Discussion:
Nonkerstock 2000... oh the memories
(too old to reply)
Ron Moses
2013-09-28 03:34:13 UTC
Permalink
Well well, what a delightful dive into the dustier corners of the Internet that was. If you were at Nonkerstock, or not, you owe it to yourself to go relive a few memories:
http://www.abyssmall.com/nonkerst.htm
http://www.happyclan.com/fragbert/nonkerpics/index.html

And man, this thread is so jam packed with love it hurts...
http://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.music.mike-keneally/6TrZ4i5rUvA/Xv798GAokaIJ
A thread from which I learned that I saw a show at the Wetlands in NYC in '98. I have no recollection of that, but I believe me! It occurs to me upon reading this thread, with all the talk of recording that night's festivities on every medium known to man, I don't recall an extraordinary number of recordings coming out of that show. Maybe someone else will remember why that was.

If you have the time, I recommend doing a search of this newsgroup for the word "Nonkerstock," sorting by date, and then starting from the earliest posts. I've had quite a few memories restored as a result. The whole thing was Scott Lurowist's idea? My MOM came up with the name??? (She was Vengeful Cow, incidentally. I was Ron Spiegelhalter, which is not a long story but we'll skip it anyway.) We did a tour of the Taylor guitar factory, that was fun. Fish tacos! Good times, good times.

The historical record is sadly incomplete, however. Most tragically, I'm unable to find the post where I announced with delirious glee that we'd met our funding goals (and then some) by way of three envelopes delivered to me on the same day. I just happened to open each of them in order of increasing generosity... "wow!"... "holy SHIT!"... "OH MY GOD WHO IS GREG KUCHARO AND CAN I SUCK HIS DICK RIGHT NOW PLEASE?!?!?" I'm terrible with names, but that's one I'll remember forever. Never did get to suck his dick, though.

All these broken links are killing me too. I had a whole page dedicated to people's memories of the event on a website that hasn't existed for over ten years. Nope, I tried archive.org. No love there. The loss of Jon from Joytown's site is a real tragedy as well. I'm pretty sure almost all of the Keneally Kristmas Karols are now lost to history. I found three of my own (out of maybe a dozen?), but none of anyone else's. Those were great.

Aaaaaanyway, there's still a lot in the available archive that's worth checking out. Reading old newsgroup posts from the days immediately before and after Nonkerstock is kinda like the mirror universe version of watching old 9/11 news coverage. I know that sounds incredibly inappropriate (Dougie wouldn't think so) but if you were around back in the day, you'll grasp my meaning pretty quickly. The threads immediately following the event really bring back a lot of very misty watercolor memories. This is a great one:
http://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.music.mike-keneally/n9CAwbPJx3c/GPLiAPg2SaQJ
I especially love Sheryl's "nonker-grins" list. Coaster tossing! Wow, I completely forgot about that. What a great Rocky Horror moment. Do I still have my official NK2K coaster somewhere? I think I do.

The day after the event everyone was going to Tijuana, but I'd already made plans to join the protest at the Scientology Gold Base near Hemet. As it turned out I was too overcome by post-Nonker depression to do either, and spent the day in my hotel room, occasionally crying. It was that emotional a weekend. Unquestionably the twisted weekend of my life.

Here are some of Mike's typings to you at the time:
http://www.keneally.com/types/types56.html

This is nice to see again:
http://www.moosenet.com/ftp/pub/nonkerstock1.pdf
I have a very faded clipping of that article framed on my wall right now.

If you've got more, or stories to share, please bring 'em on.

shitfuckily yours,
ron
Mike Pierry
2013-09-28 21:58:56 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ron Moses
http://www.abyssmall.com/nonkerst.htm
http://www.happyclan.com/fragbert/nonkerpics/index.html
Yeah I remember these pics from back in the day. At the time I was far too full of social anxiety to consider attending such an event. Now you'd probably have to pay me to stay away.
Post by Ron Moses
And man, this thread is so jam packed with love it hurts...
http://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.music.mike-keneally/6TrZ4i5rUvA/Xv798GAokaIJ
A thread from which I learned that I saw a show at the Wetlands in NYC in '98. I have no recollection of that, but I believe me! It occurs to me upon reading this thread, with all the talk of recording that night's festivities on every medium known to man, I don't recall an extraordinary number of recordings coming out of that show. Maybe someone else will remember why that was.
I wish I still had the tape of that show. I don't have the foggiest memory of it. Apparently I met you and Scott L. there. I'm sure I was so friendly and talkative, you couldn't get me to shut up.
Post by Ron Moses
If you have the time, I recommend doing a search of this newsgroup for the word "Nonkerstock," sorting by date, and then starting from the earliest posts. I've had quite a few memories restored as a result. The whole thing was Scott Lurowist's idea? My MOM came up with the name??? (She was Vengeful Cow, incidentally. I was Ron Spiegelhalter, which is not a long story but we'll skip it anyway.) We did a tour of the Taylor guitar factory, that was fun. Fish tacos! Good times, good times.
I remember being really disappointed, almost angry, when you changed your name. After all, I was so used to seeing it on here and in affz, how dare you mess with my Usenet experience! But then when I thought about how much easier your life would be without having to spell "Spiegelhalter" ever again, I realized you're a very wise man.
Post by Ron Moses
http://www.keneally.com/types/types56.html
Yeah, wow. That one. For some reason I was really shocked at the time that Mike decided to be that open about his personal life. This also kind of reminds me of the Life of Bryan and how much I enjoyed living vicariously through both Mike and Bryan's expansive missives about life as a touring/performing/recording musician. I remember I would get excited about new installments of LOB or MTTY the way you'd get excited about a new episode of your favorite TV show.

Thanks for this post, Ron.

Loading...