May 4, 2001

Ed 'Diceman' Bowkley wrote this masterful piece on his YAHOO CLUB forum and hits the nail exactly on the head!

Ok..now that I did my polite and honest response, please allow me my "Diceman" response. Ya know it's VERY easy for those who don't go to the shows and show support for the hobby to pass along rumours, or just see some pics on the web and point fingers. It's the old armchair quarterback syndrome. The old "hindsight is 20/20"! Let me give y'all a bit of an earful here, and please no one take it personally, just something fer ya's to think about.... How many of you out there have the balls to be a kit producer and incur all the costs? Not a whole lot. Now lets take it up another level, how many of ya's have the balls to put on a show? A whole lot less! Wonderfest is once a year and not as large and diverse as Chiller which is run TWICE a year, but ask ANY of the staff at ANY show of all the work that goes into it! Months of meetings, planning, guest wrangling, advertising, hotel dealings..the list is endless. Ask the staff how much actual time they have to enjoy themselves! Remember, we're all fans of this hobby, yet we get the least amount of time to sit back and enjoy the fruit of our labor. Where's Mad Model Party? Where's Phantom? Where's MonsterFest? Ask those promtors how much actual "fun" it is. Ask Larry from Rezn Hedz what kind of crap you have to put up with running the show and the backlash when things don't go according to plans. Ask Lee Staton how much sleep he gets during the weekend of WF. How many pics have you seen of Kevin smiling during the show? Ask Robb of all the headaches trying to get a first time show off the ground. And then afterwards take a look at all the finger pointing/pissing/moaning/complaining that happens from people who aren't even at the freaking shows!! YET...all these guys, Robb, Kevin, Lee, Larry, Paul and Bob all worked their collective asses off to bring a show together for the FANS! Many of them go through great financial problems and personal problems for the benefit of all of us..but no one sees it or gives a crap. It's alot easier to sit back, point fingers, don the internet muscles and start typing! Think back when anyone of you out there got married and had a fancy wedding and the reception afterwards. How much fun, time and money went into the planning of that? How much did you worry about everyone else during the reception, instead of having REAL fun. Now multiply that 1000 fold and you get a small idea of what running a show is all about. Instead of ENJOYING the show, meeting up with friends we may only see once or twice a year, SUPPORTING the hobby...people like to focus on the negative. Doesn't ANYONE out there have anything good to say regarding the hobby anymore? Or has it turned into a bunch of old worn out wash women standing by the back fence with nothing better to do then spread rumours and bitch? We ALL need to wake up before it's too late!

Enuff said!!

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