Sometime last weekend, in what seems like another life, I stopped by Magnolia Village with the kids to spend a short time wandering through a closed-off McGraw Street, looking at hundreds of tons of cherry steel.  And by that I mean it was the annual Magnolia Village Car Show, filled with vintage autos and a smattering of newer high-priced greasemonkey masturbatory fodder.

My favorite?  The white 1959 Corvette shown in the third picture, which made me tingle in ways that are unfit for a family blog.  I could definitely see myself driving around in that, wrist on wheel, making the guys jealous and the ladies swoon.  A Prius, although much more sensible and eco-friendly, just doesn’t have the same effect as these classics.

Yesterday I trekked downtown to the August TechCafe (formerly Seattle Lunch 2.0) event, hosted this time by Fenwick & West on their beautiful 10th-story rooftop deck.  Along the way I ran into plenty of old friends and, as I tend to do at these types of networking events, made some new ones as well.

The theme of the afternoon was “demo”, and three startups were given about 10 minutes each to present their goodies to a crowd of about 60:  Zebigo, a real-time ride-matching service; CrowdMap, a real-time collaborative mind-mapping tool, and IncFlow, a tool for managing trade credit applications.  Although Zebigo stood out for its simplicity and polish, I was really interested in CrowdMap, for a couple reasons: first, I’m a big fan of mind-mapping, both conceptually and in practice; and second, some of my friends and acquaintances in the local Seattle tech scene are part of the team, including Jennifer Cabala, Brian Gershon and Jeremy Lightsmith.  Also on the team is Sasha Pesulka, a fellow Seattle 2.0 contributor, but this was the first time I’d met her in person.

Kudos to the Fenwick & West team for hosting and making all of us feel welcome; and kudos to Josh Maher of TechCafe for continuing to put on one of the top tech networking events in Seattle.

Last night was the tenth edition in what is unarguably the best geek event in Seattle, the Ignite! series.  Hey – don’t believe me?  The Ignite! crew just won some sort of award.  To summarize the format for those of you too new or too forgetful to the scene – bring about 15 speakers up on stage in front of about 700 raucous geeks, have them talk for exactly 5 minutes in front of their slideshow, which is exactly 20 sliides long and which advances every 15 seconds.

You get nerves.  You get laughter.  You get those squirmy uncomfortable silences as the slide show gets borked or the speaker goes all doe-eyed in front of the headlights.  Mostly you get entertained and informed.

Maybe it was just me, but the crowd last night seemed more restrained compared to previous Ignite events.  My hunch is that there were a lot of people attending Ignite for the first time – call them late adopters, to use a geek’s parlance.  The cover charge may have had something to do with it.  It may also just be a busy time of year and the normal attendee patterns are thrown off a bit.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s very nice to see new faces and meet some new people.  But the normal drunken naked debauchery was in short supply.  (ed: Drunken?  Naked? – OK, not naked, and maybe just buzzed).

There were some headline names that everyone in the Seattle geek scene probably knows, or knows of: Marcelo Calbucci, founder of Seattle 2.0; Andy Sack, founder of Founder’s Co-op; and Matt Harding, better known as Dancing Matt, and who is truly Internet Famous.  In keeping with the egalitarian theme of the event, however, the speakers that stole the show were:

• Mark Selander, presenting on the Commutapult, a utopian commuting scheme with a sure-thing 100% safety record.  Biggest LOLs of the night.
• Bradley Vickers, who gave a talk on his real-world experience rowing across the North Atlantic with four guys and not enough food.  Not quite the Shackleton experience, but very captivating.
• Dan Shapiro, former CEO of Seattle mobile tech company Ontela (which merged with PhotoBucket last year), who gave a funny and informative presentation called “Hacking Birth”.
• Vanessa Fox, one of the handful of people who might legitimately vie for the title of “Best Search Expert in the World” (ed: didn’t she just write a book? Yes!  Yes she did), gave a fast-paced and very diverting talk about search and Those Crazy People On the Internet.  I must, in good conscience, ding Vanessa several points for showing photos of a guy on ChatRoulette dressed in a very meowy cat costume.

Last night was one of those nights I learned a lot.  For example:

• You can put rose petals in ice cubes. (via Kim Prohaska)
• You can hail a taxi using the same dispatch system the cab companies use. (via Aimee Cardwell)
• There is a restaurant in Seattle called Nettletown, which coincidentally is located not 100 yards from where I sit as I write this, that serves foraged food. (via Michelle Broderick)
• A donation of one pint of blood can save three lives. (via Jeff Shuey)

Overall: Even a slightly subdued crowd can’t diminish the pure genius of the format or the enthusiasm that the speakers bring to the stage.  If you haven’t yet attended an Ignite event, plan on making the next one – they’re not going away soon.

p.s. What happened to the exclamation point?  I think it used to be Ignite! Seattle, but now it’s just Ignite Seattle.  As a result, my synapses fire slightly less frequently when I read the name.

p.p.s. PSA: do not – EVER – use your cell phone when you are standing at the urinal.  Just sayin’.

p.p.p.s. If you’re in even the slightest funk, go to an Ignite event.  It will expand your consciousness, connect you with the community, and make you laugh.  Guaranteed.

Blogging and online-ness has a certain ruthless temporality to it.  If you write about current events, there’s a strong – norm? – to write about things as close to when they happened as possible.  It’s the Twitterfication of the blogosphere, I suppose.  If you aren’t curating your life’s experience AS IT HAPPENS, then your content is suspect.

However, sometimes it can’t be helped.  Case in point: my (current) review of (last week’s) Cheap Wine and Poetry event at the Richard Hugo House here in Seattle.  It was the 5th year anniversary of CW&P, and, judging by the applause when asked, I was one of a sizable contingent who were attending CW&P for the first time.

Where to start?

Although I didn’t do a precise count, there were probably 120 people, very definitely standing room only.  I came in just as things were getting underway and found a spot along the back wall, near the restroom, the cross traffic, and, occasionally, near the drunk guy mumbling into his cell phone; he was of a peripatetic inclination, however, and made the rounds of the various rooms throughout the night.

The Hugo House Commons, for I assume that this area *must* be the Commons, is very much laid out in an old-house sort of way – a few rooms adjacent to each other, each opening towards a small stage.  But the layout has a charm to it, and I’d like to take another look at the place in the daylight.

Next: wine.  You can’t talk about Cheap Wine and Poetry without mentioning the wine, can you?  I enjoyed a decent Syrah, and, at only $1 per glass, I find nothing to complain about.  It’s a bargain at twice the price!  The only downer: to get wine, you had to sort of stand in front of people who were trying to see the show.  In a transparent attempt to live up to the Seattle ideal of passive, smug kindness, I limited myself to one glass, obtained at the start of the show.

However – however!  This was not the sort of show were one has to be drunk to enjoy it.  The readers, chosen in a “best of” selection process, were, on average, spectacular.  There were a couple misses – it WAS a poetry reading – but the hits were great.  Of note: Nicole Hardy, who read selections from her book about the Mudflap Girl.  She’s charismatic and witty and charming and has an undeniable physical stage presence.  I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her.  Also: Keri Healey, who read a short story that just blew my Smart Wools right off – funny and somber and disarmingly real.  Best pure prose of the evening, in my opinion.  John Burgess, who I don’t know and have never met but am sure I would like, did a series of readings accompanied by a background bassist.

There was another reading I liked, by a young woman whose name I didn’t catch and am too lazy to Google, but it was fresh and direct and slightly ribald and refreshingly long.  If you’re going to use the list as a structural device, make it a long list.  At one point – maybe about item 15 or so – the aforementioned drunkie asked “How many more” and this young woman deftly replied, “A lot – I’ve been dating a long time!” *zing*.

There were more readings, but none which particularly stood out.  Oh, and a very strange, Twilight-zone-ish set of intermission pieces where images of Hugo House writer and marketing guy Brian McGuigan were photoshopped into various scenes of gay domesticity.  Inventive, kooky, and, by the end, as the images moved from the living room to the bedroom, slightly discomforting. ROFL.

The evening ended, as all good evenings should, with a public spanking.

Thanks to all the Hugo House staff and volunteers for a great event.

The second annual Seattle 2.0 Awards were held last night at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on the beautiful downtown Seattle waterfront, and just like last year, the event was a big success.  I was there representing Seattle 2.0 in my capacity as a contributing blogger, and I heard I was one of over 400+ attendees.

What I liked:

Smiles. Does anyone have a better smile in the startup community than Glenn Kelman of Redfin?  He accepted two awards: one personally, for Best Entrepreneur Blog, and one on behalf of Redfin, which won Best Startup.  Glenn gave the keynote last year at the inaugural Seattle 2.0 Awards and although I’ve never met him personally, he appears to be the happiest guy on the planet.  Also: he’s shorter than he looks.

George Bernard Shaw. Speaking of keynotes, Jonathan Sposato of Picnik/Google gave the keynote this year and knocked my socks off.  He’s a really great speaker.  No notes!  He quoted George Bernard Shaw, who [paraphrasing] said that “90% of success is casting”, in keeping with a recurring theme of the night – award recipients making a big deal out of the quality of their supporting team.  I like to think Seattleites are especially nice that way.  Also: Cary Grant is cool.

Poker. My friend Bob Crimmins of iMedExchange hustled everybody by winning the inaugural Poker 2.0 tournament at the S2A awards.  I hope it’s continued next year.  I also hope Bob wins again next year, because everybody loves a champion.  Plus, reading the bitchy tweets of the losers will be hilarious.

Diversity. Unlike last year, when it seemed like Picnik ran away with everything, there was a broad set of winners and nobody could be considered to have swept the field.   I think that’s a good thing.  On the other hand, maybe last year’s Picnik win was prescient, what with Picnik getting acquired by Google for a billion dollars or whatever it was.

Leadership. It’s obvious that Seattle 2.0 is in great hands with the addition of Jennifer Cabala as CEO.  She managed the proceedings very well and obviously put a lot of effort into making the night a success.

What could be improved:

Audio. Multiple complaints of poor audio in the back, and the acoustics in Bell Harbor were a little weird.  The gabfest on the demo floor, which was immediately adjacent to the seating for the awards ceremony, didn’t help.

Demo Partners. Was it just me, or did the lineup of demo providers seem a little thin?  I stay fairly close to the community and I don’t think any of the top 100 companies on the Seattle Startup Index were demoing.

Retrospectives. It would be nice to have a little PowerPoint presentation (did I just write that? Gah!) showing key events in the Seattle startup scene from the past year – major acquisitions, funding announcements, new companies, IPOs (what’s that?), etc.  Also, the “Best Startup” category is sort of like “Best Picture” at the Academy Awards, so it would have been nice to have a slide per company describing what they do.  Maybe video!  Just think how many more awards Redfin might have won had Glenn Kelman delivered a video clip to all the voters extolling the smiley-ness of the Redfin corporate culture.

Loved the night.  Loved reconnecting with friends new and old, and I love the Seattle startup community.  See you at the next event!

Randy Stewart, a big wheel down at the Ignite! Seattle cracker factory, sent out this call for submissions for the next Ignite! Seattle event, scheduled for June 14th:

The next Ignite Seattle is coming up on June 14th and if you’d like to speak at the event, submissions are due by this Friday, May 14th.  We usually get around 700 of Seattle’s finest geeks of all stripes at the event and we’d love to have folks from STS submit talks.

If you haven’t been to an Ignite Seattle before, we usually have ~16 speakers give talks in a broad range of geek topics.  The talks are 5 minutes long and the 20 slides auto-advance every 15 seconds.

You can submit your talk here – http://www.igniteseattle.com/submit-talk/

Ignite! is one of the best geek events in Seattle.  I’ll be there – hope to see you there too!

Axios Law has been my intellectual property legal firm of choice for a couple years now, and their founder (and my friend), Adam Philipp, announced a name change / rebranding today: excerpts below.

I am thrilled to formally announce that AXIOS Law has become ÆON Law!

As we evolved, our clients have increasingly turned to us to meet their intellectual property strategy and acquisition needs. As a result, we have focused on shepherding the products of our clients’ minds from nascent ideas into valuable IP assets. In keeping with this focus, we have adopted “ÆON” (Plato’s term for the “world of eternal ideas”) as the firm’s new name.

Adam and his partners and staff have been huge supporters of the local startup community in Seattle for as long as I’ve known them.  If you have any IP needs or questions, give them a shout – they’re top-notch.

http://www.aeonlaw.com
(206) 217-2200

I got a note from Kate Gavigan a couple days ago about an upcoming writing class that she’s helping put on, and thought I’d pass it along – you might be interested!  I’m unfortunately too busy, but we’re lucky to live in such a thriving literary community.

The class is based on Julia Cameron’s bestselling book The Artist’s Way, which I have owned and loved forever.

It will be held Monday evenings in Wallingford; the first class is on May 10th and the series runs through August 2nd.  Full details can be found on the Facebook event page for the class, or you can contact Kate via Twitter at @ArtistsWayGirl or via e-mail at kmgavigan at gmail dot com.

From the event page:

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is an international bestseller on the subject of creativity. This book and workshop can be an incredibly useful resource to tap into your creative side, which can benefit you professionally and personally. The class will take students through the 12 chapters with an emphasis on the accompanying chapter exercises.

Keep writing!

Saw this sign posted at Irwin’s at the Hydro House.

200,000 books?  For a DOLLAR EACH? Are you fucking kidding me? I’m giddy with anticipation.  Rush Limbaugh would have less fun at an OxyContin convention. Is “wordboner” a word?  Cause if not, I’m adding it to Urban Dictionary.

Seattle Public Library Spring Book Sale
Magnuson Park, Building #30 and the Brig
April 17th, 9 AM – 5 PM
April 18th, 11 AM – 4 PM

See you there!

Tonight’s e-mail brought a reminder from Gaurav about the Seattle Tech Startups meeting next Wednesday, March 10th, at the Douglas Forum at the Executive Education Center at the UW Business School.

Michael Miller from Cloundant (YC S08) will be on hand to discuss CouchDB and their commercial offering. We’ll also have Eric Peters from Frugal Mechanic (Founders Co-op) to talk about Cassandra. We’re going to have one more speaker and would ideally like it to be someone who can discuss MongoDB. The sponsor behind MongoDB, 10Gen, is helping us find a speaker in Seattle in time for the meeting, but if you know someone who could fit the bill, please drop us a note.

The topic is relevant, timely, and should be of interest to a lot of geeky Seattleites.  I’ve played around in the last year with non-relational cloud offerings from Microsoft and Amazon and also had a geek crush for a long time on Google’s BigTable technology.  While I’m not convinced of the universal applicability of non-relational databases, I think that they definitely have a place in the massively-scalable technology environment.  And the tooling and support infrastructure has grown leaps and bounds in the last year or two, to the point where working with them is no longer a huge pain.

Hope to see you there!