So as I wrote in the previous post that I probably would, yesterday I cut my hair and did the Metro trek thing, stopping off at White Flint, Pentagon City, and Crystal City before finally getting off in Chinatown and making my way to the gathering of networking alums. The first part of the day was pretty routine. Picked up a few more figures at White Flint who will undoubtedly be appearing on Scary-Crayon in the near future; took lots of new photos in Crystal City. But then I found myself footing it across DC in the heat to eventually arrive at a small basement on 18th Street... And wow, that was weird stuff.

At first that, too, seemed kinda routine. I'd been to similar "networking" shindigs at Yale; usually it was a bunch of people standing around chatting with each other while I waffled around on the outskirts of groups and generally only spoke to them to edge past and grab a few hors d'oeuvres. And last night started off no differently; I poked in just to get at some mozzarella sticks here, some mini anchovy pizzas there, etc. Early on I did have a beer -- at $5 apiece, they were the cheapest drinks in the place... -- which just goes to show you once again that advertising does work; when the guy asked what kind of beer I wanted, I recalled the commercial with the International House of Beer and went with a Sam Adams ('cause it's always a good decision). So I sipped on my beer until it was gone, talking to a few people here and there when I could catch them either by themselves or in moments when they seemed to be looking away from the groups (I can approach individuals, but injecting myself into groups is not my style), but for the most part I was just kinda by myself, glancing around and taking in the scene.

Then all of a sudden I'm sitting down with these guys as one regales us with storiesabout donkeys having sex with girls in Mexico. Another jumps in and says that he wanted to see one of those when he was there, but he came too early in the day, and since the donkey was sleeping at the time he had to settle for watching a German shepherd do the deed. Then the bouncer, walking past, noted that he knows a girl who fucks mastiffs. Mastiffs! I just kinda sat there blinking and taking it all in. I submitted my brief description of the tricks of a stripper I saw back in New Haven -- perhaps I've told you this story? someday... -- but it was kinda tame in comparison. Even my story about being subtly propositioned for sex in a Los Angeles mall at closing time (yes...) pales next to tales of girls screwing donkeys and dogs.

Later in the night I got to talking with the chief storyteller about other things -- his advice, "See the world, Wes -- see the world," is worth following up on, I think (though he's had experiences that, much like Agent K's trip down the gullet of an interstellar cockroach, I'm not sure I'd want to remember in his position) -- and the Nick Berg beheading came up. I'd clicked on the "play video" link the other night on CNN, but since I was prompted with a registration form I closed the window and didn't watch it -- and honestly, I was a bit relieved. But taking the storyteller's advice -- "See the world" -- and listening to his words regarding this and other decidedly unpleasant things -- "You need to see things like that...really gives you perspective..." -- when I finally got back here I downloaded the video and gave it a watch.

Dude, they cut his head off. Granted, I'm not going to tell you that it's one thing to hear about it and another thing to watch it. That's true, but in this case I don't think the video was sufficient to really inspire any awe or dread or strong emotion -- which is really, I suppose, what highlights the reality of it. I mean, I've seen flesh torn apart by mobs of hungry zombies; I've seen hook-handed spectres disembowl women and send their blood shooting across the room; I've seen things in films that literally made me look away in disgust. But I leaned forward as this video played on my screen and watched it more than once, just trying to make out what was happening. It wasn't dramatic. Blood didn't gush out in torrents and coat the men standing nearby. Nor was it a beautiful and deadly decapitation like you'd see in a video game. The most grisly thing about it was the effort that went into it -- the butcher sawed through Berg's neck from multiple angles and then had to work to get through the spinal cord before he could raise the head to the camera. No, the sight didn't sicken me. The video wasn't of sufficient quality for me to really get a look at the meat of the neck or Berg's facial expression as it happened, and since the audio was out of synch -- the screaming began before the cutting began and ended shortly into it -- it was hard for me to be affected by the combination of sound and picture. I've heard that possibly Berg was drugged, or that he might already have been dead when they cut off his head -- and nothing that I could see disproves this -- but still, they cut his head off...and I watched a video of it. I watched a beheading and the most awe-inspiring thing about it is that there was nothing awe-inspiring about it. It was actually kinda dull. I'm not profoundly affected by it or even disgusted. I don't feel like watching it told me anything that I didn't already know -- that Nick Berg was beheaded by a masked man. That was all that the video conveyed to me; nothing more.

There's something strange about that. And that's all I've got for this post.