Sunday, September 24, 2000

Behind the Curtain

Experience the banality that is my life! We proudly present 24 Hours in The BradLands, part of the Behind the Curtain project, a peek into the lives of 160+ webloggers around the world. Note: To make up for the lack of interesting events to be photographed in my life on Monday, September 18, this collection contains one instance of gratuitous nudity. Persons with heart conditions and/or weak stomaches are advised to proceed with caution.

BRAD BY THE BAY: San Francisco so far has been Fray-friggin-tastic! Friday afternoon, I did lunch with the crew from Pyra and got a guided tour of Blogger HQ. (The electric trams that traverse the Pyra campus are tres cool, and the audio-animatronic figures in The Hall of Weblog History are amazingly lifelike!).

Friday night, of course, was Fray Day 4, a big, buoyant birthday bash for the home of personal narrative on the Web, The Fray. With perpetually-grinning host Derek and a whole slew of incredible volunteers, Cellspace was transformed into one big ol' interactive storyfest. Great tales, great music, great fellowship, an incredibly moving story from Lance Arthur and — as promised — plenty of red wine. Derek even persuaded (nay, demanded) me to take the stage during the open mic to tell a story, and I chose to recite a BradLands classic, A Nightingale Sang..., its first public performance, read from my Visor and, I'm told, webcast to the world.

Fray Day provided an excellent centerpiece to an opportunity to catch up with old pals, including Matt, Meg, Jack, Jason, Heather, Brig, Halcyon, Rebecca, JJG, Dinah, Cam, Peter, Dan, Dori, Judith and a dozen others my fun-addled brain has temporarily misplaced. Also cool to meet Mathowie's fiance Kay and several new friends who took the time to come up and let me know how much they dig The BradLands. Disappointment du jour: Missing by 12 scant hours the opportunity to kick it with DVG, who high-tailed it back to L.A. before I even knew he was in town.

Further bulletins from the Left Coast as events warrant.