About Last Night…

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting many bloghers and other fine folk at a shin-dig at The Thirsty Bear in San Francisco.

The purpose of the get-together was to celebrate the launch of the BlogHer website, which has been re-vamped and now includes a number of zippy features not existing on the old site (which will remain intact online).

I had spent the day shopping and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, so I was ready for a beer and some socializing at the end of the day.

Upon entering the bar, I was greeted by Lisa Stone who (rather swiftly, I thought) ushered me away from her and towards a reserved corner where others were congregating.

I stood looking dumbly around; the space seemed rather tight and breaking into the throng looked formidable. Luckily Grace Davis spotted me and started introducing me around.

Grace’s husband had nabbed the seats at the corner edge of the bar, which was adjacent to the mosh-pit, so I plopped down next to him and had a very enjoyable evening talking to him and, it turned out, danah boyd’s mother. danah popped up, of course, and it was a pleasure to get to know her in person. Liz Henry also kept me company on and off most of the night, and she, too, was a blast. danah had a number of adorable mannerisms she kept doing (fiddling with her hair at the edges of her white polar-bear hat, and raising her eyebrows in a Groucho-Marx like style to emphasise a point). Liz Henry wore a tie and, given my penchant for that, immediately won me over. (She also had a t-shirt joke, best experienced in-person.)

I remained wary of the mosh-pit. It was much more fun to sit at the edge and people-watch, when I wasn’t talking to Mr. Grace Davis on my left and Mrs. Boyd on my right.

I’m afraid early in the evening Jory Des Jardins started interviewing me and I did not take it well, experiencing a sudden onset of “the introverts”. Sorry, Jory, I didn’t know what “channel” meant, and generally felt put-off by the interview approach before I had chatted with you first. Apologies.

Jory did stop by later in the evening to chat, along with Elisa Camahort, who was quite witty and quipped a few (“I'm a vegan—outside of my body.”). Thanks, gals, for stopping by.

Someone else who swung by the corner-of-the-bar crowd was Lisa Canter, who I really clicked with (or was it the beer?) and found very engaging to chat with. (The picture at her blog doesn’t really look like her; here’s a more accurate and cute picture at Beth Kanter’s blog.)

By the way, The Thirsty Bear brews it’s own beer. I can highly recommend the Polar Bear Lager, and would like to work my way down the list. See the website for a picture of the stuff. Might return after another SF Moma visit.

The party seemed to fizzle out at around 9:30 or so. I hit the road and headed for BART. I never did get that promised beer from Lisa…

Note: To be updated with pictures once Astound, my internet provider, have sorted out their problems. In the meantime, have a gander at other people’s photos at Flickr - you can subscribe to the feed here.

Related Links:

I briefly shook hands with Brian of KRON’s The Bay Area Is Talking Blog. He records his night, the title of which riffs on Nico and The Velvet Underground. (I flew under Brian’s radar, apparently. Note to self: next time, try talking.)

Update: Actually, upon reflection, I took a rather passive approach that night to socializing, and should’ve entered the mosh-pit, diving roughly in Lisa’s direction, to chat with her.

Update 2 (02.01.06): Well, it has become clear that Lisa just didn’t know who the hell I was, hence the lack of beer-buying. (Elisa didn’t recognize me either.) Apologies to Lisa, then.

Gee, if only I had put my foot wrong with Elisa that night, I could be extending apologies to all three of the BlogHer organizers in one post! Wouldn’t that be something. ;)

Perhaps I should install a revolving door of apologies at Sour Duck.

Secondly, I’ve uploaded my photos of the night at Flickr, for those interested. Many thanks to BlogHer Contributing Editor Denise of Daily Dose of Denise for helping me via email.