Almost 10 years ago, when my micropress published its first book, we had a launch party at Webster Hall in NYC. This was facilitated by the author’s pal Baird Jones, whom I met briefly at the event. Two years later, we used the same venue for our second book’s launch. There was no payment involved, which gratified this cheap bastard no end; I assume Baird was just looking for any way to boost traffic at the hall on a weeknight.
Over the years, Baird was often cited as the source of Page Six gossip items in the NYPost (always referred to as the “curator” of Webster Hall). I would feel a little celebrity-by-proxy moment, a flicker of “I met that guy!” even though I didn’t actually know him.
So I was kind of sad this morning when I discovered that Baird died earlier this week. But I think he’d be glad to know that the news made Page Six.
(Update: here’s a long piece on Baird over at Radar.)