Shots Across The Bow

Things Not to Talk About at a Party

I've always heard that there are three things you should never talk about at a party:

Religion.
Politics.
I can't remember what the other one is, but we probably talked about it too.

Yep, we had a BlogFest tonight, (Just checked my watch, and I guess I should say last night, but since I haven't been to sleep yet, its still tonight to me) and we talked about everything under the sun, and some critters that have never seen sunlight, like Knoxville politicians for example, and a good time was had by all.

I got to meet some old friends, and make some new ones, and that's always a good thing. A lot of folks showed up, including a few that I wasn't expecting, and we had a very interesting mix of personalities.

Before I go any further, I'm going to apologize in advance to anybody whose name I mess up. I was writing with a cheap pen on register paper, and my handwriting isn't all that great to begin with, so transcription errors are sure to creep in. Let me know in the comments and I'll fix the errors as quickly as possible.

When I walked in to Barley's shortly after 6, I let the folks at the door know that I was with the RTB, and was expecting a large group. They directed me to the upstairs bar. During this brief conversation, I was approached by a distinguished looking gentleman, who introduced himself as the man behind the blog Staghounds. He introduced himself, and we climbed the steps to the promised land. Upon reaching the summit, we met Racheal of TN Girl who heard us discussing the internet, and flagged us down.

It seems that three was the critical number, because after that, people began coming over from the bar and joining our little group. In short order, we had a crowd. Michael Silence, who I'd met once before at a gathering he held came over and joined us. He's looking very trim, and we had an interesting talk about the political future of the US, and about how bloggers could integrate with the existing media framework, to the benefit of all concerned. Julie Patchouli and Lissakay were the next two to arrive (I think. Things are starting to blur a bit, but then again, it's 2AM or so) and we all introduced ourselves, and figured out who went with which blog.

The ever dapper R. Neal showed up with his lovely wife Michelle, and Cathy arrived, with a baby in her arms and son in tow. Betty Bean made it to the bash, despite the fact that I held it a day early!*grin* The last arrivals of the early group were Frank Murphy and his family, a pleasant surprise since he hadn't told me he was coming.

We kind of stood around awkwardly at first, since essentially we were a big group of strangers who may have known one or two of the other people there, but had only read the words of the rest, if that. But despite the popular image of social misfits barricaded in their mother's basement, typing rants at midnight wearing pajamas, bloggers tend to be a social lot, and pretty soon, the conversation took off, and things really got rolling.

More folks trickled in as the night went on. Frank and his wife (Tina? I'm sorry, but I'm drawing a blank...) from Team Swap came in, as did Katie Allison Granju and Jonathan Hickman, who arrived late and left early. Ahhh. Newlyweds! Katie asked all about my impending grandpappyhood, and I talked with Jonathan about chicken wing recipes.

A mountain of a man came slowly up the steps, and I was introduced to local actor, writer, blogger, and all around interesting man, cafkia, whose blog name is an acronym I will not repeat, but wish I'd thought of, since it applies to many of us so perfectly. Rumormonger, well known to those who read Knoxblab came along, and the last two to arrive were Matt, who writes the Tennessee's Progressive Report, and Stacey. I didn't get a chance to talk to Stacey, so I don't have a link to her blog, but I hope to correct that shortly.

I think I got everybody; if I missed you, let me know, and I'll fix it.

Y'all will be happy to know that I was on my best behavior, and avoided all controversial subjects during the 5+ hours I was there.

Except for the discussion I had with Betty Bean about the Civil War and Neo-Confederatism.

Oh, and the discussion over the equality of men and women I had with LissaKay and Randy.

And a quick discussion on Islamofascism with cafkia and Lissakay.

And I talked with Matt quite a bit on the Ford Corker race.

ANd we all talked about gay marriage and the Marriage amendment.

Other than that, I avoided any topic that might be considered in the least controversial.

Some highlights of the evening:

• cafkia wasn't familiar with Frank's blogging style, so I gave him a quick introduction by asking Frank his thoughts on the new, souped up, Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. Frank played right along, and immediately began expounding on the merits of microwaving a hotdog in the bun, and reminiscing about riding in the original weinermobile while cafkia just stared in a sort of stunned disbelief.

  I guess you had to be there, but it was funny. Maybe that's my comedic talent; I can be Carl Reiner to somebody else's Mel Brooks. I'll just feed straight lines and play along while a really funny person gets the laughs.

  Hey, it worked for George Burns.
  

• In a discussion about the internet, I hear Randy say something that I had never considered before, but that immediately made a lot of sense. "Bloggers provide the one thing the internet needed but didn't have; fresh content." It was one of those statements that in retrospect seems obvious, but I just had never thought of it that way. And blogging is the key to advertising on the internet. Until blogging took off, most web pages were static; making it nothing more than an electronic library. Sure, that's a wonderful thing all by itself, but it isn't sexy. It doesn't drive repeat traffic. Blogging is sexy; it draws you back to the same pages over and over because they change with each visit. And multiple viewings are the key to successful advertising.
  
• Frank Jr, commenting to his father, "Oh great, I'm stuck in a room with a bunch of people like you!"
  
• Lissakay describing herself as a "Radical Moderate." The phrase might not be original, but I love it! I may use it as the name of my hypothetical third party when I hypothetically run for President in 2008.

In short, we all had a good time, and folks were very receptive to the idea of making this a regular event. So expect to hear from me again in a couple of weeks and I'll start lining up another one for October. Those of you who missed out on this one will have your chance at the next one. Is the Old City a convenient location for everybody, or should we move it around more, maybe hit Sassy Anne's or some place out west? Let me know.

By the way, Cathy has already posted some pictures and Lissakay has some here.
I would have brought my camera, but at the last one of these we held, I had to fuzz out the faces of so many anonybloggers that there wasn't much picture left!

Posted by Rich at October 1, 2006 4:18 AM | TrackBack