clivemurray.com

That’s John Resig, that is

Originally uploaded by Clive Murray.

That’s John Resig, that is

Camden sunset 3

Originally uploaded by Clive Murray.

Camden sunset 3

(No, not the TV series.)

In 1989 I started playing electric guitar, having finally convinced my parents that I was serious about it and having received my first guitar (a Maya strat copy) for Christmas 1988. When asked I always say that I started playing because of Mark Knopfler. I was a huge Dire Straits fan for years, and while I was also into Brian May and Eric Clapton at the same time, it was Mark Knopfler who made me actually want to get up on a stage and play in front of people.

Similarly, when I first got online in 1997, it was the work of Derek Powazek that made me want to build websites. I built my first homepages very much in the mould of whatever he was doing at the time, I read his self-effacing journals (there was no such thing as blogging at the time) and his bleedingly honest stories in his storytelling site Fray. I submitted stories to Fray, and I even started a site called Interpret which was also driven by reader submitted works, and which won cool site awards back in the days when they meant something.

Then yesterday I was at the first day of the Future of Web Apps conference, and Derek was presenting a talk with Heather Champ (of Flickr, among others). I watched these two elegant eloquent San-Francisco-ites (they’re married, by the way – also I suspect that Heather is Canadian in origin, from her accent, but that could be wrong) talk passionately on the subject of web (and other) communities and I knew I had to go and be a fanboy.

After the talk we were hanging out waiting for the next session and the two of them wandered by so I ran over and buttonholed Derek (I must apologise profusely for effectively blanking Heather – I was in dribbling fanboy mode), telling him a shortened version of the first two paragraphs of this rambling post. He looked pleased to have made such an impact and asked me my name, so I told him, and he said “Oh, I know you, Clive – I thought you looked familiar!” He remembered me from my Fray submissions, and a couple of other vague contacts back in the day, and seemed genuinely happy to have made a difference to me.

It might not mean that much to most of you who read this, but believe me when I say that made my fucking month.

Colour me smiley.
–c.

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Now playing: Whitesnake – Wings Of The Storm