A Shrine?--does my fervour for Horner go that far? Well, not really. I love Horner's music with passion, but I am not an idolater; that is, I would never consider Horner my idol, or his music the most important thing in my life. There are other things. However, I did have a specific purpose in mind when I thought of creating this "place" called theWorld Wide Web James Horner Shrine. Slowly, that vision has come close to its fruition. But the recounting of that journey deserves a little story. Please be forgiving of the tongue-in-cheek colouring of the language...
Ever since I first discovered other soundtrack fans, my supreme Horner-fandom has been a constant source of redicule. My first encounter with other score fans was from a posting board on America Online, where I first experienced the phenomenon that most score lovers don't like James Horner. While I noticed the tendency for certain fragments of music to migrate from one Horner score to another and hence understood the source of their objections, I didn't understand why, when I finally found kindred spirits in film music fans, I could not share my deepest love with any of them. After the wonder-lust of that posting board disappeared, I found myself browsing the Usenet newsgroup, rec.music.movies. I logged in about twenty hours straight reading post after post, a number of which were of Horner-flames. I decided someone had to speak on Horner's behalf. I couldn't be a part of this newfound online community and have the very thing that compelled me ot be part of that comunity be slandered ceaselessly.
So, I spoke up. And boy did that cause a stir. Now, I'd heard of Lukas Kendal, the publisher of Film Score Monthly, whose hatred of James Horner was notorious. But luckily, he wasn't there when I first became a regularly posting member of rec.music.movies. However, an interesting individual who called himself Lord Hidetora, decided to take up the battle against my passion for Horner's music, and dared to attack me on a personal level, using big, mature phrases like, "You suck." Needless to say, I didn't stand for that one bit.
Though I didn't want to engage in a flame war, as I feel that is absurd and childish, I spoke my peace, and defended my musical interests; and I'd like to think I did a good job in paving the road for all future Horner fans in that venue. Also, to let others know that I wasn't an intense crusader who couldn't take a little teasing, I often ended my posts with many tongue-in-cheek references to the Shrine I had in my bedroom, erected to the glory of James Horner; how I'd chant the lyrrics to Glory; or stick pins in voodoo dolls of Danny Elfman and Jerry Goldsmith.
Before long, I was known in the score-fan community as Horner's biggest advocate, and for the most part, I'd won the favour of my pears at r.m.m. My defense of Horner was remembered later as a highlight in one netizen's year-end memorandum. I signed a post here or there as Horner's biggest fan. But that really didn't have much of a punch to it. Someone else dared mention they felt that they were Horner's biggest fan. My ego had grown, and I wanted everyone to know that a bigger Horner fan than I could not exist. So, I signed one subsequent post "Horner's biggest fan in the known universe, Elmo". That, in and of itself, caused a bit of an uproar with the disenting factions that had resisted my charismatic rantings.
But my Horner-fandom was well known, and when I was away, people would refer Horner-related questions to me. I'd end up with e-mails from people of whom I'd never heard, requesting information on Horner.
The time had come to branch out of r.m.m., to create a fortress from which I could rally those who were loyal to the cause of Horner, a place that would be a sanctuary for those who were downtrodden by the hostile forces sworn to blashpheme Horner. I'd collected a great amount of information on Horner, and had found friendship in Paul Bouthillier, an individual I'd consider the most knowledgeable person on Horner on this planet. He'd administered his own James Horner Home Page, until he closed it down for personal reasons; the responsibilty was a little much.
But someone had to carry on the standard, to raise it unto all nations. Since I'd such proclaimed my Horner-fandom with such zeal in r.m.m., and since I was being sought for my sage knowledge on Horner from all throughout the globe, I felt the desire, the fervour, to undertake this responsibility myself. In designing this page, I have had to learn everything I know about HTML and web-design. It's created career opportunities. It is good.
My initial idea was to create a way to readily provide information on Horner to those who sought it; to be as comprehensive as possible to that end. At first, the numbers of people who wanted to correspond with me was flattering. However, it soon became a burden to correspond with EVERYONE. I decided it would be cool to provide additional services to the extraordinary number of Horner fans out there (most of whom had assumed they were completely alone in the world). First would be the Horner Fans' Network Registry. So, basically, those of us who have been corresponding with each other online in regards to Horner's work have become such a network, including the other sites that a few of the frequenters here at this site have established.
The HFN Registry was a means to let other Horner fans know that you, too, were a fan, and that you were interested in corresponding with other Horner fans out there.
The next step was to create a way for that correspondance to be conducted publicly online, which gave birth to the James Horner Discussion Board, which I consider to be one of the coolest things to come out of this whole effort. I can go away for a few weeks, and still all the Horner fans are still able to talk, talk, talk.
The next element was getting a way to sample music online. I experimented with different audio compressions, and found that RealAudio was the best route for real-time streaming at connection rates that were along the lines of the average user, as well as minimising the server space taken up by the sound files. So, the Audio Page, whilst in constant flux, is always cool place to visit to hear some stuff you may have never heard before.
And lastly, I realised that the design of the site had become difficult to navigate due to the way it had grown from a simple info-page. So, the most recent changes to the Shrine have been the new site design with which you are now interfacing the Shrine now.
As for the future, well, I hope I can beef up the Audio Page, and create an efficient real-time chat feature. Right now, the CGI scripts aren't efficient enough, and the Java set-ups gobble up too many system resources to be a viable solution for many users.
In the meantime, though, I'm glad that you're here. Please feel free to wander around the Shrine. It was, after all, built for you, the Horner fan and score listener. I hope you like this whole idea as I have in bringing it into existence. And the best thing about the Shrine--no one had to be martyred.