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What Is In?
It's 7pm in San Francisco's SOMA district. SOMA's many things -- revitalized hipster district, home of artists, and the best place to buy a homeless guy a slice while he watches your car. But right now it's Be-In central. A friendly face waves me to a parking spot and I, as will be hundred of others in a matter of moments, am in. Or am I? Pushing through a crowd to make my way into the Transmission Theater for the 8th Annual Digital Be-In, a bouncer wants to know: "How did you get in." But I am in. I AM In. And for now, at the 8th Annual Digital Be-In, that's all that matters.
Inside the Transmission Theater, the pre-Be-In organizing is a swarm of activity; it's all confusion, Calistoga and Rolling Rock as the busy be-in workers shuffle around getting Internet access secured and preliminary shots of the beings uploaded to the live Web site. It's clear that while the masses may still be huddling outside until the curtain is drawn, no one is a passive observe at the Be-In. "Do you think there was networking at the Be-In in the '60s," wonders a twentysomething at her first Be-In, digital or otherwise? It's a good question, the answer which is no doubt "yes," even if that meant a spot on the Bus, rather than a multi-media project. and that, it's clear, is okay.
The hysterical uncertainty alive in the Transmission Theater tonight owes some sort of special debt to the original recipe, though just what that is yet to be determined. From 7pm till 2am, you can bet your sweet modem that more than a few folks will have more than a few ideas.
While I ponder that, I have more than a few distractions. A man is selling chi pants and I'd like to know what they are: "They're like jeans only more comfortable states a chi-pants buyer, clearly won over by the attractive cotton product. "Yea," chimes in a girl near-by, unprompted, though with chi pants on the mind, "they have more room for those middle-aged butts."
As a crowd circles 'round a cyborg-ish robot in a wheelchair it seems as if the people are coming and the Be-In has began. "What's that thing run," someone wonders aloud, passively accosting the man with the remote who's ruling the floor. "Don't worry about it," he replies.
Don't worry is right. The Be-In has began.
-- Larry "Mystic Pizza" Smith
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