• by Kelly Samardak , July 29, 2010

Drinking With AdHoles, Kabin, New York
July 29, 2010

Keep sending those invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!

You have to have a healthy respect for cabbies in NYC.  If that car goes kaput, they're screwed.  Which is why I can understand why they'll take a tire iron to your face if you t-bone them while texting and driving in your hybrid.  Bloggers and their laptops are no doubt the same.  Ditto for photographers and their cameras.  So you can imagine how the Hulk came out when, just as I arrived at the Howcast party last night, my lens fell into a coma.

The humidity didn't help.  The humidity and the fact that the Howcast office was sweltering with the heat of bodies already lathered up over beer pong, and the window to the "tiki bar" was open out into the heat, letting the A/C escape like your boyfriend from your room that one night when you thought your parents were out of town.

I met Katy Zack, communications manager at Howcast, who introduced me to fellow Ohioan Megan Toth, an associate producer for the Emerging Filmmakers Program at Howcast, and Jason Liebman, Founder and CEO of Howcast.

And then my lens got cramps.  When you rely on technology -- even the smallest character in the technology play -- and it zworts out, how do you feel? Chatty? Smiley? Social? Or does blind rage take over, rendering you socially inept?

You can assume that I'm the latter.  Apologies to anyone who tried to talk to me at the Howcast party while I kept trying to diagnose my lens issue, I was seeing red and I wanted to cry.  My camera is my cold hard child.  I grabbed my date, AttentionPR's Karen Ram, and departed SoHo for my East Village pad to grab another lens. 

Once back in the East Village, I couldn't let the night be a total wash, so we headed to Kabin where the AdHoles were clustering.  I first met Marc Lefton at Wrath of Cannes and it was there that he told me about this big drink-up with AdHoles, "The Oldest and Largest Ad Industry Social Network."  Last night may have been one of their smallest gatherings, but we should blame the fact that it was almost the month of August, which people keep telling me is the month everyone goes on vacation.  I'm still working, so feel free to keep throwing parties.

While the gathering was small in numbers, it wasn't tiny in intrigue and drama from years past.  Let's just say more than one form of exes had their worlds collide and it was less of a friendly ghost situation.  Definitely a lesson in bridge burning: When to flame the hell out of them without regret -- or when to get that flame-retardant wood material when constructing them (you know, because you know the flame is coming, but not by your hand).  Cryptic enough for you?

One of the first people I met was Aaron Jaffe, a musician and creative director/composer at Novacaine Studio.  He was basking in the light-blue numbing glow of the Kabin A/C and waiting for his pal Kenn Richards, a music producer, to return to the room with Maria Elgar, creative rep (and Aaron's artist rep).

I also met Simeon Coker, a fedora-topped ad sales dude with copywriting aspirations.  Appearances alone outed his creative side -- with his hat, plaid shirt, and Urkle-chic specs.  Simeon was one of those great finds, easy-going, quick-witted, and burbling with contagious laughter.  We were approached by Bonnie Natko, a creative recruiter who was working the room.

While trying to evaporate the second layer of humidity skin I had grown, I met Scott Stein, President of McCarthy Poster.  After handing me his wet business card that he pulled from his butt pocket, he promptly began showing me photos of Hispanic and Asian kids in shopping carts (that's the target population combined with the actual ad touchpoint) and shots of supermarket fish and fishheads -- for something I'm still not sure of.

I also met Annlee, who didn't give me a last name because "I don't have one... like Cher."  Annlee is a music producer and composer for Unleaded Music, and I have no idea how that whole "one name only" thing works in other social situations, but... yeah...I wonder if she knows Zeus!

Patrick Sasso, a digital producer at LoopSeven Production, was also mingling with the AdHoles as were the Johnny Agency guys John Fletcher, Jr., President, and James Deckinger, who is a Creative Director at Johnny Agency. James was three things: confused as to why I'm just not that impressed with "Mad Men," excited about Johnny's work with Dow Jones and future developments with a major well-known brand, and a lover of baseball analogies like "home run" and "grand slam" when referring to "tests" given by said large brands.  We traded Westchester stories and college tales.

On my way out, I ran into Richard Zimmer, founder of ZDI Design Group, a boutique agency focusing on branding and design.  He's physically based in Long Island but is a Manhattan frequenter.  We discussed Manhattan schmooze/booze frequency vs. anywhere else and concluded confidently that, well, only in New York.

So there you have it, a night full of roadblocks successfully leapt over, thanks to my Go Go Gadget night persistence.  I practice good camera karma, so I have no idea what happened, but I'll overlook it, photog gods, if you'll fix that attitude!

Photos I did take are up on Flickr.