Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 11:22:05 -0800 (PST) From: Frank Marquardt Subject: Report from Webzine98, Part the Second To: Scott Rettberg I attended this so-called “conference.” It cost me five bucks. (www.prehensile.com/does/bestof.htm). I overslept which made me late. I missed R.U. Sirius (www.the-revolution.org), but I have a feeling if he had been on the stage I would have done something untoward, like rushed him and made a grab for his tongue, which I would have fed to my dog. Nobody bought me a beer. I put our URL up and some guy I don’t know who scrolled through it and said this is neat and we chatted about something, I don’t know what, he was balding like me but he had much longer hair, like he hadn’t had it cut since 1997. Mostly I remained Unknown. I asked the bartender how was her night and it took three tries to understand that she was saying, brilliant. There was food upstairs, which I did not eat. Nobody scratched my back. When I first came in, a woman in an sexy-looking outfit was speaking stridently about something or other revolutionary about the Web which sounded prelapsarian or irrelevant, your choice (www.kvetch.com). While I was there, various techno “luminaries” (www.awaken.com) sat on a stage, surrounded by musical instruments, and called up URLs on a laptop. I wished the band would come in. I took mental notes to direct your attention to www.zing.com and www.butt.com which both seemed interesting enough. I left as soon as I realized I had no real strong desire to talk to anybody. I walked passed Nate’s BBQ (www.bbq.com) on my way home and stopped in at the Shotwell, my neighborhood bar, or one of them, and ran into Dina and Terri and Paul (please see www.drue.com), three people I don’t really know. Nevertheless, I joined them for a beer and we discussed biostatistics and urban planning. Mentally, I am ready to go play football. I am ready to “bust some ass” or “kick some butt,” I’m not sure which. It turns out that www.butt.com is an adult site. You can, however, find information about the Spice Girls at www.bust.com.