The Smiley Smile Message Board

This place is great, but Junkstar, if you're out there, please bring it back.

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You think this place can get rough ? Ego was like cage fighting with chainsaws while juggling scorpions. It was also a helluva lot of fun.

Were there no mods, or were they just in favor of letting the place 'moderate' itself?

That would be comparing the NYT to the National Enquirer. That place had ALOT of traffic. A lot. Unvarnished truth that Bruce would comment on almost daily.

There was anonymous posting, at least at one point. It was a free for all.

maybe Myke would get more love here if this happened? there are lots of closet myke lovers out there!

Anything went really. The only banning I recall was Karl who faked his own death. Yes...you read that correctly.

.

April 1 and yes doubted by many at the time but a 'family member' posted how Karl, a regular poster, had died and gave quite a heart felt message about how much he had enjoyed the board and what it had meant to him. Really laid it on thick. Many posters offered messages, as you would, including those who had gone toe to toe with him over various topics.

About a week later he pops up "SURPRISE...April fool!"

Nobody thought it was funny.



edit. Actually Bruce himself was one of those taken in from memory.

WTF :lol :lol :lol

See my edit. One way to p*ss off a mod.

I miss the guy who used to post as 'Mike's the Greatest'. I think he's a member here, but can't prove it.

He was reincarnated as 'SIP Mike'

Oh yeah. Every thread turned pro-Mike with him. OSD would have popped a blood vessel!

I remember that. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I remember that somebody really did die after that. Was it Karl or somebody else? The person who died never posted again after the announcement was made of their demise, and I don't think they were banned. The person never showed up on the board again through the end until Junkstar eventually pulled the plug (at the persistent insistence of a couple of Admins I use to know).

Who came up with the name Male Ego??  Or is it a reference to something I'm not aware of?

The song I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-HmDu-4fHs

Wasn't it Lenz? Bit of a dubious character for real I recall.

I guess... seems like an odd song to use as a forum name.

Male Ego is my jam. I need to find the single.

There should be a Male Ego revival tribute celebration anniversary board. Does anyone remember the way the board was well enough to replicate it, including the rules, anonymous posting and getting BJ to post there?

This showed up while I looked for the song. Brian with a few Mike moves. ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkETZEUD_Q

Yeah, that was it!  Michael Lenz.  Forgot how he checked out.  Heart attack or something as I recall.

Compared to Smiley Smile you mean? :lol

Was he the one who was arrested? I seem to remember someone with a news story and a absence from the board that coincided with a prison sentence mentioned in the story. Weird sh!t.

I think it was Lenz. And it was that story or the one where he died that made the newspapers.  AGD might remember.  He was always holding a McCullough chainsaw in his hands.....

Just found more titbits here that I'd forgotten about.  Lenz actually drowned.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=9016.msg152239;topicseen

The Male Ego board had a similar look and format to the Beach Boys Britain board.It may have even used the same web host, I'm not sure.  It had yellow font on black background, with threads that only ran for a page or two. No archives, topics would just come and go.

What was the url for the make ego board, maybe we could use the wayback machine to take a look at it..

http://archive.org/web/ (http://archive.org/web/)

Solo swimming in Cancun before dinner, wife in the hotel. He never came back. They found his body the next day. Heart attack. Very well informed BB super fan. Did not like Alan. Had several "encounters" with him on ME.

Ah yes, the good old days.  

Didn't that board morph into the Barnyard message board?

Anyone else have a copy of the MALE EGO cd that Junkstar put together?  He gave me a copy in Connecticut, when Boyd, Desper & I appeared at a convention there.  Have to dig that one out, cause I remember I loved it.

Ed, do you mean the "Not For Sale II" CD?

 

Memory lane...

http://web.archive.org/web/20040924025628/http://egoboard.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/20060129080338/http://www.egoboard.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=a115324df4803a719750f1eabfa0e88c

Very far out!!! Thank you GV33. I couldn't help but notice that my thread "More Than a Feeling" had almost 5,000 hits. I think it was only second to "Melinda the Model" by Karl, all-time. Anyone remember that one?

Those were some crazy, interesting times.  Although I didn't post that regularly on "Ego", it was very entertaining nonetheless.

I cringe at some of the stuff written there, especially mine. Somebody wrote this on the thread about the "Best Message Board":

"The Smiley Smile board has the best and most knowledgable debates. They are also generally civil to each other there as well".

Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!   ;D

Very cool..

That was a nice looking board. Shame it was before my BB's loving days

Thanks, David, almost certain that's what I was referring to earlier.  That should make my search a little easier...

They must have changed the format at some point. I remember it being a simpler board design that didn't allow for that many pages. With the format they had in the mid-'00s, they may have had to pay hosting charges for that. It might be another reason why it stopped.

I remember that it wasn't the 'slanderous' stuff that closed Male Ego in the end. It shut down (maybe for this reason) and went back online, but being a cost-free message board meant that there were all kinds of bot spamming going on, and I mean dozens for thread. Junkstar tried to clean up the threads but soon gave up. And that was that.

Junk received numerous complaints. Two of the primary complainants will remain nameless. One of the problems was that you could post as a guest, or anonymous, and post personal stuff about people. They were offended and asked Junkstar to shut er down, and he did.

Yeah, "Mike's the Greatest" is the best poster name of all time.  Taking the piss out of the Brianistas without saying a word, but then saying many!

It's hazy at this point, but I recall being on the old (Gold?) imagination board and it shut down, then basically everyone either went to "The Cab" ("White board?  Which eventually went through a few permutations finally ending as "Shut Down Volume II -- many good days there as well) or over to Male Ego which Junkstar had then created (Black board as I recall).  I bounced between the two for a while but eventually got tired of people baiting you in the nastiest way for no reason whatsoever other than just to bait you!  Junkstar was very cool though -- I remember him posting that he went to see Mike and Bruce and him and his buddies sat in the front wearing fireman hats.  I thought that was pretty funny.

Where does it go that time thing?

Heart attack while snorkeling on vacation. Unfortunately, given the previous tasteless hoax and Mike's reputation (you couldn't post his name on the original Bloo), a lot of posters, myself included, were dubious, until his wife confirned.

Past boards: you're missing out the American Band MB, which when I started (1998) was simply the best one around, but just faded away as all the good posters moved on.

If the Male Ego board were recreated, how many of you would post over there?

I can do it, but it would take *some* effort. Worth doing?

Most definitely.  But it must adhere to the philosophy of Junkstar's Male Ego board i.e. no censorship, anonymous posting allowed, anything goes etc.  Without that USP, it would add little, if anything, to the BB fan experience that isn't already provided for.

I don't know, man. As of now, SmileySmile satifies all my BBs board needs. Also, we've got the Sandbox..

Ten years ago there was a certain rivalry between message boards, and it was more controversial to defend Mike. Male Ego made more sense then.

Don't bother

God knows how my memory banks have thrown this up but I think the guy that was arrested was a Brian Martin Stark or something close to that. He had a relationship with another blueboarder by the name of Tammy Stinnett (spelling)? who was a friend of the infamous Bluebird. This might help jog someone else's memory...

Yes! Stark was suspected of verbally and physically abusing his wife Tammy (a.k.a. Farmer's Daughter). Then she devoted an entire blog in his honor which was equally abusive!

And then there was Barbara (a.k.a. Barbie). A whole other story......

Ah, Barbara Ann Watson... Brian wrote "Barbara Ann" about her, you know, and "Girl Don't Tell Me". She also took the photo of Brian that's on the back cover of Holland in her front yard. In 1963. I know this is true because she told me so.

Ahhh, Bluebird (aka Pat Panuska)... what a piece of work ! A lying, cheating, thieving bitch with an overactive imagination and no scruples whatsoever. Pure scum.

Stark, btw, is also a registered sex offender and convicted pedophile.

Beach Boys fans are weird.

Male Ego was gone by the time my hardcore fandom started (summer 2006), but I stumbled across that blog for some reason around that time. That was...something  :o

Wasn't there a Cabinessence board, too? It was all white, and it was the same deal, where you could go on there and post under a different name every time. There was a woman on there who I remember claimed to have had an affair with Carl. She was a singer, named 'Sassy', or 'Fancy', or something like that. Unless I've lost it.

Sassy! Good Lord ihad forgotten that name.

Yeah, her relationship with Stark was public knowledge at the time. A lot of retaliation and slander and defamation of character in that blog.

The one who who was really off her rocker delusional was Barbie. One of the worst B.S.er's I've ever known. No matter how much substantial evidence was provided (mostly by AGD) to prove her wrong, she was insistent that she was right. I think she actually believed what she wrote! She would ignore criticism and just come back with more B.S. She was banned from at least one board for her continual bullshitting tactics.

believe or not the vast majority of ppl on this board are in fact civil...

Is it true the oscar winning writer of "Juno" was a member of a beach boys
Board, if so, which one

How many here were on the two Usenet newsgroups back in the day? We’re talking mid-late 90’s. I think those were pretty dead by 2000 or so. I think AGD was there (he can correct me if I’m wrong), and Brad Elliott posted there a lot (back in the pleasant days when he was just an actual insider working on BB projects, before all that s**t hit the fan), Mark Linett posted there. That was where, if I’m recalling correctly, the epic “Family & Friends” legal debates took place that I had with Cam.

There was also the PSML (Pet Sounds Mailing List). I think that’s still going. I think one of my old e-mail addresses is still subscribed to it.

I think I remember the Cabinessence board (which I believe had a few iterations), the Smile Shop, I think I posted here and on the Shut Down board for awhile. AGD’s mentioning an “American Band” board also rings a bell from the early days. I also do recall the “Imagination” website and board.

That's Diablo Cody, who met Jon Hunt on The SMiLE shop board (Jon Hunt and John Lane started the board). They aren't married anymore.

Been to all of those. American Band was good for awhile. Imagination was VERY informative. There was one other called CalSaga run by a lady named Barb. Good board but not many posted on it. Affinity towards Al Jardine. I read the PSML but never subscribed. Brad was there, then he wasn't. Then there was Green Mansions.........ah, that English humor....and that lady who made her own version of Smile in Mono - one of the first. She had a board.......

Jude, did you ever post on the Ego board?

Sherri Skanes: FB friend of mine. Funny dudette. ;D

Google the name Brian Martin Stark and the first page of results is websites that carry sex offender registry lists. He's a convicted pedophile, as noted by AGD. He's also listed on a site called Dating Psychos. I'm not sure if Tammy S. put his name there, but there are comments that others had similar  experiences with him.  I vaguely recall that there were some people that thought he was a talented musician based on his posting mp3s of his stuff.  Maybe that was the hook that got Tammy to get involved with him.

Bluebird also married a guy she met through the Blueboard. I wonder whatever happened with that? The thing with Bluebird is she did get to meet Brian and his band, and someone was giving her backstage passes, which is how she gained people's trust to loan her money. I have to assume or hope that at some point her behavior caused her to lose backstage access.

I definitely remember reading Bruce's posts. I probably posted there. Maybe the internet wayback machine will be able to tell me.

I tend to just filter out the BS flame stuff, so if I was on the Male Ego board, I was probably tuned out most off topic stuff. Was that the board with the "Flux" crap? Or was that Smile Shop? Or was that here?  :lol

If any, it would have been The Smile Shop, but I never recall seeing her post there.

OT: Juno may be one of the very worst scripted movies I've ever seen. The most basic premise was utterly flawed on two fronts: if the girl was sooooo hip and cool, why was she going out with such a dork and why was she dumb enough to get knocked up ? It went downhill from there on in.

Annie Wallace. Once saved the day at a BBB gathering in Manchester by producing a soldering iron from her handbag. Legend.  ;D

And yes, used to post on one of the Usenet groups. Second thing I searched for when I got online (February 8th, 1998) was "Beach Boys". And here I am now, historian, researcher, recognised authority, author and pre-eminent Royal Pain In The Ass. What a long, strange trip it's been.  :old

Brook posted at the SMiLE Shop, I seem to remember her posting as Margarita.

No, the Flux crap was on the Cabinessence/Shut Down board, a.k.a. "The White Board".  It led to a drastic reduction in posters and its eventual demise.

She didn't get residency, which was the gameplan all along, so she left him and moved back to the US: Delaware, to be precise.


It was seen to by, ah, certain fans with contacts and influence that her true nature was made known to those who handed out such passes, and her 'access' was instantly revoked Don't know if this still applied (probably not) but if you ever wanted to see Jeff have a major laughing fit, all you had to say to him was "Bluebird". Worked every time.  ;D

Then there was The Miracle Of Glasgow...  :lol

I remember the cabinessence board, early 2000s. I used to post there, played my first "Beach Boys Survivor" on it. One day it disappeared. I wonder why? Anybody know? Problem with posters? I remember buying a home-made Dennis shirt from somebody on that board. Can't remember his name. I still have the shirt. The exact web address to the board was cabinessence.com/brian/discus

Bruce & Ego: true story...

Back in the days when people still emailed each other, one day I got one from George, aka Junkstar, Ego operator which said, in essence, "there's a guy just emailed me wanting to register, claims to be Bruce: I was about to tell him to go f*** himself but thought I'd best check with you first - the email is iwritethesongs@aol.com*" So I replied that he could do that if he really wanted to but as it really was Bruce, maybe not the best idea.

About 20 minutes later, another email from Junk: "My blood just ran cold".

Bruce posted for a few months, and when some folk were a little rough with him, gave as good as he got. Stopped posting because the interest faded, or so I recall.

[* no, of course that's not the actual email... sheesh...]

As Mikie recently refreshed my memory concerning, I believe the Male Ego board was the place where the comically epic incident occurred where somebody, innocently as I recall, referred to Bruce as “BJ.” I remember Bruce being very indignant about it, to the point where I briefly thought he was joking. But I don’t think he was. I also recall thinking at the time that he was just making it exponentially worse by making such a big deal about it.  :lol

The Cab just vanished one day because the owners - forget their names, husband & wife, or at least partners... Jim someone ? Whatever... - lost interest and didn't renew the subs. Susan Lang restarted it, and as Shut Down II it's still going, but barely.

The tshirt guy was almost certainly Greg Larson, who used to post here and passed on some time ago. Nice guy, very generous with the footwear but had huge personal daemons that eventually overwhelmed him. It was very nice to see him given a tribute along with Coach Bob Haines in the booklet of The Smile Sessions. Very classy move by someone.

sh*t, why can I remember this drivel off the top of my head but can't make a decent living ? I guess God hates me, me, personally.

I remember JohnB's Gold Board being the best message board back in the day. I think he still runs a Beach Boys yahoo mailing list.

When the Gold Board shut down three regular posters set up their own boards to try to continue the community: Junkstar's Male Ego board (black and yellow colour scheme), Sir Chocolate Thunder's Barnyard board (red), and Ken W set up a Sunflower board (i think it was Sunflower, with a yellow colour scheme).

Basically it was the same group of posters posting on all 3, and eventually two shut down through redundancy and Male Ego remained.

There were arguments and wars but despite its reputation the proportion of troll to genuine posts was very good.

John... Barone ?

The Gold Board was the message board of JohnB's Imagination website, i think, and this looks like this was it (last updated 2008):

http://records2.tripod.com/BrianWilson.htm

Yes, Barone.

Thanks AGD, and yes now that you mention it, it WAS Greg Larson! I'm sorry to hear what happened to him though. He also made a nice Smile T-Shirt which I still have too (front and back images of the Smile jacket sleeve).

My last memory of the Cabinessence Board consists of reading weird threads by somebody with the name Ginn who started talking about The Plasmatics. Then, poof, no more cabinessence board  :shrug

That was Mike Wheeler. His girlfriend Erin who became his wife pretty much took over (real nice woman with common sense) but passed the baton after they moved to Oregon.

The guy who made the shirts, Greg Larson, was one of the nicest, caring, and sharing guys I've ever known. A real baseball umpire, he loved to hit the sauce, and could talk Beach Boys and Baseball for hours on the phone. Made some nice shirts too. Shared the hell out of his tapes and CD collection.

Greg Larson was a lovely guy, I traded music with him, he sent me Beach Boy cassettes and I sent him McCartney CDRs, his computer didn't have a burner, I think he was running something out of the Ark: - ) He loved his waccy-baccy.

I remember Bruce posting on the the Ego Board that he'd just had a royalty check from the recording company for that one hit he'd had, it was for $300,000.00, apparently he had one twice a year and this one was a little more than usual because Manilow had had a greatest hits album out the previous year.

The memory banks are having a poke tonight, it surprising what rubbish is up there.

Apologies, double post...

She was so popular that the Surf's Up Mailing List was created, so people could avoid her posts about her erotic dreams with Carl.  :)

Sorry. Time to call it a night!

And not necessarily in that order.....

I, along with others, can attest to what a good guy Greg was. When I was first getting into The BB's, he sent me a lot of tapes.  To repay him, I found one of the BB's matchbox cars he was missing (sold at Target) and sent it to him. Eventually he ended up asking if it was OK to call and chat-he lived with a woman, but I still got the feeling that he was pretty lonely and most of his friends were online friends-and yeah, he was completely wasted the few times that we talked.  He would talk about his fight with alcohol quite often. He actually made some pretty nice SMiLE shirts-some long sleeved ones, which I still have. Eventually we fell out of touch, and I was really surprised when I found out he passed away. He had this ability to be able to tell you what the date was from any year-like if you said 'In 1965, March 3rd, what was the day?' and he'd be able to answer it in like 5 seconds. It was a strange Rainman thing.

I will tell you this; one of the things he told me when he called me one night was 'Look, Mike is a real asshole. He always likes to screw one of the girls he brings up on stage to dance with. And from what I've heard, Bruce's dick is as big around as a pop can'. I was in stitches.

I remember the drama that ensued over Ms. Cody at the Smile Shop before they got married. Wasn't she a stripper? I just remember a lot of dung being flung in different directions and Jon had to take a lot of hits.

Amateur stripper, blogged and wrote a book about it. Not exactly shy about posting, uh, candid pics on the blog. Name of p*ssy Ranch.

Dammit, I'm doing it again...  >:(

Was that 'Alyn' from Australia? Back on the brit board I see.

Another blow-up I remember was Bruce getting upset about a 'Hey Bruce' titled thread being disrespectful. The funniest caption I ever saw (take a bow Karl) being the Reagan/ BB picture with Reagan saying "Which one of you guys f*cked my daughter?" and Mike saying "WE all did!"

Could it work again? The initial attraction for me was being able to 'dip your toes in' so to speak into the message board game anonymously. Many came and went quickly because the water was too deep so never joined officially. If you could laugh at yourself and put your hand up and say "I'm wrong" everyone was pretty forgiving. I do remember a trial where you HAD to register and the number of posts took a dive.

The Wheeler board was my first real exposure to all this. Started in the late 90s.

I also posted on the Pet Sounds mailing list and registered for another board or two (pretty sure on I was on the Annie Wallace board for a bit). Never could handle Male Ego, although I visited.

Ultimately spent most of my time at the Smile Shop, and then this place ...

Does anyone else here spend any time at the Club Kokomo Lounge Experience forum? OSD hangs out there.

Some of the events being mentioned also took place on the Yahoo Groups, which hardly anyone uses at this point. They were quite active around 2001-02-03, then around 2004 most of it went to the boards.

I remember some great conversations on what was essentially a mailing list. Great info. Lot of stuff that didn't make the boards. There was also a neat "chat" feature, and I sat in on only a few of them, most likely with folks here who were known by different names. Made some good online friendships through those lists, i wish I knew what happened to a few of them who it appears simply dropped out of site. Bob Hanes was a regular back in the day.

There was one Yahoo Group that was a Beach Boys offshoot - I can't remember the names but it was a couple running it - and among their members was a veteran of the late 60's and early 70's bubblegum pop studio machine, a musician who wrote and performed some of those bubblegum hits under a variety of group names. I picked his brain for info when I could, and he provided some really cool factoids, most of which I'm afraid I forget or have archived and forget where I stored them.

When Bruce was on that message board, I remember I actually caught up with him posting one night by chance and mentioned a new Nelson Riddle bio that had just been published and also something about how great a record "I Only Have Eyes For You" was, and I remembered Bruce specifically mentioned Riddle's arranging style and the record "I Only Have Eyes For You" as being two of his bigger music influences. I forget his reply but it was neat to see him engaging fans that way, about non-Beach Boys stuff. I always wondered if Bruce ever got around to picking up a copy of that book.

Basically what it seemed to be in retrospect was a bunch of different boards that had their own vibe and feel among the topics and the members, and a lot of the posters and topics simply moved here at some point. I stopped visiting some of the boards because as someone mentioned, more than once I'd get a virus warning from one of the ads the board host would throw at you when you signed on. That was enough of that. It was also a shame to see the Smile Shop implode, I specifically remember being in the middle of a recording project when I was still doing studio work full time, and Michael Vosse was on the board. It just so happened one of the major dramas seemed to erupt at the same time Vosse seemed to be open to fielding questions, and just that quick he was gone. That was unfortunate.

There was also one time on what I think was Male Ego but it could have been another board when I saw someone posting and mentioning some areas and locations I knew, and I figured they had to be local to that familiar area. So I posted a reply mentioning a place called "Yocco's" that I thought would ring a bell, but he/they never replied. If it's who I'm thinking it could have been, he still posts here actively but I won't say who unless he mentions it.  :)

I remember this story, except the email was "Iwritethesongsgrammy1975@aol.com".

A compelling reason for never visiting, in my book.

No, Alan Jardine, I think. Interesting, mind: since I gave up the adminship of the BBB board back in October last year, pretty much everyone who was barred (and barred by agreement, not just by me) has been reinstated. Which may explain why the board is such a mess these days.

That's funny!  ;D

Male Ego Board??? I'm sure that was a huge sausagefest. There should be an all-female Beach Boys board for girls like my avatar here.

.

I checked some of the threads and there was no semblance of music discussion beyond "Smile 2004 sucks". Just heated ramblings on Brian's management, some convicted pedophile, and George W. Bush.

It should be brought back. I think it could function as a good quarantine zone for some of the more ludicrous threads here.

If we ever do that, can the first quarantined thread be that one that pondered, "What if the Beach Boys were actually female?"   :lol

Some things just don't change though.