Here’s the agenda for Saturday’s MarkMaynard.com 10th anniversary party

When it first occurred to me that we should have a 10 year anniversary party for the site, I thought that I’d issue a press release, print up flyers, and promote the hell out of it. As the date has drawn nearer, though, I’ve been reminded of the fact that I’m terrified of large groups, painfully awkward around people, and prone to devastating panic attacks when put into situations where I’m the center of attention. As that’s the case, and as we already have over 100 people signed up to attend, I’m going to lay off the promotion, and focus on other stuff… like trying to convince myself that I won’t collapse into a giant, sweaty, quivering heap of blubber come Saturday. I did, however, want to pass along the agenda, so that you all knew kind of what to expect.

The doors at Woodruff’s will open at 7:00, but things won’t get started in earnest until 7:30, when I’ll attempt to say “thank you,” and try, as best that I can, to engage people in a conversation about this little online community that we’ve built, and what we’d like to do with it going forward. I’ll briefly recap where we’ve been over the past decade, and share some stats regarding our readership, but I’m hoping that, for the most part, we can just sit in a circle and talk about projects that we might want to undertake in the future, and things of that nature.

Then, at 8:00, I’ll start asking folks up on stage to talk about little things that they’ve brought to share… So, if you have something that’s interesting, even if it’s just interesting to you, please bring it along and be prepared to talk about it for a couple of minutes. (I may also ask you a question or two.) Obscure and weird things are fine, as are things that have been found in Ypsilanti. I also like childhood artifacts, obscure pop culture finds, and things with sentimental value, but absolutely anything is acceptable.

Then, at 8:30 the bands will start. Trabajabamos will go first, followed by 25 Suaves at 9:30, and Minus9 at 10:30. As I’m terrible at writing about bands, I’ll leave it to you to follow the links and decide for yourselves whether or not you’ll want to bring your ear trumpets along with you. I will say, however, that I love all three bands, and I’m super excited that they’ve all agreed to join us. [note: While I told myself that I wouldn’t attempt to convey in words what these three bands sound like, I did have a discussion with Pete Larson today about what we might expect from 25 Suaves after 6 years of retirement, and, in responding, he used the phrase, “cryptofascist panty-dampening job killers.” If I remember correctly, the phrase “retired rockers loudly trying not to make mistakes” was also mentioned.]

And, depending on how long the bands choose to play, we might have time between their sets to do a few other things. But we’ll just play that by ear.

OK, I guess that’s it for now. I just wanted to let you know that, if you’re only interested in the bands, you should probably wait and show up at 8:30. If you want to participate in the other stuff, though, come earlier. And, if you do come earlier, please try to bring something to share. (I really like the idea of my regular readers having an opportunity to get up on stage and share little stories with one another.)

Oh, I don’t know if it will work, but I’m also thinking about having a whiteboard there, so that people, if they’re so inclined, can take photos of themselves with dialogue bubbles, or whatnot, which could then be uploaded to the site. (I was going to just have a laptop there, so that people could post their comments on the site in real time, but I thought that this would be more fun, and I like the idea of actually having photos of real people, and not just anonymous comments, for a change… Maybe, if they’re brave, people could even take the opportunity to out themselves, by standing next to their online aliases. That, I think, would be pretty cool.)

That’s it for now… See you Saturday.

[One last thing. It’ll cost you $5 at the door to get in, and every penny will go to support the absolutely critical activities of FLY Children’s Art Center in Ypsilanti’s public schools. If you can’t make it on Saturday, but would still like to contribute toward the incredibly important cause, you can do so here.]