Chapter 10

In this chapter I will finish the year 2006. I remained outspoken as always (duhhh...!!), and very critical of the deplorable way that Josh's record company handled his fan club, message boards and publicity. At times, I wondered if he even had a publicist. Throughout the first half of 2006, it appeared that Josh's fan club and message board had been completely abandoned-- there were no contests or information or videos of any kind in FOJG, and the news page was never updated at all. For example, in June, Barbara Cook's "Live at the Met" CD came out, featuring Josh on two tracks, and the news page never reported anything about that! It was maddening to me. It appeared that nobody in Josh's management or in his record company gave a damn about Josh or his career...or his fans. In early March, I was also frustrated about nude photos of January Jones that came out in Empire magazine. It wasn't full frontal nudity, but she was nude, photographed from the side, and the text accompanying the article mentioned her going to the Playboy Mansion, and men drooling over her. How classy.....NOT. Of course, a full-blown argument developed in the Pub, and while I have no problem with nudity in general (I like to get nude myself sometimes), it was again the "sleaze factor" involved that bothered me. I thought her choice to do that article/photo shoot was disrespectful to Josh and his family. About this time there were also discussion of Josh not posting on his board very much, and I started a silly poll on March 2, about why he doesn't post much. You can see the result of that poll HERE. The night of March 4th, I was getting really discouraged with everything about 'Josh Groban's world". I was being hammered for my views in the "Empire Magazine" thread, was disgusted with the incompetence of FOJG and WB in general, and tired of being dissed just because I cared about the way Josh was being treated. I was also discouraged about Josh not posting to his fans. At 2 AM, the morning of March 5th, I was so fed up that I posted that I was giving up!! I was going to shut down the Pub! I guess I was tired of feeling like I was the only one who cared about Josh, and I was even angry at Josh-- it appeared to me he didn't care about anything either... except shopping on Rodeo Drive with his boob-centric girlfriend. And I went to bed crying. Yep, yep.... too emotional, I know. Well, an amazing thing happened. Just 3 hours after I posted that in the Pub, at 5 AM my time, Josh posted a message to his fans!!. You can read that post HERE. When I got up that morning I was shocked, and immediately edited my "angry post". My faith in Josh was restored and I decided to continue on with the Pub.... much to the chagrin of my enemies I'm sure. Now, I'm not saying that Josh made that post because he read in the Pub how his fans were frustrated about him not posting, but the timing was quite a coincidence, considering he has only posted a few times a year for the last several years. So let me keep my crazy idea that he was a visitor to the Pub now and then, OK?

And so.... I went back to being naughty again. I suppose one of the naughtiest things I did right after that was to come up with an outrageous "contest" in the Pub. I called it "Guess How Long until Louise Gets Banned". I signed up at joshgroban.com again and started posting now and then. Unfortunately, the a-holes at WB must have been reading the Pub and decided to ruin my contest... they didn't ban me. Well, not for a long time. They did delete some of my posts, and eventually banned me again... but I don't think I ever declared a winner to that contest.....oops!

Another way I was ....ummm..."bad" was taking a certain high-profile fan's "thank you" post and creating my own version of it (read it HERE).... an action that, I suppose, she might now consider as one way I was "harassing" her. Well golly, when I write some sappy whiney crap, I sure don't mind people writing a satire about it. Just like that new blog that is up now, where I am called "crazy" about a bazillion times... that doesn't bother me at all (except the parts where they got facts wrong). And actually it's becoming rather fun to be called things like wacko and "Kerazeh!Lou". .I'll take that over being a sane, boring bitch any day!

Back to the end of 2006..... like I said, it was an exciting time for me then: I opened the new Pub on my own website on October 1st, and just a little over a month later, Josh released AWAKE. I went wild over it! And now, two years later, I am still playing the songs almost everyday. (So She Dances, Awake, Now or Never, Verita, and Smile are my favorites!) And then at the very end of the year, two more new songs came out on the Hallmark Valentine CD: With You and My Heart Was Home Again, both of which are favorites of mine too.

On a less positive note, 2006 was quite a rough year for me in many ways, as far as being a Josh fan that is, and one reason is that several times I lost my FOJG account, which I paid for. It was not only upsetting to lose my money, but also maddening that I didn't even post anything in FOJG using those accounts. I might have made a few posts, to help someone out with a question... I don't remember, but it was never anything whatsoever negative or anything to be banned for. Apparently my enemies watched me, hunted me down, and when they figured out which account was mine, they would notify the moderator. They even deleted an account that I had signed up with my son's address, and they also deleted my daughter's account. I gave up long ago trying to get my money back.... it became too stressful. And my customer "tickets" in FOJG were always put on "HOLD" status and never acted upon, nor did they respond to my emails. Very upsetting, but I try not to think about it.

And we now know that the first part of 2006 was difficult for Josh too (he mentioned that in interviews.... relationship problems and not being able to smile)... it was clear he was struggling with things-- and he has since alluded to that when talking about writing February Song.

But I end this chapter in a positive way: Josh cheered up in an amazing way in the summer (even the fans noticed!), he released his new album on November 7th, and then he posted to his fans on December 23rd! And it was a great post! (You can read that post HERE.) The end of it was especially exciting for me, because he talked about his "sock monkey ornament", and I had already been collecting those-- and in November I had even given one to a friend in her Christmas gift! So Josh has great taste in Christmas ornaments! :-)

Oh...I also end this chapter with a personal note: I worked full-time as a college instructor during 2006, and also went to graduate school part-time, and in August, 2006 I graduated with my MBA degree. I guess I didn't spend "all my time doing Josh stuff" as many claimed.....lol. But the Josh Groban Corner Pub was a lot more fun than school...well, most of the time!

Next chapter: The year 2007!