| Submit your comments on this article |
| Wrapup...Pajamas Media bloggerfest in DC |
| 2006-09-27 |
| Hi all. I'm still a little giddy after meeting the galaxy of blogging stars at the National Press Club last night. I arrived a little past cocktail hour (though the open bar remained in operation all evening), took one of the last available chairs for the overflow crowd, and settled in for the presentation. The hatless Roger Simon was at the podium to open the event and announce PJMedia's newest editors (Richard Miniter and Nidra Poller), and also their new web poll to choose a name for America's "midpartisans" (ie folks who don't really identify with either party but still care about being part of the political process). Then he introduced the panel and stepped aside for Glenn Reynolds to moderate the discussion. The panel's topic was partisanship and whether we have too much of it right now. The panelists began on their prepared remarks and my attention drifted as I looked around the room and started reading nametags... Hey! There in the second row with the camera, I think that’s Michael Totten! I thought he was in Tel Aviv or Beirut, but no he’s here in DC! And over there! With a nice Florida groove working, it’s Val Prieto of Babalu Blog. And hmmm...Scott Koenig...I know that name...OMG it’s LT Smash. And there’s Townhall's Mary Katherine Ham and Pamela from Atlas Shrugs, and over there is Eric Scheie with Baron Bodissey, and here is a very handsome TigerHawk, and Yehudit from Kesher Talk, and Colonel Austin Bay is here and so is Kevin Zowie. I’ve been reading their words, and internalizing, refining, and refuting their arguments, for most of the last five years. I know some of their kids, and some of their pets, all from links on the internets. It’s almost too much to take in. But not quite too much ‘cos now it’s time to mingle, and maybe, just maybe grab dinner. One group heads out, another slightly trailing group wants to know where they went, I don’t know for sure but I do know where the best view in DC is, so we head for the rooftop bar at Hotel Washington. Along the way we are subsumed by group #1, and after a coin toss between Old Ebbitt Grill and Hotel Washington, the rooftop bar wins and twenty or so bloggers settle in for the view, the drinks, and the company. My end of the table has Richard Miniter, Gerard Van der Leun, Judith Weiss, Fausta, TigerHawk, and Claudia Rossett. The other end of the table has Glenn Reynolds, Michael Totten, Colonel Bay, Pamela, Baron Bodissey, Michael Barone and Roger Simon. The banter, as you may imagine, was sublime, and I bid everyone farewell at about 11:30. Plenty pix were taken, though few of me, available at many of the fine links herein. PS No Hawaiian shirts were in evidence. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #13 *I've* met Seafarious twice and Mrs. Bobby's met her once, and ... well ... THAT speaks for itself! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-09-27 20:08 |
| #12 I met Seafarious six months ago and I'm still giddy. |
| Posted by: Matt 2006-09-27 19:52 |
| #11 Hear! Hear! GK! |
| Posted by: 6 2006-09-27 16:52 |
| #10 I'm still a little giddy after meeting the galaxy of blogging stars at the National Press Club last night. And I'll wager that some of them are boasting that they finally got to meet Seafarious. |
| Posted by: GK 2006-09-27 16:45 |
| #9 BTW, I left dinner at 11:30, just as Prof. Reynolds was getting a glass of wine. By 12:07 he's already posted with multiple links. Dunno how he does it... Implants |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-09-27 13:11 |
| #8 we're waiting for the coconuts and grass skirts pics. |
| Posted by: Baited Breath 2006-09-27 13:06 |
| #7 There were easily three or four shoes per blogger by the end of open bar, lol. I'm fairly sure they all matched, but don't quote me. BTW, I left dinner at 11:30, just as Prof. Reynolds was getting a glass of wine. By 12:07 he's already posted with multiple links. Dunno how he does it... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-09-27 12:06 |
| #6 From the link on the Pajamas Media comment page -- someone liveblogging the event: As I meet and greet old friends for the first time, my mind fixes on an analogy to our little community of bloggers. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that it applies: We bloggers are "men of letters". Most people don't realize that what we call the mainstream media really only dates back to the first daily newspapers of the early eighteenth century. Before that, and for over a hundred years later, it was the letter-writers who shaped the world. The salons of the French and the coffee-houses of the English are the places where politics, science, and culture were shaped. Us bloggers use email and blog posts to communicate. Our spiritual predecessors used letters and mass-produced pamphlets. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-09-27 11:54 |
| #5 I like hawaiian shirts, they go well with fat people... Except that I'm no fat, I'm big-boned. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-09-27 11:53 |
| #4 Well, were you all drunk at the end, at least? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-09-27 11:52 |
| #3 no hawaiian shirts? tacky.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-09-27 11:51 |
| #2 No Hawaiian shirts were in evidence. Then why all the fuss? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-09-27 11:45 |
| #1 And there are people who go gaga over movie stars. What a waste of a goog gaga, when there are Bloggerfests in the world! It sounds divine, Seafarious. Oh, did you notice whether everyone was wearing shoes, two (2), one each left and right, matching? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-09-27 11:40 |
