full circle

Yesterday afternoon I ran into Bruce Rinehart on Haight Street. Bruce was one of the primary forces which pulled me to San Francisco so many years ago. Back when he was with e-line, he and Andrew Sullivan (and another guy I forget) set up the FirstClass BBS and online system for BookPage, where I was a graphic designer and system admin. Without getting into the complete narrative (I know, not my way), these guys looked me up and down and basically said, "What's a creative fag like you doing in Tennessee?" At this point I was waaaaay in the closet and was amazed/terrified that they sniffed me out like a fart in an elevator.

We all became friends and I spent a lot of time online on the Guardian's online system and getting to know them and SF. I came to SF in October to interview as an editor and content creator for the @Home network (working for a friend of Andrew's). Bruce was the guy who showed me around and gave me my first glimpses of the City. He fondly remembers dropping me off for my first ever trip to the Castro, and the sort of strange bewilderment on my face: "Uh, okay. What do I do now?"

I remember that he took me to my first Folsom Street Fair. I was in straight fratboy drag (as I was a 'straight' fratboy at the time)-- as the only one in color I did not exactly blend. He thought I would be SHOCKED, but I said there were only so many chaps 'n' cheeks you could see before you ask "what else is there?" Who would have thought then that ten years later I would have my own booth? Clearly I am not holding to that whole "not getting into the complete narrative" thing. Back to yesterday:

I ran into Bruce. We caught up. And he briefly interviewed me for his tv show Haight Free TV (airing the 4th Thursday's of the month at 9:30 PM on local channel 29). I even remember his old Rino e-mail address at the Well, but he gave me his new cards. Looking at it later I saw that he teaches at the Berkeley SIMS program (School of Information Management and Systems)-- a program I almost entered before pursuing the MLIS at SJSU (SIMS is much more programming intensive and is not ALA accredited-- it was formed after Berkeley closed their library school).

Anyway, cool to see you Bruce! Stay in touch!