canadian headhunter

Toronto Bloggers Meet

Last night, the great Newfoundland blogger, Damian Penny of Daimnation, was in town and some of his fans arranged a meeting of Toronto bloggers at the Drake Hotel. It's a nice place and very popular. The large lounge was completely crowded by the time I got there about 8:15 and started wandering around trying to identify people I'd never met.

I was ready to give up when, through a window in the lobby, I noticed two men and two women standing out on the street carrying books to a bar on a Saturday night. A dead give-a-way I thought but, still, I can be rather shy so I just went over and stood by them hoping to catch some hints as to who they were from their conversation. I didn't get any hints but it actually was Damian and Kathy Shaidle (Relapsed Catholic) and two fans. The meeting eventually took place in the cafe next to the lounge, (there's also a large dining room) and while the cafe promised to be much quieter than the big lounge bar I could often barely make out what the people next to me were saying.

You know, sometimes, fantasy enters reality and it's not as magical as you'd think. It just becomes more real. Online, people are constantly spouting off in interesting ways but in a group of strangers in a noisy bar, I found that, quite typically, I often had little to say and that the conversation was uneven. Debbye from Being American in T.O. had to put up with sitting next to me. Also in my vicinity were Ghost of a Flea, Angua, Mark Wickens and Spinkiller. Next to them were Accordion Guy, David Janes and Rick McGinnis. And, on the other side of me was Michal of tonecluster.

With names like these, you can imagine the introductions. It was like a meeting of super-heroes. "Green Lantern meet The Flash." Or, perhaps, more like "Captain Amazing meet The Shoveler."

Finally, I'll note that this was billed as a Poliblogger Bash and I was the only business blogger there. The only business talk I had was with Spinkiller, an ex-punk who is a very energetic, entrepreneurial kind of guy (who still looks pretty tough even if he has given-up his out-to-there spiky mohawk).

And, oh yeah, Damian expected me to be 21-years-old. Not a compliment considering that he only knows me via my comments on his blog. But, hey, I still like him anyway. And hope to meet everyone again.