Wednesday, July 30, 1997

East Coast Digital Consortium formation

RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET was a party to celebrate the formation of the East Coast Digital Consortium. In large raw space rooms with 6' tall by 20' long mirrors, a mixed crowd of digital, video and cyber artists mingled, munched on cheese rounds, were served margaritas from a 4 gallon tub and of course, posed, schmoozed, and reveled. The space reflected the buildings other tenant -- NYU's Musical Theater Works -- with one room for an upcoming band, while another had a big ol' ping pong table.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

NewCentury Networks party

"WHERE CAN YOU FIND the original Chicken Fried Steak?"* This plus many more intriguing questions were played with at the NewCentury Networks party on Wednesday, July 30th in the Sculpture Galley Garden on Lafayette Street.

Featuring local culinary treats and beers from many of the locations where NewsWorks has an affiliated newspaper, clients could eat and drink their way through the NewsWorks network and across the country. Amidst tables strewn with cute funky patio lights of fish, pigs, and 1950's styled cars, Sheila Young, Director of Marketing Services for NCN explained how advertising space can be bought for as little or as much of the network of paper's sites as a client would like. Gregory Bender of BD Interactive, which produced the Internet Advertising Bureau Web site (http://www.iab.com/) and Miles Weissleder of i-traffic (http://www.itraffic.com) washed back their mussels from the raw bar with Blackened Voodoo beer from New Orleans. Regional music from the localities filled the air as did the jealous stares toward the lucky winners of one of the many unique raffle prizes (like lobsters from Maine, and wine from California).

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Monday, July 28, 1997

Michael Chaut's Monday Night Magic

MOVE OVER DAVID COPPERFIELD, now there's something meatier! Magician Michael Chaut (mchaut@bigfoot.com) is movin' on in. Producing the popular Monday Night Magic (July 28th) at the Sullivan Street Playhouse (home of the Fantasticks for the last 37 years), this 2nd Annual intimate presentation of illusions and magic featured professional magicians from the area. Beginning the show with e-mail testimonials from around the world, including a well-wisher from Bosnia Herzegovina, Master of Ceremonies Peter Kougasian explained how when attempting to revive the group, after their first theater closed, they utilized the community building and support strengths of the Internet to achieve this....

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Friday, July 25, 1997

kHyAl's kUriOsiTiEs show on Richard Siegel's OnlineTV

LIVE TV IN THE ALLEY was the theme on Friday evening, July 25. I was an honored guest of kHyAl's (http://www.khyal.com/) kUriOsiTiEs show on Richard Siegel's OnlineTV (http://www.onlinetv.com). This inaugural show featured a huge rubber spider prop, Miles Rose of Regional Delights, and myself. The show was loosely organized, impromptu, and fun. Thanks to Miles we had all the Yodels and Ding Dong's we could eat. Uh, "got milk?" He ran out and got some. The commercial break featured my fellow NYU ETW grad Conchetta Kirshner, Princess Supahstar.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Thursday, July 24, 1997

Our Square's Up-set Annual Summer Membership Party

WHILE WE'VE HAD OUR FAIR share of rain these past few weeks, its no good reason to get upset. The torrential rain didn't dampen any spirits (booze or moral) at the Up-Set Annual Summer Membership Party for NYC and Boston members of Our Square (http://www.oursquare.com) on Thursday, July 24th, sponsored by NY Sports Club, Samuel Adams, John Allan's, and Brooklyn Brewery. The online service caters to Ivy League graduates, building a virtual community around topics like work and relationships. Guests included cyber-scribe Katherine Cavanaugh, Mark Filstrup (producer, CKS/Site Specific), Pamela Vitale (freelance, creative concept, art direction), and Jason Kuffer (Vyne). Jason has been busy since I last saw him at a Spin Doctors Cybercast, by just completing the Ford Foundation site. Emi Clark (head of production, Time Warner) commented on the demographics of the party and its objectives and thought it was "a narrow niche." Narrow, but specific. Janine Savarese (Fordham '97, Middleberg & Associates) along with her two friends, Victoria Grantham and Jessica Steckroth (John Hopkins '96) seemed knowledgeable and savvy about this medium.

Up-Set founder James Marciano distinguished himself in a corduroy jacket and the inspiration for this start-up, "it was a personal statement against AOL." He also coordinated this event with a sister party at the same time in Boston as well. Thanks to the sponsors, there was a 1st prize raffle for one month free membership at the NY Sports Club, and 2nd Prize of full treatment at John Allan's Salon.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Tuesday, July 22, 1997

MOVERS AND SHAKERS - published 7/22/97

Jesse Erlbaum, lead programmer/IT director of Vanguard Media, has been at it again! His "appearance" on the Howard Stern show on 7/16 was prompted by a website he created as a spoof of Howard's arch-rival, Tom Barnard. The conversation continues to show that Stern is one of the most computer savvy broadcasters on the air today. Some of Jesse's other spoof sites include: http://www.nynma.com and http://wwwac.com/.  *

Tom Russ will be leaving as director of sales for Neuman & Bogdonoff Caterers to pursue interests in the New Media arena. Tom was responsible for putting N&B on the map as "Silicon Alley's premiere catering company" through ads placed in @NY and other aggressive marketing tactics including sending cookie platters as bribes (Yum!). *

Ted Werth has left Digital City to team up with news-timely (see above) Andrew Rasiej and Michael Dorf, co-producers of the Intel New York Music Festival to launch a music-centered online content company. *

US Interactive (http://www.usinteractive.com) was selected by the National Football League (http://www.nfl.com) for NFL Media Web site Project

The folks from YORB have since gone off the air with their terrific interactive TV show, but are currently working on a new project called Neighborhood Web. With a portable viewer using GPS technology, users will be able to see web pages about the exact place where they're standing. This opens the door for anything from open-air Michelin guides (the old museum audio tour breaking its boundaries) to multi-user real-time games in real space -- Laser Tag meets Doom. Our students will be building some samples in the next few months -- check out www.neighborhoodweb.com starting the first week of August.

Think New Ideas (part of Omnicom's Communicade unit) has a pending acquisition of new media shop Stir Associates (http://www.stir.net). Stir President Chris McCarthy was unavailable for comment.

Alex Chaffee resigned from Earthweb within the last two weeks.

Dan Phillips, Editor of Web Surfer Travel Journal, has completed a revision of FOUR CORNERS my internet travel book "Four Corners" (http://edge.edge.net/~dphillip/fourcorners.html).



(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Nerve Magazine's launch

Nerve Magazine (covered in the 4/11 issue of @NY) (http://www.nervemag.com) had their website launch party at Rivertown Lounge in the upcoming trendy way east village on 7/22. Editors Rufus Griscom and Genevieve Field were on hand to discuss the site and its content. Genevieve enthusiastically spoke of the "thriving nature of the net" and how exciting it is to be a part of something that is so new and visionary. Echoing the importance of expression on the net, she further mentioned that Nerve actually launched on the day the CDA was thrown out. Its refreshing speaking with women who are impassioned about their work (and maintain a sense of style: being clad in a fantastic Vivian Tam dress - reemphasizing the importance to add a bit of color to all our wardrobes!)

Other Nervy-revelers included Richard Metzger; Jose Caballero of Razorfish; Lauren Young of Smart Money magazine; Richard Laermer of RLM (who wrote "Get On With It" published by Doubleday) and was on hand to say, "Gallant men are alive and well and living in Hoboken;" Ron Sukenick, a contributing writer (http://www.altx.com) and his wife Julia Frey (http://www.colorado.edu/~freyj), donning an alien-tentacled-inspired wire necklace purchased in Paris; Cartoonist Dame Darcy; Jack Mason, Exec. Producer of Pathfinder; Andrew Susman of Time, Inc.; Kol, who just launched a women's line of clothing; and Steve Gelsi of Forbes (http://www.forbes.com).

Other notable guests were John Perry Barlow brought along two of this 3 beautiful daughters spoke to me briefly about their part of  "Anthem," a film screened as part of ECHO's Alt.Film series. He said he was "proud to be a part of it" and felt it was a "wonderful tribute to American culture." Photographs of naked people adorned the exposed brick walls, free Kremly Vodka martinis floated around, and whispers of Quentin Crisp arriving kept the Lounge packed and brimming with conversations.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Saturday, July 19, 1997

DISCmakers Independent Music World Series VIP party

Continuing on to Tramps for the VIP party of DISCmakers Independent Music World Series. After the press party the contest between NYC's best independent bands went on till midnight. After a healthy din din of green salad, black beans and rice, and fresh fruit, I spoke with Thom Jack, owner of the club Spiral on Houston St. He filled me in on the grand prize for that night's winner: $25,000 in recording time, musical instruments, PR, and an indie release. Mixed in with the NY music scene crowd (lots of black jeans and cowboy boots), I spotted Rick Siegel who was broadcasting the event on his Online TV site. Kyra, a band at the infamous Webstock also competed.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Friday, July 18, 1997

Webstock's Wet Night (NYC Citysearch, Canadian Consulate General, WebCinema)

REMEMBER WOODSTOCK? Buckets of rain, some good music yadda-yadda. Well, last week's Webstock have many of the same elements. Held on July 18 at the Frying Pan in the Hudson River--New York's hottest new media party spot these days--it was sponsored by NYC Citysearch, Canadian Consulate General, WebCinema and others.

It featured a torrential rainstorm at midnight and lots of young folks (new media kidlets) in the standard grunge uniform: plaid pants, halter top, thick-soled -sneakers, and a bunch-o-bands (some worse than others). Glancing out along the Hudson, I spoke with Matt Lederman and Bill Fisher of RogueMarket, Jason Ordway and Ian Wood of CNNFn, and Brian Hack of Ruder Finn. Roy deMamboe, of deMamboe Interactive commented: "the band played serious sad grunge music as the crowd watched on with intense satisfied malaise." Internet vetern David Frackman nodded seriously in agreement. It wasn't all that bad -- this was another charity event for the National Cristina Foundation, and Chef Ashbell's spicy Cajun cookin' sent us home with happy bellies of jerk chicken.

LEAVING WEBSTOCK meant crossing a potential minefield: dodging lake-sized puddles, an Emergency Medical Services Unit was carrying out some poor minnow who fell on his head, and two of New York's top new media firms were apparently engaged in a rumble. I won't name names, but did overhear one person shout while several others were embroiled in head-locks "You don't want a scene." Could it be they meant this "Scene"? Gotcha!

* check if this was june 18

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Thursday, July 17, 1997

Intel Music Festival conference and concert

Its third year (and sponsor driven name) in a row, the Intel Music Festival is evolving into the music and new media event of the year. The festival attains more sponsors and clubs with each makeover. This year the festival coincided with Jupiter Communication's Conference "Plug-In" held at the World Trade Center's Marriot. This was the perfect harmony of the conference focusing on the convergence of new media and the music industry, and the festival actually playing it out. One consistent feature of the festival was the website The Global Internet Gathering where clubs and fans are linked through a high-speed access network. Irving Plaza owner and festival co-producer Andrew Rasiej said, "By linking musical events around the world through a common website, online visitors to the festival will be able to club hop around the world with the click of a button."

Both events began on July 17th, resulting in a packed day. Starting at the Jupiter conference, and checking out the various exhibitor's booths, I spoke with Jon Spooner of Netmix. He spoke passionately of how historic this event truly is: "The major record labels are here which shows that they recognize online music as a separate entity that's worth investigating." Netmix is a fun brightly colored consoled website that claims to be the World Wide Web's first continuous dance music mix-show. They must be doing something right, because just last week Bootsy Collins was hanging out in their offices. Across the room was Gerry Basserman, Marketing/Sales, of Cyber Sound. He air-keyboarded a demo of their software which uses a midi interface and special keyboard, to make music while Dean Tucker, VP Marketing, informed me of their other packages. I liked the reflection of company's musical diversity in their business cards and packaging motif: which harkens to an ethnic, multi-cultural symbol of African/Indonesian shadow puppets. Meanwhile, perched to my right was Jennifer Runne of Herzog Heine Geguld, and "newly hatched lawyer" 96 as her biz card said last time I saw her. Around the corner was OZ Interactive, creators of virtual worlds and hailing originally from the "Silicon Glacier" -- Iceland. June Gregg of Earthweb was on hand, demo-ing their newest product, Moderator, and handing out funny chatting teeth plastic hop-along wind-up toys.

Later that night I listened to the festival kick-off concert at Irving Plaza with the well heeled CDNow (http://www.cdnow.com) guys. Andrew Sternthal, New Biz Director, was tragically hip in his black T-shirt and brown leather shoes, Jason Olim, President, sported the ever-trendy-now-classic Vans, and Dave Brown, New Biz/Sales, in his Steed-of-"Avengers" Cole Haan Boots.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Narrowline Dinner Series @ Flowers

The next night, 7/17, Narrowline (http://www.narrowline.com) hosted a dinner at Flowers restaurant. In an effort to bring together new media people in a social environment to foster friendships and solid contacts they have begun hosting these dinners on a regular basis. On hand this evening were: Amy A. Schoenborn, Dir. of Development, Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org); Jill Goldring, New Media Manager of Time magazine; Eduardo Samame, Dir. of Biz Development, and Mark Elkin, Senior Sales Engineer of NetGravity (http://www.netgravity.com); Angelina Kwok, Valerie Martinez and Denise Seidner, Young & Rubicam New Technologies' top project managers and media planner respectively; and Don Wahlig, Director, Media Relations, and Matthew Shevach, Manager/Netcast Relations of Narrowline. The conversation flowed from topics of fine wine to the strange barnacle appetizer some of us brave ones ordered to the senior market and the internet. A personal passion for Jill, she educated us on SeniorNet (http://www.seniornet.com/) and her efforts thus far on this important demographic.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Wednesday, July 16, 1997

Vanguard Media's Erlbaum on Howard Stern

Jesse Erlbaum (stiggy@vm.com), Lead Programmer/IT Director of Vanguard Media, has been at it again! His "appearance" on the Howard Stern show on 7/16 was prompted by a website he created as a spoof of Howard's arch-rival, Tom Barnard (http://www.tombarnard.com). The conversation continues to show that Stern is one of the most computer savvy broadcasters on the air today. Some of Jesse's other spoof sites include: http://www.nynma.com, http://wwwac.com/.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Tuesday, July 15, 1997

Silicon Alley Partners for Growth panel

Even if you bemoan that you didn't arrange for a Hampton's share in time for this summer, there's certainly plenty of business and social events in town to keep you busy and happy. Just take a look at only a few of the things going on over the last two weeks!

The Silicon Alley Partners for Growth hosted a panel on "Inside the Virtual Boardroom: Going Public" Held on July 15th, the helped new media companies looking to expand their businesses in size and capital. Chris McCarthy and Tery Spataro of Stir Associates were on hand (a premonition?) and commented it was a "really nice" panel and there was "lots of information if you're looking to learn about this."

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Friday, July 11, 1997

Calendar of Events - published 7/11/97

UPCOMING EVENTS:

**** July 15: The Long Island Web Design Guild is having its next meeting on Tuesday from 7:30-9:30 at Cafe Connect in Jericho. The group serves as a networking and skills exchange resource for Web site creators and Web graphic artists on Long Island. People of all skill levels are welcome. The focus of this meeting will be that fun-filled topic of Web Design contracts and "dealing with clients".

**** July 16: NYNMA Circle Line Cruise

**** July 28: STRANGERS IN THE NET, Long Island's first live Internet event, featuring the music of The Lonesharks and accompanied by IRC from chat sites around the world. The band will perform at the venerable Hansom House, 256 Elm Street, in the heart of Southampton Village, Long Island, New York. 9:30 p.m. EDT.The event is sponsored by HamptonClick and Hamptons Online For further info: Stacey Donovan at (516) 267-8678.


(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Sunday, July 06, 1997

Post-4th of July intro

Welcome back from your Fourth of July festivities! Whether you were in our glorious hot sticky city or not, drop me a line tell me how your 4th was! Better yet come chat about it. We now have an @THE SCENE virtual cyberschmooze chat space, courtesy of E-Pub for all the gossip and cyber schmoozing you can handle [see the bottom of the column for details]. It'll be up all the time--unless there's naughtiness, so be good. We'll also be announcing some special monthly chats at various cyber events.
Speaking of cyber events, the digital crowd juggled several over the last two weeks.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Wednesday, July 02, 1997

I-Traffic's New Digs

I-Traffic--the online media buyers who specialize in driving traffic to sites for Hearst, Disney and other clients--managed to drive lots of traffic to their new corporate digs at 375 Broadway for an office opening party on Wednesday, July 2nd. Giveaways included frisbees and wind-sparkler-mobiles. Coming up in the elevator I spoke with Primus of Sensenet, and Chopping Block's Matthew Richmond. Laura Petrecca, reporter for Advertising Age and I exchanged deadline quips and spoke for a bit with Mary Dawne Arden. Ms. Arden, a marketing and media consultant, is a Professor at NYU for Speech and Communications, and came out of a career in show business and running modeling and charm schools. Quite the career path, no? Justin Green and Uta Knablein of GCDI reveled in our plans of traveling across the country with Greg Ellin in the 2nd Silicon Alley to Valley Rally.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)