What happened to Hugh Manatee?

[Laodicean]

For Hugh. RI cut a piece of its own heart out when that ban hammer dropped. Hasn't recovered since.

[seemslikeadream]

thanks Laodicean ......HMW and I were/are old friends and I miss him

we disagreed on a lot of stuff....but always treated me with kindness

[Iamwhomiam]

I seem to remember Jeff once explaining the need for banning Hugh.
If I remember correctly, Hugh was the first person I communicated with via pm and he also told me his profession. I have no reason to doubt what he told me, but a sound engineer was not his occupation. The sound man worked for 4 years at the Iron Horse Cafe in Northampton, MA.

The fellow commenting about his high school principal may be our Hugh, as I imagine him that age or older, but our Hugh is on the West Coast and not in CT.

Some who are really interested might want to research published theses on the topic and may locate one that could have been authored by him under that Joshua Switky name.

[Luther Blissett]

Like Wombaticus once said, I eagerly await that Operation Mockingbird book.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Hugh said did sound for some musicians in the past ... I think. He mentioned meeting Ani Di franco while working with Utah Phillips I think... I dunno I can't really remember the specifics. If you search those names and can still search in Hugh's posts you should find what he says about that.

I really liked him but gee he was full of shit sometimes ... i know we all are in our own ways, but he was king of funny about it ... to me Hugh started out with interesting ideas, and noticed something about what has been termed the "associative universe'. But he misunderstood it imo and became increasingly dogmatic, paranoid and convinced he was right. The level of control needed to make his ideas about keyword hijacking correct is beyond the limits of credibility. It would require a supernatural, almost omnipotent understanding of and control of reality. He let the idea of W.O.O. occlude his own objectivity, yet his own ideas were pretty far out. Its a pity cos they were worth exploring and did contain kernels of brilliance he just needed to open his mind more and expose them to more objectivity than he was capable of showing himself.

Before he was banned I used to worry he was losing the plot and obsessing on his ideas in an unhealthy way. I hope you're reading this hugh...

lucky - Last I heard, a few years ago, ET was still tattooing, and maybe still making some music. Haven't really spoken to him for a while.

[Iamwhomiam]

Well, if he did do sound, then I'm baffled.

[82_28]

Hugh said did sound for some musicians in the past ... I think. He mentioned meeting Ani Di franco while working with Utah Phillips I think... I dunno I can't really remember the specifics. If you search those names and can still search in Hugh's posts you should find what he says about that.

I really liked him but gee he was full of shit sometimes ... i know we all are in our own ways, but he was king of funny about it ... to me Hugh started out with interesting ideas, and noticed something about what has been termed the "associative universe'. But he misunderstood it imo and became increasingly dogmatic, paranoid and convinced he was right. The level of control needed to make his ideas about keyword hijacking correct is beyond the limits of credibility. It would require a supernatural, almost omnipotent understanding of and control of reality. He let the idea of W.O.O. occlude his own objectivity, yet his own ideas were pretty far out. Its a pity cos they were worth exploring and did contain kernels of brilliance he just needed to open his mind more and expose them to more objectivity than he was capable of showing himself.

Before he was banned I used to worry he was losing the plot and obsessing on his ideas in an unhealthy way. I hope you're reading this hugh...

lucky - Last I heard, a few years ago, ET was still tattooing, and maybe still making some music. Haven't really spoken to him for a while.

Wow. What a small ass fucking world then. I was friends with Ani Di Franco's drummer in Denver. More acquaintance really. Also, Iamwhoiam is someone I am also connected with in a strange way. And here you are in Australia. Small world, I tell ya! I miss Hugh. Though I do love Nordic, he's the one who got him banned. Stories after story. It's funny how we still obsess a bit a bit about him here. He was like the sriracha you add to your pho.

[Elvis]

Just wondering: If it were me, I wouldn't appreciate someone publishing my personal information on a forum where I came to participate anonymously. Worse, it appears the "info" is wrong, identifies the wrong person. Should we be publishing people's real name here just because we can figure out who they are?

And if we get it wrong, is some guy in Massachussets going to start getting weird messages or worse because someone incorrectly identified him on the Web?

Should the "information" be deleted?

[Grizzly]

Re: What happened to Hugh Manatee?
Well, I'll just say it was disturbing if not painful to watch....

[brainpanhandler]

Just wondering: If it were me, I wouldn't appreciate someone publishing my personal information on a forum where I came to participate anonymously. Worse, it appears the "info" is wrong, identifies the wrong person. Should we be publishing people's real name here just because we can figure out who they are?

And if we get it wrong, is some guy in Massachussets going to start getting weird messages or worse because someone incorrectly identified him on the Web?

Should the "information" be deleted?

I had considered this and they are valid concerns. But frankly I find it inconceivable that Switky is not a pseudonym. Hugh was pretty paranoid. He regularly voiced concerns the spooks were onto him and monitoring him. Why would he be so foolish as to use his real name in those Amazon reviews? Perhaps he wants people to believe that is his real name? (Or maybe someone else does. I don't see any real purpose in that though). Then again he also used the nickname Sig Mickelson, which is a real name of an historic and deceased person. The name switky brings up no such person I can easily find, although Hugh might have known some obscure switky. But if not another person in the manner of Sig Mickelson, then surely hugh would never choose a pseudonym without some sort of homonym or anagram or some sort of word play involved. I have yet to figure out Josh switky, although swit-key is suggestive.

If the mods believe there is any chance of real world problems arising then they do not need my permission to expunge the offending posts, but they have it.

[Searcher08]

Just wondering: If it were me, I wouldn't appreciate someone publishing my personal information on a forum where I came to participate anonymously. Worse, it appears the "info" is wrong, identifies the wrong person. Should we be publishing people's real name here just because we can figure out who they are?

And if we get it wrong, is some guy in Massachussets going to start getting weird messages or worse because someone incorrectly identified him on the Web?

Should the "information" be deleted?

I was wondering about this too in retrospect. He was posting under his own name on Amazon the exact same information from RI. I suppose it could be someone else being associated with HMW (this is too convoluted for my head) If anyone thinks my post would be better removed, please ask a mod to delete (and cheers Elvis - I don't often get second thoughts about posting but I'm veering towards that)
FWIW I though HMW had been on the East Coast but was more an archivist / historical researcher with music on the side then moved to San Francisco. Certainly JW is making no effort to be anonymous, which *really* doesnt sound like HMW given the research he was doing.

[IanEye]

Hi All,
Reading this thread is kind of sad. I feel like when we were in homeroom we all agreed to play a game at recess. Now, it is recess, the clock is ticking and we are all arguing over which game to play. Some have kickballs, some have wiffleball bats, some have jump ropes.

Meanwhile the clock is still ticking.

Some Thoughts on Utah Phillips

In any case, for those of us who knew his music, whether from recordings or concerts, for those of us who knew Utah from his stories on or off the stage, whether we knew him as that human bridge to the radical labor movement of yesterday, or as the voice of the modern-day hobos, or as that funky old guy that Ani did a couple of CDs with, Utah Phillips will be remembered and treasured by many.

He was undeniably a sort of musical-political-historical institution in his own day. He said he was a rumor in his own time. No question, one man's rumor is another man's legend, but who cares, it's just words anyway.
- David Rovics

.

[Wombaticus Rex]

If the mods believe there is any chance of real world problems arising then they do not need my permission to expunge the offending posts, but they have it.

Who the fuck else cares?

As long as everyone here promises to leave this gentleman in peace, I think we're good.

[Elvis]

cool.

[82_28]

Yeah. He's cool and I totally wish he would come back as like you and I know one another, Elvis. We're all just souls. I think all the dicks are basically gone. Nothing to worry about, but always something to think about. Thinking doesn't mean worrying.

I have no idea what the hell that means. . .