Party Report

NYC's pre-SXSW party: What the heck is the next big thing going to be?

I've heard people refer to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival as "spring break for geeks." I guess that means Monday night's pre-festival networking event in New York was the equivalent of those on-campus mixers that travel companies hold in December and January. But instead of learning just how all-inclusive that rum-soaked Caribbean getaway will be, I was trying to figure out exactly what's going to happen at this year's SXSW. Are we going to see the emergence of the next big thing in social media?

The organizers of SXSW Interactive have been throwing … Read more

At Wired Store launch party, 'Guitar Hero' and gadgets galore (and tequila)

On Thursday night, a slew of well-dressed publishing types flooded into a cavernous space in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood for the opening celebration of 2007's Wired Store. For the past few years, the tech-focused magazine has created a "pop-up store" to feature the gadgets that it wants to highlight this holiday season.

And like any party, there was an open bar. Last year's Wired Store party had featured booze from Budweiser and Yellow Tail. This year, Wired parent company Conde Nast had stepped it up a notch with drink selections courtesy of Patron tequila--including a mojito … Read more

Live from New York, it's Founders Club--with M.C. Hammer

"It's been a year of surreal moments for me," Digg CEO Jay Adelson said to me, "and the big one was when I met M.C. Hammer."

The funny thing is, Hammer himself was standing right next to us. I was talking to Adelson at Tuesday night's edition of the Founders Club, a gathering of NYC-area digital-media and tech folks from both start-ups and major corporations who meet every few months to drink martinis, socialize, and drink more martinis. And before you start thinking about Hammer as a schlocky celebrity guest, keep in mind … Read more

Ideal Bite launches with scantily clad dancers, mechanical bull

I've got to say that I walked into Monday night's Ideal Bite party in midtown Manhattan with absolutely no idea of what to expect.

I knew that Ideal Bite was a new daily e-mail list that specialized in "light-green living"--you know, a sort of DailyCandy for eco-yuppies. The event, titled "Garden of Hedonism," promised "a night of total titillation that's both decadent and green," and that it would be held at--Johnny Utah's!?

New Yorkers who follow restaurant openings and closings are undoubtedly familiar with Johnny Utah's, an "… Read more

Give Reddit some credit: They know how to pack a bar

FREE BEER!!!!

That was the rallying cry for the Reddit party in New York's East Village on Saturday night, the latest stop on the social news site's "Drankkit World Tour 2007"--an event series that has made it to San Francisco and Boston so far, with Toronto, Chicago, D.C., and a few others still to come. The Gotham installment took place in a woefully undersized Alphabet City dive called The Hanger Bar, and was not-so-woefully under-publicized. Reddit had reason to keep the rabble out.

That's because the beer was free all night long. Guess … Read more

At NYC Flickr party, you're always on candid camera

As a member of the press, I'm accustomed to being the token partygoer taking awkward photographs of the room. Not so much at Flickr's "24 Hours of Flickr" party in New York on Thursday night, where there were so many cameras being whipped out that you'd think it were Times Square.

"I'm stuffing my face with cake, and then I look up and someone's taking a picture of me with chocolate all over my mouth," one mildly uncomfortable attendee told me.

The event, held in a cavernous studio space in Manhattan'… Read more

Rhapsody's CMJ kickoff party: Indie rock and insider schmoozing

NEW YORK--You've got to hand it to RealNetworks' Rhapsody. The subscription music service is pulling out all the stops to increase its market share--partnering with TiVo, entering a lofty deal with MTV Networks--and even if it hasn't been able to dent Apple's iTunes, Rhapsody hasn't been making itself look stupid in the process.

In fact, if the company's "Rhapsody Rocks NYC" concert here Monday night was any indicator, music aficionados are taking the company seriously.

Monday night was the eve of this year's CMJ Music Marathon, which runs from Tuesday … Read more

No fast-forwarding at TiVo, Rhapsody party

When I walked into midtown Manhattan's flashy Arena nightclub on Tuesday evening for an event celebrating the introduction of RealNetworks' Rhapsody music service on TiVo, a waiter approached me with a tray full of tumblers containing a clear liquid accompanied by slices of lime.

I was thirsty. "Is this water?" I asked him.

"No, it's an HD Crystal Clear Cosmo," he replied matter-of-factly, "so, no, it's not water."

A little bit of journalistic digging--i.e. finding a sign detailing the evening's signature drinks--yielded that that the HD Crystal Clear Cosmo … Read more

Google's NY press party: light on the cool news, heavy on the colorful martinis

I learned on Wednesday night that it's fun to play "grill the Google exec." There's also now a little purple lava lamp in my kitchen. You can blame the press cocktail party that Google threw at its New York headquarters at the iconic former Port Authority building in Chelsea.

What you have to understand is that the "Google media party," targeting consumer and lifestyle reporters, had been shrouded in notoriety for the past month. The always classy Page Six section of the New York Post, after all, had described the shindig as "more … Read more

New York's tech crowd packs it in for CrunchGear's anniversary party

TechCrunch, the industry blog run by Fixture 2.0 Michael Arrington, is a decidedly Valley institution, but its hardware sibling CrunchGear skews toward New York--if only because that's where its writers are based. Last night, the gadget blog threw its first-birthday bash on the upper floor of the bi-level Manhattan watering hole Red Sky, located a stone's throw away from CNET's offices on the outskirts of the afterwork-bar-heavy Murray Hill neighborhood.

The whole event had the feel of a tech-media mixer--like a more casual Founders Club or a less businesslike Meetup--to the point where it was … Read more