Matt: Well, way back in 1997, Jon got a new computer and called up Cal to ask how to “get online”. Cal walked him through a Netscape IM session where he basically gave Jon instructions to access the world wide web. Which in those days was a pretty wide open space. The IM session devolved into nonsensical banter and confusion, so the next week Cal went over to Jon’s house to help him out and I showed up. I think I was returning some hedge clippers or something. Anyway, that evening ended with Cal instantiating the very first World Headquarters home page, which consisted, that first week, of nothing but a transcript of the previous week’s IM session, decorated with some colors and images. The next week, the three of us got together again to mess with the HQ website some more, and somebody opened up a bottle of wine, which pretty much let the HQ genie out, so to speak, ha ha we gurgled as we listened to that 2800 baud modem do its morse code progression of squawks, beeps and white noise bursts as we “put” (ftp, yo!) the newest HQ imaginings up to the world wide web. And, once a week, pretty much without fail ever since, we’ve done the same thing: get together and create some stuff that made us laugh or go “wow”, and then put it up on the web. Pretty much fully collaborative, and it's still pretty much really fun. Occasionally, we put on a live show at an art gallery and show and read our poetry, show our videos, make up new words and such utter stuff. People seem to like it, but that’s gravy. By the way, here’s the link to that first IM chat, way back in 1997. Pure HQ.

Jon: Whirled HeadQuarters is like a band except there's no music.
It started when Jon got a computer way after everybody else did.
Calvin came over to rescue Jon because Jon was afraid to touch anything
because every time he did the screen changed and there was no going back.
Calvin went click-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclick
and said, "You wanna make a website?"
Jon said, "Sure," even though he wasn't sure what a web sight was.
(He was thinking of spiders.)
Calvin went click-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclkclick-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclick
and then he said, "What do you wanna call it?"
Jon said, "Call what?"
"The website, dumbass."
Oh. Um, "How about World HeadQuarters."
Calvin went click-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclick
click-click-clickclickclick click-click-clickclickclick
and there was a home page with no content.
The next week Calvin came back with Matt.
And it came to pass that there was content,
and the world was good, and so were the headquarters.
And it came to pass that three guys met every week
ever since.

Cal: It just happened and we were there when it did.