mistigris - "who?" =)
quip(mistigris)

This is Cthulu of Mistigris here, hungry, tired, sick and thirsty and
having to write the infofile a second time on account of a freak accident
involving a wrench, a wet sheep, a Tesla coil and get the FUCK out of my toilet,Cactus-man, I don't want to hug you!

Needless to say, it won't be as witty or erudite as the first time
around, partially because some turns of phrase simply can't be duplicated,
partly because I have prickles sticking out of my bum, but mostly because I haveslightly under five hours to acquire and wrap My Little Pony merchandise.

Have you ever tried writing an infofile without being able to sit down?
A tough fact considering that the colon is the font of all propaganda.
However, the show must go on, so what follows is a bit of briefing:

member movements:
In case you thought that Toto Man and Biftek were generally hoopy
gentlemen, think again, as they have changed their urbane and refined handles tothe lurid and shocking Shoten and Bisquick!  (Gasp!  Horror!)

Since the last pack, one new member proof positive:  (a clarification
here: we also have a new member in the form of King Arthur, a tracker who was
formerly in Mist (acquired through the original Mist/Fire merger in March '95)
but whom we haven't seen much of since, well, mid-1995.  Technically he's not a
NEW member, but an old one coming back.  Still, I note him here. Back to your
regularly-scheduled infofile.) Katz, a high-resolution artist who I found on
#hirez and invited into mist based on the fact that he lives in Vancouver,
Mist's base of operations.  It was a pleasant surprise upon seeing his art that
the fellow could actually draw (an unexpected bonus, so to speak) so naturally
we're quite enthusiastic about his joining. Not only does he doodle, though, butbased on the prodigious quantities of time he spends in #mist, he's taken up an
unofficial administrative / organizational / inspirational role, often acting asa sole link for communication to the group.

Like the one afternoon I logged on to IRC and he told me, "Hey, since
you were last on, Pure Voltage, Syncrow and Spire quit."

Good thing he told me, 'cause at that point, none of the artists
involved had actually felt it relevant to tell me about their decisions.  Two ofthem still haven't, so I'm just going on Katz's certified gossip here, but it
seems quantified in that we haven't seen either of the two around since.

(Actually, that's because our top secret mistigris assassination
division took care of a percieved morale problem, but wait, if I told you about
that I'd have to kill you, so let's just move on to the next news item...)

Mr. Wrong QUITS for GLUE!  He cited as his motivation the fact that he
wanted to be in a group where there was more of a focus on ANSI, and the fact
that ANSI artists tend to stick in mist like lemmings stick to the top of the
cliff (editorialization) didn't exactly make us the more secure ANSI-drawing
environment.

department news:                                                     ░▒▓█└────ansi
So, we lost Mr. Wrong.  Not a big loss, by most accounts; the fellow
could certainly draw, but only logos (which aren't hard to come by by any
stretch of the imagination.)  We'll miss him; he was one of the last Mistigris
members to come out of Quebec (leaving Enelf Daragard the sole possessor of thatlegacy) where we've had historic roots (see: Eerie, The Extremist, Zoltar)...

... but this shouldn't be big news.  One ansi artist leaving isn't a bigproblem - in past months we would have been happy to have only one artist leave.This marks something bigger, though.  Mr. Wrong was the last ansi artist in mistwho didn't do one (or both) of the two following things:

a) draw (more) for another group, like Quip (an ex-ansi-department head)for Function or Rash (also an ex-ansi-department head) for Glue.

b) draw only an occasional ansi when not concentrating on their medium
of choice - in this group, most often music.  In this pack, the ansi primarily
relies on ascii/vga artist Dead Soul, who's trying something new out, musicians
Tricolore and Da Drug, and the music department head Haquisaq.  These men can
draw, no shit, but we can't rely on them to do it consistantly, and what's more,we should be encouraging them to do what they're supposed to be doing.  No one
asks Cthulu to draw ansi (well, not if they know what's good for them) and we
shouldn't be relying on these folks.

So our last dedicated one-group, one-medium ansi artist has quit.
Simultaneously, Rash has stepped down as mistigris ansi head, saying that the
job was just too difficult (accomplishments since his assuming the position
including releasing zero ansis in mist packs and several in glue packs.) With
luck, his newfound freedom will leave him able to draw that much more for glue.

This means that we don't only not have a department head, but we have noone left eligible to even become it!  So LISTEN UP, ANSI ARTISTS OF THE SCENE:

Open letter to Acheron:

ANSI DEPARTMENT W / LEADER WANTED

Well-established (4 years old), multidisciplinary group seeks SM ansi
artists to join our ramshackle collective of more than forty ansi-deficient
computer artists and perhaps to lead an ansi department based on the part-time
ansi artists we already have and a new recruitment blitz.

Side benefits: active group channel (#mist on EFNet,) rich historical
legacy, strong community and all the lit you can shake a stick at.

Pets, smoker okay.  No child pr0n please.  Send resume and photograph
to: valentine@infomatch.com (Cthulu / Mistigris founder.)

Artists of all other mediums accepted too.

Essentially, here's the deal: Give us someone who's willing to take the
job seriously (ie, not quit and start their own group) and we'll start taking
the department seriously (ie, not giving Mr. Flibbles full rein to release his
misunderstood genius.)  Don't give us someone who's willing to take the job
seriously, and we'll make Mr. Flibbles the department head.  (you'd better
listen to him, ma'am, I think he means it.)

Okay, that's enough ansi-department news for now.  It's odd how that
department can always manage to dominate the infofile while maintaining a total
lack-of-presence in the actual group itself.

You may have noticed in this pack a predisposition towards art where
there was contained other text - lit / other collaborations, for lack of a
better term.  This was part of an idea Cthulu started in May to have a pack
consisting entirely of artwork with lit in it.  Needless to say, his fellow
artists didn't entirely go along with this idea, so two months later we are
proud to present a pack which, if not full of lit, at least contains lits in
ansis, asciis, vgas, and music (through song lyrics,) as well as our usual
complement of stand-alone literary works.  Highlights include words by
Corinthian, a man better known for his ANSI escapades in his home group of Dark,excerpted lyrics by Otnoo Ishfoo in a vga by Enelf Daragard (the full lyrics to
Setting Sun are also included in the lit section) and King Arthur actually
SINGING his own words, though through heavy heavy distortion, in the song "Self-Pity."

We hope to feature more instances of writing juxtaposed with other art
forms in the future, and if you'd be interested in collaborating with a
mistigris writer to further this, please contact us.

ascii
Our ascii artists have been a bit low on cash recently, so they've put
their ascii-creation on hold until they can come up with more $$$ to make their
art out of.  (Man, that was a lame joke.)

music
MistMusic is busy, as we speak, tracking entries for this year's Music
Competition, a demoscene compo which may raise our profile a couple of notches.
Once that project is out of the way, we're looking to press a "best-of" CD of
one track from each of Mistigris' trackers, past and present.  Oh baby.

Hires has been declared the official root beer of the mistigris vga
department.  In other news, the High Resolution department has challenged the
Ascii department for the right to kick my ass first for passing such lame jokes
as news.

Lady Blue just keeps chug-chug-chugging along.  The debut pack of Souls
(the all-rip group) is an interesting sign for the scene, but really we'd settlefor just the occasional rip from someone else.  For LB, administrating the
RipScrip department involves having a nice long nap.

code10 print "How do you keep a coder busy?"
20 input a$
30 print "Press any key to find out."
40 inkey$
50 goto 10

this is the end, my friend