THD - "evolution of our decay" album

[Shawn Rudiman]

i have to say that manny is a dedicated individual.  we've all had our
moments in every scene. ive been here 10 years now and manny has been doing
shows relentlessly bringing everything imaginable for pghs listening
displeasure/please. (depends on your view). point is, theres very few people
who have done the same.  i have much respect for him.

shawn rudiman

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 5:19 PM, Jeremy <epistemology at gmail.com> wrote:

> Because there are a number of acts which don't come back to Pittsburgh
> anymore because bad promoters have jerked them around.
>
> When you're a small time independent music promoter, the
> accountability is light. The bands you ripped off three years ago are
> forgotten, and the new bands have no way to verify the legitimacy or
> dependability of the various promoters across the country except by
> hearsay, which fades with time. So a single person can get away with a
> whole lot of crap over the years, and keep playing the same scams, and
> keep promoting shows.
>
> Endurance in this field does not prove one's quality or worth. All it
> proves is that the promoter hasn't quit yet.
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:26 PM, John <anhedonia77 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > I've been subscribed to this list for close to 10 years I'm guessing and
> it
> > never seems to change. While I don't really listen to a lot of the music
> > people subscribed to the list listen to anymore, I still stay on it in
> case
> > there is an actual decent conversation or there is news of a band playing
> > Pittsburgh that I wouldn't mind seeing. Over the years I've noticed one
> > thing that is consistent on the list, Manny has been flamed many, many
> > times. It almost seems like some readers can't wait for him to respond to
> a
> > message so they can bring up some shit that happened however many years
> ago.
> > I don't know Manny on a personal level, only meeting him here or there at
> a
> > show he is involved with. This discussion got me thinking about the shows
> I
> > have gone to that Manny has been involved with and it made me realize
> that I
> > have seen a ton of killer bands solely because he put the show together
> or
> > brought the bands to Pittsburgh. I've been to a number of his shows that
> > should have pulled decent crowds but didn't because people in Pittsburgh
> > would rather sit at home and bitch that no good bands ever play here and
> > that the Pittsburgh music scene sucks rather than going out to shows. I
> > really think the guy deserves more credit than he is given based on the
> work
> > he has done for the Pittsburgh music scene in the past 20+ years. Sure,
> he
> > may have done some questionable things in the past, but who hasn't. I
> just
> > can't seem to understand why people would want to attack a guy for a few
> > things he's done wrong, when he really has done a lot of good for music
> in
> > Pittsburgh.
> >
> > John
> >
> > Jeremy wrote:
> >>
> >> You're right. It's completely unlike you to threaten anybody. That
> >> time when you pulled a knife on a kid at at show you had promoted was
> >> a total fluke too.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 7:49 PM,  <manny at garfieldartworks.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>>>
> >>>> Ah, so they kicked you out and instructed new DJs to call the cops if
> >>>> anyone sees you near the station because you were just too good for
> >>>> them. Good story.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> They kicked me out because two people there (not the whole staff, or
> even
> >>> remotely most of it)
> >>> were offended by aspects of my personality & action enough to collude,
> >>> cobble together some real and/or imagined peccadilloes, and then
> convince
> >>> three other people to back them. If what I did for the station, as well
> >>> as
> >>> for the scene at large, was really taken into account, they wouldn't
> have
> >>> had a shot at doing so - most of the station staff was either on my
> side
> >>> (I got 15 signatures from station staff within a couple days of my
> >>> banning) or didn't care one way or the other.
> >>>
> >>> Let's review a bit of what I was doing at the time I was banned, and
> what
> >>> I was supposedly accused of:
> >>>
> >>> 1) I was both PSA director and concert calendar director. I had served
> in
> >>> both of those volunteer positions for at least two years and faithfully
> >>> executed my function week in and week out. I used the office to make
> the
> >>> calendars and PSA cards etc. And in the course of using the office I
> >>> designed some show flyers on their computer and printed them out. Not
> >>> copies, just originals. A couple of sheets per week, in other words. At
> >>> the time, others at the station were using the same computer to do
> their
> >>> *homework*, generating dozens of sheets per week, and also to print up
> >>> other show flyers for their own shows. None of them were banned, of
> >>> course.
> >>>
> >>> 2) Also, it was accused that I was using the station to take calls from
> >>> people. That was patently untrue. I had a home phone and I had a
> message
> >>> machine there, so i was not using the station as an office. I made
> calls
> >>> to venues and others during the course of making calendar listings.
> Some
> >>> people from venues may have called the station while I wasn't there,
> >>> asking to speak to me. (In fact, one of the two people who concocted
> the
> >>> ban plot claimed to have received a handful of calls asking for me, as
> if
> >>> it was such a big deal just to tell someone 'he's not here'). But how
> is
> >>> that different from anyone calling the station and asking for someone
> who
> >>> works at the station, but doesn' t happen to be there at the time?
> >>> Remember, this was in an area before everyone had cellphones. Station
> >>> staffers used the phone all the time to call out from it.
> >>>
> >>> 3) I had provided the station with hundreds of hard-to-find
> import/indie
> >>> experimental/industrial
> >>> albums and CD at rockbottom wholesale prices, for which the station
> never
> >>> even had to spend a dime for out of their Student Senate budget.
> Instead,
> >>> the station paid for them by trading in unwanted promos, which they
> would
> >>> have taken to Paul's or Dave's anyway if they didn't trade them with me
> >>> for cool albums. If you go to WRCT's library and look under
> experimental,
> >>> you'll still find those releases there that I provided to the station.
> >>> The
> >>> music director, with whom i had no issues and who was not part of the
> >>> five
> >>> people who banned me, had an understanding with me which worked quite
> >>> well
> >>> as it enabled me to order records for myself from wholesalers while
> also
> >>> supplying them to the station at wholesale rates. Nobody was being hurt
> >>> (except the shitty bands whose CD were going to be traded away, anyway)
> >>> and  everyone was being helped.
> >>>
> >>> Meanwhile, a simple misunderstanding about a single record (a Rasputina
> >>> promo CD), which I thought was up for grabs, totally owned up to taking
> >>> (even though no one knew who had taken it - you've got to ask, why
> would
> >>> I
> >>> finger myself for no reason, if it wasn't an honest mistake?) and
> >>> returned, was brought up as the *only* *one* *clear* evidence of
> supposed
> >>> 'theft', which simply never happened. No theft ever occurred - merely
> >>> transfer of unwanted albums in equal measure for desired albums. All of
> >>> which the music director was OK with. No theft was ever proven. No
> >>> examples were given. It was just merely *accused*, without any proof or
> >>> citations, and would never have stood up in any court other than a
> >>> kangaroo one.
> >>>
> >>> 4) I had tried to get the station to run concert announcement carts
> (not
> >>> just for me but for concerts all around town) which would be the
> impetus
> >>> for being able to give away many concert tickets to shows. In other
> >>> words,
> >>> I was trying to serve as the function of promotions director, a
> position
> >>> which the station had not had for many years due to its total lack of
> >>> caring about connecting with the outside community. I was trying to
> give
> >>> the station some real promotional weight and significance in the music
> >>> scene. At the time of being banned, I had recently been rebuffed from
> >>> using the production facilities at WRCT by one of the very two people
> who
> >>> started this plan. That is no coincidence.
> >>>
> >>> 5) I had been accused of 'threatening' people. However the only
> instance
> >>> that could be brought up
> >>> is that one of the two people who started the plot said that one time,
> >>> years before, i said something about wanting to 'snap their neck'. I
> >>> didn't deny doing it (it was so long ago that how could I possibly
> >>> remember a tossed off comment like that, and as far as I know I could
> >>> have
> >>> been quoting the Prong lyrics 'snap your fingers, snap your neck') but
> I
> >>> asked the kangaroo assemblage if they could think of any other
> instances
> >>> of supposed 'threats' and no one had anything to add except one
> instance
> >>> of a wrestling altercation many years ago. Which just so happened to be
> >>> with the friendly, on-my-side music director with whom I had the
> >>> understanding about the CDs. The music director no longer cared about
> our
> >>> fight from long ago, but apparently to the other people who had nothing
> >>> do
> >>> with it, it was an issue for them and therefore somehow another
> example.
> >>> So, a vastly trumped up charge. Practically a lie.
> >>>
> >>> 6) Finally, I had been accused of missing the beginning of my show by
> the
> >>> program director.
> >>> This was in fact the only true accusation. I had in fact been warned
> >>> about
> >>> it before, and that was
> >>> grounds for losing my show for the semester. Which I would have been
> >>> perfectly willing to accept
> >>> as due punishment. Losing my show for a semester, however, was
> certainly
> >>> not grounds for
> >>> being banned from station, especially when I was serving other useful
> >>> functions. There were certainly other people who were on the station
> >>> staff
> >>> who did things (such as engineering etc)
> >>> who didn't have a show that semester.
> >>>
> >>> So that's pretty much it. I got accused of theft, threatening people,
> >>> printing flyers on their printer, and having people call me at the
> >>> station. All of that was either trumped up to make it look like a way
> >>> bigger deal than it was, or not even true at all. The only true
> >>> accusation
> >>> was that I had repeatedly been late to my show for most of that
> semester.
> >>> And that's it.
> >>>
> >>> THAT is the 'story', as you like to call it.
> >>>
> >>> Also, regarding the dictum to new DJs and the cops -
> >>> That is a standard procedure they did for anyone they banned from the
> >>> station.
> >>> It applies to anyone they banned, and they banned other people as well
> >>> for
> >>> doing things a lot more odious than anything i had either actually done
> >>> or
> >>> was falsely accused of.
> >>>
> >>> I didn't do anything to insinuate that I would come back to the station
> >>> and doing anything untoward. I never said threats, I never typed
> threats.
> >>> (In fact, the only thing I did do was circulate a petition amongst WRCT
> >>> staff, off station grounds). Therefore, the haters were merely
> following
> >>> procedure, plus hating me as they did, and their justification for
> >>> banning
> >>> me being so flimsy and unwarranted, they were simply so afraid that I
> >>> would cause trouble. Which I did not.
> >>>
> >>> 'New DJs', ten years later, would have no idea what I looked like, nor
> >>> would they possibly care to follow that dictum anyway, so that part of
> it
> >>> is pretty useless at this point, and just a relic of that particular
> >>> incident and nothing more.
> >>>
> >>> If you recall correctly, I was a DJ on WRCT for 12 years before the
> ban,
> >>> from 1986 on. Obviously I could have been banned any other time. I had
> >>> been doing promotions for the station in the past, and I had been
> >>> providing the hard-to-find records for many years previous. But I
> wasn't
> >>> banned until 1998. So it didn't have to do with what I did over that
> >>> time,
> >>> so much as how this particular group of five people (and mostly the two
> >>> who hatched the plot) perceived me as a hated threat
> >>> at that exact particular time.
> >>>
> >>> Conjecture: Had I not done a show that summer (1998) on the station, or
> >>> quit my summer show saying I couldn't handle it, and returned, say, two
> >>> years later, the people who hatched the plot would no longer have been
> in
> >>> the positions they were, and I would probably still be happily involved
> >>> at
> >>> WRCT in some respect, with people at the station who didn't hate me
> >>> having
> >>> my back. I present the following evidence: the year after I was banned,
> >>> one of the two plotters became General Manager (hence, a power grab).
> >>> Then
> >>> the year after that, this person (and the other original plotter) left
> >>> the
> >>> station and never was heard from since.
> >>>
> >>> In retrospect, I do wish I had walked away at that particular time, but
> >>> there was no way of knowing
> >>> that, because the banning dictum came upon me suddenly, without warning
> >>> and without recourse.
> >>> So, that can only be hindsight.  I was there in the wrong place at the
> >>> wrong time, mixing it up
> >>> with the wrong people.
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>
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