• by Kelly Samardak , August 25, 2010

Party Time, Excellent, New York
August 25 - 29, 2010

After a bunch of weeks to melt your brain here in NYC, we're currently being soaked by back-to-school-style fall weather, but I like it.  Due to the MediaPost office move, my current office looks out into the courtyard that separates the backs of East Village buildings and I've been enjoying the sound of the wind that precludes the rain and the dripdrop aftermath.  The brick is wet and maroon and the smell is wonderful.  For now, New York smells clean.  While the office move has relocated where I perch my tush, it hasn't changed this column -- so let's see what's on deck for this week. 

I wrote earlier about the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition Exhibition, which was serious diversion from the usual stuff I cover, but a fun stretchy one for me, so I hope you liked it. Now it's back to the serious business of partying, and tonight isn't a gentle reintroduction:

Tonight, Aug. 25

METRO Long Island Launch party! Strong Island enters the free-in-transit paper trail through the wooden wine-soaked wonderland that is City Winery.  Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres are promised, but other than that, the marketing contact over there is pretty mum on anything else I could tickle you with.  The last METRO party I covered was packed with people surprises, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. No word on whether METRO Long Island will be thicker for people commuting from Montauk. 

Digital DUMBO #19, whose theme is "Let's Get Social!" (I thought we already were!) may or may not be attended by me.  What if the METRO party is so fun I can't tear myself away? It would be sad, because I miss my DUMBO-ites, but this happens all the time - I double down on commitments and then around the 8 p.m. mark I think "crap, dude, I don't want to go all the way to Brooklyn..." - which isn't that far at all.

There are an extraordinary (record-breaking?) number of RSVPs to tonight's event, which either speaks volumes about Joyent, the Cumulonimbus in cloud hosting for the social web, and Traffic Marketplace, a digital marketing company, OR it speaks volumes on the digital community's need to get drunk in this chilly weather.  Either way, it's a win-win as long as nobody yells at networkers to stop networking.

Thursday, Aug. 26

One of the original baldies I met while covering this circuit was (well, is) Greg Verdino, whose employer's name has changed, but whose desire to take over the micro marketing world hasn't.  So he wrote a book.  It's called "Micromarketing." And he's celebrating the launch of it.  With people.  Unfortunately at the Roger Smith Hotel.  Oh hush, I'm not knocking their social media marketing campaigning and smarts, I just don't dig some of the musty rooms in which people hold their parties. But I haven't seen the entire hotel top to bottom, so get your fancy sea salt grains and take them.

Sunday, August 29^th (that's right, I said Sunday)

I'll be hitting two events, which is sort of unheard of in my own self-regulated party coverage world.  I see the weekends as my own, but sometimes, I bend. Because it's fun.

The first is Gathering At The SCRATCHshop.  It will be nothing like The Gathering Of The Juggalos, save for things fermenting, but more of the yeast variety than the offensive watermelon variety.  Google that pop culture tidbit because I refuse to dive deeper. SCRATCHbread, whose "Right To Deliciousness" campaign can be found on Kickstarter, is celebrating their new food workshop with Brooklyn Soda Works' seasonal soda on tap, Chestnut restaurant vino, and for you locavores out there who can't get enough produce -- BK Farmyards produce will be there too. 

The second event is another dip into the art world.  Amanda Dolan promises to "Kick start your Fall fashion senses with some canvas eye-candy" with her dark edgy "Dress Up."  Her invitation reads "(think: less rainbows, more bondage!)" If that phrase is on a T-shirt, I'm buying it, if only to confuse my mom.

In between all of this, I'll probably throw in some photos from MediaPost's Mobile Insider and Social Media Insider Summits that are invading Lake Tahoe.

It's a crazy job, but someone's got to do it! 

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!