-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Valgamon Update (working title) A Sporadically-Released Newsletter and Commentary on Today's Art Scene "For Those Who Care" a commentary and declaration of stance by Lord Valgamon This is just a quick bulletin to let everyone in the scene know where I stand on a few recently brought-up issues. It is not meant as a "state of the scene address," or anything of that nature. (I already did that in Corruption issue #4). :) IRC: The EFNet #ansi channel is a joke. Too many people (myself included) spend far too much time squabbling over ops and bans instead of putting their efforts toward productive and meaningful conversation. This kind of pettiness has no worth whatsoever. Every idea that was proposed to make the channel a better place has failed. The one that most closely approached being successful was the self-appointed oligarchy of ops (myself, Dr. Death, Opiate, Vector-X and possibly a few others). We maintained a certain degree of order for some time. But even that proved to be inadequate. I would like to propose a total migration of the #ansi channel to EreetNet, Vector-X's private (and rather unstable, but we're working on it) set of IRC servers which are not linked to the main network (EFNet). By doing this, we would eliminate an almost countless list of problems that have plagued the EFNet version of #ansi, and those who frequent that channel already know what I'm talking about. The colliding, the op hacking, the splits, the SK people, the non-art lamers, the desynchs... the list goes on. Feel free to email me or call my VMB to let me know what you think of this proposal. It's just about the last chance we've got to save #ansi. New Groups: Anyone who knows me also knows my feelings on the bureaucratic and hierarchical structure of art groups. I hate them. Groups, to me, represent the art scene's equivalent of greedy record companies. They make a huge profit and a big name for themselves at the expense of a few individuals' talents. But what's even worse is the fact that there are about 5-10 new groups popping up each month. This has GOT TO STOP. I have seen a few other articles on this subject in a couple of e-mags lately, so I know I am not alone in this opinion. New groups are usually an attempt by a small collaboration of lackluster artists to bond together and hopefully try and create a name/image for themselves. But if you break it down, plain and simple, the majority of the individual artists in these new groups have little or no talent. Taking a dozen or so of these "wanna-be's" and giving them a cool acronym for their group name does NOT make a "good group." It only succeeds in lumping together a few sub-par artists and putting out a low-quality pack, at best. To all you new artists on the scene: instead of putting your efforts towards forming a new group prematurely, take the time to develop your artistic skills and work on your weaknesses. Then maybe someday down the road you will get accepted into a bigger, well-established group, and there won't even be a need to start one! My personal affiliations: Not to sound like a hypocrite based on the previous paragraph, but I am still with CiA. I have found them to be the nicest group of guys I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Never before, in any group I've been in, have I felt so comfortable with the staff and my fellow artists. The atmosphere is terrific. Putting aside the conflicts with Spastic, the instability of Illegal Embassy, and some of my work being [accidentally] left out of the most recent pack, I think it's safe to say that I will be with CiA for a long time to come. However, I am on the verge of quitting JiHAD, for the simple reason that it has strayed from its original manifesto. More on this and the current status of Project Apocalypse to come. Guys, basically right now the art scene is plagued by a disheartening trend: people are putting too much effort into the wrong areas. We all need to wake up and focus our energy on more positive and constructive things. I think if you take a look at each and every individual problem that the scene has experienced over the last few months, you will agree that it all boils down to misguided effort. That's all for this issue of the Valgamon Update. Take care. Lord Valgamon 8002417337 1673# Keyprint = 89 66 DE 00 B5 20 49 0F 24 59 76 05 BA FC 45 70 - ID 8D542C89 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBL2UXXD7SQQGNVCyJAQHEMgQAuLDOx7lGrW8XYeCCSW0rrZKuzXx6zpcT 1zc79GN/4qrDumh/BtoXWs1GYpCN24wjG9puMBRL5xGLyfu90MjAoR/t3fRiQQ/g YdAOSiKVsxvjAR4MBEK0AJQ/UKZcQ/JNejwihmBLXVoLA3RR1rfwksOwIkOFESVj xibp/r9+tnE= =ztca -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----