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

[hep]

can we please keep roomate drama off this list?


On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Tony Longshanks LeTigre <
anthonyletigre at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
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>
>


-- 
hep
hepic photography || www.hepic.net
    dis at gruntle.org || 415 867 9472
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