threatening and interesting

The rain stopped, the sun came out, and for the first time in a week, I actually had a good day.

Thanks to Kevin, I got to drop by The Grotto for a lunchtime chat, where I did most of the talking and none of the eating.

I'd forgotten about the strange blend of threatening and interesting professional writers are. Kevin lead me through the corridors of the former "dog and cat hospital" and told me about the people tucked in the tiny rooms. These rooms used to house veterinary examination tables – now they had tables, books, laptops, neglected house plants, and a whole bunch of accomplished writers in them.

Each person Kevin introduced me to came with a list of accomplishments after their name, so many that they all blended into each other. Here's Soandso, who writes for Suchandsuch and has a book out about Thisandthat. Every name sounded familiar. I had to restrain myself from asking each person, "Didn't I hear you on NPR the other day?"

I felt like Alice in Wonderland - the geek who tripped and fell into a secret cache of Real Writers. I was dumbstruck.

But before I knew it, we were gathered around a couple tables up on the roof, and I was being asked questions. At some point, Ethan asked me if I could give a global view: "What's up with the web now?"

Nervous giggles.

I pushed my entirely uneaten Subway vegetarian sandwich away from me. "Here's how I see it," I said.

"A few of us nerds, we got into the web early. Just because we liked it. And then the world found out about it and the stock market went nuts and the rush was on. And all along we knew it wasn't going to last. If you'd wandered in to HotWired in 1996 and asked one of us how long we thought this was gonna last, we would have talked about months, not years.

"But it just kept going. And by 1999, for me at least, I was beginning to think, well, maybe there's something to this. I mean, it's lasted this long, maybe the 'New Economy' isn't entirely bullshit. Maybe this is just the way life is now.

"And, of course, as soon as we bought into our own bullshit, it all fell in on itself.

"So where are we now? Exactly where we thought we'd be back in 1996. The web is here, it does what it does, and it's a wonderful thing. But it will never, ever, make anyone rich."

There was a pause. People seemed to be thinking, to be getting it. And for the first time since I sat down, I felt almost comfortable. Almost home.

{ 6:16pm }

» welcome home.

dad

– morris powazek  { 12.7.01 @ 9:33pm }

» My pleasure, Derek. You'll be back. I know it.

– Kevin Smokler  { 12.8.01 @ 10:47am }

» your brain is huge

this much is true
so i wrote a little diddie
from me to you

to see it working, it make me cow-ah
inna corner like a lil bitch
when I see tha Powa! (zek)

word up. Aight?

– rappin stan  { 12.10.01 @ 2:26am }