Drinking With Liberals

So last night I got to do something I have been meaning to do for well over a year. I went to the Montlake Ale House in Seattle for an edition of Drinking Liberally, a collection of progressively minded individuals plus alcohol. I've been seeing the announcements for it on Seattle major league progressive blog, Horse's Ass for a long time, but Tuesday is Tai Chi nights, and while I may never master the kicks necessary for the chen form, I know I am a better person for going there instead of to a bar. But Tai Chi is on hiatus while our sifu is visiting family in China, so I had a free evening.

So I get there and it is a nice place, with a small crowd at the start, Mariners on the flatscreen, and a couple guys with laptops at the bar. One of them looked a little like Ed Greenwood, so I figured I must be in the right place. I introduced myself and the gentleman turned out to be Darryl from Hominid Views, who had just published this excellent interview with Darcy Burner about her experience in the Civilian Air Patrol as a young woman. Darryl was very kind to the noob (that would be me), and he pointed out the other regulars whose blogs I read, including Lynn from Evergreen Politics, Mike from Blatherwatch, which covers local radio, one of the guys from NW Progressive Blog, and the ascerbic and uncensored Carl Ballard, who has just returned to blogging with Eff'n Unsound. Yeah, yeah, I know, it doesn't matter to you, but I've been reading these guys for a while, so it was Comic Book Creator fandom all over the room. Goldy, who runs Horses' Ass and is sort of the group's Jack Kirby, came in late, so I didn't get to meet him until the end of the evening.

The place filled up and the more heavyweight political bloggers moved to the back of the bar to do a podcast (headphones, and the bar noise loud enough to reduce any attempts at evesdropping moot), so I ended up chatting with the rest of the gang at the bar. And what was really cool was that at no time of the evening was I author Jeff or designer Jeff. I was 8th District Jeff talking with Darryl and Presbyterian Jeff talking with a parole officer about religion and root causes and Blogger Jeff talking with a insurance agent about the perils of blogging and even Engineer Jeff (a part of me that I haven't used for years) talking to very nice gentleman who might have the solution to the viaduct mess (more on him later). It was actually a vacation from what I've been doing, and greatly appreciated. I did a lot of listening, as well, and the Ale House was pretty cool.

And at the end of the evening, I hunted down Darryl to thank him, and then introduced myself to Goldy, going all Big Name Fandom on him. He was very pleasant despite my interuption, and said he hoped I'd come back. And I probably will.

More later,