Mark Crispin of the Urusei Yatsura Mailing list shared a few memories in 1992:
(https://groups.google.com/forum/message ... h1Dp6wihEJ)Mark Crispin wrote: Ann and I were friends and co-conspirators in the `disorganized fandom' movement (see below).
Ann was the `president' of the A.N.I.M.E. club, which office basically meant that it was her house that got trashed by 100+ rabid anime fans each month. Ann would walk around wearing her happi (a type of Japanese jacket) and try to keep some vague semblance of order. Everything was very informal; VCR's, LD players, and monitors were strewed around throughout the house, hooked up in complex ways that would amaze the designers of the Internet. Soda was on the honor system, with a cup nearby to collect the cash.
Often, after most people (in particular certain under-aged individuals) would go home, we'd break out the Creme Lemon or similar material. We spent a while trying to determine the original of `Brothers Grime X-Rated Cartoons'; I had picked it up via mail order since the anime origin seemed obvious. It was clearly anime, of 1970's vintage, although re-cut to fit the 1980's US porn standard (e.g. the same sequences shown about 500 times...). I don't think we even figured out what the original was, but it seemed vaguely familiar to Ann and some of the others.
Ann's house was interesting. She lived with a few other girls -- I never quite figured out how many -- and what seemed to be a zillion cats. Anime posters, books, and video tapes were strewn throughout the house, a fair number of these of the bisho^nen and bisho^jo variety. We'd swap ribald comments, and more, on various of the characters. Let's just say that I have some nasty pictures of Lum that Takahashi Rumiko never drew!
Those cats were something else. They were feral cats that Ann had taken in, or rather that were hanging around for free food. They were otherwise completely wild. I remember a freezing cold winter night (or maybe it was just a Bay Area summer night -- not much difference) with several of us were huddled together under a blanket for warmth in the living room until we got the bright idea to turn on the heat. The heating was electric under-the-floor. About 30 seconds
after the heat was turned on we realized what a horrible mistake that was. Apparently, the cats had decided that the heating grills was the perfect place to piss, and the entire room filled up in short order with gaseous cat piss! We're talking serious poison gas here!
It's funny to laugh about it now, but it sure wasn't funny then!
A.N.I.M.E. at that time was very disorganized. This was one of its beloved features. Many of us were fans who were totally disgusted by organized fandom and its power-tripping Secret Masters (and mistresses) Of Fandom in general and by C/FO and Randall Stuckey in particular. A.N.I.M.E.'s was a departure from organized fandom -- it was disorganized fandom. It was great! I hope the new leadership have kept this in mind, including the recognition that the main
function of president is `pick up the mess afterwards.'
Ann initially brought up the idea of an anime newsgroup on September 22, 1987. The original suggestion seemed to come from Eiji Hirai. At that time, the idea was to create an alt.anime newsgroup. Eiji posted a call for votes for rec.arts.anime on October 31, 1987, with votes to go to Ann. By November 3, Ann had received 13 votes, and started lobbying. I don't have any records of the subsequent progression, but by January 1988 rec.arts.anime was a reality and in
February 1988 there was redistribution of rec.arts.anime to JUNET and BITNET.
All good things do come to an end. I moved in October 1988 in the wake of a messy divorce. [How Ann and Chris aided me by, among other things, deflecting my vindictive but stupid ex's attention from my girlfriend is another story. I won't go into here. Suffice it to say that I owe them an amazing debt of gratitude that I won't forget.] Panda and its mailing lists were shut down at the time, and packed on a moving van. I stayed at Ann's house for a few days winding up my
affairs in the Bay Area. Ann's cats were utterly freaked out by my dog! Then I left for parts unknown (including to me). Ann and Chris headed south for LA about a month later, marking the end of that household and that stage in A.N.I.M.E.'s existance.
Supposedly the club morphed into Foothill ANIME after Ann Schubert left, and still has meetings today: http://foothill.anime.net/