Here's my post for the memorial book. If it's too long let me know and I'll cut it down. And I'll send some money to you once I figure out my paypal account - haven't used it in forever.
Also, not sure if I can just yet, but I would love to make it to Sacramento for the memorial service. I'll have a better idea next week, but if there's anything I can bring, get, pick-up in Sacto, or just help out in some way let me know.
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Pat was the reason I joined the forum. I had been a big PUTS fan for a few years, but it took a while before I actually joined. Not being a social media guy (never been on Facebook, twitter...etc), the idea of joining a fan forum didn't sound all that appealing. But I checked in on it from time to time to try and get updates on whatever PUTS was up to. And it seemed like every time I checked it out there was a long post by a guy named Sactown Connection detailing every single move PUTS was making. How did he know all this stuff? Was he stalking Thes and Double from Sacramento? No, it turned out that he got all that info from PUTS themselves! He had their cell phone numbers! He had been over to their houses!
HOW f***ing COOL!!!!!!
Seriously, can you think of anything cooler than being personal friends with your favorite artist? I can't.
So I joined the forum, because obviously it was legit if a guy like Sactown Connection was running it, and I'm really glad I did. I was actually a bit intimidated at first because everyone in the forum had been a fan much longer than I had, but Pat made everybody feel welcome. He really set the tone for the positive atmosphere and genuinely friendly nature of the forum, and that's an incredibly rare and difficult thing to do in the internet age (I've since joined and quickly left a couple other forums for being decidedly unfriendly). Everyone's voice was heard. There were disagreements, but no put downs. It was a very comfortable and comforting place to be. And that was all because of Pat.
Luckily, I had the chance to meet him in Sacramento at my first PUTS show. We had both shown up early and the venue wasn't letting people in yet, so we just hung out and talked for a while. I found out he's a huge movie fan, and we bonded over Vertigo being both of ours favorite movie. He said he loved the Before Sunrise trilogy and would buy anything from the Criterion Collection, and I also found out that he's a huge Ben Folds fan (we didn't quite bond over that one). But it just shows how soulful and wide-ranging a person he really was on top of his generosity, and he was easily one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met.
Here's to Pat: the Coolest guy I know. I'll never forget you. #onawarmsacramentonight
