't there this morning when I told Dan what I was going to
tell both of you to your face before I posted about it, which was a repeat
of what I said last night while all this was happening ("I think everyone
who is violent should leave & come back next Tuesday")*, so you'll have to
take it in writing: first of all, I'm not afraid of you. I post to NB
Discuss b/c you post to NB Discuss, & in the spirit of free & open
interactions I don't see why not invite everyone to witness & participate
in the debate. Even if you have a hunting knife, a gun, a taser & a vat of
scalding acid, I'm still not afraid of you, I just sort of loathe you, I
think you're just a nasty little troll of a man who has commandeered the
space while contributing nothing to it other than a lot of semi-humorous
NB-Discuss posts for a long time now, you rejected my attempt to patch
things up from a long time ago when you stayed in one of my squats & then
wanted to blame me for the consequences of it, so FUCK YOU, and btw
honorific titles? OMG. "Reverend" is a name I'll spare for people I
actually revere. You're always at Noisebridge. As far as I can tell you go
crawl in a hole somewhere to sleep & all your remaining time is spent @ NB.
You moved from your favorite spot to another spot in the Turing where you
can sit & passive aggressively monitor everything that goes on & bitch
about it to Discuss or whatever else you do all day every day while you sit
on your ass in front of yer computer. NB exerts a pull, don't I know it—as
I told Dan this morning, I've been spending too much time there lately
myself, I needed a break from the stress of squatting for a bit & need to
try not to get in any more trouble before my next & hopefully last court
date for trespassing/illegal lodging on the 26th; I didn't get the break I
wanted, but it was enough—& it's definitely got ahold of you; take a
fucking break! How much less subtle does it have to get?

Dan, I'm inclined to say, contributes more to the space than Mitch; aside
from entertaining a lot of the newbies who are taken in by his semi-amusing
bluster, he contributes food & cooks well, participates in classes, teaches
& collaborates (however ineffectively at times), & has even assisted me in
expelling other unsavory & threatening characters from the space—but Dan,
you need a break too, man. Take the high road, for the sake of all the
latest batch of bright young enthusiasts in the space who look up to you
(at Noisebridge where the only person who gets listened to is the one who
shouts the loudest), & get some sleep, chill out a bit, shut the fuck up &
hack. You've got a place to go, for Christ's sake, unlike a lot of us.
Unless that's a lie.

Someone pointed out the knife-pulling could've been part of Dan's rigmarole
as well: made-up. I don't see that it matters. I think making up shit like
that is nearly as ill as the reality of it. I could not work last night.
Twice (last night, & again this morning) I asked the people involved in
last night's incident to leave the space & come back Tuesday, something
both individuals have done to others in the past. Neither individual
acknowledged my request, let alone took it seriously, & the few other
people in the space acted like something was wrong with *me* for thinking
knife-fights at Noisebridge (& the hostility leading up to them) are not an
Excellent thing. I attended (part of) the meeting, which I rarely do,
anticipating some of this interpersonal crap would be discussed, but it
wasn't, & afterwards things just escalated to the point I stopped trying.
I've been dealing with conflict & trying to positively influence new users
for awhile now, & I'm not storming off & LEAVING NOISEBRIDGE—I'll be in &
out in the coming days before I go North for my cleanse at the end of the
month, working on my map of the City, finishing up some paintings &
hopefully doing some laser- & vinyl-cutting—but I'm gonna be out exploring
the City, too, not just drawing a map of it. The weather has turned perfect
for camping, & I've got a tent. I'm also gonna take advantage of this
opportunity to check out a couple other places I've been invited to, & have
meant to visit for awhile. I have left the space for the day. The City is
beautiful. Even the larger context of the BS happening right now can't take
away the serenity I feel ATM.**

Some will no doubt be relieved to hear that I will be less often in the
space, & also less of a presence on NB-Discuss in the coming days. I know
I'm a bit verbose, awfully contentious, prone to drama; hopefully not
hypocritical so much as open-minded enough to constantly revise &
re-evaluate my views on things as I receive new data. Cheers! I'm relieved
too, actually. It's a lot of responsibility being a steward, now I can fuck
off & get back to tramping around independently, answering to no one.

Noisebridge Malcontents: count me in. Sorry for scorning your concerns in
the past. A lot of the time I have to experience something myself before I
really believe it.

<<<END OF RANT>>>

*+11+*
*Tony Longshanks LeTigre*
living & learning since 1976


*I'm not a member of Noisebridge, but my understanding is you don't have to
be in order to voice a concern like this

**I don't know exactly WTF is going on, but one morsel of advice if I may:
whoever is behind it all, they want you to PANIC, because people who panic
are easy to control & contain, so if you panic you're playing right into
their hands.
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