There’s this woman who requested to be my friend on Facebook awhile back and I added her. We seem to have mutual friends and I suppose I added her because of that. I don’t believe we’ve ever met in person although her face seems familiar to me.
Nonetheless, I don’t think I ever heard a peep come from her until I announced that I was trying to raise money to buy a touring for myself and for occasional 7Seconds trips by starting a Kickstarter project, where I offer ‘rewards’ in exchange for financial contributions. It took me awhile to get completely comfortable with the idea but eventually I figured, why the fuck not? If you’re a fan of me and what I do, this is a fun little project and yet another way to show support for what I do, creatively.
Now, I can see why some people might get their noses bent over something like this. People who get up every morning and go to a job they may love or hate or not have any real feeling about at all might take offense at some musician schmuck who tries to come up with some new, creative way to keep the work coming. I don’t agree with it but I can kinda see why someone who doesn’t live this particular lifestyle could get their panties in a bunch over it.
I tried to make it clear that, while I was asking people to contribute money towards my cause, I wasn’t asking for a handout, a freebie, where people just dump money into some random Paypal account and get nothing back in return. I offered various things - artistic and musical - in return for the donations and I went into it knowing that, no one besides true, blue fans, friends and family members would even bother with it.
Truth be told, I didn’t even think that more than 10, 20 people would want to contribute to the project when I first started it. That’s how NOT confident i was about the whole idea.
That said, I asked for $7,000 to buy a new van and ended up raising that in less than 2 days and by the end of the required 30 days it takes for the project to end, I ended up raising nearly $12,000, with over 150 kind and generous folks, chipping in.
To say that the overall experience gave me new-found hope in and appreciation for people’s love for musicians and artists would be a massive understatement.
Within 4 days of receiving the funds (and 2 days of leaving for a nearly month-long U.S. tour), I was able to but a wonderful 2005 Ford Econoline in EXCELLENT condition and I will be eternally grateful to those who helped me make this happen.
That brings us back to this woman, this Facebook “friend” who took issue with the project and decided to make the extra effort to come on my Facebook page and try and insult and humiliate me. Had she REALLY researched the project, or had any real clue as to why she was bitching at me about this, I would have attempted to keep a dialogue going between us, as I am all about keeping facts straight and communication lines open. But from day one, it was clear that she just wanted to pick a fight with me and use my response as I way to make herself look better or more cool on her own page.
And that’s exactly what she did. She didn’t bother using any of my actual quotes to prove just what a complete shithead i was. Instead, she called me names, accused me of being lazy, insulted my integrity (or lack thereof) and questioned my motives and she did it, with the hopes that some of her Fb friends would chime in and agree with her on what a “douche” I am, some who did, most who didn’t.
I honestly found it amusing because, let’s face it, i kinda love shit like this. But recently, this person decided to take a particular subject (the serious illness of a beloved pet (Hank the dog) and the attempt of a dear friend to organize an art charity to help raise funds for Hank’s medical treatment) and try and (AGAIN) dis-respect me for no real reason and crossed a line that I think even SHE would realize, if she could get past her own pettiness and weird beef with me.
She took some petty, half-assed digs at me (on MY Facebook page!) and asked why I, if I truly loved and cared for Hank, wouldn’t sell my new van and put the money towards Hank’s vet bills.
Is that even a remotely reasonable or intelligent suggestion?
Our exchange went something like this…. (all in response to the art charity link I posted):
CK (the woman): Now THAT’S a worthy cause! (an obvious dig at my Kickstarter thing)
Me: Yep. Hank and my new van (sorry. i couldn’t help it)
CK: Lame!!!!! Why don’t you sell your van to save Hank? Is he not worthy of such sacrifice?
Me: why don’t you mind your own beeswax?
CK: Not the world’s, but maybe a hundred of them for a while. Is that not more worthy a cause than Kevin’s free touring van?
CK: Wah wah! Poor Kevin. Anyway, I hope all turns out well for Hank. Enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving Day.
I knew that she would have a field day with this latest bit of attention I was paying to her and went to her page to find this little gem:
CK: This thanksgiving, I am thankful for FB, for giving me the opportunity to start shit with douchey aging “rock stars.”
Classy.
It was after this that I decided that this woman couldn’t POSSIBLY be serious and was now just trolling the fuck out of me. Unfortunately, I don’t find anything funny in the death or sickness of a pet and I decided that, before I let this woman continue her asinine behavior on my Fb page and create a possible flame war, I’d just eradicate her and her shittiness and be done with it. Naturally, I knew she would have something snarky to say about her being deleted and so I checked her page to find this:
CK: As curmungenly (as my aging rockstar gets, he’s never douchey and I don’t need FB to start shit with him. But I did get under Kevin Seconds skin enough for him to block me yesterday. Ha! He should have done it months ago.
And when a few folks on her page responded, she continued:
CK: Ed, it was awesome! We had a four day argument about his stupid van. I ragged on him for begging instead of working for it, asked him whatever happened to DIY. there were about 45 people on the thread and no one defended him. Then Jason O’Toole and I discussed it on James Damion’s page and Kevin saw that. He was such a douche the whole time. Yesterday when he posted a worthy cause I commented that he should sell his van for it and he went on about how hard he works and I made fun of him for being a cry baby so he made a post like this one, but about me and then blocked me. By the way, I love 7 Seconds.
Ed responded with: ‘You are officially my favorite person right now!’ which is, I’m assuming, what she was hoping for in the first place. Maybe now she can revel in her joy and contentment over trolling me so magnificently.
I actually don’t blame CK for using me as a Facebook whipping boy. I have a lot of people reading and commenting on my page and her page doesn’t generate all that much attention. I’m sure a little drama is just the thing to get people chirping.
One last thing, and just to clear the slate and state my side of that last bit of bullshit she posted…
I’m not sure what she was referring to when she claimed “there were about 45 people on the thread and no one defended him (me)”. I just went back and looked and over 35 people ‘LIKED’ my post announcing my Kickstarter project and WAAAAY more than that responded positively and in support. Only CK and grumpy, ol’ Al from SSD bitched about it.
Secondly, i never ONCE said anything about how hard I work, in response to her comment. I mentioned that the van costs a pretty penny to maintain but I did not say anything about how hard I work.
Thirdly, i maintained my sense of humor throughout the ordeal and never lost my temper and didn’t even contemplate deleting CK. I figured the overwhelming amount of support I got spoke volumes and I didn’t want to ruin it by wrasslin’ verbally with this shit-stirrer too much or for very long.
Anyway, I had to get this off my chest so, there it is.
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