My Response to William's Accusation

[Jerry Gerber]

 

William has, on a public forum, accused me of threatening him with legal action. 

The so-called "threat" was this:  I wrote him a PM in which I asked him to avoid me, avoid commenting on my posts and comments and, mutually, I will do same with him. Over several years, I became tired of his bellicosity and his passive-aggressive sarcasm and insincere apologies. I don't associate with personalities that are toxic to my well-being and emotional health either in my offline or online life. I also clarified to him that the PM I am sending is private, and I asked him to keep it private.  He chose to interpret this request as a “legal threat”.

I wrote him a PM rather than a forum post because I was trying to de-escalate our online conversation, in which he was growing increasingly combative.  My intent was to not embroil and distract the forum with negative energy.  I wrote in the PM that maintaining peace on the forum is important, which is why I think it best for he and I to avoid interacting with each other. This infuriated him, he then began writing multiple PMs to me, each one getting angrier, escalating into slanderous invective toward me and then my music.

I did not respond to any of these hostile PMs. By not responding William apparently got even more furious, so he decided to take his outrage public.  It was at this point that he suffered a moral lapse in judgement and chose to lie, saying I threatened to sue him or seek some kind of legal remedy. I haven't even bothered to report his hate-filled PMs to the VSL moderator, let alone involve myself in some pointless legal hassle. I spend all the time I can writing and producing music, not involving myself in stupid lawsuits with people I’d like to avoid.

In his PMs, he denigrates my music with such vehemence that I have to wonder whether William has any credibility.  He clearly doesn’t remember what he has written about my music over the years:

 

Posted on Sun, May 13 2018 15:42

by William

Joined on Sun, Nov 24 2002, USA, Posts 5675                

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That is a really interesting, complex composition and a lot of the performance sounds just about perfect! 

 

Posted on Sun, Oct 25 2020 17:37

by William

Joined on Sun, Nov 24 2002, USA, Posts 5675                

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jsg - That sounds excellent, and an impressive amount of work! Very interesting also using the synthesizer addition. BTW sorry about my criticism a long time ago about the Gumby score - if offered that money I would have done the same thing and done no better.  I remember using gleefully any synthesizer or keyboard I could get my hands on...

 

Anyway, it is good to hear these different artistic compositions here on the Forum, and a wonderful benefit of VSL allowing composers to realize works that are otherwise either difficult or impossible to get out into the world.

 

Posted on Fri, Aug 24 2018 01:57

by William

Joined on Sun, Nov 24 2002, USA, Posts 5675                

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It has some very interesting harmony in it and also shows how integrating a synthesizer with analog instruments is a very fruitful approach, even though it is not done very often these days.  In old Hollywood scores the electronic instruments would be added to orchestra for the expanded timbre and effects, but today one usually hears all acoustic, or all electronic.  Especially with sampled acoustic instruments.  

 

 

Posted on Thu, Jul 26 2018 00:53

by William

Joined on Sun, Nov 24 2002, USA, Posts 5675                

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This sounds really good.  I like the overall "medieval plainchant" feel (if I can express it that way).  Very good sound and intense emotion in it.  It makes me want to hear it live with the choir.  Also I really like that combo of the flute and English Horn and harp.  Congratulations on this! 

 

Even more astonishing and hypocritical, William is compelled to try and undermine the credibility of even those who review my music.  How damaged must a man’s self-confidence and self-esteem be to do that?

I doubt anyone on this forum gives a damn about this dispute, which is how it should be. I hope it's forgotten the moment people are done reading this. I am clarifying what happened because I think the forum should know who is trying to stir up trouble by lying about a fellow forum member. There's no legal dispute here, but William has crossed an ethical line that regrettably must be addressed.  I am asking William only to stop lying and badgering me with insults and private emails.  I hope he is willing to exercise such self-restraint as it would be to his benefit, to my benefit, and the benefit to this forum.  I wish peace to us all.

p.s.  I don't know what the computer gibberish is below.  It's not in the body of the text and it's impossible to delete.  Please ignore...

[William]

Actually the thing to ignore is Jerry Gerber's "gibberish."  Wow, what a crazy, detailed post!  This is a complete distortion - not surprising coming from this guy who distorts everything to his advantage.

He FIRST wrote to me with a private mail telling me and this is a quote - "you better think twice" - before I ever write anything about him again.  That sounded threatening to me.  Like if I do he is going to take some sort of action. That's a pretty reasonable reaction I would say, especially after a furious, fuming private mail which HE INITIATED.

He then ignored my response, and so I wrote ONE MORE private mail to him.  That is not "badgering" somebody - he was the one who first contacted me in a hostile way and I responded just twice (after being ignored) - not "multiple" times with "badgering" - a complete fabrication on his part. 

I don't care even remotely enough about him to "badger" him.  Contact with him - as well as reading his arrogant and self-centered posts   - is boring and completely uninteresting to me   So he has no worries about any further contact from me.  I just wanted to clarify the distorted B.S. he is posting to his attempted advantage.  

JERRY GERBER - do not respond to me or send any more private mails to me again - you are borderline (at least) sociopathic and I avoid such persons. 

[Macker]

In the Internet - where traditional "cultural gatekeeping" does not apply - free expression seems to be possible. But that also means, in participating in this amazing new 'free-for-all' environment in which one may 'publish' to the entire world, that one must be prepared for free speech from others that is critical, contrary, chastising, chiding, castigating, etc - so long as it does not breach the laws of libel and slander to which virtually all advanced western nations adhere.

In so-called "Christian cultures", our laws as well as our social norms have for many, many centuries honoured the Ten Commandments, one of which is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."

Right now the whole world is privy to an ongoing court case in which the plaintiff alleges defamation against a defendant, and in which the plaintiff's lawyers are attempting to expose and unravel falsehoods used wilfully by the defendant in order to defame the plaintiff. Where it can be shown that lies, falsifications, deceptions, fabrications, etc, have been employed in order to sully, denigrate, besmirch or otherwise defame the reputation of another, our laws - and (generally speaking) our societies - hold that to be culpable behaviour.

But on the other hand, honest opinion that happens to be critical of another is not (a far as I'm aware) legally culpable, insofar as it is proffered as subjective opinion and in no way employs demonstrable falsehoods. That's part of the price of having this new and seemingly limitless opportunity to publish to the whole world, unfettered, unfiltered and untramelled by traditional cultural gatekeeping.

It could be argued that criticism in the arts nowadays has a greater part to play than ever before, if we're to avoid being drowned by culturally ghastly offerings on internet, and if we're to do what we can to make up for the woeful lack of traditional gatekeeping measures today. Culture is, at bottom, essentially the archetype for all our democratic institutions and norms. However, to attempt to defame critics by libel or slander is still culpable, as also are, of course, attempts to silence legitimate criticism by threatening behaviour.

[Disclaimer: this post is offered as my honest opinion. It has no standing as legal opinion since I have no academic nor institutional qualifications in law whatsoever. I have a personal interest in this thread insofar as I have previously been verbally attacked - apparently in a defamatory way - by the writer of the Original Post in this thread.]

[P.S. One of the commentators on the above-mentioned court case, whose opinions I value, has made some comments that also seem apposite to our current issue here. E.g. see: "Criminal Lawyer Reacts" on YT, especially at the end where he talks about his own experience of a personal relationship with a narc.]

[William]

Macker, that is a good statement and very cogent as is your usual - 

The person involved here sent the threatening private mail to me in hopes that I would be somehow scared off. That's never happened in the past and will never happen now.  What he doesn't understand is that the private mail intended to threaten me into silence only encourages me.  I love these attempts at intimidation because they only give me inspiration. 

Another thing not understood by this person - he is not in charge of this Forum.  He cannot control what I write, or what is censored. Anything he writes - I will respond to if I feel like it.  (Though usually his posts are so boring and predictable I couldn't summon to energy to do so.)  But VSL is in charge, and they alone have the right to shut down anyone commenting or any thread they feel like - because they created this Forum and are in control of it.  It is not a political entity -  beholden to idiots and sociopaths from the public who demand representation for their views no matter how ludicrous - but rather, it is a private company's own possession and they can allow or disallow anything they want right here.   

However, I have to add - this entire thing is so absurd.  There are terrible things going on in the world, the destruction of war, climate change leading to catastrophe, etc. etc. etc.  - and all of this here is so trivial.  It is truly pathetic.  I would gladly resign from this Forum but won't give the creeps like this person the pleasure.

Two other things about this - I admit I was cheeky in posting the quote from the trance medium.  But it was like classic comedy ---- from reality !   Like Monty Python...  A guy who is so seriously praising this stuff in complicated ways and then, at the very end, he states he is a trance medium who works in a record store. I just couldn't resist.  

The other thing is - this person is posting stuff like a big magazine article about how wonderful he is.  Nothing else on those posts, just egotism. So we are supposed to look at those and be in awe of him. Why?   This Forum is filled with composers and musicians who are trying to establish themselves, get some recognition for their work, get a job, or the next job - and they are anxious for anything they can get.  And here comes this creep bragging, showing off his great accomplishments - what the Hell? Is that anything but total arrogance and showing off? 

[Macker]

William, nothing wrong with a 'cheeky' bit of pertinent research and doxing, lol. I also enjoyed the Python-esque humour.

I'm also amused by the use made in the OP here of the quotes of your previously positive reviews. I seriously doubt if the same sort of usage of intially enthusiastic, supportive and encouraging quotes from investors and others who at first believed in Elizabeth Holmes' "Theranos" enterprise, was even remotely contemplated by Holmes' defence lawyers during her subsequent trial for fraud. Such anachronistic usage would have been laughed out of court. But then again, the writer of the OP doesn't seem to want to notice that he's busted himself by the very nature of his own attacks. It appears he claims entitlement as the 'presiding judge' and the 'jury', as well as being not only the 'defendant' but also the 'plaintiff'! Grandiose sense of entitlement and gross disregard of boundaries tell their own tales.

I'm still amazed and amused by the fact that I didn't have him in mind in my pro-v-amateur thread before he leapt in. But talk about "if the cap fits, wear it", lol. He jumped in out of the blue and attacked me, as if to say "look, I put the cap on and it fits so I'm now wearing it, which is all your fault". Lolol. Priceless! Externalisation of blame much?

Yes of course we should be holding onto a reasonable sense of perspective. Yet we few individuals don't have the power to change global warming nor the ugly and tragic advent of miltary invasion. What we can do, however, right here and right now, is courageously and positively address wrongs perpetrated in our beloved little parish here. And I'm sure we will continue to do that - without of course rocking the boat so much that the VSL Moderator has to intervene.

I'm inclined to remind the writer of the OP here that no adverse reviews of his musical offerings is not necessarily good news - regardless of whether or not he desperately needs to interpret it that way.