Lost Massachusetts Story #3: “Play the Accordion, Go to Jail!”

Earlier this year, the Ginger Ninja and I went to the tenth anniversary of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, where we hung out with a number of people we haven’t seen in a while, including John Palfrey:

John Palfrey leading the final session at the Berkman@10 conference.

Another person we saw: Doc Searls, who says he somehow keeps running into me every time he passes through Accordion City. I’d seen him only a couple of weeks before then, when he was passing by the b5media offices (he’s on the advisory board).

There aren’t enough photos of Doc in formal wear online. Let’s see if I can fix that:

Doc Searls and me at the Berkman@10 gala.

I don’t know if he knows it, but John Perry Barlow and I have a little ritual. Every time I see him, he looks at me and says “Play the accordion, go to jail!” It’s been that way since we were first formally introduced to each other by computer book publisher and conference organizer Tim O’Reilly at his Peer-to-Peer software conference in 2001 (I met him back in 1995, but I doubt he remembers that — it’s a good story, though).

John Perry Barlow and me.

We had a good chat about all sorts of topics: pain, sleep lab sessions (his were far more interesting than mine), Mormon philosophy and musical instruments. His recent trips to “N’awlins” have piqued his interest in jazz, prompting him to consider jazz tuba.