"I read the news today oh, boy,
About a lucky man who made the grade"

Actually, Expecting To Fly called this morning to congratulate us for being
honored as Rustie of the Month.

A good old fashioned phone call is an ironically fitting way to learn the news.
And even better, Thrashette answered the phone so she heard the news first.

We didn't even know we had been nominated because we've been on a semi-hiatus
until the new year. (Sometimes you just gotta unplug). So thanks very much to
whoever nominated us! And thank you so much all who've written to say
congratulations.

Everything about being a Neil Young fan has been an adventure since we first saw
him onstage with CSNY in the summer of 1974. We could bore everyone with
recollections of being a music fan during the dawn of vinyl bootlegs; trading
using tapes, envelopes, letters and stamps; following Neil on the early Internet
newsgroup alt.music.neil-young; Dan Farmer starting one of the first fan mailing
lists rust@death in 1993; Kimmo in Finland building one of the first music
artist-dedicated websites Hyperrust.org in 1994; and on and on. How we
disagreed with Reactor in '96, left Rust for the Human Highway ditch and started
Thrasher's Wheat. About how while we were unconnected during our
wilderness/twilight zone years, we would add little updates to TW from time to
time, then in 2002 realizing "Hey, all this crazy blog stuff everyone's yakking
about?! Isn't that what we've all been doing all along?"

So, we never expected this honor given our parting Rust words in '96 quoting the
lyrics of the song "Thrasher". But as we wrote on TW in retrospect, "Thanks
Reactor. This code's for you!" Sincerely.

Well, to say that the stars aligned in 2009 would be an understatement. We were
corresponding with someone in Neil's camp who would eventually become known as
Archives Guy. As the release of The Archives approached, the fan dialogue with
AG was truly the most gratifying thing that we've ever been part of in the Neil
community.

Over the years, we've met many great folks virtually and in person. All the
work on Thrasher's Wheat is really about trying to make true, honest, lasting
connections. The Neil community we have is a special place to share. We saw a
lot of old friends this year at The Bridge School shows and made some new ones
too. When we returned back east, we wrote about how much we appreciated the
heartfelt compliments for what we do at TW. Some said thanks for all the hard
work. Too which we say, if you love what you're doing its not really work at
all.

So we look forward to 2010 and the new decade with great hope after the dreadful
(i.e., non-Neil aspects) Zeros. We can tell you that we will roll out a design
upgrade for TW in the coming month that we're quite excited about. Also, we
hope to present some interesting Neil news in the coming year -assuming he does
anything. ;)

Of course, we have to say thanks to Neil for all the music. We truly are some
of the luckiest music fans in the world.

And – last but not least – we have to say we could not do any of this without
the support of our dear Thrashette. She's a true unknown legend and will
forever always be my heart of gold.

Thank you Rusties all around the world!

We love you all.

btr, btc, btw.
peace & love,
thrasher & thrashette

--- In rust@yahoogroups.com, "expecting2fly" <expecting2fly@...> wrote:
>
> Sincere congrats to Thrasher!! There is not a more sincere and genuine fan of
Neil as Thrasher and his care extends to his fellow fans in a deeply fundamental
manner. His Thrasher's Wheat website is one of the greatest fan resources in the
world and has done so much to spread the positive message of Neil's music and
side projects to thousands. Thrasher is also a very kind and generous person. I
consider it to be one of the privileges of my life to be able to call Thrasher
my close personal friend. Enjoy your reign as ROTM, Thrasher. Congratulations!
>
> Mike
> Expecting To Fly
>
> --- In rust@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Ballerstein" <helpless@> wrote:
> >
> > Congratulations to Thrasher for his selection of January 2010 Rustie of the
Month.
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>