Wednesday, March 29, 2000

O Me! O My! A man on stilts!


Obeca Li's serene sushi restaurant set the stage for March's "Cocktails with Courtney" event. Votives, candy and branded lighters and fortune cookies adorned the tables. As guests arrived, they were entertained outside by a fabulous magician and a man on stilts, compliments of Camera Planet. Once inside, Renaissance Multimedia offered them branded chopsticks. We had some noteworthy newsies like Phil Rosenbaum and Charles Molieneaux of CNN with their respective bookers, Matt Villano of New York Software News, Doug Donovan of Forbes, Alina Larsen of the Manhattan Newspaper Group and the super stylish Melissa Ceria of Harper's Bazaar.

Deborah Hadley of Appnet, Parke Steiger of LoadTV, Robert Pina of Register.com and Steven Fritz of Olive were among the cocktail set. Mark Policarpio, Sharon Shaw and Brandon Hensley of SixHat, Michael Tchong and Beth Weintraub of Iconocast and Sophie from French Elle magazine were also in attendance.

Tom Des Jardins of Lightningcast, Steve Rosenbaum of CameraPlanet and Andrew Edwards of Renaissance Multimedia said a few words of thanks over the unruly guests. I must say, it really is getting tiring, go to and host events where eager new media networkers refuse to quiet down to hear a sponsor speak. Have we really gotten this ungrateful, jaded or uninterested in the people and companies we're coming on contact with? Is everyone only truly interested in how many top-shelf drinks they down in a few hours, and do they all sniff with indignation at sub-gourmet hors d'oeuvres?
Well, the party resumed (not that it stopped) and the stilt-man and magician continued to entertain. The VIP lounge provided an opportunity for a few friends to mingle in a quieter place. Sake, wine and martinis soaked up the thirsty throats, and afterwards a few select folks headed upstairs for sushi. I joined the Soliloquy table and chatted with Catherine Winchester, Mark Lucente, Matthew Glitzer, Shelley Shick and David Berdon over some sake. And after brief hellos at a few other tables, I bid adieu and closed the chapter on this party.