AmyH and Cali50 Bringing Down The Boogie Board!

Some of you Taylor Hicks fans might know by now, but the Boogie Board fansite is imploding at the moment - thanks fully to its two Moderators - Cali50 and AmyB. They have just banned a number of people, myself included, in an attempt to control, manipulate, and infest the site with everything non-Taylor related and insult the man himself - claiming boredom and redundancy - but most importantly, set their own agenda without regard to the best interests of the person they are supposedly representing. They are two-faced back-stabbing hags whose only purpose is to satisfy their own personal need for control and eliminate his most ardent supporters - long standing contributors to the community. They are nasty, ugly people. Below is a post from one of its long standing members (not me) for your information. Feel free to post it at any of the other sites out there. We want the entire community to know who they are dealing as members of the Boogie Board. I will have my own blog post up later on today, but this was so on-point that I wanted to get it up immediately. Feel free to comment - and don't worry, people aren't censored here. Stay tuned for information about new roads to be taken....

Some of you had asked me in Baltimore, this past February, why I no longer post on the BB. I took the high road and simply said, “If you want to enjoy your meal in peace, you don’t want to get me started on that”. I don’t mean to make this about me or those I will name below. I only mean to state publicly why I no longer associate myself with the BB. Having read things on the boards over the last few days, I feel compelled to come forward and have my say, as well as speak up in Taylor’s defense. The latter is my primary motive for this post.

If anyone wants to slam me, go for it. I’m an adult, and remember that you have brought this upon yourself. I cannot guarantee that I’ll be back to respond because I am so done with those in this fan base who denigrate and disrespect a man who has earned my highest regard: Taylor Hicks.

I stopped posting, and for the most part, stopped reading on the BB in May 2008, when I saw that two of Taylor’s musician friends were being disrespected for the third or fourth time, as well as Taylor himself. (I did post on the BB this past spring that I wrote the review of The Distance which one of my friends posted on Taylor’s IEEM page. It appears on other sites and to protect my friend’s privacy, her name will remain unspoken here.) Concerning the aforementioned disrespect shown on the BB, I put my two cents in, mostly in PM’s that I had assumed would remain private between me and AmyH. I disagreed with the disrespect that was allowed to be demonstrated on what was supposed to have been a large board devoted primarily to one single artist: Taylor Hicks.

When I told AmyH that, as a moderator, she had a double standard – something I meant at the time and still mean – I found that Cali50 and a few others came out of the woodwork as they had been privy to what I had assumed was a private, civil conversation between me and AmyH (who, by the way, seems to have difficulty reading my posts. Best grab the old dictionary, dearie, if you intend to read this). Oh, and Cali50 … you may wish to consider getting yourself to a nunnery. Hand-slapping, scolding, and supercilious behavior are cherished attributes among the nuns; they’ll no doubt welcome you within their ranks.

Now I’ll relieve you gals, AmyH, Cali50 and who-all else is in on the subterfuge over at the BB, of the onus of copying and pasting my comments to others; now you all know the truth. Oh and get set, here comes some more truth if you allow it to stand and do not delete it … but never fear, I’ll take this truth elsewhere.

Those of you who are not thrilled with Taylor working his tail off to do Grease 8x a week, and those of you who clamor for more and more shadow tours, have obviously never followed other artists. You may claim that you have, but your words prove that otherwise. I am a lover of good, contemporary music (‘60’s to ’90’s, mostly, when it was still good) and have followed a number of artists closely over the years. Here’s how it works, you jaloons. An artist or a band cuts a record, promotes it, and tours behind it for several months. Then the artist or band “goes away” for two more years, and the cycle begins again. Taylor not only toured for 10 months following the release of his self-titled CD, he now travels nationwide with the play and does as many interviews, shadow tours, and tweets as he can. What other artist works so diligently and maintains such frequent contact with his fan base?

If you truly follow other artists, you eejits, do you slam them for having external projects, as many do? Do you slam them for not showing up in or near your town, on your schedule, to give concerts on a regular basis? And do you even know what it means to be an artist – to live for your craft, as Taylor Hicks does?

He could have taken the easy way out and sold his soul to the devil, as some of the people y’all fawn over now have done. Don’t believe me? Listen to their music and tell me if it honestly moves you. Does it move you to tears, does it lift your heart even after thousands of plays; does it make you think and does it makes you glad to be alive in a world that can be so very ugly? Does it make you proud and ever so grateful that you have found an artist who possesses the talent to do this … to reach into your chest, grab your heart, and take it prisoner in the most gentle and honest way imaginable? Does it?!?

Taylor took the harder route in order to remain true to his craft and true to those who honor and love genuine music. He created his own label in order to have full artistic control, and this means that he, not the suits, calls the shots. It also means he pays all of the bills out of his own pocket, every single one of them. In my adult life, I have not found a single person who embodies such integrity and clarity of vision. To this, I add incredible talent, which only unfolds with time, like a lotus blossom, to reveal more and more depth and beauty.

The more I know Taylor Hicks through his music and compassion, and the way that he conducts his life, quietly, industriously, and with respect for others, the less tolerance I have for the two-faced, the back-stabbers, the children in adult’s clothing, and the cruel, the myopic, and the selfish -- including the aforementioned people on the BB and those in their camp.

Long live Taylor Hicks. I will follow that man and support him to the best of my ability until the day that I quit this earth.