Commentary

Just An Online Minute... Dictionary Party Defines 2011 Media And Advertising Social Scene

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope this finds you all happily ensconced in your cubes, posturing on your balance ball chairs, and crackling with "I am so ecstatic to be back at work" energy.   I'm not going to lie; it's good to be back at the grind refreshed, ready to tackle a new year of social happenings in the world of media and advertising.  January contains a pretty quirky lineup of events already, so I hope you're ready for more pulled-pork-slider-covered levity from Just An Online Minute!

Did you make any resolutions?  I haven't yet, but that's not to say I'm not into goal setting.  I just don't like the idea of feeling like a hardcore failure because after five sparkling beverages I thought "Launch pizza-focused dating site" was a good idea.  Or "make bed every morning." I mean, who can do that?  The definition of resolution has been completely bastardized, anyway, to represent promises of self-improvement like "grow longer lashes" or "get Pat Kiernan to accept a bag of chickens" (btw, Save Pat's Papers!) or "congratulate myself more often on Twitter because people don't seem to know how awesome I am!" (Obviously I did not resolve to abolish critical thought from my brain). 

I'd love to tell you how the Oxford English Dictionary defines "resolution," but the freshly launched online version is a paid subscription.  There appear to be free trials for institutions and individual use, but holy cow is that site hard to navigate (didn't spend that much time on it, however).

Oh hey, speaking of... I'll be attending a cocktail party to celebrate the launch of the new OED Online tonight!  That's right, a dictionary party.  I hope there are goodie bags and inside are huge leatherbound and brass-padlocked dictionaries, horn rimmed reading glasses, and scarlet velvet capes that we are required to wear home or surrender the goodie bags.  I would do it for the words.

Next week is filled with events like Hearst's Photography Biennial, a Minorities in Media Karaoke event (Karaoke terrifies me), MEDIA and OMMA Magazines' Agency Of The Year Awards, and an Onion (THE Onion) luncheon celebrating the broadcast premiere of IFC's Onion News Network.   I expect the IFC ONN luncheon to be rife with salad-snorking hilarity.  If a carrot does not fly from a hole on my face at least once, I will be extremely disappointed.

Following the IFC ONN luncheon, I will be covering a book launch party.  Yes, one of those bound things with the papery things inside of it with words printed on the paper things.  It's for "Gideon's War," a book by Howard Gordon, executive producer of "24" (my non-watching status for this show has inspired scoffs and gasps of sheer incredulity at such a life misstep).  Kiefer Sutherland approves of Gordon's book, saying "True to form of my eight-year experience with Howard Gordon on 24, GIDEON'S WAR is a rip-roaring thriller."  This loosely translates to, "Please hire me for the actings again."

The end of 2010 was not a slow burn, and it looks like 2011 isn't taking a party/event siesta either!  Keep reading, tell your little buddies to subscribe, and as always send your event invitations to kelly@mediapost.com (that's me, obviously.  Or maybe not obviously, who knows?)

Little side note:  The captioned photos are from my lovely hiatus in postcard perfect Connecticut, which then morphed into a drive to Maryland (the car rental guy laughed in our faces for driving directly into the snowstorm to beat all snowstorms).  Our drive south wasn't too bad; we passed about 10 accidents, but otherwise completely bypassed the storm. 

Baltimore was a wonderful holiday host, with a trip to DiPasquales, Fells Point for shopping, food, Clipper City beers, a crooner at The Horse You Rode In On, and The Brewer's Art for delectable edibles and dangerous brews. 

If you live in Manhattan, then you'll also appreciate that I nearly fell into a coma of bliss when I hit the suburban Trader Joe's in Columbia, Md.  There was space to walk around; I actually had time to read labels without a septuagenarian trying to dismember me with her cart on one side and a child trying to impregnate me with a box of Joe's Os on the other.  The freedom of movement was so intense I was frozen in place, uncertain of how to operate without yodeling "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!!"

Happy New Year -- and I hope to see you around (yes, all of you).

Larger photos are on Flickr!

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