In defense of Bolle

[Paul Mather]

On Wed, 16 Oct 1996, John A Swartz wrote:

> Related to both points 2 and 3 above, I've been told that we come off
> as "elitist" at times, sort of thinking we're somehow better than other
> BOC fans - we think we're "real" fans because we aren't afraid to say
> something sucks when we think it does (the very thing that some of us
> are now slamming Bolle for).  Again, this is my interpretation of what
> others have told me -- I think it's overblown, but perhaps there are
> some grains of truth in there.

I don't recall anyone slamming Bolle for the beliefs he holds.  I just
think everybody was taken aback by the overly strident tone he adopted.
It was not conduct becoming of a gentleman, IMHO. :-)

Bolle may have a mountain of *knowledge* on BOC (e.g. gig lists, who
farted in which recording studio during which album, etc.), but, from past
experience (e.g. his musings on what he considers to be the best BOC
tracks), his BOC *opinions* appear to be at least 90 degrees out of phase
with my own, so when he starts in, I normally file them in /dev/null.
That doesn't make him a bad guy, in my book, but it doesn't make him an
almighty authority on the subject, either (as he often comes off sounding
like).  As a famous fictional groupie once said, "knowledge is not wisdom."

Cheers,

Paul.

PS: If I buy two copies of the _Live 1976_ laserdisc, does that make me
twice the fan that Bolle is?? ;-)

ob3CD: Frank Zappa, _L\"ather_

e-mail: paul at csgrad.cs.vt.edu                    A stranger in a strange land.