Last night, I attended Brett Lamb’s excellent Christmas party. I chatted with a number of folks. The “Funniest Line of the Party” award goes to Christie, who talked about her experiences as a gamer:
“I took up Counter-Strike to get off Everquest.”
James “Consolation Champs” McNally and I replied by saying “Methadone!” nearly simultaneously.
Nothing livens up a party like a suave, snappy dresser with an accordion!
Last night’s party was a success — with the comings and goings
throughout the night, I’d estimate about 60 or so people showed up
(still big enough to warrant the traditon of filling the bathtub with
ice), many of whom were totally or relatively new Greater Toronto Area Bloggers (a.k.a. GTABloggers)
gatherings. We wnet all multimedia this year — not only was my
PowerBook doing musical duty in the dining room/accordion stage, but
Rannie’s PowerBook and an LCD project were set up in the living room
showing the Toronto Area Photobloggers’ excellent work.
It was a great intersection of three different local blogging groups:
not just the GTABloggers, but the Toronto Area Photobloggers and the
Toronto-and-area LiveJournal contingent (and yes, the “Did you hear
about the LiveJournal girl in Alaska who killed her mom?” conversation
ensued at one point).
The Phineas Fogg award for the guest who travelled the longest distance to attend the party goes to the lovely and talented Min Jung Kim, who came from San Francisco the hard way: flying to Detroit to visit friends and family, then driving to Accordion City. She also had her first taste of icewine last night, and I think we’ve ruined all other dessert wines for her.
My thanks to everyone who came, everyone who brought food (great food,
too!), everyone who helped set up and clean up and especially Rannie,
who is the heart and soul of the GTABloggers.
The first batch of photos have been posted on the GTABloggers blog; you can check out the photo album in either album or slideshow form.
Rannie dropped by the office last week and took this picture of me at my desk:
Click the photo to see it at full size on Rannie’s weblog, Photojunkie.
The “Hail Ants” shirt was made by Chris “Planet Simpson” Turner. He’s selling them to support expenses incurred during his book tour.
Imperial Parking (a.k.a. “Impark”) parking lots now let you pay by cellphone. Cool!
Hey, if you’re in the Toronto area, be sure to check out Better Living Centre, Marc Weisblott’s and Brett Lamb’s blog on all things Accordion City!
The latest article — in which the local media freaks out over New York
City’s attempt to take away the film industry that we took away from
La-La Land fair and square (oh, how the free market boosters turn into
protectionistas when things go sour!) — includes the Better Living Centre’s first foray into comments. Read the article, form an opinion, type. What could be easier?
It’s at my house. I still have the karaoke mic. Special out-of-town guest Min Jung Kim.
In case you need more convincing, check out last year’s party, in either album or slideshow version.
And yes, Wendy’s first visit to Toronto included last year’s GTABloggers party. I wish she could be here, but she’s got her hands full helping organize next week’s Internet + Society Conference at Harvard.
Wendy and me, in the rock star wigs that we keep handy at my house.
Want an invitation? See this entry in the GTABloggers blog.
SvenGolly asked if it would write some kind of elegy for Canadian journalist/historian/author/television personality Pierre Berton. As I mentioned earlier,
my schedule today is rather packed, but let me say that one of the
things I admired most about Pierre was his ability to challenge and
confront other people in a genial, gentlemanly way.
If you want a good elegy for Mr. Berton, allow me to point you to Colby Cosh, who provides an interesting writeup; after all, he’s a new-school conservative who’s writing up an old-school liberal.
And for your enjoyment, I’ve enclosed a video that you’d never see a
similar American figure take part in; it’s of Pierre Berton explaining
how to roll a joint.
(The video is included with this article as an enclosure.)
In the words of Louis Riel, “What you need is a fatty boom-batty blunt!”