We missed the Van-A-Day post today, obviously, but it wasn’t my fault, I swear Á¢€” I just couldn’t upload the tracks, on account of tomorrow’s Bootleg City taking forfuckingever to get up off its ass and onto the server. I seem to have over-extended myself a bit this week, but I’m going to try and double up on Van tomorrow Á¢€” it’ll be the end of the series, after all, and I’d hate to go out on a bum note.
In other news, I’d like to invite those of you who are so inclined to help me stick mud in the eye of a group of batshit insane forum moderators. Some of you know the sordid details of this story already, so I’ll give you the short version: In the early ’90s, guitarist Dawayne Bailey was unceremoniously fired by Peter Cetera’s former backing band, Chicago; in the intervening years, for their own reasons, the members of the group have elected to more or less pretend Bailey never existed.
Bailey, for his part, has gone on to perform and record new music, both on his own and with other artists, but he’s smart enough to know that a big part of his draw is his tenure in Chicago, and his role in the creation of the great lost Chicago album, Stone of Sisyphus. He’s justifiably proud of his work with the band, and on that album, and to that end, he has elected to keep tabs on various online Chicago fan communities, either as a participant in discussions or Á¢€” as in the case I’m about to mention Á¢€” a persistent fly on the wall.
The folks who run this place are true blue Chicago fanatics, which would be fine if they weren’t assholes on top of it. Their main crime, for the purposes of this post, is their continued campaign to besmirch Bailey’s reputation and contributions to Chicago while simultaneously trying to deny him access to the forum.
At the end of the day, of course, it’s just a message board, run by crazy people, and populated by fans who are mostly discussing music and events that transpired long ago. You might be tempted to say that Bailey should just forget about it and stop worrying what crazy people think of him. Were I in his shoes, I’d like to think I’d be able to do just that. All the same, I think it’s probably more likely that I’d have been driven insane with rage a long time ago.
So for a few years now, I’ve been registering accounts at this message board and forwarding the login information to Dawayne Bailey. The forum moderators check IPs and are quick to delete an account if they see Bailey’s attached to it, so every so often, re-registration is required, which is okay; I own a lot of domain names, have a lot of e-mail addresses, and I was cursed with almost infinite patience when it comes to helping thwart petty crap like this.
Anyway, it occurs to me that some of you might possibly share my affection for this kind of monkey business, and might be interested in doing me the favor of registering accounts at this message board, activating them, and sending the login information along to me at jefito at gmail dot com. To some of you, this might seem beyond the limits of common decency or good taste, and believe me, I understand how you feel. But I’ve had dealings with Dawayne Bailey for a long time now, and he’s never been anything but decent to me. To post something Á¢€” or to permit the posting of something Á¢€” about a person in a public place, and then deny that person his right to respond, is beyond obnoxious.
Of course, if any of the board moderators see this, and post comments here, I’ll be sorely tempted to delete them Á¢€” taste of their own medicine and all.
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