• by Kelly Samardak , December 4, 2008

Discovery Communications Holiday Party, The Campbell Apartment, New York
December 2, 2008

I think I've been 4'11" my whole life. Well, at least since fifth grade. Since then, I've been a fan of nerdy stuff (I always had a crush on the boys who made model rockets in the back of Reading class when we were supposed to be doing reading of the sustained silent type), sometimes girly stuff, really depressing stuff (word up to my girl Sylvia Plath!), melodic stuff, and anything citified. The Campbell Apartment in Grand Central station provided the petri dish for the love child of all those things. And I have Discovery Communications to thank for it. Let's break it down, shall we?

Nerdy Stuff: I used to be a Discover Kids subscriber. Which has nothing to do with Discovery Communications, but it cultivated in me this love of things I couldn't touch like space, lava (shout out to pahoehoe!), and monkeys. In 8th grade, I promised my lab partner I would name my first child "Spelunker." Regardless, I'm now this DVR person - I don't necessarily connect the dots on who is presenting me with such addictive shows like Whale Wars, which is a Discovery gem. In case you're curious, Whale Wars follows the efforts of the logo-heavy branded ship operated by the Sea Shepard Conservation Society. The ship is captained by Paul Watson who got his Greenpeace pink slip for being too much of a renegade. I'm 100% he's certifiable, but I can't stop watching the passion of his granola crew.

Everything Citified: Ah, Grand Central Station. Even when it's boiling over with sweaty tourists unaware that "eyes forward" is universal, I can't get enough of her. She's beautiful, ancient, shiny and soft, yet hard and sturdy all at once. She's the only one who knows where the heck all those people are going. The Campbell Apartment graces its westernmost corner, just dripping with old New York money. I could see the ghost of a miserly finance guy hunched over desk-size books of figures, his quill dripping with the ink of other peoples' money. Inhale deeply, you can totally smell the pipe smoke. The wreaths and garlands sparkled with tiny Christmas lights, bathing the dark wood slathered room in a homey glow. Mingling about were the Sirius XM Radio foursome of Lea Palmieri, Laura Heywood, and Anabella Poland. They got in line that morning at 4:00AM to see a Britney Spears performance. They sat right behind her mom and her kids, who were absolutely adorable, according to the Siriusers. Disturbing though, were the people who crammed their cameras in the kids' faces.

Girly Stuff: "Well, I take it that you don't watch Gossip Girl," yawped my +1 Gail Hilton, Director of Sales and Marketing over there at Qwikker, "I watch bad tv, I'm not embarrassed to admit it". I'll omit the dirty details of the episode that "graced" the bar at the Campbell Apartment. Mr. Campbell must have rotisseried in his grave. I'm usually a little shy to approach the tallest pretty girl at the party, but it was time for a beverage reup and she had a gorgeously photographable dress on. Gail recounted her "I broke up with my shoe guy and then all my friends had to" story to Caroline McCarthy, writer of CNet's The Social, Holter Graham of Planet Green, and tall gal, who turned out to be Summer Rayne Oakes. She is not just tall and open to moving away from the bar so us short gals can get in, she's a successful, eco minded, doing all things good "cause -related" model (yes, seriously), author, and entrepreneur. She also recommended a rebound cobbler relationship to Gail that may turn into something more serious before heading off to, of course, a benefit with tuxedo sporting "Into The Unknown" host Josh Berstein.

Really Depressing Stuff: Psyche! Nothing depressing about this party! The only sad part was leaving. Not only were Kir Royales being passed and replaced with a quickness, but our mouths were being offered warm wedges of asparagus pizza, some sort of deep fried eggplant fingers, thimble sized fish tacos (which I remember seeing at the Nokia Theatre at the facebook wrap up party *shivers*), and the smallest mini burger I have ever seen. "Do you realize that there is an entire industry based around tiny food?" grinned Holter Graham. If someone's going to create Keebler elf sized burgers, a mold must be made for the outfits they wear, no?

Melodic Stuff: Hmm, this one is hard. Well. Oh! There was a lovely trio (including a floutist!) in the corner gently wrapping the party in a snuggly fleece blanket of tune-age. Enjoying the soothing symphonics were Geraldine Fitzgerald of Mediaweek, Thomas Woerner from Brandweek, Ivan Bargueiras, SVP Advertising Sales, Discovery Networks Latin America/US Hispanic, Tim Cosgrove from Discovery Channel, Josh Zepps and Michio Kaku from Science Channel, Frazier Moore from Associated Press, and Dori Kornspan, Talent Booker for The Morning Show With Mike And Juliet. Simon Applebaum deserves his own line of namedropping because when I asked for his card (I had actually met him at my FIRST ever party - from Oxygen), he dug into his sack and yanked out a regular size paper, saying "This is what I do!" and then launched into his line up of guests, plans for the future, good great, have a nice day! Hey, that's how you get things done. Simon's heart beats for his weekely Internet Radio Show "Tomorrow will be televised" on www.nowlive.com. 

I'm going to host "Today will be DVRd."

Invite kelly@mediapost.com and get your face in Just An Online Minute!

Break into The Campbell Apartment with the pics on Flickr !

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