From my journal:
... it was starting to feel a lot like summer (by which I perhaps mean that it was starting to feel a lot like spring): writers' festival shows Sat/Sun with Cassie in the sunlit surrounds of the Malthouse.
"Fun on Grub Street" - Saturday, early evening - was Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida talking about McSweeney's. Both very likeable (in Eggers' case, more so than I'd really expected) and adept with the quasi-interview/discussion format (Louise Swinn playing interlocutor), though I'd heard/read some of the stories before (eg, the one about DE being deceived into believing that photos of houses being airlifted were 'real' and the origin story for McSweeney's initially choosing Icelandic printer). It was nice to see that they really are in love with what they're doing, and for the right reasons, and the sessions provided a bit of insight into the phenomenon that is McSweeney's (and its sundry associated 'movements'/trends) as well as reminding me of just what a phenomenon that whole thing really is, and how ubiquituous its many strands have become, at least in my personal network/framework/whatever. Also, I hadn't realised that DE could probably be described as a bit of a dish!
"This just in from cyberspace" - Sunday afternoon - was a panel of four (Rachel Hills; Emma Dawson; Nick Moraitis of GetUp! fame; and Cory Doctorow, whose name I hadn't heard before, but turned out to have fingers in several pies which I've, well, partaken of - eg, boingboing.net) plus facilitator Jose Borghino of newmatilda.com, discussing the effect of the internet and online publishing on the media, political reporting, and public discourse and speech generally from various perspectives. Anyhow, it's an obviously interesting area and the panellists did it justice, and likewise the wide-ranging (though generally politically-focussed) questions after - Doctorow being the most impressive.
Good festival vibe, too - like last year. There's just something in the air this time of year.
