Six Degrees

In certain moments the Web feels just like a real world community. Sure you can't physically sit across the table of a local coffee house in the land of 1s and 0s, but little events online intertwine in a way that brings people together through commonalities just like in the physical world. It goes much farther than getting a link from your favorite online news source. The moments of Web community are equivalent to chatting with someone at work who attended the same rock show the night before and you both came away loving the show but for totally different reasons and then share your version of the event over industrial coffee before going back to your cubicle. As someone who works from home, blogs are my industrial coffee oasis from my basement cubicle.

For instance, last night I was reading Evil Genius Chronicles, noticed Dave Slusher posted a new Clambake Episode. In the show notes I caught a reference to the band Make Believe. I download virtually every EGC show because I like what Dave has to say, but I always look at the notes first to see what he's talking about that day. Dave has this knack for introducing cool bands or re-introducing me to bands I hadn't thought about in awhile, in addition to having a lucid take on whatever happens to be on his mind. I often find myself seeking out the entire catalog from bands he features because I like a particular track played in an EGC Clambake.

Seeing Make Believe listed in his show notes triggered a chain of events in my mind. First I wondered if it was the same Make Believe made up of guys I went to high school with. Sure enough, I clicked over to the record label site where the entire Make Believe catalog is available in MP3 and Real formats and it was definitely the same guys. Then I remembered Steve Robinson, who played in a band with a couple of the Make Believe guys a few years ago, recently featured a Make Believe song on Rocket Slide Radio. Could it be that Dave Slusher, a guy who I've never met but totally respect is listening to a show produced by Steve Robinson, one of my best friends ever!? Like, oh-my-gawd!

After recovering from my moment of junior high valley girl Zen I decided that listening to Dave's show might be the best way to sort this all out in my mind. Sure enough, Dave mentions Steve and Rocket Slide as part of his introduction to Make Believe, who was once a band of the day on Dave's blog sometime ago. So a guy in Florida who is doing stuff I think is amazing, listens to a show created by a close friend in Iowa and ends up playing music from some guys I went to high school with as a result.

To further tie this all together, Steve Robinson will be the first artist on my Midnight Gypsy record label, which is named in memory of a band I was in 14 years ago. Midnight Gypsy (the band) once played a show with some of the guys from Make Believe when they were part of a band called Shockhead. Make Believe is no longer releasing new music, but one of the guys from the band is now the drummer in Steve's band and played a big role in getting the album recorded and mixed. It's moments like these when the Web seems like a big small town.