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It started out innocently, as these things do. I was busy at work and on a writing jag, and I was spending very little time on line. I was neglecting my S/H discussion list, VenicePlace, terribly and I had the guilts. Then Ann Landers died (it ties in, really) and this humor piece went around the Internet called "If A Man Replaced Ann Landers." I've often taken humor pieces and used them to build mini-SH stories about the boys' lives in Venice Place, the building that Hutch lived in during the show that we now consider "home" to the discussion list. The listmembers all "live" at VP, and whenever a new member subs in, there's always a new apartment for her, and every apartment has the perfect view of the boys when they come home. According to our running VP mythology, Starsky loves living with all us women since we're happy to do him favors, feed him ice cream, and help him with issues Hutch doesn't solve. Hutch, for some reason, isn't as happy with the situation. He's got a lot of little complaints, like how the building keeps changing (besides the apartments, we've added a lobby, an artist's colony on the roof, a swimming pool, and a basement rumpus room no one likes to talk about), and how everyone in the building seems to know everything that goes on in his apartment. The building has a security system and since Hutch's apartment has a history of being vandalized, it has a lot of security cameras. Especially in the bedroom. At Starsky's insistence. For their safety. Hutch suspects that the security cameras are documenting his (love) life with Starsky (true) and that Starsky knows about it (he does), and is in collusion with the listmembers (true, too), but he can't prove it. So, I used the Ann Landers piece to explain to the list why I hadn't been on line much. Which should have been the end of it. However, I made the mistake of fabricating a zine Starsky put out called, "Hutch & Me Get It On A Whole Lot" that he couldn't sell, that nobody wanted, that he couldn't even unload on slashswap. It was a joke. Well, immediately people on VP wanted to know where were their copies of Starsky's zine, and . . . before I knew it, it was out of my control. Some other things you need to know: "CrowRow" is actually my friend and roommate Rosemary, and she's real, or at least most days, the scheme of Starsky's to charge the "ladies in the building" $5 for advice was a funny thread created by listmember Merrikat, the "red-head" referred to as Hutch's friend is a character in an excellent S/H story, "99 Miles from LA" by Lucy in the zine "Don't Give Up On Us Baby," the VP cable channel has a direct feed from the cameras in the boys' apartment, I am working on the stories mentioned, and I really do have over 2,000 emails in my inbox, sadly. (More now.) Like I said, it got out of my control. Enjoy Starsky's zine. Flamingo |
