Thursday, June 5, 2008

A Penchant For Duggery


Diggnation
Originally uploaded by Critical Todd

Now that I've had time to reflect (and sleep), I feel strong enough to delve into the maelstrom that was the meet last night.

First of all, there was a massive crowd for the show. I heard people had been lining up since early in the afternoon and the line, when I finally deigned to join it, stretched three-quarters of the way around the entire block. It was mostly youngish men with a sprinkling of females. What was most surprising is the extent to which guys had traveled to get here: Rhode Island, D.C., and beyond. It really was a rock concert-like atmosphere.

Inside Studio B, the sea of people swelled around the raised stage in pregnant anticipation for the Gods to emerge.

A bit of exposition: I do not know much about Diggnation or anything else about Revision 3. I don't watch the podcast (though I might try it now) and, while I enjoyed while it lasted, that was a long time ago. Consequently, as the crowd through out and responded to in-joke after in-joke, I was mostly confused.

After a short intro, put on a magic show. He ate fire (meh), hammered a nail into his face (not bad), passed a nail through from one eye to the other and from his eye to his mouth (somewhat disgusting), and performed a hand-puppet called "Mr. Happy Pants" (funny). It was a decent act. He also gave away copies of his book, Cheats, Cons, Swindles, & Tricks.

By this point, the crowd had coalesced into a slush of humanity. It was also getting warm, very warm.

After various false starts, the actual Diggnation crew got going. Judging from the reactions from the crowd, these guys really are rock stars, internet nerd rock stars, but stars nonetheless. People were going batshit for them. Literally batshit.

After listening to the banter for a bit- funny stuff- I was ready to go. I had come, I had seen, I had conquered. So I wept, sweat dripping into my eyes, and left.

I had come to the event with friend Dave who was a Diggnation fan and who had it much worse in the going than I. He had come direct from work in a suit. I don't know how he bore it. He's also somewhat shorter than I and so had real trouble seeing anything going on. It didn't help that a tall Brit stepped right in front of him just as the main event was starting.

For me, it was interesting to see. I'll check out the podcast now (knowing I'll never be on it since the only digg I get is from me- cue the mournful tune from the world's smallest internet violin) and I'm now interested to see what a regular Digg meet is like, without the vast press of humanity.

Having gone, I can say I took part in . I can say this with pride. I can say this knowing I had no idea it was Internet Week 2008. But I was there. I was there. Can you digg it? Yes, you can.