November 5: The Austin Bleet-Up

bleet-up \blEEt uh-p\ noun:

1. Combination of terms "blog" and "meet-up" with etymological roots in similar but not identical event phrasing, "tweet-up."

2. A gathering or party between bloggers and blog-readers, designed to foster physical interaction between social media types away (momentarily) from computer screens. May or may not involve consumption of alcoholic beverages.

THAT'S RIGHT. On November 5, we're having our second official Austin Bleet-Up! It's so official that we have, like, sponsors and stuff!!

Alright, so when we (meaning Ultra8201, Austinist, AustinBloggers.org, and I) threw our first Austin Bleet-Up at TRIO, we deliberately targeted the local blogging community so we could all get to know each other in person. It was half-networking, half-who-the-hell-writes-these-damn-Austin-blogs?-type-inquiry. For example, at the event, I met people who:

A) Thought I was a dude.
B) Thought "R." (my husband) was my cat.

Until, that is, they met me! And we had a good chuckle as I explained that Claudia is my cat, not R., and that I'm a girl, silly! (Sidenote: Not the first time people thought I was a dude. A few years ago, I applied for a job at a local magazine in California. Before the interview, the editors read the name "Tolly Moseley" on my application and were certain, just certain, that I was a man. Specifically, a big black man).

Anyway, as The Michael pointed out in his post about the event, "I read you!" was a commonly overheard remark at The Bleet-Up between writers and their readers. Which, if you are a blogger, is downright thrilling. No need to be too cool about it. It's totally awesome to meet one of your readers.

So the organizing Bleet-Up body decided to do it again, but bigger. And, we wanted to target not only bloggers, but all of you wonderful blog readers in Austin, too. Like you there reading this very computer screen. The thinking was: "it'd be so supercool if bands and managers could meet music bloggers, restaurant and food-producing people could meet food bloggers, and fashion designers meet fashion bloggers and ETCETERA!" (And it really was triumphant, the way we said 'etc.,' begging the question - if it's not that long, why do we always abbreviate that one word? Especially when the English language contains many lengthier and clumsier items, surely? The floor is open.)

Back to business. The second Austin Bleet-Up goes down early next month, and a magical JPEG with all of the info will soon be provided to you. But for right now, you can expect...

-Mohawk.
-An evening start-time.
-An edible presence.
-A drinkable (<--word?) presence.
-Some fashionable elements.
-Cory Ryan's photo booth.
-6 (!) bands. And a DJ!

And of course, yours truly will be there.

She is not a big, black man, but she hopes you'll come anyway.

Mark your calendars, won't you?