This past Wednesday was our fourth New York Kossak meetup and this time we met at KGB Lounge in the East Village.
One of the best parts of these meetups is getting to know the multi-dimensional people that exist behind all those clever screen names. Though I write for a living, I confess that is difficult to describe how good it feels to connect to a WIDE array of people who are all doing their part to change the horrible direction our country has been heading in under this administration, and I encourage you to intend local meetups in your city and if they don't exist, start one up!
Some of the conversations I participated in including talk about: whether or not Markos really is just another blogger, Freddy Ferrer's campaign, what Armando is like in real life (he was at the June meetup), getting your ass kicked as a teen for being either gay or a nerd, nature vs. nurture, whether or not autism is caused by vaccinations and a whole bunch of stuff I can't remember--I blame the beers!
First off, big big shout-out to the wonderfully opinionated and all-around beautiful Liza, who heads up
CultureKitchen and
DailyGotham She added plenty of flavor to the event by inviting NYC candidate for public advocate
Andrew Rasiej. I didn't get a chance to chat with him one-on-one, but plenty of other attendees did, and I hope that they take a minute to post here and let's us all know what their impressions of him were.
Speaking of Liza, I hope you all got to see her epic response to a recent NARAL conference call, which she participated on and wasn't thrilled with.
The other poster I wanted to mention is Lucid. Next weekend his band, System Noise, is plaing at a bar in Williamsburg and for all you music lovers out there, I think it's worthy of a check out. I've been trying to make out to one of his shows for a while, and I am definitely gonna go to this one. If you visit their Web site, you'll find all the details.
And now for the pictures (I wasn't in such a documenting mood this time, but Ask was and he said he'd throw up his pics when I put up the diary.)
^^Here's Andrew--like I said, I don't know much about him, but he gets big props for coming out and meeting with us. Liza says he's super net-savvy, which I think bodes well for his future in politics.
^^Ask: possible one of the coolest guys on the planet. Name a country--and there's a good chance he's been there. Twice.
^^A Kossak newbie (I can't remember his screen name, but he's super nice and I hope he forgives me for making fun of his sneakers), Liza and Ask.
^^That's JBilger in the baseball cap. He's been taking a pounding on a local city blog whose members are mostly conservative. Things took a turn for the MUCH worse when one of the members followed him over here, found one of his exchanges with me and cut and pasted it over there. He's aint no wimp though so he's still there doing his thing despite being called every name in the book. The woman to his left is a lurker and also Ask's girl (Sorry--I know I just broke a lot of Kossak hearts.)
And that's all folks. We do have plans to meet again in September. Currently there are tentative plans to meet in a poster's home, but that is FAR from finalized.
If you are reading this and thinking, "Hey--how come nobody told me??? I wanted to go!!" then email me at JaneKnowles@gmail.com and I will add you to the growing list of NYC Kossaks and we'll get ya next time!