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This is also a special year for me because, when I noticed we were approaching number three hundred, I realized that I've been "talking" to many of y'all, Homies, for seven years now. That's FOREVER in Web Years and not darned bad for the Real World, either. We've shared a lot of ups and downs during that time --- and Lord Knows watching our share of changes at this Web site along the way! --- and in a sense you have watched me grow up here, up to and including my marriage. It's gotten to be like talking to family, I guess.
There's also been the ever-changing and often surprising face of the "family" of writers I've gotten to know here over these years. Lots of people have come and gone. Some of stayed for years, like Bob Powers and Kevin Carey. Some of been amazing one-shot wonders, like Billy Jackson over at G21 AFRICA. I was looking over some of those back copies of G21 AFRICA in preparation for this article, Homeboys and -girls, and was surprised at all the names (and great writing!) that appear there: Aamera Jiwaji, Julian Welch, Robert Odoul, David Hiscock, and -- fondly for me -- Binyavanga Wainaina, who we came to call "the Binj" in these parts. I miss his great African recipes.
Looking into the Wayback Machine is always a trip, 'cause you get to see how much you have changed over the years. I got a few good laughs from seeing myself write this only a couple of years ago and like this back in 1998. My own favorite article from me comes from those great times we had funnin' here at G21 back in '98. Rod let us get away with murder back then. That was back before he went into "Activist Editor" mode, as he put it. (Meaning that he wasn't having any difficulty finding new writers, is how I took it.)
Something started to happen during our third year here on the Web, I think. Part it had to do with our Esteemed Editor gaining more confidence in what we were producing and that we might last to have a 300th or 400th issue on the Web. But I also think part of it to do with the fact that we were starting to break "Big" stories and get interviews from folks like Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and mayor of my own city and former-Cali governor Jerry Brown.
I think it was about that time that we took the path, too, from being as America-focused as most Web magazines and Rod decided that we should bring in more voices from around the globe. "It's the world-wide Web,"he used to lecture us in his e-mails, "so we should focus on world-wide issues."
I had my doubts, then, but I'm glad now. I'm "met" a bunch of interesting and exciting writers, if only by way of e-mails, because of that decision.
And I think I've become a better writer myself because of the contact. It's one thing when you're just talkin' to your Homies and don't have to worry that they know the point you're trying to get across. It's another when some guy from Japan e-mails you and asks you what that word "skanky" means.
Every now and again, I have to ask myself, "Whatever happened to that guy from New York, Steve Vivian?"
I miss Jeff Winbush a lot. I miss how he and Rod used to get into it about how G21 was not more like Salon, about themes for our weekly editions, about all kinds of stuff. I also miss the justifiable anger he would bring to the page and make you feel when reading his articles. I'm hoping he'll be one of the alumni that comes back to these pages for No. 300....
And new faces keep popping up like mushrooms around these pages all the time. I almost can't keep up. That's a good thing.
Meanwhile, I've been standing still, as they say. I've spent seven years writing on these same Web pages (even if Rod has changed the name of my column three times now.)
I still remember when this rag moved from the San Francisco Bay Guardian BBS onto the Web back in 1996. At the time, I was wondering if that was such a good idea, since there weren't that many folks who even knew what the Web was about. But ole Rod, he was gung-ho as I've ever seen him. He still is. Whenever he gets goin' about the Web, you can hear the excitement in his voice.
So some of my first articles were about how elitist people on the Web were, how there weren't that many brothers and sisters out here to represent, along those lines. But I'm glad I was dragged out here today, even if it was kicking and screaming. I see now what all the excitement was about. This is the best thing that happened for struggling new writers in years, I think now.
Then I remember that phase, probably during 1997-'99, when doin' "rants" was all the rage on the Web. You wanted to get a lot of hits on your Web site, it used to be, just run a rant. People would be flocking to you like flies on a turd. It was about that time that Rod brought in "Web star" Carlene, a.ka. "The Misanthropic Bitch." (Rod felt sorry for her, I think, because she was funny and outrageous and always being kicked off of ISPs because of the hate letters about her Web sites.)
Well, it wasn't long before the hornets nest was rattled. First there was the woman who threatened G21 with a lawsuit over something Carlene had done in her piece on kid's beauty pageants. Then Carlene got into it with Jeff Winbush and some of the rest of us writers because she felt that we were all jealous because she was such a big draw. Whatever. Rod decided that it was probably best to cut her loose after giving her a home here for a while. Good riddance. She bounced through two more ISP hassles before finding the home she has now. She's still funny, in her own way.
That's just one of the behind the scenes melodramas that when on here at the "palatial HQ of The World's Magazine." Some of them were funny, but some were also very sad. Writers came and writers went and other writers came. Some of us have stayed.
No disrespect is meant to all the folks I didn't mention in this little Memory Lane trip of mine, there's just so many of y'all that I'd need the whole site to list you. And, as Rod says, "Nobody reads a Web article after 1400 words."
I'll just say, I've had a lot of fun being part of this little "hip FM station at the end of the dial." (A Jeff Winbushism.) I could do another seven years standing on my head.
OAKLAND, CA, USA - Next week G21:THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE will publish its 300th edition here on the World Wide Web and I shall have the honor of being one of the people writing here who has seen it all from the very beginning. Most of the "special" stuff planned for that 300th issue will appear about his time next week, so I thought I'd write about my own feelings on it now; next week will be Rod's time.
This week's Poll: "This year my boss is going to...?" 
WEB SITE PICK OF THE WEEK: Out of work? Hate your job? Get a few laughs from Odd Todd. It's a hoot!
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