Commentary

Just An Online Minute... The Terminally Awesome ANDY Awards

The International ANDY Awards, Terminal 5, New York
March 18, 2009

I will never EVER whine and warble about having to trek to the IAC. If I'm 9 months pregnant, wearing stilettos, and eating a salad while running there, maybe I'll complain, but that's the only time. Why? Because I have discovered a new location nemesis - Terminal 5 (keep reading ANDY awards organizers, I'm not slamming the venue). I've only been to Terminal 5 to see the live music shows these young kids talk about, and the sound and sight lines are less than desirable - but sometimes I wonder if I'd have a different attitude if it wasn't so bloody difficult to get there. I arrived fresh from the bland Media Summit cocktail reception and I was ready to leap tooth first into the buffet The ANDY's promised, so let's get on with it!

For your curiosity: The International ANDY awards show iss not-for-profit and proceeds directly support The ADVERTISING Club Foundation to fund its education initiatives. Great! You can find out all you need to know about the ANDY Awards' history on their site, but let's you and me talk about this party! There was a small line forming outside of Terminal at 5:58 p.m. when I got there. We were let in at 6 on the dot and were greeted by Terminal 5's dangling chandeliers, which took on a completely different personality with this new crowd. The purple yellow glow, the super-friendly coatcheck crew, the black leather sofas, the glitter-splattered red banquet in front of the bar, the candles scattered everywhere, the tall tables set with centerpieces that stood sentry in front of the art work on display - it all came together like warm cream cheese frosting on Granny's carrot cake. Perfection. Subtle glamourous perfection. I was really impressed that Terminal 5, despite its location on the West Side Highway, transformed into a classy event space.

My first human interaction was with the very enjoyable twosome of Howard Wulkan of Yessian (well, yessian.com and dragonlicks.com) and Marlene Bartos, managing director of the Yessian NY Office. Howard and I share a little connection with through ADA, which is where my dude happens to work. Marlene mentioned, as we waited to be checked in, that Andrew Keller seemed to be Jon Heder's doppelganger ("Napoleon Dynamite"... anyone? Anyone?).

I walked by the greeters with wine and mini burgers and straight to the serving tables. On these tables were luscious bowls of leafy delicious Caesar salad, chafing dishes heaped full of steaming pasta (one was ravioli, the other was penne pomodoro), and my favorite little buddies - the butter balls arranged in pyramid formation. Later in the night I noticed that both pyramids of Midwestern luxury were untouched!

At the bar, in front of the pile of addictive toasty nuts, I accosted Leah Fischman, Executive Director, Divsional Partnerships at Time Warner, and Dany Lennon of The Creative Register,Inc. Everyone was shockingly receptive to picture-taking. I kept asking my camera if we were dreaming. My camera told me I was crazy to be talking to a camera. Speaking of cameras, I was tag-teaming the crowd with the always saucy, pink-T-shirt-sporting Matt Van Hoven, writer, editor, and lead snottypants at mediabistro's Agency Spy. He's been keeping a stiff upper lip over public debate of his bristle strip. He also inhaled three balls of butter while a fellow who declared his partying days were over kept haranguing Matt about his mingling skills. So much so that I asked if he was a superior. Nope, just a drive-by time manager.  Oh! After talking to a group behind me for a minute I realized I actually knew one of them - Anjali Malhotra from EMI Music Publishing, whom I met at the Social Happy Digital Hour.

Just before the awards ceremony began, I saw the easily recognizable stance of Robert Rasmussen peering at the creative work displayed in the big mingle area. He was there representing BBH NY, the agency that won the big daddy - The GRANDY Award- for its campaign "Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets" that launched Oasis' latest album - where street bands performed their new unreleased tracks. I must not pay enough attention on the street - regardless it was pleasantly surprising to watch the notoriously egotistical Noel Gallagher visibly blown away by the work of the street band interpreters. The team will no doubt be sharing the $50,000 in cash award and alternating who gets to wear the GRANDY "championship" ring.

The BEST part of the evening for me were the two musical acts, artistic musicians nabbed from their subway performance spaces and placed in Terminal 5: Dagmar and Next Tribe . Both were incredible and incredibly different and I felt like a total fool when I assumed that if you perform in the subway, you're a street nomad. Yeah. Every nook and cranny of NYC is a stage, isn't it? 

Towards the end of my evening, which was later than it should have been (I really should have checked myself out earlier) I met Anthony Falvo, copywriter, and Jason Nitti, art director - both of Young and Rubicam. I wish I could remember what we talked about, I know it had something to do with wigs. At the bar I met the gregarious, potentially sauced, and fantastically British AdWeek Editor, Mike Chapman. We chortled about Brian Morrissey, Adweek's Digitial Editor, and then I knew it was time to make the long walk back to the yellow line, grousing about my feet while I saw the hansom cabs running their horses entirely too quickly down 9th Avenue to that place that is a sorry excuse for a stable.

Oh, right - the award ceremony itself. It was awesome. It was like watching TV - all color, lights, fun, deep meaning, toilet humor, explosive creativity. I was lulled into a pasta/vino coma and nearly fell asleep, hypnotized. If invited, you bet I'll be back next year: the people were great, the butter balls were scrumptious, and rabble-rousing with Van Hoven is a life-affirming activity.

There are TONS of photos - still updating the photoset, but get the "so far" !

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com and get in Just An Online Minute!

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