JAFD provides us with proof of life photos from the NYC Meetup on Sunday!
JAFD, NYCMT, and (initial-free) Carlo Graziani attended. It seems like this was our first BJ Meetup since the pandemic began. Or have I forgotten one?
The pictures of the Tir Na Nog were taken from steps of Old Post Office.
The restaurant did have outdoor seating, but the weather – 50’s and rain, though it was gradually clearing, sun out when I got home – and traffic noise and exhaust made eating /al fresco /undesirable.
From the photos, I will assume that a good time was had by all, but maybe they will share details in the comments.
I will let you guys self-identify in the photos, if you wish.
WaterGirl
I was saving the meetup proof of life post for this evening, but it looks to be pretty quiet here this afternoon so I figured this was a good time.
Maybe the 3 attendees will come by to tell us all about the meetup.
the pollyanna from hell
We had one in Denver, and I think one or more elsewhere.
West of the Rockies
Well, the fellow on the right has a name tag marked JAFD.
zhena gogolia
I hope it was fun. I think Carlo flew from Chicago just for this? That’s dedication.
Baud
@West of the Rockies:
That could mean anything.
Carlo Graziani
It was a fun chat, and pretty good beer too. Tir Na Nog has its own house ale, which is actually not bad.
I would be the guy in the middle, holding the table down for some reason.
zhena gogolia
@Carlo Graziani: Did you solve the world’s problems?
Carlo Graziani
We actually ought to do one of these in Chicago at some point.
Carlo Graziani
@zhena gogolia: We might have created a few.
Baud
@Carlo Graziani: A true Balloon Juice meetup.
CaseyL
Hi, guys! Always nice to have faces to go with the nyms :)
We had an informal not-a-meetup meetup in Seattle a few weeks ago (me, Yutsano, and two lurkers, KA and Bill). It was great fun.
Deputinize Asia from Shanghai to St Petersburg, fka Le Comte, etc
On a hilarious note,CPAC is going to have its big hootenanny next month in Hungary, featuring Orban as a keynote speaker.
Carlo Graziani
At this sort of scale — actually, up to, say, 15 people — I could host a meetup in Chicago. I have a small back yard.
With a pizza oven.
And a 4-foot wide charcoal grill that I shovel coals into from the pizza oven.
And I know how to use both.
Just sayin’.
Carlo Graziani
@Deputinize Asia from Shanghai to St Petersburg, fka Le Comte, etc:
That’s got to be a The Onion headline.
Right?
WaterGirl
@Deputinize Asia from Shanghai to St Petersburg, fka Le Comte, etc: For real?
Is Putin invited?
sdhays
@Deputinize Asia from Shanghai to St Petersburg, fka Le Comte, etc: They must have booked early. There are fire-sale prices on venues in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
japa21
@Carlo Graziani: Whereabouts in Chicago area? There are a lot of us all over the place.
zhena gogolia
Just stumbled onto this mildly interesting interview with Khodorkovsky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypBI2ovxP8
The Moar You Know
@Deputinize Asia from Shanghai to St Petersburg, fka Le Comte, etc: I just saw that Orban managed to get an outright majority in his parliament in their last elections. I formerly thought he was some kind of electoral outlier, but the top three parties in Hungary are (by identification):
Nationalist conservatives (Firenze, Orban’s party)
Christian conservatives
“Hard-right” conservatives
Maybe 20% of the electorate votes in any way liberal. I humbly suggest that all right-wing America could move there, sounds like they’d love it.
CPAC might have a raw time there. For all his love of fascism, Orban is scared shitless of Putin’s war in Ukraine and is very much afraid he might be next.
JoyceH
@Deputinize Asia from Shanghai to St Petersburg, fka Le Comte, etc:
SERIOUSLY? Not a joke, the Onion, or April Fools? Because besides being a smidge too On The Nose, having CPAC in Hungary ought to also be fairly expensive for attendees.
JoyceH
@JoyceH: (Just googled – it’s a real thing. Whew.)
Carlo Graziani
@japa21: Hyde Park.
The Up and Up
@CaseyL: That’s the name … I was thinking it was Sally L … anyways the Green Balloon you brought finally lost it’s helium. I had made an impromptu Balloon Juice group sign that could be displayed on the table.
CaseyL
@The Up and Up: The one with a picture of Cole? That was hilarious, and I liked it a lot. But the balloon is easier to see, particularly from a distance. Keep the sign to put on the table when we’ve all arrived: our own potable BlogFather ?
Anyway
@JoyceH:
C’mon – the RW has so many sugar daddies, sure they’ll get their travel comped …
JAFD
@Baud: It could mean anything, but it does mean something.
JAFD
@CaseyL: Had a circle of green construction paper with stand. Was on table, under camera’s view. But since we were at window table on first floor (balcony closed till dinner), could see anyone coming in, going past. Visitor from Galway came by, wanted to know where he could pick up some groceries.
MagdaInBlack
@Carlo Graziani: Hmmm. I’m very fond of Hyde Park. And pizza…….
Bill Arnold
@JoyceH:
Yes. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-conservative-conference-with-hungarys-hardline-leader-reflects-republican-2022-04-05/
Sept 2021 there was CPAC Brasil.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/what-is-cpac-doing-in-brazil
I wonder if they’ll have the nerve sufficient principled confidence to do a CPAC Russia. :-) I’m sure they’re talking/joking about it.
JAFD
A good time was had by all at the meetup. Meself, did more listening than talking. NYCMT had done some studies of Russia, and suggested some books for background reading. Mayhaps he might pass his recommendations on to the rest of us jackals (hint, hint, hint)
BTW, the 80th annual World Science Fiction Convention will be in Chicago, this year, Sept 1-5. http://www.chicon.org
It may be possible to organize a BJ meetup near but in the convention site for those jackals who are not convention members.
Not being familiar with Chicago, I’m just running this up the flagpole, letting people in the area decide how to salute.
Anyway, if you’re thinking of attending, membership rates go up May 1st.
So, have a happy Easter / Passover / Ramadan / whatever you’re celebrating, and we hope to see you at the next Gotham-area gathering!
jonas
Can you imagine the howls of indignation and outrage on the right if Netroots Nation or some other progressive org had its annual convention with Raoul Castro in Havana or Maduro in Venezuela? JFC, these loons never got over losing Franco and Pinochet.
Albatrossity
I will toast you virtually from the other Manhattan, aka “The Little Apple”. here in Kansas!
Ivan X
Man I wish I’d been there.
jnfr
Actual live people! That’s so nice to see.
O. Felix Culpa
@MagdaInBlack: Ms. O and I will be in Chicago mid-July, visiting old friends and family. (I lived in West Loop before moving to NM, but Hyde Park was my first abode in Chicago.)
NYCMT
Oh! I was only logging in just now. Very pleasant to spend a Sunday afternoon exfoliating with a Guinness and two very nice Juicers JAFD and Carlo Graziani! I will say it was the literal first time I have been indoors in a bar since, hrrm, since two years four weeks ago, which was the last time I had a Koestritzer from our local Forest Hills tap. And lord God almighty I have missed it.
When I did my time in the Soviet Studies mines in the nineties, long after the Cold War’s diminuendo withered them into husks of their 1970s glory, I was guided by, among others, Valerie Bunce, Peter Holquist, and Lev Kopelev’s son-in-law Pavel Litvinov (who was my high school physics teacher) and somewhere around here I have the yellowed seminar syllabi and spiral bound notebooks of well-congealed USSR a la mode.
Perhaps I will whip something together?
opiejeanne
@Carlo Graziani: We will be in Chicago in early May for a couple of days.