I went to this last night not only because Moe, an editor for the blog I work for, was speaking, but also because I love hearing semi-famous writers wax endlessly about the internet all while subtly congratulating themselves for the connections they have drawn between the internet and fashionable late-’90s schools of philosophy. Also, I actually enjoy n+1. Like, actually.
So, after work, I changed out of my grody mom shorts and threw on a dress that was badly in need of a handwashing and then dragged my sniffling boyfriend to the outer-edge of Chelsea for some good ol’ panelin’. I was really surprised at how young the crowd was, I felt like I had accidentally waddled into a BAM showing of Godard’s Masculin, Feminin or a Belle and Sebastian concert at McCarren Park. Let’s just say, there were a lot of girls with heidi braids. And ironic tote bags. Lots of them.
At one point, during the 3 hour Q & A session, a shaky girl clutching an obviously fake Louis Vuitton baguette called the panelists old. Before that, another girl in a sundress stood up and asked everyone who worked “on the internet” to raise their hands for absolutely no reason other than to point out that she did, in fact, work in the internet (so wonderful, I know! isn’t it great to not shower for three days and forget to eat proper meals?). At another point a woman showed everyone her Kindle, that Amazon reader thing, which was HUGE!
Afterwards Ben and I went to the Corner Bistro which was a mistake. We go there sometimes on Sunday afternoon when the crowd is much different (mostly old men and tourists) from the after-work dudebrahs and loud women we encountered there. Some girl sat next to us that I swear to God was in a reality TV show at some point in her life. I recognized her immediately, but I’m not sure from what, and she talked in that loud look-at-me way that high school drama kids and former television contestants talk. She was also exactly how I imagine Britney Spears would act in real life: she kept flinging things around, shaking around in a sundress while bra-less, gathering her hair up in a top-o-th’-head annoying girl bun, and asking if she could “make requests” to the bar’s jukebox.
I know this girl must be some former child star so I am putting up a rendition I made of her in faux-MS paint came-with-the-scanner program in hopes that someone might recognize her.
I don’t really know the connection between a high-brow discussion of the internet in our current culture and my encounter with a possibly minor famous tv star (but most likely some majorly annoying girl) but I’m sure there is one. If I wasn’t in the middle of posting pictures of celebrities caught at moments where they look their most awkward I would be able to draw the connection.
Done.
