Winterland

With their new CEO in place and an IPO in the works, eXcite decided to throw a party in SF. Always game for a party, I looked over the invitation. It would be at Winterland.

Winterland! What a locale: site of my first and only Grateful Dead concert. I thought back to the mid-seventies when I had hitched a ride from Palo Alto, lost track of my ride back, and wandered the streets until I found a friend’s house at 4:00 a.m. But I finally understood the allure of the Dead. I didn’t expect this to be a repeat, but it would be fun for old times sake, and for new.

I arrived in the early evening to booming rock music over speaker arrays. On one side, a trailer full of SUN and SiliconGraphics workstations were projecting lightshows on a large screen. There was food, and a crowd of techies drifted through the room, some disguised in Hippie garb.

I said hi to Joe and George and then wandered the hall. How many classic rock bands had played here and across town at the Fillmore? Deadheads bonded in the music and the smoke of altered states. It was a formative age that would not be repeated.

Upstairs I found a fellow that was providing a light show on the a wall adjacent to the Silicon display. His was every bit as mesmerizing, yet far more primitive. The only electronics were an overhead projector, akin to those teachers used in elementary schools for transparencies. A clear glass tray was on the projection plate, holding oil and water with colorful dyes. As the two didn’t mix, the plasma took on the changing shapes of colorful protozoa. He urged them into motion as the screen opposite swirled. Psychedelic, man!

The change in technology was both startling and humorous. Clearly, the bearded fellow upstairs would not be able to project complex imagery and textual information which the SGI machines could do so well. But for this visual application, it was a tie.