Stephen Mejias

I totally agree with Wes. My favorite part of any show is meeting with fellow tribe members.

I love the random greetings and conversations.

I was relieving our marketing associate, Jaime Rosov, playing Booth Babe — handing out comp copies of Stereophile, Home Theater, and Shutterbug — when Bryan Bilgore of Polargreen, Inc., walked over.

The conversation began and ended with music, of course. "There's no point in having CDs anymore," Bryan told me.

He keeps all of his songs on music servers. He loves the random playback.

"I get to hear songs from albums that I've completely forgotten about."

And, sometimes, he explained, those random songs touch him in ways they hadn't previously. Leland Leard of Music Hall said something similar while we listened to Jenny Lewis and Gnarls Barkley. And so did Jon Iverson one afternoon as we enjoyed another lunch buffet in the hotel restaurant. And later, there were meetings in the press room and meetings in the halls with fellow writers and music lovers.

Bryan and I said goodbye about five times before actually parting — of course, we'd run into each other again at the bar — and, of course, the conversation ended with music.

Bryan had to get inside to listen to the John Atkinson Trio.

"I'll meet you in there," I said.