A Memoir In Progress
by Levi Asher on Friday, January 2, 2009 01:51 am
In January 2009 I began writing a memoir of my decade and a half in the Internet industry by blogging a new chapter each week. Here, still untitled, is a life in progress:
Chapter One: THE BREAK
Summer 1993: why I was working on Wall Street; a co-worker alerts me to the existence of the Internet.
Chapter Two: FINDING THE INTERNET
Fall 1993: I hunt down and find the Internet, becoming obsessed with Usenet newsgroups; rec.music.dylan; literature on the early Internet.
Chapter Three: BECOMING LEVI ASHER
Winter 1993/1994: I publish a short story in the first online literary journal Intertext and change my name.
Chapter Four: LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET
Spring 1994: I get an idea for a site called Literary Kicks.
Chapter Five: THE LAUNCH
Summer 1994: The World Wide Web grows more popular; I launch Literary Kicks one quiet summer day.
Chapter Six: ENTER MOZILLA
Summer/Fall 1994: Technological innovations on the web; the first "browser war" begins; life on Wall Street.
Chapter Seven: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WEB KIND
Fall/Winter 1994: meeting a whole lot of new friends; "creatures of the web".
Chapter Eight: JOB-HUNTING: HOTWIRED, DELPHI AND PATHFINDER
Winter/Spring 1995: a new job market emerges in New York City; I seek out and evaluate various job opportunities.
Chapter Nine: THE BEAT
Spring 1995: the neo-online Beat Generation/literary scene in the early web days.
Chapter Ten: THE SUMMER OF THE WEB
Summer 1995: I begin working at Time Inc. New Media (Pathfinder); Grateful Dead concerts.
Chapter Eleven: IN THE PATHFINDER BASEMENT
Fall/Winter 1995: Working for Time Inc.'s web startup, Pathfinder.com.
Chapter Twelve: LIT SCENE
Winter/Spring 1996: a new literary scene emerges online; organizing the world's first "web writer's reading" in downtown New York City.
Chapter Thirteen: CLICKING THROUGH
Summer 1996: technical challenges at Pathfinder; the emergence of Silicon Alley; early moves in the Internet advertising field.
(First Quarter Interlude)
Chapter Fourteen: DISCONNECT
Fall 1996: a historic opportunity to create a book of fiction and poetry from the web.
Chapter Fifteen: PATHFINDER GETS PERSONAL
Fall/Winter 1996: an amazing disaster at work, Pathfinder's Personal Edition.
Chapter Sixteen: MOVING TARGET
Spring/Summer 1997: turmoil in Silicon Alley; two Beat heroes die.
Chapter Seventeen: GETTING REVIEWED
Fall 1997: Coffeehouse: Writings From The Web is published; we get a few good reviews and one bad one.
Chapter Eighteen: DISNEYWORLD
Winter 1997/1998: Staying sane in Silicon Alley; unhappiness at work; a Dostoevsky project.
Chapter Nineteen: DINNER WITH DOSTOEVSKY
Spring 1998: I direct a digital movie of Notes From Underground
Chapter Twenty: WEBBY VALLEY
Spring/Summer 1998: LitKicks going nowhere fast; dreams of indie publishing
Chapter Twenty-One: MY MOVIE
Summer/Fall 1998: My digital movie of Notes From Underground hits the streets
Chapter Twenty-Two: FRINGE
Summer/Fall 1998: Drifting at Time Warner; more work disasters and literary frustrations
Chapter Twenty-Three: JOB-HUNTING: BROADCAST AND IVILLAGE
Winter 1998/1999: The dot-com stock market begins to peak; I entertain job offers and plot my next move.
(Second Interlude: July Breather)
Chapter Twenty-Four: LIKE IT'S 1999
Early 1999: Why I needed to get rich quick; turbulence at work and at home; the kids; rooftop dreaming.
Chapter Twenty-Five: DESIGN PATTERNS FOR AGONY
Early 1999: Arriving for the new job at iVillage; hesitating to walk in the door; why bad tech projects happen to good people.
Chapter Twenty-Six: WORKING FOR CANDICE CARPENTER
Early 1999: The inspiring leader of iVillage.com; courage and anarchy; work as a character-building experience; a new CTO is hired.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: A LITERARY LIVING ROOM
Early 1999: Why I didn't care about the late 1990s lit scene; poetry clubs of Greenwich Village; performing at the Living Room with David Amram.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: BEFORE THE IPO
Early 1999: Borrowing money for a stock market gamble; chaos and a new boss at work.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: CELEBRATION DAY
March 1999: The long-awaited iVillage IPO is a big success; parties begin.
Chapter Thirty: METAMORPHOSIS
Spring 1999: After the IPO; willing myself reborn; planning a big 5th birthday party/concert for Literary Kicks.
Chapter Thirty-One: BACCHANAL
Summer 1999: The meaning of happiness; searching for my place in the world; iVillage goes to the movies; the Literary Kicks Summer Poetry Happening at the Bitter End.
Chapter Thirty-Two: BREAKING POINT
Late Summer 1999: Transferring into the marketing department at work; confusion and malaise; Pokemon cards and San Francisco; divorce.
Chapter Thirty-Three: SINKING
Fall 1999: Finding a new home; dealing with post-divorce trauma; things go from bad to worse at work.
Chapter Thirty-Four: MILLENNIUM
Late 1999: On "probation" at work; getting my swagger back; Eminem and Kid Rock; becoming a hermit in Times Square; the Y2K scare and the turn of the millennium.
Chapter Thirty-Five: RUNNING THE NUMBERS
Early 2000: Working with the Community team; learning how to develop product proposals; launching member profiles; listening to Springsteen; a quiet peak moment passes unnoticed by all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: THE BIG SLIDE
Spring/Summer 2000: An article in Barron's magazine kicks off the dot-com stock crash; prices plummet; an industry falls apart.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: PICKING UP
Fall/Winter 2000: After the crash, a destroyed industry gathers its resources; mentoring sessions with Candice Carpenter; initial plans for LitKicks 2.0; the Mets in the World Series; a confusing election night; an unexpected turn of fate.
(Third Interlude: Bringing it Home)
Chapter Thirty-Eight: VERSION 2.0
Winter/Spring 2001: Digging into Java programming; dot-com market continues to slide; reinventing Literary Kicks as a community site.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: FALLING OUT
Chapter Forty: TUESDAY
Chapter Forty-One: GATHERING
Chapter Forty-Two: POETRY AND POLITICS
Chapter Forty-Three: LUCKY GUY
Chapter Forty-Four: HOW TO GO BROKE
Chapter Forty-Five: SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE
Chapter Forty-Six: CALL ME ISHMAEL
Chapter One: THE BREAK
Summer 1993: why I was working on Wall Street; a co-worker alerts me to the existence of the Internet.
Chapter Two: FINDING THE INTERNET
Fall 1993: I hunt down and find the Internet, becoming obsessed with Usenet newsgroups; rec.music.dylan; literature on the early Internet.
Chapter Three: BECOMING LEVI ASHER
Winter 1993/1994: I publish a short story in the first online literary journal Intertext and change my name.
Chapter Four: LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET
Spring 1994: I get an idea for a site called Literary Kicks.
Chapter Five: THE LAUNCH
Summer 1994: The World Wide Web grows more popular; I launch Literary Kicks one quiet summer day.
Chapter Six: ENTER MOZILLA
Summer/Fall 1994: Technological innovations on the web; the first "browser war" begins; life on Wall Street.
Chapter Seven: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WEB KIND
Fall/Winter 1994: meeting a whole lot of new friends; "creatures of the web".
Chapter Eight: JOB-HUNTING: HOTWIRED, DELPHI AND PATHFINDER
Winter/Spring 1995: a new job market emerges in New York City; I seek out and evaluate various job opportunities.
Chapter Nine: THE BEAT
Spring 1995: the neo-online Beat Generation/literary scene in the early web days.
Chapter Ten: THE SUMMER OF THE WEB
Summer 1995: I begin working at Time Inc. New Media (Pathfinder); Grateful Dead concerts.
Chapter Eleven: IN THE PATHFINDER BASEMENT
Fall/Winter 1995: Working for Time Inc.'s web startup, Pathfinder.com.
Chapter Twelve: LIT SCENE
Winter/Spring 1996: a new literary scene emerges online; organizing the world's first "web writer's reading" in downtown New York City.
Chapter Thirteen: CLICKING THROUGH
Summer 1996: technical challenges at Pathfinder; the emergence of Silicon Alley; early moves in the Internet advertising field.
(First Quarter Interlude)
Chapter Fourteen: DISCONNECT
Fall 1996: a historic opportunity to create a book of fiction and poetry from the web.
Chapter Fifteen: PATHFINDER GETS PERSONAL
Fall/Winter 1996: an amazing disaster at work, Pathfinder's Personal Edition.
Chapter Sixteen: MOVING TARGET
Spring/Summer 1997: turmoil in Silicon Alley; two Beat heroes die.
Chapter Seventeen: GETTING REVIEWED
Fall 1997: Coffeehouse: Writings From The Web is published; we get a few good reviews and one bad one.
Chapter Eighteen: DISNEYWORLD
Winter 1997/1998: Staying sane in Silicon Alley; unhappiness at work; a Dostoevsky project.
Chapter Nineteen: DINNER WITH DOSTOEVSKY
Spring 1998: I direct a digital movie of Notes From Underground
Chapter Twenty: WEBBY VALLEY
Spring/Summer 1998: LitKicks going nowhere fast; dreams of indie publishing
Chapter Twenty-One: MY MOVIE
Summer/Fall 1998: My digital movie of Notes From Underground hits the streets
Chapter Twenty-Two: FRINGE
Summer/Fall 1998: Drifting at Time Warner; more work disasters and literary frustrations
Chapter Twenty-Three: JOB-HUNTING: BROADCAST AND IVILLAGE
Winter 1998/1999: The dot-com stock market begins to peak; I entertain job offers and plot my next move.
(Second Interlude: July Breather)
Chapter Twenty-Four: LIKE IT'S 1999
Early 1999: Why I needed to get rich quick; turbulence at work and at home; the kids; rooftop dreaming.
Chapter Twenty-Five: DESIGN PATTERNS FOR AGONY
Early 1999: Arriving for the new job at iVillage; hesitating to walk in the door; why bad tech projects happen to good people.
Chapter Twenty-Six: WORKING FOR CANDICE CARPENTER
Early 1999: The inspiring leader of iVillage.com; courage and anarchy; work as a character-building experience; a new CTO is hired.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: A LITERARY LIVING ROOM
Early 1999: Why I didn't care about the late 1990s lit scene; poetry clubs of Greenwich Village; performing at the Living Room with David Amram.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: BEFORE THE IPO
Early 1999: Borrowing money for a stock market gamble; chaos and a new boss at work.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: CELEBRATION DAY
March 1999: The long-awaited iVillage IPO is a big success; parties begin.
Chapter Thirty: METAMORPHOSIS
Spring 1999: After the IPO; willing myself reborn; planning a big 5th birthday party/concert for Literary Kicks.
Chapter Thirty-One: BACCHANAL
Summer 1999: The meaning of happiness; searching for my place in the world; iVillage goes to the movies; the Literary Kicks Summer Poetry Happening at the Bitter End.
Chapter Thirty-Two: BREAKING POINT
Late Summer 1999: Transferring into the marketing department at work; confusion and malaise; Pokemon cards and San Francisco; divorce.
Chapter Thirty-Three: SINKING
Fall 1999: Finding a new home; dealing with post-divorce trauma; things go from bad to worse at work.
Chapter Thirty-Four: MILLENNIUM
Late 1999: On "probation" at work; getting my swagger back; Eminem and Kid Rock; becoming a hermit in Times Square; the Y2K scare and the turn of the millennium.
Chapter Thirty-Five: RUNNING THE NUMBERS
Early 2000: Working with the Community team; learning how to develop product proposals; launching member profiles; listening to Springsteen; a quiet peak moment passes unnoticed by all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: THE BIG SLIDE
Spring/Summer 2000: An article in Barron's magazine kicks off the dot-com stock crash; prices plummet; an industry falls apart.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: PICKING UP
Fall/Winter 2000: After the crash, a destroyed industry gathers its resources; mentoring sessions with Candice Carpenter; initial plans for LitKicks 2.0; the Mets in the World Series; a confusing election night; an unexpected turn of fate.
(Third Interlude: Bringing it Home)
Chapter Thirty-Eight: VERSION 2.0
Winter/Spring 2001: Digging into Java programming; dot-com market continues to slide; reinventing Literary Kicks as a community site.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: FALLING OUT
Chapter Forty: TUESDAY
Chapter Forty-One: GATHERING
Chapter Forty-Two: POETRY AND POLITICS
Chapter Forty-Three: LUCKY GUY
Chapter Forty-Four: HOW TO GO BROKE
Chapter Forty-Five: SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE
Chapter Forty-Six: CALL ME ISHMAEL
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