Long day. Longer evening. Just got back from an evening in LA. Started off with Slippery Shrimp and more tasty Chinese treats and Yang Chow in Chinatown with Doc. Turns out Tony Pierce ate there too. You guessed it: Slippery Shrimp. I thought I was lucky when the parking lot attendant moved the “Lot Full” sign out of the way and let me roll into the lot. Made sure I had any and all valuables then handed him the keys, as requested.
The Live in the Blogosphere event was excellent. Xeni Jardin kept the pace of the discussion quick and diverse with pointed questions and philosophical undertones including self-censorship, distributed conversations, blog fame and popularity, anonymity, blogtime and a bit of blog history. The panel of Mark Frauenfelder, Heather Havrilesky, Evan Williams, Susannah Breslin, Doc Searls and Tony Pierce also fielded questions from a packed gallery of bloggers, journalists and curious newcomers and voyeurs. Just a day after meeting him over the phone, I met Fleming (aka Ming the Mechanic) in person. Also new faces and friends including Josh, Jonathan, Jonah and Skip. If we met and I left you off, my apologies. Drop me a note and I'll post your link in a follow up.
Biggest news (of the you heard it first kind) happened when Evan showed Dan Gillmor's column minutes after it went live with the news that Google acquired his company Pyra Software and the immensely popular Blogger weblogging product. Congratulations Evan. He also showcased some exciting new technology to be offered on Blogger soon — Audio Blogging courtesy of Audblog.
Turns out the after event part at Hop Louie was quite popular. Especially among smokers. Just proof that there still is at least one place in California you can light up a dart in a bar. A few of us of decided to have our post-blogosphere tea and hot and sour soup down the street. By the time the midnight bells rang, it was time for everyone to head their separate ways. Nice idea. Except the valet still had my keys. Kind enough, he put a note on my car indicating the location of my keys: in the restaurant. Nice move Allan. Yang Chow closed an hour or so earlier. Saturday night and stuck in Chinatown. No worries. Thanks to Doc, the gorgeous lobby at the Biltmore and Alicia in an hour or so later I had my second set of keys and was on the road.
Stay tuned more pictures tomorrow. It's late. I'm amazed I got this much posted.
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[updated 2/18] I just posted a photo essay slide show and photo album of the Live From The Blogosphere event . At the end of the post more links about the event, too.
