Elderblogger Deejay, Small Beer, Chinese Film and Great Conversation Away From Home

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I am most grateful to guest bloggers Jill Fallon, Joy Des Jardins, Frank Paynter, Mick Brady and Joycelyn Ward. It made a long trip easy knowing that Time Goes By was in such good hands while I was gone. Thank you all for your excellent storytelling and any readers who missed these posts, you will be doing yourselves a favor to go back and read them.]

As we have discussed here in several past posts, one of the best things about blogging is the new friends we make. And one of the surprises of blogging is that when we have the opportunity to meet a blog friend in person, it is not like meeting someone new. It is more like seeing an old friend after a long absence.

So when I knew I would be in St. Paul, Minnesota for several days last week, I immediately thought of one of the Elderbloggers listed on the left sidebar: Deejay of Small Beer.

We met in my hotel lobby and walked a few blocks through the dry but freezing sidewalks of St. Paul to Matty B’s restaurant. We sat in the middle booth in this photo. Deejay explained the colorful history of the joint and I wondered if my grandmother, who once lived in St. Paul, might have dined there in the 1920s or 1930s.

As with all bloggers I’ve met in person, our words tumbled over another’s during the several hours we spent together. Deejay is an expert on the history of Chinese film. He speaks Mandarin, has worked in China and even appeared in several Chinese movies when the role of a Caucasian needed to be filled. But I’ll let him tell you those stories sometime in the future because…

…as serendipity would have it, this past weekend, on the event of the Chinese New Year, Deejay launched his latest endeavor: The Chinese Mirror – A Journal of Chinese Film History, a website he has been slaving over to create for several months. You must read his first post on the American roots of Chinese Cinema nearly a century ago. Who knew? Well, Deejay does, along with much more.

This project is separate from his blog and maybe now that it is launched, Deejay will get back to more regularly posting about politics, sports and his other interests. It was a great pleasure to spend a few hours in St. Paul with Don Marion, alias Deejay, and I look forward to his renewed presence among elderbloggers - it's been sparse at Small Beer while he was developing The Chinese Mirror.

Isn't it amazing the people we meet in the elderblogosphere.

Comments

[AlwaysQuestion]

Welcome home!
I've been to DeeJay's new site, and found it very interesting. He sounds as if he would be, too.

[Chancy]

It is interesting the people we meet through elderblogging, even though as in my case, I have never met another blogger in person I nevertheless I feel as if I know so many through their writings and photos.

[Fran aka Redondowriter]

Yes, it really is amazing how we make friends with the people we meet on the Internet. I've met a few of my blogging pals, but I've met 19 of the women/men I've written with at a writer's list I belong to. We started in 1995 and still maintain our list.

I spent a lot of time in Minneapolis-St. Paul the years I was dating a man from there. I loved the twin cities and the state of Minnesota. The heartland, but yet so cultured and progressive.

[Joared]

Enjoyed all these posts while you were gone and Deejay and his new blog sounds quite interesting.