RIP: Jim Kendall - founder, RMB
- From: Andrew Croft <publisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:29:23 -0400
It is with great sadness that I pass along this info... Jim Kendall,
who was responsible for forming rec.music.beatles all those years ago,
has passed away at much too early an age.
*****
KENDALL, James Mikel
(Age 53)
Passed away unexpectedly on August 10th, 2007 following complications
from heart surgery. He was a native Spokanite and a graduate of the
1971 class at Mead Sr. High School. He was an Air Force Veteran and
served on F-111's in Thailand during the Viet Nam Era.
He is survived by his wife Lisa at their home in Livermore, CA; two
daughters, Jessica Beedles (Cory) in Livermore, CA, Shawna Campbell
(Brian) of Spokane, WA; seven grandchildren; and his parents John
and Marilyn Kendall who live on Camano Island, WA.
His three brothers are John Jr. (MaryAnn) of Spokane, Jerome (Linda)
of Flagstaff, AZ, Jeffrey of Phoenix, AZ; and four sisters, Jennifer
French of Phoenix, Joan Burger (Brent) of Spokane, Lt. Mary Decker
USN (Mark), Monica Boon (Ed) of Clarkdale, AZ and numerous nieces
and nephews.
A Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday August 15th, 2007 at
the Callaghan Mortuary in Livermore. The family requests memorials
be sent to The American Heart Association.
****
Please think of Jim as you enjoy reading the articles from so many
Beatles fans around the world this week, and next...
Jim was also very active in the beatles-collectors@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx elist
- anyone interested in reading his posts can sign up and check out the
Jim provided an article on how RMB was formed - it follows at the
bottom of this post.
Thanks Jim, you will be sorely missed.
Yours truly,
Andrew Croft, Publisher
Beatlology Magazine
-----------------------------------
Beatlology Magazine
Beatlology On-Line Auctions
This Day in Beatles History
www.beatlology.com
Originally published in Beatlology Magazine, Mar/Apr 2005
rec.music.beatles 101
By Jim Kendall
Long ago and far away in a Universe that had never heard of ³InterNet²,
³the World Wide Web², or downloads, there was a place for the common
person to go to talk to other common persons around the world about
just about anything that suited their fancies. This place still exists
today and is called (as it was then) ³USENET². Most of us know this
place as ³newsgroups² and still frequent this unusual niche of the
electronically connected world. But there was a time when the use of
USENET was not so useful. It started as a project of the US Government
and was called ³ARPANET² and was chiefly used as a means of scientific
communication between Universities and Government contractors to
exchange information electronically. But like all means of
communication it was quickly taken over by the ³common person²,
mentioned above.
Things started to fly across the wires that had nothing to do with
science. ³Newsgroups² were created to segregate these communiqués into
their respective pigeon holes. There were corners were the talk was
bizarre, the message uncouth, and the reason obfuscated. There were
(and still are) frequent differences of opinions (fondly called
³flames²), which required the institution of ³moderated² news groups in
an attempt to mollify the sentiment.
Amid this chaos there arose a newsgroup called ³rec.music.misc², in
which one could expound upon all forms and contrivances of music. There
were the folkies, the rockers, the blue grassers, and the classicals,
among others. It became apparent after a while that this generalized
group, with it¹s thousands of differing tastes and opinions, should be
subdivided into different classifications.
There was a problem with this, however, in that the capability of the
electronic world had not kept up with the desires of the ³common
person². There were electronic limitations to how many different
³pigeon holes² (commonly called ³directories²) could be accommodated on
a disk drive (each directory and each file requires its own unique
identifier called an ³inode² in the electronic world²).
It was into this morass that I stumbled. After quickly locating
rec.music.misc I jumped in with both feet and started propounding my
Beatles erudition and was quickly rebuffed by those who were
Beatle-intolerant. There were also those that had the courage to
attempt a suitable rejoinder, but were themselves reticent for fear of
being ³flamed² themselves. This situation was, to me, intolerable.
Let¹s face it, I was attempting to generate a ground-swell for the most
important rock and roll group to grace the face of the planet and was
being beaten to a pulp by those who had their noses so high up in the
air that they painted the ceiling green. Something had to be done.
Then one day their was a break-through. A new newsgroup was created
called ³rec.music.gdead², which was tailored to our esteemed brethren
who were devoted to Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. This was what I
had been waiting for. There was hope as well as a precedent and I took
no time to jump on it. There was a group of high level ³computer
wizards² who held the key to the creation of news groups. This cabal
was called ³the Backbone² and held the power of life and death over the
creation and deletion of the newsgroups. It was to this entity that I
made my plea.
³There exists a group called rec.music.gdead², I explained, ³and I
believe that the Beatles, the most influential rock group in history,
deserver their own newsgroup.²
I was quickly and soundly rebuffed. ³Not enough inodes², ³Not enough
traffic², ³Why not try an email mailing list², they intoned. ³But², I
replied, ³how do the Grateful Dead deserve their own group when the
Beatles do not?² The answer astounded me. ³We got tired of hearing
about what color t-shirt Jerry was wearing on a given day.² they
replied.
Not being one to give up that easily, I asked them what the criteria
were for group creation. Their collective responses were equally
disturbing. ³A vote must be taken², they said with no further
explanation. I asked what parameters need to be met for the vote to be
considered successful and got several different answers. It became
plain to me that I was treading new ground, as is often the case where
the Beatles are involved. But the general consensus seemed to be, ³You
need 100 votes to get a new group created.² There was no indication
whether these votes needed to be ³yes² votes or ³no² votes and I wasn¹t
about to ask for particulars. After all, the backbone had spoken? I
needed 100 votes. There was a 30 day time limit on the voting period
during which I was to collect and tally the vote.
I cross posted the ³call for a vote² across many newsgroups and waited.
It didn¹t take long to realize that the vote was divided into two
camps. One group was all for the creation of rec.music.beatles, being
the fans that they were, and the other consisted of computer
administrators who were concerned that Pandora ¹s Box would be opened
and they would lose control of USENET. These latter people were the
ones without a vision of the future.
At the end of the 30 days I tallied the vote. There were just over 100
votes of which 75% were in favor of creating rec.music.beatles, so I
posted the results and requested the creation of rec.music.beatles. I
thought I had won the battle, but it was not to be. There was one
Administrator that said flatly that he would delete the newsgroup if I
created it (at that time ANYONE could create a newsgroup, but if the
backbone didn¹t like it the group was deleted). This did not deter me,
since I felt that the group creation parameters had been met. I issued
the command to create the newsgroup. It lasted for 24 hours and then it
was deleted by the aforementioned Administrator. The gauntlet had been
dropped and I went on a Holy Crusade in which I lambasted, spammed, and
otherwise evicerated the Admin. (in his own newsgroup) for failing to
follow his own procedure. I made a real nuisance of myself and felt
entirely justified.
Then a hero came to my rescue. His name was Gordon Moffett and he was a
major backbone administrator. And while he wasn¹t a Beatles fan, per
se, he was foresighted enough to know that this was a freight train
that couldn¹t be stopped and that it was no use to resist the
inevitable. He told me to go ahead and re-create rec.music.beatles, but
I asked him to do it for me, since it would carry more weight if he
did. He reissued the command to create the group and this time it
stuck.
On September 3, 1987, rec.music.beatles was finally a reality. I posted
the first message to the group on that date at 13:47 GMT and it has
been going strong ever since. The first month was critical. The
backbone clearly stated that if there was no traffic in the group that
it would be deleted 30 days later. I wasn¹t about to let that happen,
so every day I posted between 5 and 15 articles to the group. This went
on for months until a critical mass was finally reached and I was
finally able to take a breather.
Since then the world has had a place to voice their likes, dislikes,
loves, and hates surrounding the Greatest Rock and Roll Band ever.
But, alas, over time things started to get out of control. Flames
started and bickering ensued. I tried, as did other devoted fans, to
ameliorate the dissention to no avail. Finally it got so bad that after
5 or 6 years I stopped posting and left it to others (my good friend
saki, especially) to take over the reins, if there are such things, of
the group.
Rec.music.beatles is still a vibrant and controversial newsgroup where
much can be learned and shared. The flames aren¹t as bad as they were,
but there is the occasional flair up. After all, Beatles fans are some
of the most eclectic individuals on the face of the planet, so
disagreements are bound to happen. Indeed, I would be extremely
surprised it was any other way. BM
.
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