On Macs vs. PCs

Context: In addition to you, the reader, reading his “consent”, even suggestion to publish them below, I’ve opened the wonderful collection of Gregory Hines Emails to be read, inspired by, and discussed in your tap lives as you travel the world.
Note: Gregory’s email handle “Dajez” was a combination of his three children’s names: Daria, Jessica, and Zach. “Spider”, his earlier address, comes from one of his nicknames. It was also his car’s (Jaguar) model name.
To: jane goldberg
From: Dajez
Tag: Greg wants our emails published
Date: July 2003
I still think our back and forth eeeezzzzz might be a great source for a book. And when we look back on ’em before the book is printed, I’ll see all kinds of stuff I wrote to you that doesn’t reflect my current thoughts and feelings. I will have grown and changed from when I wrote those things to you. But I will still want them included in your book. And if the book is a success, and someone comes up to me in the street and throws my words up to me…. I’ll just tell ’em that I’ve changed my mind about that…. I don’t feel that way anymore.
Whenever I put anything about Mac computers on the subject line, Gregory Hines answered with the speed of lightning. He was a true MACSTEIN. In the following emails, I was having a problem buying an Apple computer. Gregory was the 1987 cover boy for “Think Different” on the Apple page, a true original believer in the power of Apple computers.
To: Jane
From: Spider
Subject: MacEEEEEEEEEEEEEzzzzzzzzzzz
I will answer all questions Gregory Hines, or defer them to people who knew him as well. HAPPY READING!!!!!!!!!!!!! You may also comment.
To: Jane
From: Spider
Subject: Having fun
Circa: Jan 2002
Ya know, now that I think about it….. You’re perfect for a PC……. You don’t really want to have fun…… I think you’ll really enjoy a PC…… You’ll have it for about a month and believe you’re having as much fun as if it were a Mac, and then the instruction book will become so much a part of your life, you’ll begin to NOT have fun, thereby HAVING FUN in your own strange way. YEAH BABY GO PC…… YOU’LL LOVE IT!!!!!!!
You know I’ve got 2 words for you doll……. iBook & Fun!!!!!! Maybe it’s the fun part that’s been scaring you off. Maybe if I’d originally said the iBook will bring you nothing but Oyvay after Oyvay, you might’ve rushed out a bought one, but what could I do….. iBook=Fun Computing Jane. Stop f*%$(#’ around and run (don’t shuffle) to the beautiful people Apple Store in the village and bring one of those babies home. You’ll be thanking me ‘til Tisha B’Aub!!!!!!
(ed note: Tisha “B”Av : calamity; Jewish holiday for major fast day, day of mourning, negative events in Jewish history)
Love,
Greg –
Well….. maybe from his perspective we Maceeez might seem like fanatics…….. but really Jane…? We’re just having FUN…. !!! Want some…???
To: “Jane Goldberg”
From: “Spider”
Subject: Does the word FUN mean anything to you?
Date: Fri, June 14, 2002
Jane –
First you tell me you don’t know anything really about computers and you don’t really wanna learn, and then you think you can compare a Mac to a tap dancer.
Honi Coles no less…!!
Honi Coles was most definitely not a Mac…… He was a PC all the way…… He was complicated, and difficult to learn…… and just when you felt like you had him figured out and it was gonna be smooth sailin’, he’d get real mean on you and (in computer terms) crash. It was Honi’s way, or the highway!!! Oh no Honi weren’t no Mac.
Buster was a Mac. Very attractive to look at and to spend time with. Easy to know. Rarely crashed. Displayed a very intuitiveness about his dancing and made it look easy. Anyone who got to spend time with him loved Buster. Oh yes….. Buster was a Mac.
I’m encouraging you to get an iMac (or iBook) Jane cause I know you’re gonna have fun using the machine. You’re gonna enjoy looking at the thing….. You’re gonna bond with the thing (“That’s my computer!!!!”) …. You’re gonna be astounded (that’s right astounded by the ease and intuitiveness of a Mac…… and it’s gonna have a soothing, calming, positive effect on you…”
Thanks to Valerie Baloga for help with transcription.