What I Am Doing Today
For thirteen years I have been sending an email to a group of my friends from college on this day with that subject line. It generally revolves around what I am thinking, what I have been reading and most importantly what I have been listening to. The music part is the key because thirteen years ago today my best friend Bob Suwala died.
The recipients have shrunk in numbers due to moves, lost addresses and the general and gradual disconnection of modern life. Bob’s girlfriend, his housemates, bike riding buddies and the many people he knew. Bob was the most connected person I knew when he was alive: he had an internet connection from school and we spent a lot of late (very late) nights perusing and posting to the Usenet groups in particular alt.rave. This was in 1990 - 1992 and the web was still but a glint in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye.
Bob and I shared a passion for music particularly electronic music – in those days it was house and becoming techno. Hardcore wasn’t really a term yet and raves were a term for parties that happened in the UK. We were a DJ partnership in the small town where we went to school. I worked at the record store during the day (Bob was still a student) and we played at parties at night. A common weekend would involve an overnight party on Friday followed by small party early Saturday followed by another big one on the other side of town that might go until the sun came up Sunday at which point we would head to the diner for breakfast. Ah the halcyon days of our youth.
Instead of the George Bailey scenario where people wonder what life would be like had they never been born – I often wonder what life would be like had Bob lived. He would be almost 37 now and I imagine working as a developer for someone like Google. He would (I surmise) be a big fan of AJAX and 2.0 methodologies and everything that tries to look forward. I also imagine he would be a big fan of the French techno that has been bubbling sub-rosa for the past ten years: Daft Punk, Cassius, Justice etc. Or maybe he would like Justin Timberlake – but I like to imagine the former.
Thirteen years and it still hurts. Miss you man.
The recipients have shrunk in numbers due to moves, lost addresses and the general and gradual disconnection of modern life. Bob’s girlfriend, his housemates, bike riding buddies and the many people he knew. Bob was the most connected person I knew when he was alive: he had an internet connection from school and we spent a lot of late (very late) nights perusing and posting to the Usenet groups in particular alt.rave. This was in 1990 - 1992 and the web was still but a glint in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye.
Bob and I shared a passion for music particularly electronic music – in those days it was house and becoming techno. Hardcore wasn’t really a term yet and raves were a term for parties that happened in the UK. We were a DJ partnership in the small town where we went to school. I worked at the record store during the day (Bob was still a student) and we played at parties at night. A common weekend would involve an overnight party on Friday followed by small party early Saturday followed by another big one on the other side of town that might go until the sun came up Sunday at which point we would head to the diner for breakfast. Ah the halcyon days of our youth.
Instead of the George Bailey scenario where people wonder what life would be like had they never been born – I often wonder what life would be like had Bob lived. He would be almost 37 now and I imagine working as a developer for someone like Google. He would (I surmise) be a big fan of AJAX and 2.0 methodologies and everything that tries to look forward. I also imagine he would be a big fan of the French techno that has been bubbling sub-rosa for the past ten years: Daft Punk, Cassius, Justice etc. Or maybe he would like Justin Timberlake – but I like to imagine the former.
Thirteen years and it still hurts. Miss you man.
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