I was just reading Matt's account of this weekend's Movable Type gathering and I realized I actually had some worthwhile thoughts on the event. Matt complained that a number of attendees (specifically Anil and Cam) were a bit intimidating. It's funny how different people deal with different situations.
I can understand Matt's problem as meeting someone you respect or admire can often be a difficult thing, but I don't seem to suffer from this phobia.* Despite people's accomplishments or notoriety, they are just people. They have thoughts and they deal with the same problems and see the same movies and take the same subways to work. So, when I sat down between Kottke and Meg I jumped right into a conversation. Why not? What's the worst that will happen? These are people whose opinions I respect and enjoy, so the logical response should be to engage in dialogue instead of continuing the one-sided conversations of reading weblogs.
When I went to the last 601am/Gothamist Happy Hour (another one is coming up tomorrow night) there were a couple college-age girls there who were creaming their pants when they got to meet Nick Denton and Aaron of 601am. These are both cool people but come on, they just run weblogs. It's no big deal.
So, when you go to the Happy Hour tomorrow night or the Morning News Party on Saturday, you should run up to whatever cool/famous people are there and share your thoughts. Oh, and if you think I'm cool then you can talk to me as I'll be at both.
P.S. I get 40,000,000 hits a day. Bow down to me.
*As you continue reading, I don't mean this as a shot at people who have actual problems in these situations, but to those who just don't know how to react around "famous" people, not people in general.
09/17/03 6:44 PM
I wouldn't necessarily say I was intimidated by fame. I named Anil and Cam because they were two people I remembered being there whose blogs I read.
And I think you hit the nail on the head that while *you* may not suffer from a phobia doing so, talking to anybody (let alone a "famous" blogger) in a setting like that can be a scary experience for people who suffer from a Social Anxiety Disorder.
Whether or not I fall in that category is debatable, but I will say that I broke out in a cold sweat after being there for a short time and started feeling like the place was closing in on me and needed to just get out of there.
09/18/03 11:17 AM
But Anil IS totally intimidating. It's because he's channeling Prince all the time; it's all purple attitude with him. Plus you're always subconsciously thinking "Don't call him Anal, don't call him Anal." So you're distracted.
09/18/03 12:14 PM
Choire always intimidates me because he's a Soho House member and I only belong to CostCo.
09/18/03 12:55 PM
No one is ever intimidated by me! But 'tis my own fault as I am usually going on and on about Twin Peaks or Jerry Orbach, which never seems to make people think I'm that initmidating. Just weird.
09/18/03 1:20 PM
OMG! These comments are like a who's who of blogging! I am so amazing!
Oh, and I totally fear calling Anil "Anal." I definitely know how to say his name but I also couldn't get up the guts to say it at the MT Gathering since I was bound to screw it up some how.
Jen, I'm totally intimidated by you. You'd think that putting Law and Order in your top six things you think about would make you tame, but it just makes me wonder if I should have it that high on my list and if people won't talk to me because I only keep it around number twenty. You have powers greater than you'll ever know.
09/18/03 1:21 PM
Oh, Jen, don't sell yourself short - I'm intimidated by you. But that could be because every time I read your personal blog, my husband looks over and says, "Hey, that blog-girl is hot."
09/18/03 2:28 PM
beware my camera. let us not forget the evil red vampire photo of jake from the last party. oh that's right...I'll be behind the decks tonight. nevermind...