Thursday, November 09, 2000

Growing a Spalab

Similar to the postman's motto, neither rain nor sleet nor tired feet were going to keep me away from my final stop of the night. Nearly at the opposite end of the party-grid (location-wise) was Siegel & Gale's celebration at the Angel Orensanz Center for SpaLab. S&G had just acquired this hot design and branding firm, and judging from the field of tall, skinny, smoking, single 20-somethings that filled the space, there would be lots more interesting developments from this acquisition. Siegel and Gale's Interactive Media's Vice President Andrew Zolli greeted me and I say a quick hello (and took a quick foto) of SpaLab's Ari Jabobs. Fresh flowers and green grass images flashed on the standing screens and DJ's spun mild-techno to soft young ears. I chatted with Kaufman Brothers investment banking VP Ruslan Chilov and sampled some amazingly fresh focaccia. I'd never seen this ancient temple of worship so beautifully decorated before and as the music wound down, I accepted my bag of "the best swag ever" (noted Andrew Zolli) and mused the wet and wild Thursday web-beings went through...