Sunday, January 31, 1999

Hotjobs.com Superbowl - Super JobsJobsJobs

If there was one theme of the week is Jobs!Jobs!Jobs! And I don't mean Steve Jobs having triplets. In fact, the month of February, which is normally heralded as Black History Month, might seem to be more aptly coined New Media Job Hunting Month. If you didn't score at Hotjobs.com's Superbowl XXXIII party at the Hudson Sporting Club on Sunday, January 31st, you'll have another opportunity later this month during their WorkWorld fair. Hotjobs.com and NYNMA will have put together two events in one month with a lot of muscle. At the Sporting Club, wherever your eye fell it most likely would land on a large-screened TV or on throngs of young people with eyes glazed over as they stared upwards at the scores, MVPs and the rounds of hot million-dollar commercials. Hotjobs.com's employees and managers alike had friends to show support. Christopher March, VP and General Counsel had buddies Russ Heiken, an Engineer and Bruce Norris up from Florida, and Richard Johnson, President & CEO, was heady with the swooning crowd and the anticipation of their commercial, which aired at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Employees like Michael Taylor, a product manager, had his friend Alek Schmitz of MicroStrategy present and Theza Griesman had full support from her friends too. Bob Liu (formerly of CNNfn) and now in charge of press inquiries of Hotjobs.com brought along Brand Dialoguers Valerie Martinez and Leah Cardoni. "Otek" loved the party and as I headed home to wind down from the festivities I caught the hip Kamuti of SonicNet dashing home for the half-time show as well.

Friday, January 29, 1999

"Mainstream Meeting of Minds" by John McLean-Foreman

This year's first New Media BC breakfast was held on January 8th and the main speaker was Christopher Brough who is Founder and CEO of Mainframe Entertainment Inc., and the newly elected President of New Media BC. If you have ever seen ReBoot, or Beast Wars/Transformers, then you know Mainframe Entertainment. http://www.mainframe.ca/HOME/index.html

Earlier this week I had the honor of going over Christopher's speech in more detail and thought I'd share some of the highlights:

1. He calls for the New Media community to speak with a unified voice so that we can more effectively deal with our government.
2. In order to grow, we have to increase available capital financing.
Christopher proposes that all member of New Media BC work as a team in
identifying potential public and private resources and then share that
information within the membership.
3. To effectively defeat the Brain Drain to the United States, New Media BC
is lobbying for tax credits and incentives for investors.
4. He feels we need to create closer ties with our post secondary education
facilities: This is by keeping the schools, at all levels, up to industry standards, helping to keep appropriate government funding in the schools, and expanded internships, mentorships, and on the job training so that the students will be adequately prepared to meet the needs of employers.
5. Under the current CRTC New Media hearing, we need to collectively support the position that they can play a strong role in encouraging companies to develop digital media product that use Canadian content by no over-regulating our ability to distribute our products competitively on the global information highway.
6. New Media BC plans to establish a major presence at trade shows, forums, and market-driven events. It also plans to work closely with related BC based organization to help spread the word that British Columbia is now "on line" and ready to expand our business relationships across the world.

Christopher admitted that what he said wasn't anything new, but he spoke clearly. He is being heard and joined by people like him who are bringing change to our economy.

(jmf@bc.sympatico.ca)

Shakers & Stirrers and Bits & Bytes

Back home, Razorfish is revamping its management in its New York Office. Jean-Philippe Maheu has been named Executive Vice President of North America. Evan Orensten has been named Executive Vice President for Corporate Development. Hyo Yeon has been named Managing Director. Steve Mendelsohn has been named Director of Solutions Management. Elizabeth Semple has been named the Director of Human Resources. Thomas Müller has been named Creative Director. David Warner has been named Manager and Design Director. Camille Shandor has been named Manager of the Content Strategy and Development Group. Karen McGrane has been named Manager of the Information Design and Usability group. "Say what you will about our industry," said Jeff Dachis, President/CEO of Razorfish, "but it all comes down to people, and we are committed to providing opportunities for some of the most talented in this field. I am excited to unleash their enthusiasm and capabilities to continue making Razorfish the leading firm in our market."

All in the first week of the FortuneCity.com and Warner Bros. Online's ACMEcity.com, over 75,000 pages were added to its site AND their 1,000,000th "Citizen" joined FortuneCity.com.

Interesting Indicators

Here's some news that came across the wires that I thought was interesting indicators of what's going on in the Alley, when we're not out partying or sleeping (or working!).

T3 Media is expanding its reach and is opening a Seattle office to service clients out there. There new digs will be staffed with GM Tim Stiles, senior account manager Tammy Koenig and production manager Kendra Wilhelm, who is transferring from NY.

Modern Culture is participating in ARCO '99, Madrid's International Contemporary Art Fair, from February 11 to 16, 1999. Silicon Alley will be well represented as works from Roberta Bayley and Electronic Hollywood's Jaime Levy will be displayed. http://www.bway.net/~modcult/

Publisher's Note ~ A Busy Busy Busy Week

This week was not short for events and parties. Each day presented a whirlwind of activities--all unique unto themselves.

The Cyber Scene in Vancouver by John McLean-Foreman

And here's what the new media community in Vancouver are thinking and mulling over:

"Mainstream Meeting of Minds" by John McLean-Foreman (jmf@bc.sympatico.ca)

This year's first New Media BC breakfast was held on January 8th and the main speaker was Christopher Brough who is Founder and CEO of Mainframe Entertainment Inc., and the newly elected President of New Media BC. If you have ever seen ReBoot, or Beast Wars/Transformers, then you know Mainframe Entertainment. http://www.mainframe.ca/HOME/index.html

Earlier this week I had the honor of going over Christopher's speech in more detail and thought I'd share some of the highlights:

1. He calls for the New Media community to speak with a unified voice so that we can more effectively deal with our government.

2. In order to grow, we have to increase available capital financing.
Christopher proposes that all member of New Media BC work as a team in
identifying potential public and private resources and then share that
information within the membership.

3. To effectively defeat the Brain Drain to the United States, New Media BC
is lobbying for tax credits and incentives for investors.

4. He feels we need to create closer ties with our post secondary education
facilities: This is by keeping the schools, at all levels, up to industry standards, helping to keep appropriate government funding in the schools, and expanded internships, mentorships, and on the job training so that the students will be adequately prepared to meet the needs of employers.

5. Under the current CRTC New Media hearing, we need to collectively support the position that they can play a strong role in encouraging companies to develop digital media product that use Canadian content by no over-regulating our ability to distribute our products competitively on the global information highway.

6. New Media BC plans to establish a major presence at trade shows, forums, and market-driven events. It also plans to work closely with related BC based organization to help spread the word that British Columbia is now "on line" and ready to expand our business relationships across the world.

Christopher admitted that what he said wasn't anything new, but he spoke clearly. He is being heard and joined by people like him who are bringing change to our economy.

BITS AND BYTES - 1/29/99

Here's some news that came across the wires that I thought was interesting indicators of what's going on in the Alley, when we're not out partying or sleeping (or working!).

T3 Media is expanding its reach and is opening a Seattle office to service clients out there. There new digs will be staffed with GM Tim Stiles, senior account manager Tammy Koenig and production manager Kendra Wilhelm, who is transferring from NY.

Modern Culture is participating in ARCO '99, Madrid's International Contemporary Art Fair, from February 11 to 16, 1999. Silicon Alley will be well represented as works from Roberta Bayley and Electronic Hollywood's Jaime Levy will be displayed. http://www.bway.net/~modcult/

All in the first week of the FortuneCity.com and Warner Bros. Online's ACMEcity.com, over 75,000 pages were added to its site AND their 1,000,000th "Citizen" joined FortuneCity.com.

SHAKERS & STIRRERS
Back home, Razorfish is revamping its management in its New York Office. Jean-Philippe Maheu has been named Executive Vice President of North America. Evan Orensten has been named Executive Vice President for Corporate Development. Hyo Yeon has been named Managing Director. Steve Mendelsohn has been named Director of Solutions Management. Elizabeth Semple has been named the Director of Human Resources. Thomas Müller has been named Creative Director. David Warner has been named Manager and Design Director. Camille Shandor has been named Manager of the Content Strategy and Development Group. Karen McGrane has been named Manager of the Information Design and Usability group. "Say what you will about our industry," said Jeff Dachis, President/CEO of Razorfish, "but it all comes down to people, and we are committed to providing opportunities for some of the most talented in this field. I am excited to unleash their enthusiasm and capabilities to continue making Razorfish the leading firm in our market."

Thursday, January 28, 1999

NYNMA's CyberSuds ~ A Veritable Surprise

Talk about a surprise! Well, NYNMA's CyberSuds on Thursday, January 28th, was one to me. Not only were most of NYNMA's board members there, but many top Alleyites were too. It was unexpected because I arrived early to assist in the membership development committee "meeting," which was a loosely organized opportunity to snack on cheese cubes and sip a beverage while chatting up NYNMA with early attendees. The vast, spacious 2nd floor of 417 Fifth Avenue, a Cushman & Wakefield property (who sponsors some of Hymn's events) filled up quickly between the hours of six and seven o'clock. Alex Chudnoff, a representative of C&W, was playing the busy host role well and one of his colleagues, David Lowery, was a budding professional networker as he came right up, announced his name and shook my hand. My personal task was to introduce my good friend and producer of the "MetroByte" show, Chip Lewis, to as many unique Alley people and companies as I could. He's been at the helm of trying to include more Silicon Alley people in Cablevision's consumer-based show on computers. I met Catherine Winchester, CEO of Soliloquy, Inc., who I'd heard about before but never met and who explained the nature of her company to me. Interesting company in that the name indicates speaking alone and the product is about conversing with a computer. Standing by Oven Digital's display table I saw Michael Hughes of Oracle, who sent me a most interesting link the other day about Oracle and its new $100 million venture fund to foster companies that leverage its Oracle8i internet computing platform. There's an incentive!

Just to my right were Chip Austin, president and CEO of bol.com and Eric Goldberg, founder of Crossover Technologies, who while brilliant, informed me that he hasn’t actually built a game in a few years. However, the fact that his company is the one of the only game developers in Manhattan proper, makes the work Eric and his company do quite significant in the Alley.

Allison Tucker, a marketing and e-commerce specialist, and E-com Advisors partners Larry Pearl and Sandeep Thakrar (formerly of NetGrocer) were early arrivals. Reps from our new media PR firms were out in numbers -- namely Don Middleberg, Mark Pasetsky and Rob Argento of Middleberg PR and Renee Edelman, Whitney Gould, Adam Martini and Chris Ward of PR 21. Mark Holdreith, president of PIC, LLC approached me expressing interest in volunteering for some of the exciting Member Relations Committees special events that we've got lined up. And Dianne Baasch, Director of the Independent Schools Multi-Media Center explained a bit about how she coordinates multi-media programs for over 20 independent schools in the city. Wired Cyberspace writer Christopher Allbritton from the AP was smartly about without his nametag and Stephanie Secchia a rep from Qwest was there. Katie Hobson introduced some of her colleagues from TheStreet.com to me. Mark Stahlman, Debbie Newman (who moved over from N2K to DejaNews), Andrew Klein of Wit Capital and Bill Rudin of Rudin Management all showed their support for NYNMA and the schmooze-opportunity that CyberSuds presents. Well, all in all, I'd say almost everybody was there!

Kidder, Playford and Tyler's new venture


 From there Chip, Christine Harmel and I sped along to Pageant for a packed party
 celebrating David Kidder, Andrew Playford and Troy Tyler's new venture. They can't
 talk about it too much, but its going to be a fantabulous piece of whiz-bang technology
 that we'll all want on our desktops or in our palm units or refrigerators as soon as it's
 available! If you didn't see all the digerati at CyberSuds, you could catch the rest of
 'em at this party. Bernard Warner of The Industry Standard and Ben Austin of Comet
 Systems were two of the charming gentlemen present. Andrew Raisej stopped by to
 show support, Tery Spataro, David Blumenstein and generations of new media
 workers and shakers were out.

Wednesday, January 27, 1999

Cocktails with Courtney ~ A Harmonious Night

Everything was in Harmony at the Harmony Bar on Houston Street Wednesday night, January 27th for my fourth "Cocktails With Courtney" party. Martinis were being carefully held and delicious hors d'oeuvres were being popped into the mouths of various guests. Steve Introcaso of Sun Microsystems, regular scene-ster Kevin Sickles (of Sun and WWWAC Board member) came by. Louis Giacalone TechScan Newsletter stopped by early enough that we had a chance to chat about the NYSIA event last week. Real Media sales director (eastern region) Chris Axberg, Viant's Marylyn Dintenfass, Jennifer Madrid of Merrill Lynch, and new media PR consultant Jim Bruni (sans his Armani jacket) all came for the intimate gathering. My cousin Lisa (who broke away from NAPTE crazy New Orleans) met some good people from Jane magazine and Eric Grilly of NandoTimes flew in one night early just for the party. Wasn't that nice of him?! :) The Mass Transit guys -- Jason Burnham and Danny Schaeffer -- brought online marketing consultant for the firm Hope Distant along. And Len Stein of Visibility PR (great name, huh?) stopped by. Olive media's Stephen Fritz and Bob Troia, Cool Site of the Day Mike Corso and graphic designer Stacy Lautzenheiser came by. Marissa Raderman, who's now at Doubleclick brought along some friends and some of my non-new media friends and fellow volunteers from the Junior League came by to see what this crazy internet crowd is all about! All in all it was a
 fun night in a hot new spot (E&O used to be at this address).

Tuesday, January 26, 1999

Commonality with Klein & Von Furstenberg

Guess what I have in common with Calvin Klein and Diane Von Furstenberg? We all had root canals done on Tuesday, January 26th by Dr. Brian Weber! Fun, huh?

Root Commonality

Guess what I have in common with Calvin Klein and Diane Von Furstenberg? We all had root canals done on Tuesday, January 26th by Dr. Brian Weber! Fun, huh?

Monday, January 25, 1999

Candian Conference Collaboration Cause Celebre!

Special kudos go to Matt Toner and Tony Raposo of the Canadian Consulate for putting together a stellar conference on animation on Monday, January 25th. Of all the countries represented in this international city, they by far have worked the hardest and created the biggest impact showing true wisdom in the new media realm and with collaborative efforts between New York and Canadian cities. This event was no different than their usual mark of class, sophistication, well organized and rich with interesting content, people and companies. The event started off with a Master Class at the Florence Gould Hall of FIT and then flipped to a luncheon at the Digital Sandbox at 55 Broad Street. In addition to the numerous Canadian companies showing their work like Fly studio, Nelvana and Sarbakan were some New York based firms like Jaime Levy's Electronic Hollywood, Buzzco Associates and the Data Motion Arts studio. After the "MetroByte" show on speech recognition software, show host Scott Rigby and partner James Talerico of Thoughtbubble came with me to the evening reception. We caught the tale end of a presentation on the making of parts of the movie Spawn. So we saw a clown morph into a dragon-lizard-scary creature about 20 times, headed upstairs for a chocolate dipped strawberry and called it a night. This well attended event was an excellent resource for seeing the amazing work and prolific companies in Canada and an opportunity to explore collaboration on new media projects.

Friday, January 22, 1999

Talk to me!

It was a day of eloquence, music, venture, champagne kisses and caviar dreams dahling. I started Thursday, January 21st with Burt Alimansky and ended it with Robin Leech. The New York InfoTech Forum held their first meeting on Thursday, January 21st at the Toy Center. This elegant old hotel ballroom is usually the setting for charity balls. Today it was waking up Alley professionals with strong coffee and a presentation on speech recognition from IBM. IBM has had about forty years background in development of this technology. And, incidentally, I will be speaking on Monday night, January 25 on MLC's "MetroByte" show (Cablevision) on one of their top competitors, Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Several charmers from Richard A. Eisner were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, especially Richard Shanley, who gave me a copy of his book, "Financing Technology's Frontier." Bruce Strzelczyk (who is also a WWWAC board member), Christopher Loiacono and Walter Timoshenko joined him in greeting attendees. Michael Goudie of Oracle introduced me to Susan Dowling, director of worldwide marketing and biz dev. for this company. John Evans of Arthur Anderson, Steven Fink of MessageBank (cool voice messaging services!) and Alan Brody of the famous Silicon Alley Breakfast Club were all warming up to the day with a coffee and muffin. In addition to IBM's presentation, ZyDoc Speech was showcasing their software in the reception. This software is for medical dictation. Following the medical theme, HOST (Healthcare Open Systems & Trials) also had a booth. Silicon Alley non-profit darling MOUSE and Andrew Raisej were mixing and mingling with the likes of Marie Nelson (Industry Scoops). Always charming in her Southern dialect, Anna Copeland Wheatley (AlleyCat News) was representative of her publication, which was also a sponsor of the breakfast.

TCS Intro: 1/22/99

It's an exciting day in the world for new media and "scene" followers. Why, you ask? Because today is the first day of the beginning of the growth of this column-turned-newsletter. Plugged-in, talented, enterprising John McLean-Foreman of Vancouver, BC will be offering his talented writing skills to this weekly record of what's going on in top wired cities.

And to quell the suspense, here is his field report!

Upcoming Appearances

* Catch me talking about Voice Recognition software on MLC's "MetroByte" show on January 25 at 8 PM. Cablevision. *

* Stay tuned for announcements regarding a regularly occurring article with the San Francisco Gate online about Silicon Alley. *

* Contributor: John McLean-Foreman = jmf@bc.sympatico.ca
* Editor: Michele Marrinan = AMMarrinan@aol.com

Thursday, January 21, 1999

Champagne, Caviar and Rude Rabbits!

Thursday ended in the stunning Webster Hall with chubby trapeze artists flying above and rude (Intel-sponsored) rabbits gesticulating around. It was the "Cool Site of the Year" awards, dahlin, and if you were there, you know that Robin Leech will probably have NOTHING to do with NY new media again! His disgust at the audience, which was just your typical mass new media hypsters in full-networking regalia and agenda, was quite apparent in his cold looks and puffs of trying to silence us. Even two of New York's local new media competitive publishers were schmoozing together! In addition to air-kissing the regulars to the scene I met Edmund Bogen, pres. of Bogen PR and Michael Bolanos, pres. and CEO of Entertainment Drive. Ron Bloom, chairman & CEO of THINK New Ideas came out for the show, and Ed Bennett introduced me to J. Riley McDonough and Dorothy Frank of Spinner.com, which is his newest gig. Molly Wright Steenson, an original Silicon Alley-er, who now habitates in San Francisco was here, in an appropriately STUNNING dress for her personal site Girlwonder.com nomination of CSOTY. Christine Harmel of Interactive Resources was a breath of fresh air in a springy outfit. And we paled-around in our matching pearls for photo opps. Doug Propp, documentarian and brother of James Propp, of the CSOTYear, was there in support too. Setting the standard, the Industry Standard crew was out in full force: Jeff Lundwall, Liz Kafka and of course, NY Bureau Chief Jim Ledbetter, who was jet-setting off to one of my favorite towns--New Orleans!

Whew! What a Thursday!

Music Makes the World Go Round, and a "PR Primer"

The day was also going full steam ahead uptown at the New York Software Summit at the Fashion Institute of Technology, chaired by Bruce E. Bernstein, President, NYSIA. I caught the tail end of the panel on "Digital Music," moderated by WWWAC president Bob Ponce. Michael Robertson (CEO, MP3.com), Howard M. Singer, Ph. D. (CTO, A2B Music), Dick Wingate (VP, content dev, Liquid Audio) and Nick DiGiacomo (VP, Scient Corp.) debated the future of music and its distribution. Panels were back to back and after chumming it up with Robert Thomason of "The Washington Post" I snuck in classy Alice O'Rourke's "Media Roundtable: Media Coverage of NY High Tech Industries." My notes, gleaned from the wisdom of Judy Messina (Crain's NY Business), Renee Edelman (PR 21), Mark Berniker (CNNfn), Jason Chervokas (@NY), and Alice are as follows:

"A Little PR Primer"

When approaching the press:
- Be Honest
- Be Persistent (but know journalists deadlines)
- Don't call 3x a day
- Start with "Would you be interested in..." as opposed to "Hey! Let me tell you about this great, new, gadety, world-revolutionary, change-the-internet-new company/product."
- Write a thought-full press release
- And a good pitch letter goes a long way
- Don't say the news is an embargo or an exclusive and then "sell" it to the NY Times too.
- Be articulate
- Be able to explain what you're pitching
- Be Honest about your competition
- Be willing to talk numbers
- Don't call asking if they received the press release (duh!)
- Keep the press release short!
- Make it compelling!
- E-mail -- DON'T CALL!
- The story is king -- just being persistent with a dreadful story won't guarantee coverage.

And on that note I gathered my notes and head straight for work (and a little rest before the hectic night)!

Tuesday, January 19, 1999

Party Like its Nineteen Ninety...

We've been hearing the "We're gonna party like its 1999," song ad-nauseum but the folks over at Let's Talk Business Network and NetCreations waited until it really was 1999 till they had their holiday party. Tuesday, January 19th, at the NetCreations offices in Soho brought together many satisfied networkers. Happyhour.com was also a sponsor. Food, glorious food was aplenty and there was no shortage of networkers who were enjoying themselves. After being greeted by Michael Ringel and Larry Kesslin of LTBN, I was introduced to Mitchell Schlimer, Chairman of this network that provides support for entrepreneurs. Budding literary agent Stacey Schrader graced the party as my guest and after speaking with Justin Model of NYC Economic Dev. Corp, he introduced us to Jon Gilbert and Alan Orski. It was a sweet event for nice people. Stay tuned for more nice events all year, here at The Cyber Scene!

Monday, January 18, 1999

Vancouver's Totally Hip!

On Monday evening, January 18th, I was invited to a private party put on by Totally Hip Software (http://www.totallyhip.com). The purpose of the function was to congratulate their team for a job well done. Just recently they won two separate "best of show" awards at Mac World. One was for WebPainter 3, a handy little Internet animation program, and the other was for LiveStage. LiveStage uses Quicktime in order to build web site interactivity without all that messing about in Java. Check out a couple examples at their Web site! Randall McCallum, the CEO of Totally Hip, tells me that their next installment, for both Windows and the Mac, will be released in about 3 or 4 months. Currently, you can only program LiveStage on the Mac.

In addition to the honored employees, there was local venture capitalist Rob Clark in attendance. Just recently, Rob's company bought out Cyber Whispers, and set up a web site called Trader Cents (http://www.tradercents.com.) I'm told that Trader Cents, similar to Silicon Investor (http://www.techstocks.com), is rapidly becoming one of the premier sites for general investor insight. The site offers features such as free email and anonymous chat boards/forum and an extensive database of primarily American and Canadian Stocks. As of the end of January, they will be implementing real time stock quotes and real time news feeds.
- John Maclean Foreman

Friday, January 15, 1999

TCS Intro: 1/15/99. Courtney on MetroByte TV

* News Flash! Check out the first article of mine that will be part of a recurring series on the San Francisco Gate Online in the Technology section! http://www.sfgate.com/technology/ *

Yea! It's snowing in New York! I love to see the city blanketed in white. The change of pace is always nice. I even enjoy battling slippery streets and tromping through the snow. So, after bringing out my fun winter hats, I took advantage of the weather to explore a few cyberscenes-online and indoors!

"What do you do when your computer only boots up in "safe mode."
"Well," said Scott, as he looked across the desk at me, "with 30 seconds to spare, you call tech support and do a reinstall." This quick exchange occurred Monday, January 11, when a woman called in during the FAQ segment of the Metro Learning Channel's computer show "MetroByte."

I've been a frequent guest on this show since July 1998. Originally hosted by Bobby Rivers, of "Good Day New York" morning show (and VH-1 v-jay) fame, it is now hosted by Scott Rigby, founder and president of Thoughtbubble. Ellyn Burke, Ph.D., director of the Panasonic Learning Lab, was also on hand to talk about this unique learning center. Its educational classes are supported by top-of-the-
line technology. Though the lab is booked months in advance, Dr. Burke, who used to be a professional opera singer, will talk with anyone about this unique facility and its offerings.

Upcoming Events

* NY Software Industry Association Summit. January 21. http://www.nysia.org *

*Cool Site of the Year Awards: January 21. Webster Hall.
http://www.coolsiteoftheyear.com *

* Let's Talk Business Network and NetCreations Holiday Party! January 29. http://www.ltbn.com *

* Cocktails With Courtney: January 27, 1999. Harmony on West Houston. 7 - 9 PM. Please RSVP to rsvp@cocktailswithcourtney.com with your name, company and Email address and how many will be attending. *

* Catch me talking about Voice Recognition software on MLC's "MetroByte" show on January 25 at 8 PM. Cablevision. *

* Stay tuned for announcements regarding a regularly occurring article with the San Francisco Gate online about Silicon Alley. *

Highlights of various e-mail lists this week:

On the WWWAC list:
"use Net::DNS;
if (!( Net::DNS::Question($host, 'MX', 'IN') ||
Net::DNS::Question($host, 'A', 'IN')))
{
# bad hostname
}"

On the Goodtimes list:
A link to " http://www.homestead.com/hackfurby/" ("HackFurby is a
Technically-Oriented site devoted to investigating the geek-appeal of the Furby toy. Specifically, the primary goal of HackFurby is to fully document the Furby IR protocol.")

TCS on SFGate & Snowing in NYC


      * News Flash! Check out the first article of mine that will be part of a
      recurring series on the San Francisco Gate Online in the Technology
      section! http://www.sfgate.com/technology/ *

      Yea! It's snowing in New York! I love to see the city blanketed in white.
      The change of pace is always nice. I even enjoy battling slippery streets
      and tromping through the snow. So, after bringing out my fun winter hats,
      I took advantage of the weather to explore a few cyberscenes-online
      and indoors!

MOVERS AND SHAKERS - published 1/15/99


Adele Marie Secrest was born on January 11, 1999 to RussianWebGirls.com  Alyona Makeeva and her husband.

Thursday, January 14, 1999

A No-ender Gathering

Meanwhile, down Broadway, in the ultra, super-hip, really cool office loft space of Zoecom, a small group of New York No-Enders met. This neat, elite group has a mailing list and a nice, warm, fuzzy, human feel to its meetings. These get-togethers give you a chance to talk about your week, have a beer, eminisce about the long-gone workforce of '95, and gel with a few people. Much more relaxing than bonding with hardware and enduring air-filled conversations at "well-attended" networking events and seminars. Highlights of the evening included MethodFive.com's Ingrid Michelsen's tales of her lucky move back to NY from San Francisco. Heather Gold from Zing.com's spoke about the history of new media and showed a demo of Zing.com's cool!
self publishing program, and David from Speak-Easy Production's talked about various ventures in radio and production. Grace from Hall Kinion's spoke about her transition into the new media world from a job as an Art Curator assistant in a gallery uptown, and Dennis Adamo talked aobut Vision's colorful past from Prodigy to Pseudo to Icon. Many, many thanks to Steve Warren for being a gracious and charming host, for bringing the group together and for a few brewskis! If you're interested in joining the list, send a one-paragraph introduction of yourself to Steven at "evilsteven@mindspring.com"

That WWWACy Michael Wolff

And finally, while many Alley-ites were either snug and warm at home, others sloughed through the slush up to the Canadian Consulate to hear the much-debated (whether much-loved or much-hated) Michael Wolff speak at the WWWAC general meeting. He was joined by TimeWarner/Pathfinder founder Bruce Judson, author of the new book
HYPERWARS. Their lively discussion was centered on the likely direction of this rapidly changing digital world.

Tuesday, January 12, 1999

Let's Talk Business Network & John Chaffee's "The Thinker's Way"


Think back to when you really, truly thought about something. Are you thinking? When did you last really examine an issue? Sure, we all examine websites, programs, logs, hits, trends, designs and other companies. But what about thinking in existential terms? What about transforming yourself through thinking? Well, in just "eight easy steps" you can live a richer life through some serious thinking! The guests at the Let's Talk Business Network's meeting on Wednesday, January 12 were privy to hear some of these steps of John Chaffee, Ph.D. and author of "The Thinker's Way: 8 Steps To a Richer Life." His book not only helps you analyze yourself and improve your ability to think critically, etc. but he addresses how in a time when our lives are getting so face-paced and crowded with technology, news and constant stimulation that it is important to TAKE TIME and sift through matter. I went home and began pouring through this book and "The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women," which I was turned onto by the well-networked and ebullient Christine Harmel of Interactive Resources. This book is about strategy, tactics and subtle weapons. Aha! A critical thinker and strategic tactician--watch out Silicon Alley!

NYNMA's Blood Drive


As if you weren't already worked to the bone and totally tapped of money and energy by just living in NYC, NYNMA is going to take your blood! And I mean it literally! This is just one of a whole host of plans the Membership Relations committee came up with on Tuesday, January 12 for membership drives throughout the year. But don't worry, NYNMA isn't so callous as to just take your blood and live off it. No, this is for a very worthwhile venture -- it is in conjunction with the Red Cross and it is a drive to help replenish the seriously depleted blood banks. So, please stay tuned for more information on this worthwhile and fulfilling event. I am helping coordinate it and once I have all the particulars, I'll be sure you know about it. You can also keep up to date on NYNMA events at their site. If you are interested in membership information, or getting more involved in fun activities (organizing, volunteering, participating), please call the NYNMA office.

Monday, January 11, 1999

Shakers & Stirrers and Bits & Bytes

Adele Marie Secrest was born on January 11, 1999 to RussianWebGirls.com Alyona Makeeva and her husband.

Publisher's Note ~ TV Appearances

"What do you do when your computer only boots up in "safe mode." "Well," said Scott, as he looked across the desk at me, "with 30 seconds to spare, you call tech support and do a reinstall." This quick exchange occurred Monday, January 11, when a woman called in during the FAQ segment of the Metro Learning Channel's computer show "MetroByte."

I've been a frequent guest on this show since July 1998. Originally hosted by Bobby Rivers, of "Good Day New York" morning show (and VH-1 v-jay) fame, it is now hosted by Scott Rigby, founder and president of Thoughtbubble. Ellyn Burke, Ph.D., director of the Panasonic Learning Lab, was also on hand to talk about this unique learning center. Its educational classes are supported by top-of-the-line technology. Though the lab is booked months in advance, Dr. Burke, who used to be a professional opera singer, will talk with anyone about this unique facility and its offerings.

CJP on MCL's MetroByte


   "What do you do when your computer only boots up in "safe mode."
      "Well," said Scott, as he looked across the desk at me, "with 30 seconds
      to spare, you call tech support and do a reinstall." This quick exchange
      occurred Monday, January 11, when a woman called in during the FAQ
      segment of the Metro Learning Channel's computer show "MetroByte."
      I've been a frequent guest on this show since July 1998. Originally
      hosted by Bobby Rivers, of "Good Day New York" morning show (and
      VH-1 v-jay) fame, it is now hosted by Scott Rigby, founder and president
      of Thoughtbubble. Ellyn Burke, Ph.D., director of the Panasonic
      Learning Lab, was also on hand to talk about this unique learning center.
      Its educational classes are supported by top-of-the- line technology.
      Though the lab is booked months in advance, Dr. Burke, who used to be
      a professional opera singer, will talk with anyone about this unique
      facility and its offerings.

Friday, January 08, 1999

Burning Man recap

Not many people might compare the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles North of Las Vegas, Nevada to the tiny island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, but having been in both places I must say, there are quite a few similarities between this arid prehistoric lake bed during the Burning Man Festival and this lush tropical island during New Year's Eve.

In case you weren't aware, I was a very lucky bean to be able to be transported to the B.V.I.'s for the holidays. Lots of 45 sunblock and a big straw hat have enabled me to fool even those who knew I went, as I'm just about as pale as before I left.

Aside from geography, the similarities between these two festivals struck me immensely. Two years ago when I went to the Burning Man festival, over 14,000 people arrived over a few days in an assortment of caravans to experiment in this dry desert for a week in spontaneous community and explore the relationship between traditional and non-traditional culture, reality and cyber-reality. Camps were set up in a semi-circle shape and the Burning Man, a four-story effigy, was at the helm. A few days before Old Year's Night, as coined by Foxy, the owner of one of the two popular bars in "town," approximately 300 boats arrive to anchor in a 300 foot wide semi-circle harbor. The 150 locals of this four-mile long normally slow-paced, chickens-and-goats-in-the-main-"road" island gather to build shacks for a night and serve PainKillers (an unfrozen, unblended Pina Colada), fried chicken, conch fritters and Johnny Cakes to the sailors and crew who arrive days before to indulge and relax from days of sailing, snorkeling and diving. (Chef's Note: These Johnny Cakes are a far cry from Rhode's Island's version of pancakes. They are more similar to the Italian fried dough balls typically bought at street festivals, but not as soft and with no sweet powdered sugar to put on top.)

At least 1000 people convene to knock back a few of Foxy's famous Sly Fox rum drinks, indulge in Rudy's (the other major establishment's owner) famous pig roast and Caribbean lobster dinner, and hang loose with old and new friends. As New Year's Eve Day drew to a close the excitement and energy picked up despite the grueling heat that bore down on you all day. Schools of college-aged kids swam around smaller schools of older couples and families. By the time 11:00 rolled around there were plastic cups and paper plates strew about everywhere. That didn't deter barefooted party-ers, some of whom looked to have overindulged in legal and illegal substances.

After a year of being out and about I might have chosen a quiet evening over a big bash, but there was one aspect of this wild party that was really fantastic. Our watches ticked towards 11:55 when all of a sudden we heard boat horns blaring and saw flares shooting up into the sky. There was no big lit ball atop a skyscraper or clock on the wall that everyone counted from, so we realized it must be midnight. It came up on us so quickly and quietly... We popped open the Dom and cheered to Health, Happiness, Friends, and the New Year. But then...wait! All of a sudden a whole crowd down at Foxy's began tooting horns and cheering. Hey!? Was it New Year's then? Or is it right now? And minutes later down at Rudy's on the other end of the island, another round of hootin' and hollerin' erupted! Oh -- I see, now it's midnight there. I guess what they say about Island time is right...it's certainly not based on Greenwich Mean Time, but it's a Good Mean Time! We walked to Rudy's where a Reggae version of Auld Lang Syne played. Rudy was cheerful and I signed a lamp light with my name. It's not unusual for some of these island bars' wooden ceilings and posts to be covered in signatures of visitors from around the world. Down at the other end, a third band was just getting started at Foxy's. We marveled at the wild gyrations of a young flapper-attired woman who looked like she was transported (in a few ways).

Like Burning Man, this Old Year's Night festival has become legendary and grown in popularity. Like Burning Man, hundreds (thousands) of people converge to relax, cut loose, be mellow, be crazy. Like Burning Man, the instant community shows how where once nothing existed (except prehistoric dried clay and cow patties or 100s of feet of warm blue water and coral reefs), people will form their dwellings into divisions and subdivisions, order is created out of something that appears to be disorderly, invisible and unspoken rules are made with no dominance. Like Burning Man, the event results in a grand festival of lights, sounds, dancing, drinking and assorted revelries. And like Burning Man, the next day, as homesteaders pick up tents (or anchors), there is an efficient crew that swoops down with brooms and sanitation trucks to restore the natural calm beauty to these vastly different, yet similar paradises.

Happy New Year to everyone and to everyone a Good Night!

Scott Cohen Independent Operator

This just in! Scott Cohen, Senior VP, and one of the founders of 24/7 Media has resigned. Scott intends to use his drive, energy and entrepreneurial spirit to help grow another company that's on the IPO track. Cohen is working under a consulting agreement through 1/31, and can be contacted at 212/231-7150 or via email at scottcohen@aol.com

Shakers & Stirrers and Bits & Bytes

This just in! Scott Cohen, Senior VP, and one of the founders of 24/7 Media has resigned. Scott intends to use his drive, energy and entrepreneurial spirit to help grow another company that's on the IPO track. Cohen is working under a consulting agreement through 1/31, and can be contacted at 212/231-7150 or via email at scottcohen@aol.com

Wednesday, January 06, 1999

January Events

After such a transporting experience, even in spite of my sobriety (well, someone had to help navigate the dinghy through a maze of hundreds of yachts), it was tough to feel up to jumping back into the pace of New York City. I chose my first foray for Wednesday, January 6th, when I ventured up to the Lubin House at 11 East 61st Street for the WWWAC Writer's SIG. Starting the year off to a new start, SIG co-hosts Robin Schatz and Mark Perton decided to have open-mike night for writers to show their stuff. Show and Tell night included demos from Gerald Regan (www.thewildgeese.com), Nick Fracaro (www.whirl-I-gig.com), Adrienne Matt (www.abcnews.com), Mitch Lemus (pages.prodigy.net/mlemus/mafiaweb.htm) and yours truly. Starting off the evening, Gerald Regan spoke eloquently on the site he and his partner had developed and worked on for over 1 1/2 years. Rich in content and stories on Irish history and the American Civil War, TheWildGeese.com is truly becoming a portal (albeit small one currently) for Irish diaspora and reenactment enthusiasts alike.

I followed on his heels and hawked my wares to a warm and encouraging audience comprising some familiar faces like Mirsky (of Mirsky's Worst of the Web), Angel Riggins (of Disney Online) and Patrick Casey (a long-time WWWAC member). Some new faces including Josh Karpf, Michele Marrinan (freelance writer and editor), Mat Zucker (Blue Marble) and Kieron Murphy (EarthWeb Inc.) were friendly too. Nick Fracaro expounded on his theatrical non-linear database-driven website. With no hierarchy and no AUTHORity (i.e.: authorship is "hidden," until you click to find out the "source") the site catalogues articles from a variety of theater publications and posts on their listserv. Fracaro claims the journalist of the future will be a disinterested cataloguer, taking ideas from sources and putting them into relationship with each other. Whether knowingly or not, he recalled a statement Jerry Michalski made during a WWWAC presentation in '96 saying "it's all about the hyperlink." After all, that little < a href > tag is what drives this machine, no? The clean interface displays a list of keywords (about 120 total in the database) that related to the pull-quote on the page. By clicking "Next" you get another related quote, "Source" takes you to the full text the citation came from, and one of the keywords on the side takes you to another citation from a different but related article. He also referenced Plumb Design's Visual Thesaurus, which is also a wonderful example of words and ideas relating to each other in a non-linear fashion. C'est tres interessant!

From the slightly esoteric niche to broad general interest categories, Adrienne Matt stepped up to the plate and pitched (or highlighted) some of the dynamic features of ABCNews.com's website and their coverage of the battle in Iraq. Maps, charts, video clips all accompanied original articles written by teams of interactive journalists and graphic artists in the New York, Seattle and Washington offices. Using software by Starwave called Big Top they input data into a template-driven website. Their coverage of the Iraq and initial impeachment stories apparently drove traffic to the site that "out hit" CNN and MSNBC. The feature Adrienne thought was most interesting and unique for their coverage was the analysis of the battle and how much it is costing us. Yes, how much exactly is this thing costing anyway....

Rounding out the evening in a humorous tone was Mitch Lemus's tour through his website "Reputed Links to Organized Crime. The Online Resource for Wired Wiseguys." In about three weeks he researched and wrote this site with sections on Products, Tools and a Survey. Using frames, the Products section links to sites like Cadillac, Staples (how Organized Crime stays organized), a jewelry reseller (for pinky rings) and other useful things potential criminals might want. A question shot out, "isn't it unethical to link out to other people's sites?" to which Mitch replied, "hey, it's the Mafia site! Unethically linking to other people's sites is right in keeping with the theme." Wanna find out how long before a friend or foe gets out on parole? Check it out at the "Parole Watch Database." Use the Loan Shark Calculator to figure the best vig you can get, and read all the actual documents from a famous Mafia boss trial at "The Smoking Gun," get some good recipes and a tour of Little Italy, check out a map of Secaucus, NJ and get acquainted with a popular funeral home (for when you have to do the job). Growing up in a Mafia Wanna-be school in Brooklyn, Mitch had lots of opportunity to learn about this "sorely underserved community on the Internet" as he explained it. He's obviously filling a need as in 1 1/2 years he's received over 45,000 hits (no pun intended.)

WWWAC Writers SIG

After such a transporting experience, even in spite of my sobriety (well, someone had to help navigate the dinghy through a maze of hundreds of yachts), it was tough to feel up to jumping back into the pace of New York City. I chose my first foray for Wednesday, January 6th, when I ventured up to the Lubin House at 11 East 61st Street for the WWWAC Writer's SIG. Starting the year off to a new start, SIG co-hosts Robin Schatz and Mark Perton decided to have open-mike night for writers to show their stuff. Show and Tell night included demos from Gerald Regan (www.thewildgeese.com), Nick Fracaro (www.whirl-I-gig.com), Adrienne Matt (www.abcnews.com), Mitch Lemus (pages.prodigy.net/mlemus/mafiaweb.htm) and yours truly. Starting off the evening, Gerald Regan spoke eloquently on the site he and his partner had developed and worked on for over 1 1/2 years. Rich in content and stories on Irish history and the American Civil War, TheWildGeese.com is truly becoming a portal (albeit small one currently) for Irish diaspora and reenactment enthusiasts alike.

I followed on his heels and hawked my wares to a warm and encouraging audience comprising some familiar faces like Mirsky (of Mirsky's Worst of the Web), Angel Riggins (of Disney Online) and Patrick Casey (a long-time WWWAC member). Some new faces including Josh Karpf, Michele Marrinan (freelance writer and editor), Mat Zucker (Blue Marble) and Kieron Murphy (EarthWeb Inc.) were friendly too. Nick Fracaro expounded on his theatrical non-linear database-driven website. With no hierarchy and no AUTHORity (i.e.: authorship is "hidden," until you click to find out the "source") the site catalogues articles from a variety of theater publications and posts on their listserv. Fracaro claims the journalist of the future will be a disinterested cataloguer, taking ideas from sources and putting them into relationship with each other. Whether knowingly or not, he recalled a statement Jerry Michalski made during a WWWAC presentation in '96 saying "it's all about the hyperlink." After all, that little < a href > tag is what drives this machine, no? The clean interface displays a list of keywords (about 120 total in the database) that related to the pull-quote on the page. By clicking "Next" you get another related quote, "Source" takes you to the full text the citation came from, and one of the keywords on the side takes you to another citation from a different but related article. He also referenced Plumb Design's Visual Thesaurus, which is also a wonderful example of words and ideas relating to each other in a non-linear fashion. C'est tres interessant!

From the slightly esoteric niche to broad general interest categories, Adrienne Matt stepped up to the plate and pitched (or highlighted) some of the dynamic features of ABCNews.com's website and their coverage of the battle in Iraq. Maps, charts, video clips all accompanied original articles written by teams of interactive journalists and graphic artists in the New York, Seattle and Washington offices. Using software by Starwave called Big Top they input data into a template-driven website. Their coverage of the Iraq and initial impeachment stories apparently drove traffic to the site that "out hit" CNN and MSNBC. The feature Adrienne thought was most interesting and unique for their coverage was the analysis of the battle and how much it is costing us. Yes, how much exactly is this thing costing anyway....

Rounding out the evening in a humorous tone was Mitch Lemus's tour through his website "Reputed Links to Organized Crime. The Online Resource for Wired Wiseguys." In about three weeks he researched and wrote this site with sections on Products, Tools and a Survey. Using frames, the Products section links to sites like Cadillac, Staples (how Organized Crime stays organized), a jewelry reseller (for pinky rings) and other useful things potential criminals might want. A question shot out, "isn't it unethical to link out to other people's sites?" to which Mitch replied, "hey, it's the Mafia site! Unethically linking to other people's sites is right in keeping with the theme." Wanna find out how long before a friend or foe gets out on parole? Check it out at the "Parole Watch Database." Use the Loan Shark Calculator to figure the best vig you can get, and read all the actual documents from a famous Mafia boss trial at "The Smoking Gun," get some good recipes and a tour of Little Italy, check out a map of Secaucus, NJ and get acquainted with a popular funeral home (for when you have to do the job). Growing up in a Mafia Wanna-be school in Brooklyn, Mitch had lots of opportunity to learn about this "sorely underserved community on the Internet" as he explained it. He's obviously filling a need as in 1 1/2 years he's received over 45,000 hits (no pun intended.)

WWWAC Writers SIG


      After such a transporting experience, even in spite of my sobriety (well,
      someone had to help navigate the dinghy through a maze of hundreds of
      yachts), it was tough to feel up to jumping back into the pace of New
      York City. I chose my first foray for Wednesday, January 6th, when I
      ventured up to the Lubin House at 11 East 61st Street for the WWWAC
      Writer's SIG. Starting the year off to a new start, SIG co-hosts Robin
      Schatz and Mark Perton decided to have open-mike night for writers to
      show their stuff. Show and Tell night included demos from Gerald Regan
      (www.thewildgeese.com), Nick Fracaro (www.whirl-I-gig.com),
      Adrienne Matt (www.abcnews.com), Mitch Lemus
      (pages.prodigy.net/mlemus/mafiaweb.htm) and yours truly. Starting off
      the evening, Gerald Regan spoke eloquently on the site he and his
      partner had developed and worked on for over 1 1/2 years. Rich in
      content and stories on Irish history and the American Civil War,
      TheWildGeese.com is truly becoming a portal (albeit small one currently)
      for Irish diaspora and reenactment enthusiasts alike.


      I followed on his heels and hawked my wares to a warm and
      encouraging audience comprising some familiar faces like Mirsky (of
      Mirsky's Worst of the Web), Angel Riggins (of Disney Online) and
      Patrick Casey (a long-time WWWAC member). Some new faces
      including Josh Karpf, Michele Marrinan (freelance writer and editor),
      Mat Zucker (Blue Marble) and Kieron Murphy (EarthWeb Inc.) were
      friendly too. Nick Fracaro expounded on his theatrical non-linear
      database-driven website. With no hierarchy and no AUTHORity (i.e.:
      authorship is "hidden," until you click to find out the "source") the site
      catalogues articles from a variety of theater publications and posts on
      their listserv. Fracaro claims the journalist of the future will be a
      disinterested cataloguer, taking ideas from sources and putting them into
      relationship with each other. Whether knowingly or not, he recalled a
      statement Jerry Michalski made during a WWWAC presentation in '96
      saying "it's all about the hyperlink." After all, that little tag is
      what drives this machine, no? The clean interface displays a list of
      keywords (about 120 total in the database) that related to the pull-quote
      on the page. By clicking "Next" you get another related quote, "Source"
      takes you to the full text the citation came from, and one of the
      keywords on the side takes you to another citation from a different but
      related article. He also referenced Plumb Design's Visual Thesaurus,
      which is also a wonderful example of words and ideas relating to each
      other in a non-linear fashion. C'est tres interessant!

      From the slightly esoteric niche to broad general interest categories,
      Adrienne Matt stepped up to the plate and pitched (or highlighted) some
      of the dynamic features of ABCNews.com's website and their coverage
      of the battle in Iraq. Maps, charts, video clips all accompanied original
      articles written by teams of interactive journalists and graphic artists in
      the New York, Seattle and Washington offices. Using software by
      Starwave called Big Top they input data into a template-driven website.
      Their coverage of the Iraq and initial impeachment stories apparently
      drove traffic to the site that "out hit" CNN and MSNBC. The feature
      Adrienne thought was most interesting and unique for their coverage
      was the analysis of the battle and how much it is costing us. Yes, how
      much exactly is this thing costing anyway....

      Rounding out the evening in a humorous tone was Mitch Lemus's tour
      through his website "Reputed Links to Organized Crime. The Online
      Resource for Wired Wiseguys." In about three weeks he researched and
      wrote this site with sections on Products, Tools and a Survey. Using
      frames, the Products section links to sites like Cadillac, Staples (how
      Organized Crime stays organized), a jewelry reseller (for pinky rings)
      and other useful things potential criminals might want. A question shot
      out, "isn't it unethical to link out to other people's sites?" to which Mitch
      replied, "hey, it's the Mafia site! Unethically linking to other people's sites
      is right in keeping with the theme." Wanna find out how long before a
      friend or foe gets out on parole? Check it out at the "Parole Watch
      Database." Use the Loan Shark Calculator to figure the best vig you can
      get, and read all the actual documents from a famous Mafia boss trial at
      "The Smoking Gun," get some good recipes and a tour of Little Italy,
      check out a map of Secaucus, NJ and get acquainted with a popular
      funeral home (for when you have to do the job). Growing up in a Mafia
      Wanna-be school in Brooklyn, Mitch had lots of opportunity to learn
      about this "sorely underserved community on the Internet" as he
      explained it. He's obviously filling a need as in 1 1/2 years he's received
      over 45,000 hits (no pun intended.)

 

Friday, January 01, 1999

New Year's in Jost Van Dyke

Not many people might compare the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles North of Las Vegas, Nevada to the tiny island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, but having been in both places I must say, there are quite a few similarities between this arid prehistoric lake bed during the Burning Man Festival and this lush tropical island during New Year's Eve.

In case you weren't aware, I was a very lucky bean to be able to be transported to the B.V.I.'s for the holidays. Lots of 45 sunblock and a big straw hat have enabled me to fool even those who knew I went, as I'm just about as pale as before I left.

Aside from geography, the similarities between these two festivals struck me immensely. Two years ago when I went to the Burning Man festival, over 14,000 people arrived over a few days in an assortment of caravans to experiment in this dry desert for a week in spontaneous community and explore the relationship between traditional and non-traditional culture, reality and cyber-reality. Camps were set up in a semi-circle shape and the Burning Man, a four-story effigy, was at the helm. A few days before Old Year's Night, as coined by Foxy, the owner of one of the two popular bars in "town," approximately 300 boats arrive to anchor in a 300 foot wide semi-circle harbor. The 150 locals of this four-mile long normally slow-paced, chickens-and-goats-in-the-main-"road" island gather to build shacks for a night and serve PainKillers (an unfrozen, unblended Pina Colada), fried chicken, conch fritters and Johnny Cakes to the sailors and crew who arrive days before to indulge and relax from days of sailing, snorkeling and diving. (Chef's Note: These Johnny Cakes are a far cry from Rhode's Island's version of pancakes. They are more similar to the Italian fried dough balls typically bought at street festivals, but not as soft and with no sweet powdered sugar to put on top.)

At least 1000 people convene to knock back a few of Foxy's famous Sly Fox rum drinks, indulge in Rudy's (the other major establishment's owner) famous pig roast and Caribbean lobster dinner, and hang loose with old and new friends. As New Year's Eve Day drew to a close the excitement and energy picked up despite the grueling heat that bore down on you all day. Schools of college-aged kids swam around smaller schools of older couples and families. By the time 11:00 rolled around there were plastic cups and paper plates strew about everywhere. That didn't deter barefooted party-ers, some of whom looked to have overindulged in legal and illegal substances.

After a year of being out and about I might have chosen a quiet evening over a big bash, but there was one aspect of this wild party that was really fantastic. Our watches ticked towards 11:55 when all of a sudden we heard boat horns blaring and saw flares shooting up into the sky. There was no big lit ball atop a skyscraper or clock on the wall that everyone counted from, so we realized it must be midnight. It came up on us so quickly and quietly... We popped open the Dom and cheered to Health, Happiness, Friends, and the New Year. But then...wait! All of a sudden a whole crowd down at Foxy's began tooting horns and cheering. Hey!? Was it New Year's then? Or is it right now? And minutes later down at Rudy's on the other end of the island, another round of hootin' and hollerin' erupted! Oh -- I see, now it's midnight there. I guess what they say about Island time is right...it's certainly not based on Greenwich Mean Time, but it's a Good Mean Time! We walked to Rudy's where a Reggae version of Auld Lang Syne played. Rudy was cheerful and I signed a lamp light with my name. It's not unusual for some of these island bars' wooden ceilings and posts to be covered in signatures of visitors from around the world. Down at the other end, a third band was just getting started at Foxy's. We marveled at the wild gyrations of a young flapper-attired woman who looked like she was transported (in a few ways).

Like Burning Man, this Old Year's Night festival has become legendary and grown in popularity. Like Burning Man, hundreds (thousands) of people converge to relax, cut loose, be mellow, be crazy. Like Burning Man, the instant community shows how where once nothing existed (except prehistoric dried clay and cow patties or 100s of feet of warm blue water and coral reefs), people will form their dwellings into divisions and subdivisions, order is created out of something that appears to be disorderly, invisible and unspoken rules are made with no dominance. Like Burning Man, the event results in a grand festival of lights, sounds, dancing, drinking and assorted revelries. And like Burning Man, the next day, as homesteaders pick up tents (or anchors), there is an efficient crew that swoops down with brooms and sanitation trucks to restore the natural calm beauty to these vastly different, yet similar paradises.

Happy New Year to everyone and to everyone a Good Night!