Blacklist
2005-01-11 by MAinPsych@aol.com
Greetings, all. After reading the content of some of the recent postings, it's time to address a more serious issue, one that extends beyond the petty sniping and bickering that Streetly is known for. There is Mellotron Blacklist, and I've been placed on it. This is a long posting, but please read it all as there is a much more significant issue here in the conclusion that all on this list should concerned about and could potentially be negatively impacted by. Why, you are likely asking, am I being blacklisted? I, too would like to know. Last year, I had a dispute with a well-known member on this list. It was, should have been, and remains a private matter, other than to say there was an uncooperative third party involved that complicated matters. Although the issue was resolved back in September, and there was no intent, no harm, no foul, this person has deliberately broken confidentiality by sharing his skewed and paranoid version of the incident with Streetly, Jimmy Moore, and perhaps others who have no business being involved. Part of this vile, vicious, retaliatory, backstabbing, unjustified, and willfully malicious slander/libel stems from this person's insecurity, paranoia, anxiety, and extreme narcissism. Email exchanges degenerated to a nasty level, which I'm not proud to say I also engaged in. Despite this person having been nicely paid for doing a magnificant job in restoring my MkII (and I might add that payment for services was NEVER an issue), and basically having an all-expense paid 5-day trip to San Diego for follow-up inspection and work, complete with sightseeing trip, my hospitality was rewarded by petty bickering and sniping the likes I have not seen since the infamous Streetly-DK flame wars of a few years back. I'm surprised that my mother was not insulted. This insecure person could not refrain from reminding me of the work he had done at every opportunity. Hey, when the plumber fixes my sink, I pay him, thank him, tell him he did a good job, and he goes on to the next job, and doesn't call me several times a week to remind me of it. I basically would not kowtow to this person's unreasonable demands (that would have only gummed up the situation even further), would not say "How high?" when he said "Jump", and basically told the emperor that he had no clothes. Although the subject was tape availability, it is interesting to note that this person recently wrote, "Some of us have openly disagreed on this List about many topics. 'Ya think we could collectively work on this all-important tape issue to the betterment of the Trons?" I guess "collectively" means when it suits his own purpose and/or elevates him in others' eyes to feed his narcissistic personality. And before anyone starts questioning my use of these terms, I'm an experienced therapist (and you're not, as Chevy Chase used to say) and know that this clinical assessment is accurate. After a good deal of thought, I sent this person a holiday greeting and a concilatory message extending the proverbial olive branch just before Christmas, with no response. I sent email to Streetly inquiring about a replacement tape for the MkII, only to receive the following responses, "Having read the recent correspondence between yourself and (name withheld) and having witnessed the slow decline in (name withheld) spirits as the threat of credit blacklisting became a real possibility, John and myself have decided that we can never again support you. This decision is final and lasting. No further correspondence will be entered into", "We choose not to deal with you. We chose not to deal with you prior to (name withheld) taking on the MKII. If it was up to us it would never have been restored but luckily it provided a good man with an income when he most needed it and that is why we supplied the parts and tapes. The deal is done and and you have what you wanted. Now go away.", and "All the ugly traits of character displayed during recent events only confirmed that our earlier decision to remove you from our lives was correct. End of correspondence." I emailed this person again to follow-up on the content of Martin's response only to find that this person had blocked my emails. TRONBROS subsequently also blocked my emails. Martin couldn't even refrain from sniping in a posting from earlier today, "First of all I don't hate anyone in particular, Mark included, although there may be a fat bastard somewhere I can't stand but that's for another day." I had a very civil phone conversation with this person on New Year's Day, and he denied having any involvement in Streetly's decision, despite Martin having made direct reference to him on three occasions, including a phone call to me from Martin later the same day, stating, "John and I don't like you", and threatened to "publicly denounce" me on the list if I kept "bothering" this person, then said the situation with this person had nothing to do with their decision despite the aforementioned references, and that they (Streetly) felt this way even dating back to my visit there in July 2003. I then wrote Martin asking what other pre-visit reasons there were and have not received a response to date. What, are you guys still pissed over the aborted deal for MkII #103? Most of you are aware that the backing I thought was in place fell through back in 2000. 103 was sold a month or so later to John McLain (probably at a higher price), and Streetly kept 750 pounds (roughly $1K at the time) as a "restocking fee" (but they don't tell you that part). They made out very nicely on the deal, so what's their bitch? To Streetly: Whatever transpired between this person and myself was and is simply none of you fucking business! Do you guys run a business or a gossip column? You pissed off half the Mellotron community with the Streetly-DK flame wars, then continue to be just as snide and condescending to Markus whenever the opportunity arises. Good business move, guys! Now you start blacklisting people who help supply you with a livelihood? Good business move, guys! I don't give a rat's behind if you like me or not, I haven't lost any sleep over it, but you too easily lose sight of the fact that I'm a paying customer. Good business move, guys! A member of this list recently commented that both Streetly and MA supply parts and tapes, but that MA has not supplied any new sounds. Let's look at that - Most of the new sounds from Streetly were created/generated by others (i.e., Ian McDonald, Rick Blechta, Fritz Doddy, Mike Dickson); the Sad Strings were already pre-existing, so we were told. I don't recall the origin of the Russian Choir, so Streetly may get a credit here after all - hey, give credit where credit is due. But where are the T-550's and 400's that have been promised since the first Toronto workshop back in 2000? Good business move, guys! Instead of a collaborative Streetly/DK effort, we ended up with warring factions. Good business move, guys! Made all the more funnier by your recent alienating comment that some owners just have a tron for the sake of having one and won't upgrade. Another good business move, guys! To all on this list: The bigger issue is beyond what has happened to just one individual. Is this a business or not? Streetly keeps paying us lip service that is is, yet their actions speak volumes to the contrary. Who in hell appointed this person and Streety as conspiratorial and judgmental moral guardians of the Mellotron community? Is this a community united in its love for Mellotrons or not? Is this tolerable/acceptable behavior? Is the membership of this list going to take a stand of their own to reverse this injustice, or merely be sheeple and preserve the unfair status quo? So which member of the list that doesn't follow the party line is next to be placed on the blacklist. How many more have to be put on it before we do something? I say one is too many. Now, I have a MkII with a broken cycling motor mount bolt on one side and a broken tape on the other, and can't get parts for it (sorry, Markus; I'm only speaking in terms of Streetly compatibilty here; no offense intended). So does my Pinder-pedigreed MkII sit here and rot now? Should I take it out to the desert and pull a Wakeman? Or should it get the support it deserves? Hoping to gain some support here, Frank Samagaio San Diego CA MkII #134 / M400 #908 author, The Mellotron Book