Just returned from the BlogNashville events. There are later parties but I am bushed. Crazy day. I got home from the Blogging and Journalism discussion last night. I introduced myself to Allen Forkum (we’d corresponded via email before) when waiting to introduce myself to Glenn Reynolds. Cox & Forkum simply rule. I’m a huge admirer of their cartoons.

I introduced myself to Glenn with whom I’d also corresponded and sent copies of the Popshot print zine back in the day. Glenn immediately remembered the Popshot name and even said, “Oh, I’ve read your book” which was a nice rush. I sensed that maybe he expected more conversation from me, but having learned my lesson with Marky Ramone, I just wanted to say hello and politely leave the man alone.

Got home, ate late, didn’t go down to the welcoming party for the conference. Crawled into bed around midnight. Was still awake at one. My girlfriend was downstairs working on a collage for a bachelorette party she’s throwing tonight. Finally got to sleep and woke up five hours later. First thing I notice when I wander out of bed is a huge poster board with gay pornography all over it.

She had intercut pictures of her marrying friend with pictures of naked, hairless (from the neck down) men. The poster was lying on my computer. I’m sure there’s some insight to be had on how women tease their marrying friends with pictures of naked homosexuals while men simply go get strippers to rub on them during their respective bachelor(ette) evenings. But I’m too tired to make such an analysis.

Got a slow start to the day mostly because Saturday morning TV sucks and I had to throw in a Shania Twain DVD to watch during breakfast but I got so distracted with Shania that I ran late. She’s not just a pretty face.

Got to Belmont and went to the wrong building. Eventually caught the tail end of the welcoming remarks.

Went to the session on making money which was semi-good for me. My observation is there seems to be too much emphasis on the big payoff. Like there will be some threshold that blogging hits before big business starts advertising for tens of thousands of dollars. Whatever. I’d just like a simple plan for getting the dive bar down the street to buy a $10/month ad on NashvilleZine.

Talked to Allen Forkum a bit about self-publishing. They self-published their books in different ways. Introduced myself to John Cox, the bigger, louder half of the duo (a reference that those who get will appreciate). He was just as friendly as Allen. Met Don Mooradian from the City Paper.

Don, John and I headed over to Bongo Java to chat.

Then, I went home. I was bushed. Ate some lunch and re-energized a little bit and then headed back. Ran into Ben Cunningham and Blake Wylie. I’d designed Blake’s blog but never actually met him. We walked into the Protecting Bloggers discussion.

It was an interesting discussion but again, not quite the nuts and bolts I’d hoped for. Perhaps an idea for a future conference would be to have big overview discussion sessions and also gritty how-to sessions for those of us who, for example, just don’t want to be sued.

After that, the final session of the day, there was a wrap-up. Met several people afterwards. Then headed to PM Cafe with Cox & Forkum and Chris Muir. Ran into Sean Hackbarth at PM (he was with another table of conference goers). Sean was an early–and I do mean early–supporter of Popshot Magazine. In fact, I think he’s the only person ever to have donated to the site via PayPal. It was really great to meet him.

Shot the shit with Chris Muir, John and Allen and a few others who came and went. Felt like a real big shot with those guys. They’re nice as hell and I’m a tremendous fan. John did caricatures of everyone at the table. Even a couple of me. When I get scans of them, I’ll probably redesign this site to feature one as the title graphic. He even offered to do some art for Popshot. And that was before the Wild Turkey. We ended up staying at PM through dinner and more drinks. Fantastic time.

The conference delivered what I expected in terms of the sessions. I knew going in that there wasn’t going to be a lot that would interest me in real that’s what I’m doing right now terms. But meeting the people I did and getting to know them was a better time than the conference could ever be.

I will leave you with this, perhaps chilling, thought: Delta Burke has a great rack.

(She was in some TV movie that was on while I ate lunch. Is she still married to Major Dad?)