Login Here
I have been telling people that my YK experience was remarkably flat. And by that I mean that there was no division between "in" and "out" -- if anyone was huddled in back rooms making deals and schmoozing for power I didn't see it, and I certainly wasn't a part of it. I spoke with exactly two journalists I didn't know before I got there (MSNBC's Tom Curry because I wanted to ask him something, and Chris Hayes of ITT because I was seated next to him at dinner). I talked with one, count 'em one politician because I had a question for him, too. Other than that, I hung out with readers, other bloggers and people on our panel. I didn't get to meet nearly as many people as I wanted to and I keep hearing names of people who were there that I regret not having bumped into, but there are no celebs, consultants or politicians on that list.
But I read this diary over at Kos by Kid Oakland, and I am starting to believe that everyone did not have the same experience I had, not by a long shot:
I attended Yearlykos like the vast majority of it participants...as a "regular." I attended events, I listened to panels, I went to parties, I met people.
It occured to me, right off the bat, how much this was a media event, ie. how much this event was "about"...in myriad ways...the relationship between the netroots and the press. Now, since we live in a "media age" and blogs represent "new media"...this was not unreasonable. But it also means something, it had an effect.
To cite one example, when I attended the MyDD caucus I was surprised to find that the panel was largely, and fairly understandably given the high powered national press writers in the room, directed to the media. As someone who has written diaries at MyDD, who was already familiar with the writing and thinking of the front pagers there, I realized that the event wasn't really directed at me (a MyDD participant) or even structured to be what I would think of as a "caucus." The caucus was pretty much a press event. That does not mean I didn't find it really fascinating, or didn't appreciate getting to crack a beer afterwards with some fellow bloggers. But it does say something about the structure of Yearlykos as a whole.
Was I just blind? I so did not get that. Reading Kid Oakland's description, I feel like we were at different events:
I think that gets to the core of something, and would add that one of the reasons for this state of affairs was the "media focus". The event very successfully made a strong case for the "power" and "nature" of the netroots to the media. It did not, however, in the structure of how we officially spent most of our time (ie. panels by experts and speeches by politicians) embody the kind of democracy and interaction that we in the netroots put into practice every day online. We bloggers believe in open debate. We believe in accesible discussion. We're here because we know that sometimes the most insightful comment comes from the person with the fewest credentials. That is the power of the blogs. I sympathise with those who revel in how successfully we presented a poised and compelling face to the press...and that the press came to us and gave us our due.That emphasis, however, meant something else had to give. We left "lateral conversation and networking," if not political canvassing and debate, outside the official structure of the event. I would ask, what could we do differently next time?
It's certainly a fair question, although I have to wonder if people's particular experience reflect what they went there looking for. I arrived anxious to get the Plame panel over with so I could relax and enjoy the convention, and went into business mode immediately. About mid way through the last day I went "oh wow, you know there are some attractive people here." I really hadn't noticed. Unfortunately I looked at one guy, thought "he's kind of cute," then found out who he was and went "holy shit, that's not happening." (Digby has taken to calling him "Satan's temptation.")
Oh well I brought my friend Linda with me to the convention, everyone thought I was a lesbian anyway.
(All photos courtesy BobbyG, op99 and Taylor. I'm not identifying anyone except for Christy and me -- she's the redhead, I'm the blond with the glasses -- anyone who wants to "out" themselves in the comments is free to, don't want to bust anyone's anonymity.)
Share This 
Spotlight
Fitz!
fitz
You should be a lesbian, Jane. Why play the part and not get the perks? :)
egregious!
Weird, here we are at the beginning of June on the eve of an election and still don’t know the story of:
a) how all the goofy intelligence came to be spouted, and
b) what the participants role was… you would think Jr could just tell us. He strikes the post of “huh?”
Does anyone know why throughout the last week half the time I try to get to this website it shows up as a webhosting company saying their is no such domain?
sharkbabe 3 — good point.
Neko Case on Letterman! Ater THIS commercial. God, I’m in love.
I thought it was great, and I didn’t schmooze with the press. I just met people of all ages and the vast majority were bright, enthusiastic, and reasonably savvy about politics.
Jane’s comment while sitting in one of the panels that “I’m the girl,” was classic understatement.
I wrote some more at DK about the generational aspects.
OT- Carlin-n-Coulter on Leno in about 1 minute
Didn’t Markos say that everyone had a crush on Jane?
That “top down” comment from Kid Oakland isn’t fair. When you’ve got really great panelists on panels, it is a good idea to hear what those people have to say.
I did not physically go to YKos … but I did watch a lot of it on the AA stream starting Thursday night .. thru Sunday. I signed up of course for the Plame panel, but could not stop watching whatever panel or speaker was next. Got nothing done for days. I loved it all!
Thanks to you Jane, Christy & Pach and others for all you give to this blog.
My experience at Ykos:
Spoke with Wes Clark for less than 5 minutes - because I’m a long-time avid supporter and volunteer - and Eric Massa - for the same reason, only not so avid. That’s the end of the politicians.
wrt “journalists” - Of course I had my nightmare limo ride with Matt Bai and friends - but only because it was a horrible accident.
EVERYBODY else I met and hung out with was a blogger - hundreds of them - almost every single one of them a smart, engaged, articulate, fun, dedicated patriot.
And that’s why I had a great time at Yearlykos.
Ann Coulter is wearing the same black cocktail dress.
At least it’s not the breakfast hour this time.
fitz!
and thanks to all the YK’ers who kept us stay at homes connected….
and all those who made YK happen.
Wish I could have been with you all - and look forward to next year.
[If the first YK was in Las Vegas, would an east coast YK choose Atlantic City?]
My yKos experience was good — tuned in near the start of the Plame panel, got distracted by a business call, saw the tail end . . .
Saw bits and pieces here and there –
Highlight of the Event — Brian Schweitzer quote:
Issues Divide — Values Unite
which has led to the answer to my rhetorical question:
What Do Democrats Stand For?
Government that is — Honest — Fair — and Real.
(notice the sentence structure — the adjectives are tied to the subject; not an objective noun.)
And that’s what I’ve learned since yKos . . .
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I think, largely because my identity is largely split between being a DKos old-timer (three-digit UID and blogmate of the retirees) and being a FDLer (not to mention that Jane invited me to participate in the Plame panel), I had the ideal experience.
The first day, I found some people to feel comfortable with, largely FDL people or people who came through my blog (and I think the way you guys did the FDL caucus had a lot to do with that). I got to hang out with the Plame panel, which was absolutely amazing … but I realized, too, that I was missing out on meeting the old time DKosers. When the panel ended, I got to meet more of them, and I felt like a lot of us oldtimers really were drawn to each other. Yeah, there was media there. Yeah, I had Wankette turn my intelligent question for Warner into a big softball (she’s jealous, you know). But for me, it was a mix of FDL and Plame and DKos, and that was about perfect.
Kos reflects on his “notoriety”:
George Carlin appears to be sleeping through Ann’s performance.
Jane - we had similar events - didn’t get to meet nearly as many familiar bloggers as I would have liked. My press-schmooze quotient was 5 min w/ Murray Waas (cool), 5 min w/ Sterling Newberry, and a drink w/ Curry and friend. No MoDo, no Cocks.
I came for the conferences and the bloggers and that’s what I got. I suppose I could have sought out the scummers, but maybe the Plame panel and the other stupendous yKos events got in the way. Damn!
Jay Leno is a cowardly sack of shit.
And what else is new?
I didn’t meet as many people as I would have liked but then I wasn’t there.
Sharkbabe- I luv you, but I’m gonna take you up on #3, even if meant as snark (which no doubt it was)– but why play into the idea that strong attractive women are necessarily of a particular sexual orientation, one way or the other? Hope you see what I mean.
dr nobody @ 22
What did Carlin do? I’m on the left coast…
Yeah the Carlin vs. Coulter was a non event. And it’s not a surprise Leno stacked freepers in the audience, ever since he supported Ahr-nold, he’s been trending more right wing. His jokes are lame anyway.
Letterman rocked though. Had Colbert on.
Lobstergirl @ 14 - Hate - It’s The New Black
and Blue e - ya beat me by two minutes -
If in the planning for YKos, it was hoped the event would give bloggers a sense of real vs virtual community, it was a smashing, tremendous, unqualified success . . .
I did not attend YKos and yet many of us back here in the threads were surprised to feel very much a part of the community and the goings on. Further, it has definitely affected my thinking, outlook, and resolve. Don’t know how to explain it better than that. Am trying to think of any other event that so fully and seamlessly included non attendees
and Jane, No one should look that good at 7:30 in the morning in Vegas
Markos says he’s not going to appear so much on TV for awhile. I wish he would reconsider. We need progressives who are good delivering our message to combat the numerous conservatives.
emptywheel 19 — It sounds like the MyDD caucus was really different. Which was great, too. In ours Christy had everyone write a little bit about themselves on paper, we passed them around and then everybody introduced everybody else. Then we talked about the Roots project a lot. It’s was about as granola-eating-egalitarian-hippie as you could get. The biggest round of applause went to TBogg. I had to leave to prep for the Plame panel before Joe & Larry showed up but all the photos people took with them make it look like everyone was having a lot of fun. Except for momentary appearances by Wankette and the Hair, I think we were completely media-free. Oh we did have NYBri. I guess he was our token politician. Which was very cool.
Who is Satan’s Temptation? It’s not Pumpkinhead’s teenage son, is it?
My YearlyKos experience was spent in San Jose. I just bought a condo and could justify spending the cash to go. So I watched a good deal of it on Air America and CSPAN. I read all the lame MSM analysis. I know they didn’t get it. I did. I am so happy to be a part of the rise of an unapologetic and aware proggressive movement. I’ve spent my entire adult life under the thumb of the goon squad. I didn’t have to be there to take something away from Las Vegas. It made me happy just to see it.
Hugh - good times! it was great meeting you at YKos….
(I was absent as well)
I liked the way speakers and panelists kept pointing out that Byron York was in the audience, and directing remarks toward him. He did not look comfortable.
Well, of course, I wasn’t there. But as to this Kid Oakland…my thoughts are that he simply relays HIS own impressions. 100 people here could write “no it wasn’t, no it wasn’t”…and nobody is wrong, and nobody is right. I managed to watch alot of it via C-Span. My impressions:
1. very white. Of course, no-one at FDL or kos folks are racists. But…that did stand out for me.
2. Age: here…I’m VERY limited in that I’m going only off of occasional crowd shots. Still….age seemed to break between 20 somethings OR the over 55 crowd. Not much inbetween.
3. An annoyance: WAY too many times the camera would pan the audience and there sat sooo very many folks with the ole open laptop. Fairly or not, it just left a viewers impression that the audience is heavily nerdy. And besides, many regular folks think it’s just plain rude to busy one’s self with computer stuff when someone is at the podium speaking. it’s a matter of manners.
4. worst program: something called….meta-koss??? Good lord. Now, I don’t go to the Kos site…it’s just too much mish-mash for me. I still have no idea what the point of that entire seminar was. And…bless their hearts, and they didn’t mean it this way, but when folks from the audience got up for questions, and proudly proclaimed, “I am X, USER ID 12345!!!!”….well…I don’t think they realized how “androidish” they sounded. Oh well.
5. Most underrated speaker: some guy…lakoff…laskoff?…something like that. When he was introduced I remember rolling my eyes and exclaiming “oh jeez, another Berkley Loon”. But then, as I listened to him, and he spoke of framing issues…I was, and still remain, very impressed with the guy.
Those are my outsider observations.
Ghostman
I think we firepups had a certain advantage because of the kind of community we have here, which you have helped to foster. We were all thrilled to meet you and Christy and Pach, but we were just as excited to meet each other, and we were much more likely than the average Kossack to be able to find a group of “our people” to hang out and have fun with at any point. Not do disparage DailyKos; it’s hugely important, but it’s also huge, which means any one person is less likely to make a lasting impression.
Certainly kid oakland is right that the panels could not possibly have the same structure as a blog discussion, and the conversation you had at lunch at YKos was entirely dependent on who you happened to sit with, rather than picking the most insightful thread out of hundreds. I would say that, except for the panels that ran overtime, more time was devoted to questions than at most conventions I’ve been to. But nonetheless, there was an inevitable predetermined, rather than spontaneous, hierarchy to the panels.
However, the caucuses and other events were less so (the myDD caucus seems to have been an exception — the other story I heard about it described it as one big argument.) And to some extent the more horizontal aspects can’t be programmed, at least not any more than the Drinking Liberally happy hour. If you want more of that, you have to consciously decide not to go to anything during some of the sessions and hope others do likewise. The sessions were great, so that’s a hard decision, but some of the best times I had were when I skipped the last sessions on Saturday afternoon.
(Oh, and I certainly didn’t get any sense of a “focus on the media.” That I don’t understand at all.)
Lobstergirl 30 — you’ll have to get that out of Digby. I’ll never say ;)
oh well i brought my friend linda with me to the convention, everyone thought i was a lesbian anyway.
you’re not a lesbian? (sounds like the end of a character arc on law and order).
well, i ran into more bloggers than i could shake a typepad at, and very few journos. i did see modo twice in the halls, holding court with admiring men, so i was shy about approaching her and telling her who coined the phrase “blogtopia!”
but maybe kid oakland’s big problem came the on saturday night before harry reid’s speech. i was in line to buy a drink with my good friend from years ago amy, a very cute blonde girl, and we struck up a conversation with a journalist who turned out to be garance franke ruta of tapped.
since i had given her a huge amount of grief over the pseudonymity question earlier this year, i bought both her and my friend amy a drink.
when i first introduced myself to her (”oh, you’re garance franke ruta! i’m skippy the bush kangaroo!”), the person behind us quipped, “skippy! i’m kid oakland!”
i turned and shook his hand, i’m a big admirer of his blog k/o, and his work on kos.
but i turned back and devoted my time to amy, a hot blonde, and garance, a hot brunette.
i really didn’t mean to snub kid oakland in favor of the press, but i did, and i’m sorry.
i take full responsibility for coloring kid oakland’s experience.
but, as i’ve been telling everybody else on blogs all over, i’m still incredibly high from the event. i’m not really what you would call a people person, but i was so excited to meet and talk with and exchange ideas with all the bloggers i had grown to know and love these past 4 years.
my only complaint (aside from not enough outlets for power cords) was that there was too much happening all at once…i missed so many great panels and caucuses (cauci?) and parties! we should do it every quarter.
i wish i had the money and energy to have gone on to the take back america conference in dc right after. i’ll just have to wait for next year.
(ps, if we don’t call our senators and demand they vote ‘yes’ for net neutrality, there may not be a ykos07!
punaise,
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and I would just like to say how fond I am of everyone. Really!
I find it distressing that Greg Gutfeld has 118 votes in the (unofficial) HuffPost Awards, and our host only has 6.
I have been unable to connect to FDL for 10 days, a problem that turned out to be the server at school. Meanwhile, I was visiting my mom and dad who both had serious surgery within days of each other. However, when I finally was able to get back yesterday, I read everything I could about YKos and very much appreciated the reports, the comments, and the pictures! It was great to connect some names and faces, but mostly, it’s great to be able to read the threads again. Thank you, everyone.
Huffington Post Awards 2006 #39 — that’s what happens when you make people register to vote on a wingnut site. Greg Gutfeld wins. I wouldn’t do it myself. And 6 votes puts me in 2nd place.
I don’t think I’m going to bank my self-esteem on this one.
Well, this should be big news. A mere 24 hours after Bush’s visit ….
‘Iraq Amnesty Plan May Cover Attacks on the U.S. Military’
“Asked about clemency for those who attacked U.S. troops, he said: “That’s an area where we can see a green line. There’s some sort of preliminary understanding between us and the MNF-I,” the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq, “that there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe.” “
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02432.html
I would like to say that while YKos was not nearly as fun as it could have been if punaise had been there, the Laughing Liberally folks did not do a bad job in his place.
I’m curious to hear Siun’s take on Matt Bai’s participation. By all the accounts I’ve read here he comported himself quite poorly, and “just doesn’t get it”. Yet he wrote a fairly open-mined piece leading up to the event*, and Siun implored us to give him a fair shake.
(*no link, sorry. my quickie take on it at the time was not very favorable, but it held up better upon re-reading.)
Hugh - I left you a Cox riposte in EPUpia
My experience was that I stuck my hand out and introduced myself to anyone who had that orange lanyard on. The big exception was Jane Hamsher who stuck her hand out at the FDL caucus and introduced herself to me. And some people turned out to be (to use Maryscott O’Connor’s phrase) “famous online”. Most everyone I talked to marveled at how cool it was to be at such a large gathering of like-minded SMART people. I felt somewhat “starstruck”, but I can’t think of anyone “famous” acting any differently than anyone else. I asked Markos to take his photo - he handed my camera to someone else to snap us together - how cool was that! I did not get one bit of snottiness or stuck-uppery from any blogger. And Joe Wilson and Larry Johnson very graciously mingled with the masses, and were interested in other parts of the convention beyond their own gig.
Meeting a fellow FDLer was instant connection - others have likened it to a family reunion, and that’s true. Best people in the world, FDLers!
punaise 44
I’m still trying to get a line on why Matt Bai was on a panel in the first place.
Valley Girl, re your comment at #24….(and written with a chuckle) I am a lesbian, and I assume that all strong attractive women either are or could be attracted to women, and Lo, it has often come to pass….grin. While some of my closest friends are women who are currently in a relationship with a man, and I don’t think that is an invalid choice, anything can happen. I didn’t read Sharkebabe # 3 as snark, just a good humoured admission that sex between women rocks.
Really, really interesting stuff in Jane’s post - participants reacting to the event according to the usual human things, mainly a) projecting perceptions of media/celebrity culture onto our burgeoning movement, and b) whatever the connectedness/loneliness of one’s immediate human surroundings at any given time and overall.
The energy of conventions is always strange and all its own, let alone the likes of this. I myself am a strange mix of equal parts loner/hail fellow well met at such things - anyway I knew I’d enjoy the event more from home - i.e. the fdl boards - this time around. And damned if I didn’t.
Ghostman, that was George Lakoff. He wrote a truly fantastic book called “Don’t Think of an Elephant”. Highly recommended.
He’s a member of the Rockridge Institute, which is trying to show progressives how to use language to portray our message to the masses.
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/
Boy nobody is outing themselves in the photos. Oh well eventually…
Warning: From the last topic. (Got a phone call and EPU’d myself in the submit comment section.):
The fight between Lamont and Lieberman is shaping up to be THE fight for control of the Democratic party. This presents some exciting opportunities for us.
I propose that if the party regulars continue to support an Independent Lieberman and Lamont wins, it will be difficult for anyone to deny that the netroots are the new power in the party and they need to be reckoned with. The race becomes a winner take all opportunity.
Rather than spending our time trying to discourage the party regulars from supporting Lieberman, I would rather we spend our time ensuring a Lamont win.
So I have two questions:
Can Lamont win if Lieberman goes Independent with the support of the party regulars?
What can we do to make sure that he wins?
I think Jay Leno must have sent 2 buses to Orange County to pack the audience with wingnut coulterparazzi. That “interview” was a visit to bizarro world with yet another doofus fawning over her.
I am amazed that George Carlin didn’t have an accidental beverage spew over her well-used little black dress…
It’s Pat Buchanan, isn’t it!! I have a little crush on Pat. He’s so sweet. My friends think I’m batshit crazy, but what do they know??
Arianna seems to have a thing for celebrity. She was going all gushy about the Webby Awards where Tom Friedman won a lifetime achievement award. Maybe it was really deep irony or overtop parody but it sounded legit, which made it even funnier.
I keep remembering bits. At one point Sterling Newberry stopped me in the hall and said he was really impressed with the FDL readers there — he said they were everywhere, really enthusiastic and cordial, and they were “the glueholding this thing together.” I said I wholeheartedly agreed.
Lobstergirl 54 — I’m busted.
Bob Smith #6:
I’ve had the same problem for the past week and it’s because of a bad DNS entry. My ISP (Charter) has been providing me 2 DNS servers via DHCP, but one of those 2 servers has the wrong IP address. I’ve reported it, but they’ve ignored my report. The correct address seems to be 38.98.18.100, but you can’t just use the address because it’s a name based virtual host. Either you need to point to a DNS server that is correct, or lacking that, setup a “hosts” file with the above address for the time being.
op99 46
“Meeting a fellow FDLer was instant connection -others have likened it to a family reunion, and that’s true. Best people in the world, FDLers!”
I would certainly agree with that.
“And Joe Wilson and Larry Johnson very graciously mingled with the masses, and were interested in other parts of the convention beyond their own gig.”
I didn’t get to meet Larry Johnson, but I thought Joe Wilson was just incredibly approachable and warm and friendly. He acted like he was one of us.
Wondered @ 48
May I be the first ever, in the history of the world straight male to agree wholeheartedly?!
Wonderer 48 — I did chase Lindsey Beyerstein out of the conference room and introduced myself because I wanted to meet her. Does that count?
Everything counts Jane, everything!
…I watched from home, and what I saw was great!
Thanks.
I don’t know the guy from Adam, but what the heck:
cooin’ Bai awe, my lord, cooin’ Bai awe
cooin’ Bai awe, my lord, cooin’ Bai awe
someone’s hacking, lord, kumbaya….
punaise,
Thanks I saw that and raise you.
ne marie coq
aine marrie cocasse
VG 24 - I swear upon fitz, not the slightest “idea” or ideology in my #3 - merely as a proud and ever-mischievious dyke, couldn’t help taking a fun smack at the irrestible whiffleball of Jane’s funny last sentence…
Neurophius, I was sorry that I didn’t get to know you better, we must have been at different panels. And everhopeful, how did I miss you completely, were you at the FDL caucus.
The first Firedog I met was Zennurse at the Northeast caucus, I squealed when I found out it was her!
I agree op99… Even when Maureen Dowd sat next to me at 8 am Thursday and startled me. I came to Yearlykos to meet bloggers, to learn and be a sponge sucking up being being around progressives pretty much 24/7. Getting my fix (Hey I live in a Red State)
The stats show there were 1100 attendees with around 150 media persons, so that is 1 media person per 7.33 attendee. But did they call the Star bloggers media?
To me it was such a wonderful event, meeting people who I have made comments and blog alongside for years. Having indepth discussions about topics in common. Of course finding myself in the Sunday Chicago Tribune is pretty exciting too.
Actually, I was did not expect the media there and was surprised to see them there.
oops, this doesn’t do the circumflex:
ane marie coq.
haine marie coccinelle cooks in hell
(no that’s over the top, my bad)
haine = hate
coccinelle = ladybug…collateral verbal damage)
Arianna seems to have a thing for celebrity.
I would just assume that from the git-go….
There are a lot of things I like about Arianna, but her narcissism and publicity hounding aren’t among them….what was it Maureen Dowd said about Judy Miller? That she had a tropism toward important or powerful men? (Pot, kettle….all 3 of them)
oops, that would be “irresistible” of course
I was almost able to piggyback a visit to Vegas for yK, but alas, was not to be. Would have most especially been interested in the FDL caucus and Plame panel.
I hit the Kos site multiple times daily, but only as a lurker. This is the only place I comment with any regularity, as it feels like a conversation more than being on the trading floor of the comex. I used to comment on Billmon’s site, when that was possible, but the suspension of comments there has done nothing to diminish my enjoyment of that site. Truly a wordsmith of the highest order. And of course, what would a day be without visits to Digby, Tomdispatch and Professor Cole’s place. (BTW, Billmon had a nice piece on the neocons’ academic hit job on Cole’s being considered for a tenured chair at Yale.)
Would have loved to ask Ambassador Wilson what he thought of April Glaspie.
Arianna is a good speaker on TV. She’s charming and funny while sticking the shiv into the conservatives. We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of people who can do that, since so many people get their news from the boob tube.
This is one reason why Jane should appear on TV as much as possible. I’m not kidding.
sharkbabe 66 — I would’ve been totally disappointed if nobody did so.
Hey Jane- I just left you some outing info at the Service Desk.
Jane, thanks, first off, for noticing that diary. I hear you.
I got out of a car in Las Vegas after nine hours of desert driving and walked directly into the MyDD Caucus. Maybe the Bright lights, Big City effect of “MoDo and Co. meets the blogs” was magnified by the reality that my most recent social interactions involved a truck stop in Bakersfield and a Jack in the Box in Barstow. Dunno.
Regardless, my overall point in writing the piece was not to take away from any one else’s personal experience of the event…on that level people made Yearlykos the event they chose to make it…so much as to understand the ways in which Yearklykos was structured and, I would guess, conceived:
press meets blogs
candidates meet bloggers
bloggers meet each other and attend panels
Clearly all three were important in the structure of the event, and shaped Ykos. That’s my point.
I apologize that in the course of introducing myself to mucho bloggers that I never got a chance to meet you. I did get the cold shoulder from skippy though!!
And I also learned that a common misperception regarding my appearance involves imagining me as a “short, long-haired, twenty-something idealist with a fierce demeanor.”
Damn, was I a total dissappointment or what?
The KidOakland comment you cite sounds like a graduate student who’s just returned from her or his first academic conference. Over a semester you read a ton, get to know some line of argument and the names associated with it, make scintillating points in the seminar, write a brilliant paper, enjoys the prof’s attention, and top it all off by getting the paper accepted at the American Historical Association meeting, or maybe a smaller one. The big day arrives and you go deliver the paper. And what do you get? You wander around a corporate hotel, the stars whose books you’ve read have their flocks with them, no one knows you name, and when they look at your nametag in the elevator, they turn back to their conference program. This is the way conferences work, and YK is probably worse than most because the blogosphere is not a converation over a beer after a session at the annual conference–unless you drink liberally.
One more thought: KidOakland repeats what appear to be the right-wing spin on YK, which I also heard last night from some Brown Shirt on the radio program “Open Source,” produced in Amherst, MA with Christopher Leiden. They devoted yesterday’s show to YK. The young woman in brown dutifully followed her talking points. Her contention was that YK’s and the left blogosphere’s success could be traced to the centralized organization and topdown, autoritarian structure of sites like DKos, FDL, TPM, etc. By contrast, Hugh Hewitt and Instapundit and others are more invidualistic, and democratic, she claimed. A bizarre argument to construe YK as Comintern VIII, especially when the right wing echo chamber deploys its talking points on radio, tv, and blogosphere with rigidity, dutifulness, and ceaseless repetition. Organization is usually their strength not ours. KidOakland appears to be repeating the top-down spin in his critque of YK.
Thanks for all your thoughtful analsyis, Jane and Redd.
Geez, I’m proud as punch to have my photos front-paged, thanks Jane. I took #1,2, and 4, and I CAN be bribed!
I was talking to Jim Dean, Howard Deans brother on Friday about DFA things (I’m chair of my county DFA chapter), Jim says… “Oh, there is Amb Wilson, Oh there is Maureen Dowd” He was as excited as a kid. I took him around and introduced him around.
Did not want to talk hokey about it but it was really just one BIG family reunion. We had met somewhere online, on some blog or comment over the years. Even the Lurker’s …..
elle aime haine eau paix cul aire est-ce th, etc.
We can always count on Sharkbabe to hit the whiffle ball!!!! xxxooo
How’s the leg op99?
Jim Dean must know all about the political process … you know, sausage and all.
Hugh, chapeau! the only appropriate response would be to quote Marcel Duchamp:
LHOOQ
Sizle… Hot punaise!
Katymine, the red is gone, the Sharpie outline from day 2 lingers on, lol.
L’enfer, c’est les autres au petit dejeuner…
LHOOQ = elle a chaud au cul = her ass is (ahem) feeling hot
It’s the rather irreverent inscription Dadaist artist Duchamp made on a copy of the Mona Lisa, by way of explaining her bemused smile.
Is the dark area going away? When you said spider bite…. rubbing alcohol or hair spray take ink off …
Yeah, it’s fading, still a bit of a lump.
Where’s Matt O.? I need to hear about his YK experiences!
Jane:
Memories of YKOS:
1) THE MEDIA ROOM; You taking over that beige armchair in the corner of Room 202 (The Media Room)–it was your seat. I wouldn’t sit there, even when you were gone because I knew that if you returned to the room you would want to sit there again!
2) THE BOXER MOMENT: I was holding the small tape recorder while my buddy DiANne was blogging and taking pics. It was when Boxer said she was going to support Lieberman over Lamont that I could feel the pupils of our collective eyeballs dilate then retract. Boxer had shot herself with the blogosphere and MSM as witness.
3) STRATOSPHERE: a) The Blues Brothers were just plain awful; b) Same with the Elvis impersonator; c) Aquamassage is an almost-ok invention, though, as I mentioned at FDL breakfast-might as well have your S.O. put a giant garbage bag on you and use the jet spray.
4) FINAL NOTE ON THE MEDIA ROOM: You could tell, without speaking, who the bloggers were versus the MSM. The bloggers had energy that emanated. The MSM sucked the oxygen out of the room.
AHHH, Vegas…
punaise,
It sounds very Ana Marie both in the anatomy and the meaning. Elle est en manque.
wiffle ball, catnip, you name it, I’m there!
Speaking of Arianna - Stephanie Miller does such a great Arianna - with her voice guy Jim doing Ahnuld as well as Tom Brokaw moderating the “debate” - comedy heaven
xo back vg!
and night all!
Lobstergirl 71 — I’m going to defend Arianna here a bit, and not because she’s my friend. We have the opposite response to celebrities - I don’t enjoy being around them, I don’t cultivate them as friends and I go out of my way to never mention them but I understand why she does. She’s managed to use her celebrity contacts to create a very successful site that has become important in the political discourse. When Fitzgerald was trying to keep Judy Miller in the clink he cited Prof. Geoffrey Stone of the ACLU writing on the Huffington Post. I don’t know that a lot of people remember that but it was rather landmark. Do people go to the HuffPo because Geoffrey Stone is there? No, they draw big traffic because John Cusack and Alec Baldwin and Harry Shearer are there. But Arianna uses that to provide a platform for important thinkers like Geoffrey Stone who in turn have the opportunity to have greater influence and a bigger audience than they otherwise would.
We do something a bit similar. Atrios says Plame is like porn and it is. We get our big traffic from it, that’s what people love to read about. We use that big traffic to do our series on racism and war profiteering and labor that otherwise probably wouldn’t get much traffic at all. I don’t care if those posts get 10 comments, we’ll keep doing them and they can (and have) begun to imact the consciousness of the blogosphere. I think that’s the responsible thing to do.
I think there’s value in what Arianna does, and it’s not just celebrity chasing. When you talk with her it just isn’t something she mentions, she’s much more preoccupied with stopping the war any way she can. I’ve never had a conversation with her about movie stars, I’ve had plenty about how to influence politicians to get us out of Iraq. She’s a very savvy marketer in being able to use her gifts to leverage political influence and I respect her tremendously.
My two cents.
well Jane,
just got back from looking at the Flikr YKos pix - Chicago Dyke is adorable, same for Atrios (those eyes), disappointed not to find any of Mr. and Mrs. TBogg
I’m stumped on the “satan’s temptation” and Digby doesn’t have a search feature - what the hell does that mean ?!?
More pics on Yearlykos
http://www.flickr.com/groups/45562770@N00/pool/
“Twenty-somethings and over 55″? Um, no. Maybe that’s how it looked on C-SPAN, but the majority of people I saw were 30’s - 40’s (I’m 38). Many of us were just as excited to shake hands with Krist Novoselic as Joe Wilson. Dude!
There was plenty of interaction, dialogue, and argument to be had, all over the place. Hell, too much at times (I’m looking at you, Berkeley guy, when you started going off about how Marvin Bush helped orchestrate 9/11, and why that didn’t get more coverage on Daily Kos…yeah, you simply CAN’T find ANY kooky left-wing 9/11 conspiracies in the blogosphere!)
That said, um, yeah…it was a little different than how things happen on the blogs…but, uh, Kid…maybe that’s cuz it was a convention, in Las Vegas, with real live human beings? And if you had maybe stood up and asked some questions, or started a conversation, you would have maybe come away with a different experience?
I shook hands and chatted with Joe Wilson, Wesley Clark, Harry Reid, and Maureen Dowd, and I really wasn’t even trying that hard. And those were just the rock stars. I found everyone else (Jane included) to be completely accessible, although I spent most of the time talking to new friends at our table or just hanging around. I thoroughly enjoyed all the panels; they were all well run and on time, but more importantly, the discussions in the halls and in the elevators were just as if not more exciting (Mudcat Saunders was dishing some serious dirt Saturday night…). In fact, thinking back now, one would have to have gone out of one’s way to NOT have an interesting conversation or experience, at least from my perspective.
What to do differently? I dunno, Kid - Xanax, perhaps? Usually works for me.
The best part of Leno was at the end. The musical guest, Neko Case, (according to Dr. Nobody @ 8) had taped a message to her guitar:
I was watching TV with my sister on the other end of the phone and had turned off the TV in disgust, when she said that Case had thumped her hand beside the message.
I think blogtopia should make her record go platinum for that. Think of the message that would send to America if they heard on Entertainment Tonight that we made it happen as a sign of approval for speaking truth to power.
I don’t think the audience was overwhelming in approval. They hissed and booed a little when they heard the quote. The applause she got sounded to me as if it came from a vocal few. It was loud, but too short for the volume. I think they positioned themselves close to the audience mikes.
I wouldn’t say that Plame is porn. Jane, your description at the beginning of the Plame panel touched on why it’s such a great story. It’s a mythos with characters as evil and as good as any in the ancient classics.
kid oakland — I think your description of your experience was totally valid, I did not mean to take away from it. It was just completely different than mine, it felt like we were at two different events. I am sorry that we didn’t get to meet, you’re on that list. And Skippy just likes the girls, IMHO. Garance is awfully pretty.
fe — I was very happy you warned me off that thing. And yeah, those reporter freaks in the corner did suck all the oxygen out of the place. Didn’t want to talk with anyone. The bloggers over on our side of the room were all over each other.
And that was my one complaint — you pretty much had to be right IN that room to get any connectivity. I could get it intermitantly downstairs in the main room but consistently nowhere else. For a bunch of bloggers it would be nice to have something a bit more powerful next year, but that was a small gripe.
Way to get me in total trouble here at home, JANE. For the record, that wasn’t my Late Nite YK Experience, and it wasn’t Matt’s either.
Oh, sorry, I read the post title wrong.
Never mind. Thanks for posting my picture, Jane!
Bionic,
Ms. Case is paying homage to Woodie Guthrie with that one…
I wish I had to add to perspective as a YKos attendee but I cant since I didn’t go :(. As for the C-Span coverage, I caught the Plame panel and also i believe it was part of the meta-Kos panel. I REALLY enjoyed what I saw from both panels in both content and presentation.
(Random question: was Wilson joking or slighly cranky about the standing O he got when he was announced….he made a snarky comment and I couldnt tell if he was joking or annoyed?).
After reading Jane’s post above I tried to think a bit differently about what I saw when watching the Plame panel, and try to approach it from a different angle to maybe fit Kid Oakland’s narrative. I nodded with agreement with everything that the panel said, but when you come down to it…you could say that the Panel was really preaching to the choir. Ive read Wilson’s opinions, Waas’ articles, Froomkin’s column, Jane and Christy’s take here, and emptywheels over at TLH. It could lead someone to come to the conclusion that the panel and what was said was not really directed to the attendees of the panel (who likely knew much about what was being said) and was directed to the Press attending (who has been less than stellar at covering the case). I’m not saying that is how I felt, but just throwing it out there for discussion.
One thing I absolutely LOVED (Sorry Ghostman at #34) about the coverage that I saw, was the meta-kos panel….and especially the questions that were asked and answered afterwards. The questions that were asked were intelligent and were also questions that I would have liked answered…and the panelists came back with informative answers. I know the Plame panel was pressed for time, but I did wish there were more time for Q&A from the audience.
Other than that…I got nothin’ :)
Teddy, you funny!
My experience was really kind of up and down all weekend. I changed my flight so I could attend the FDL caucus only to find out I couldn’t get a seat in the room behind Byron’s big head and Ana Marie’s narrow behind. So I missed meeting everyone.
That really pissed me off so I arrived for the Plame panel at about 4:00 am. Others were already seated. Plame panel was the clear highlight of the conference for me. (Emptywheel blew me away!)
I met Wesley Clark who managed to shake my hand and ignore me at the same time. Very weird.
There was a MoDo traffic jam in t