Bloggers in physical space

I've now met two "local" bloggers in physical space (as opposed to cyberspace). David Mutton, of Silly Mid-Off, for the last day of the Ashes, and on Sunday, Homer, to catch the end of the second one-day international (afterwards, we ate some very good South Indian food in Manhattan, washed down with an excellent Pinot Grigio!). These sorts of meetings are a time-honoured tradition on the net; no matter how rich the online interaction, the hankering for a face-to-face, sit-down-and-shoot-the-breeze meeting never quite goes away. As a veteran of the chatterspace that is the net, I've had these sorts of encounters before: in the net.gatherings of the old Grateful Dead fans group rec.music.gdead, and with folks from the rec.sport.cricket group.

The putting-faces-to-names aspect of these meetings is interesting of course, but in the case of cricket, one of the distinct pleasures is being able to watch a cricket game in company, and to able to talk about it in real-time. The cricket conversation becomes quite free-flowing, moving easily from topic to topic, and often evokes digressions and asides that don't happen so easily online. And of course, one finds out that there is more to life than cricket: rarely does a conversation remain confined to the game!

In the context of cricket, these meetings are good reminders of the community that cricket can create (one put into particularly sharp focus recently because of the sad news of Amy S' passing away). And its worth remembering that in the context of a conversation space (the net) than can too often degenerate into a flame-fest (re: the comments spaces of many blogs, including mine on Cricinfo where I've been startled by some of the hostility on display - but more on that later).

PS: The venue when I met David was Eight Mile Creek, an Australian bar in Nolita that, while quite small, features a nice space for watching cricket; when I met Homer, we met at The Australian, a bar in mid-town that is definitely geared toward the sports-watching experience. I'm particularly glad to have discovered the Australian, as its location works for me in several regards and as it looks like they show a lot of Aussie Rules and rugby as well.