Dear FAM,

I believe Prince is aiming for an IDEAL. Whilst many fans think that his FAMILY ideal means for people to BLINDLY accept and follow whatever he does, and as much as this does accurately reflect what a MINORITY of fans actually do, I suspect that his sense of family is really about reaching a HIGHER level of acceptance. If you listen to his words carefully, even in the often misconstrued 'THIS OR THAT' section of Family Name, and especially towards the end of many of his heartfelt concert performances, I sense that all he's really REACHING for is UNITY/LOVE/GOD. That's the higher level, that's what he wants from his family , that's what he wants from this life and that's what he wants to believe in when he leaves.

We all understand that Prince is on a SPIRITUAL journey, is expressing that through his ART, even recently APPEARING to display undertones of racial and spiritual superiority in his beliefs, but this is HIS journey and there are very valid REASONS why he has been made to feel the way he does. There are also valid reasons why we are REFLECTING what we believe to be the TRUTH. I often see these reasons dismissed but they are valuable to UNDERSTANDING why things are the way they seem. Whilst he thinks, and he's always been this way, that his journey would be better served if his fans were to VIBE with the same strength of CONVICTIONS he holds, he also knows he's facing a STRUGGLE with convincing others of his new set of specific BELIEFS. Contrary to POPULAR opinion, I don't sense these are OPPOSITE to what he has expressed all along but rather, a CONTINUATION.

I don't think the ISSUE has got anything to do with us regarding HOW he decides to believe and express his truth, although this may not sit COMFORTABLY with some fans in spite of the fact that they are choosing to still be here. Just as you have the CHOICE to listen, you also have the choice to agree or disagree, and form your own OPINION. It doesn't matter to me whether Prince thinks he KNOWS he's on the RIGHT path and therefore, not agreeing EXCLUSIVELY with him, means he THINKS he knows I'm on the WRONG one. What matters to me is that whatever path he's on, and whatever path I'm on, and whatever path you're on, we all find our PEACE. There is always HOPE for a better day. That's what Prince is LIVING for, and I guess some of us should continue to STRIVE for that too.

My PERSONAL point of view is that we should ACCEPT people for who they are and where they want to go. I know that this can be the HARDEST thing to do with loved ones, especially when they appear to be going down what you believe is the wrong path, but it's all a JOURNEY and there is an END PLACE for everyone through all the TWISTS and TURNS. His is UNIQUE to himself, as is ours to ourselves. I believe it's better to LET people go to places and FIND out for themselves whether it feels good or not. Some day, things might feel DIFFERENT and with a person like Prince, if there's one thing you can be sure of, is that when it doesn't feel good anymore, he'll find someplace else. Let's hope he chooses WISELY. Until then, I'll be sticking it out through THICK and THIN. Isn't that what FAMILY is about?! I could be wrong but that's what I'm here for. It's been GOOD to meet you too.

Anj

FAM = In denial that Prince is just a really talented pop music artist, and we are fans of his music.

FAM =

What happened to the other thread you started last night? I liked that better.

Natasha?

FAM= Person who thinks their devotion to Prince will someday pay off, and they will wind up being best friends.

It means nothing here. Over at NPGMC it means you're a drooling sheep.

FaM?
Fan!
'Nuf said.

Romance1600 said:

Don't most of us go through those idol worship symptoms at some stage or another? By your definition, most of us have been part of the FAM.

BandGeek said:

Do you like sheep?

scififilmnerd said:

Thanks. It didn't express what I wanted to say, so I had it deleted. As for your predicament of falling for cute, straight men, I would imagine you're heading for disappointment or alienation if you don't put your pecker away LOL! Can you enjoy friendship without sex?

Number23 said:

And I thought you were a pyschologist?!

EvilWhiteMale said:

As far as I can tell, fans tend to feel there is some of kindred spirit thing going on when he's been playing the kind of music they like for so long, especially when the messages involved are in line with theirs?

Main Entry: Fam

Function: adjective, abbreviation
Familiar, Family

1: a cornball word (not first used by Prince by any means) used to describe Prince's fans in general.

2: very often the defense mechanism used as a shield by many disgruntled fans (i.e., part of the true fams) who throw it towards others whether rationally justified or not.

3: used for a very small minority of people who can't see a musical world beyond Prince.

4: the word used for those who would never, ever acknowledge anything factual that would not show Prince in the most saintly light possible.

5: the word many self-descibed naysayers have come to represent without consciously realizing it by way of continued, support: (i.e., adding traffic to Prince sites religiously/continuing to buy expensive concert tickets to see Prince live, although the rain check on complaining about the prices will be cashed soon/buying every new Prince release and subconsciously planning on hating every single note after listening to it no matter what/planning on telling the online Prince community how he's lost "it" and will never get "it" back/making sure to buy any and every book or magazine about him and analyzing every quoted syllable he utters/making sure to find out how many times Prince's bowels move per day via any Prince news at a site dedicated to him/continuing to buy and listen to bootlegs of recent gigs, although he lost "it" long ago/deeming Prince's lyrics and actions as racist, yet never having the intestinal fortitude to stop supporting that "racist"/self-righteously coming back to the online Prince community to call others "fams" who don't neurotically dwell on sweating the small shit, or put themselves into position to be used, abused, taken for granted, shunned, spit upon, receiving Prince's symbolic flipping the bird gesture/thinking because you are a fan-fam you have the right to dictate what Prince should believe on a spiritual or religious basis because of the content of his music/giving the impression that you've been used, abused, taken for granted, shunned, spit upon, received Prince's symbolic flipping the bird gesture, yet coming back to give that unstated, unwavering support on all fronts so the cycle can continue, etc.).

6: Muffy.

Supernova said:

LOL So true, Babynova! Number 5 nicely sums up the often hypocritical, almost complete contradiction in terms, some fans lay upon others, labelling them as something they probably once were too; most likely, still are. It's like they've been involved in some kind of fucked up, abusive relationship and are ashamed to admit it. Unfortunately, this seems to happen quite often around these parts.

FAMS

Supernova said:

Not directing this at you, but can anyone really be justified in picking on Muffy because they don't understand, disagree or dislike her manner of expressing her affection towards Prince? She's still a person with feelings.

I think the bully boy tactics shold stop because they can be very dangerous and end up doing the very thing people are afraid of. A little understanding wouldn't hurt anyone.

EvilWhiteMale said:

Evil, if I were to suggest you were actually a FAM in denial, would that be like sprinkling holy water on your avatar?

Anji said:

I'm a firm believer in being allowed to express yourself however is natural. Muffy however had started talking shit in response to my threads so I lost all respect for her. I actually find it hard to believe that she's totally honest in what she writes. Because either she's putting us on, or she suffers from some sort of mental illness.

No one in their right mind would write the things she does. She's sickly obsessed with Prince to the point of being a stalker. And interesting how she'll mention her love for God and Jesus and then talk about doing porn, not to mention the amount of cursing she does.

I just hope she gets the right medication to fix the problem.

Supernova said:

Brilliant!

Anji said:

Well, one year or so from now I will be. My brief comment was not intended to provoke devilish ire from your good self, rather imprint a fleeting grin on your all-too-intense chops.
I was just taking a cheap swipe at the number of capital letters in your text - a casebook example of an unbalanced mind, hense Natasha/Vagina/Muffy/CrazyAss.
Keep pushing those minds tho Angi - one day the walls will come crumbing down!

Anji said:

You can call me a Fam, an asshole, a dumbfuck, a prick, an idiot, a dick, a bastard, a freak, a shit head, a motherfucker, or whatever else. I don't get offended by name calling. And so, calling me a Fam really wouldn't bother me cuz it sure as hell ain't true. It is an insult to be called a Fam cuz Fams are idiots, but since I'm not a sick Prince freak, I'll be just fine.

frankjotzo said:

From this, I can understand two things about you:

Firstly, you don't believe in the concept of a family here. That's understandable; many of us have faced unconstructive criticism here, and there is rarely an embraced feeling of love or happiness directed towards Prince himself. Secondly, you believe that in order to become part of the family, you would have to become a drooling sheep in order to exist at the NPGMC.

I think you could do better for yourself.

Anji said:

Since she admitted she was Natasha here on this site, I'll refer to her as her most famous name.

I never had a problem with Natasha. When she first starting posting here with that name (she was also once known as "Vagina" ) she used to crack me up because what she was doing was a parody of a groupie. And since that was the case, I never took what she said seriously. We even orgnoted each other from time to time. But nothing I ever said to her was with malice, or a real put-down. Although just about everything she said about Prince was way over the top. When she came back as Muffy I didn't find myself laughing at what she was saying anymore, so I usually ended up skipping her posts. But I have nothing against her. Adding her name to that post was just a friendly, antagonistic dig at her. If she were here she wouldn't take it the wrong way because it came from me. Trust me.


£
[This message was edited Sat Sep 13 22:34:21 PDT 2003 by Supernova]

Number23 said:

Interesting, professor. So, do you think I was impersonating a FAM, or am indeed a FAM myself? In fact, a more interesting question would be, what's your real analysis of me?

I think you are one of the good guys, Angi.

FaM: another way Prince likes to refer to his fans ...saying they are more like FaMily then FaNatics because the thought of FaNatics scare him

Why does it have to be viewed as a negative thing?

Everything is relative - even the term Fam. One man's Fam is another man's fanny.
[This message was edited Sat Sep 13 12:06:09 PDT 2003 by Number23]

If were were more like family to him he'd treat us better. It's a scam to keep fans loyal.