The Epinions M&G Returns To The Big Apple: Watch The Nachos and Show Your Melons!!
Mar 27 '06
The Bottom Line I wrote this entire wrap-up just to say "tittie".
I was actually going to sit out writing about this.
I guess you could say that I'm a veteran of Epinions meet & greets, having attended the inaugural New York event, as well as meets in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. As such, those of you that read me regularly have already heard many of the things I'm going to reiterate here. With that said, Epinions.com's triumphant return to my own backyard was such an enjoyable event that I wouldn't have felt comfortable with myself had I not said a few (OK, more than a few) words about the actual meet, as well as the events that preceeded and succeeded it.
The staff at Epinions hit the nail right on the head when they decided to return to New York. They also did the right thing by announcing it far enough in advance that out-of-town users were able to schedule getaways without all of the calamities that pop up when you plan something at the last second. As a native New Yorker recently transplanted to New Jersey, getting there wasn't a problem, but for users like bob_tomato and his wofe pearannoyed (from Texas) and dizzybint (who graced us with her presence from the Great White North-eh!), the extra time to plan was probably the difference between attending and not attending.
As plans began to finalize, I was equally excited to see some friends again (like the three members mentioned beforehand) as I was to meet some new people, who I'll get to later.
My official M&G experience started a bit earlier than most, as I literally met Garrett (AKA roheblius AKA The Zen Master of Epinions.com) and Tomiko (AKA she doesn't have a user name yet AKA Hot Tamale) as they walked into the Hilton Times Square for the first time on Thursday Night. Garrett and I have a friendship that goes way beyond the site (actually, that friendship is only threatened when we DISCUSS the site), and it was good to see him again. Tomiko is still learning a bit about the site, but she's definitely a breath of fresh air, very eager to explore the site's ins and outs, and continues the site's tradition of never hiring anyone less than a 10, looks-wise.
Which means I will never, EVER, EVER work for Epinions.
A quick dinner at Chevy's on Thursday night, and I was off for the evening. The next afternoon, I was back at their hotel, getting ready for a day that included showing them around New York City, eating the best NYC barbecue at Virgil's (I would review them, but I couldn't even finish my entree), and eating dinner at Grand Central's Oyster Bar with Krissieliz (who I'd befriended at the D.C. meet) and her friend Elise, who managed to get me, renowned seafood hater, to eat raw oysters. Several of them. And they weren't that bad. Unfortunately, I had to take another early leave, as I had to get home to meet the arriving tbthorn, AKA Tom AKA Porno Master (check his reviews, y'all). Tom is another Eps user I have become close to over the years, and we spent most of the night catching up and anticipating the next day's events.
Imagine my surprise upon getting to the ESPN Zone with Tom, as well as the Bint and the Tomatos and finding out that they had reserved the exact same room that had been reserved for the very first Meet. I thought it was a small room then. With three times the amount of people who attended the first Meet expected for this one, I figured there'd be users hanging out the rafters. Of course, we got there significantly earlier, and were immediately put to work by Garrett and Tomiko, as well as the rest of the Epinions staff: Christal AKA Christalc1 AKA Hot Ta Def, Greg Gary Jeff John Dudley Jesse James, and Andy AKA Andyman AKA Licensed to Ill (more on that later). The group of us walked around the skybox, placing Epi dolls in creative and compromising positions and attempting to hang a big Epinions banner in the stairwell. How many Epinions members/employees does it take to hang a banner? Four. No joke there, either. Sad, huh?
Shortly before 1 PM, folks started filing in, and I recognized tons of faces. Among the folks I had encountered at previous M&G's were Davidk93 AKA "Anytime I Think About...Well...Anything, I Touch Myself", the venerable popsrocks, who was the only person who got the joke about my nametag (which referred to a recent development in the often juvenile nitpicking that goes on in the Eps Message Boards), my homegirl beckytcy AKA "He's Cute, I Wonder If He's Gay", the lovely and gone-for-too-long kristinafh, Aashok, the man with the camera, colonialpara, a man who I have one hell of a lot of respect for, the too-cute-for words brendan2 (Liz is a sweetheart, y'all, she'll make someone a very nice catch!), voxpoptart (who unfortunately had to leave early),and tombarnes AKA "The Barnes" AKA "Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn", a buddy of mine who I COMPLETELY forgot to call after the Meet to give him directions to the afterparty. I'm sorry man. I had five screwdrivers...cut me some slack.
What was more exciting was me was meeting some people for the first time. Practically the King & Queen of writing at Epinions, I was humbled to make the acquaintance of bryan_carey and jo.com, however briefly (sidenote: how weird is it to look at someone's picture for years and finally come face-to-face with them?). I briefly met up and coming music writer Dionne25, who was one of several Eps writers with babies in tow. And I also got to cement long-in-gestation real-world friendships by meeting three of my favorite music writers. Netnut746, AKA Mike was actually shier than I'd ever pegged him to be, but he's a good kid. We've had many lengthy convos over the internet (and he was one of several folks who talked me through a VERY difficult couple of months late last year/early this year), and it was nice to be able to see him in person. He's also a neighbor of mine, and he better come over when the weather gets warm and I start to barbecue. Tigger500 AKA Tyler and I have had some ideological differences (and we like complete opposite sides of the same type of music if that makes any sense at all), but he's a teddy bear. Tall, dark and handsome, we had an interesting (if not quick) discussion on music.
Pyfr AKA Bryan was probably the person I was most intrigued to meet. He's easily become one of the wittiest and most readable people in a category that's doing a slow fade, quality-wise (that would be music), and although we've butted heads a couple of times (and I've been quite vocal about when I though he's gone out of line), he doesn't take my criticisms the wrong way. Turns out meeting Bryan was like meeting a long-lost best friend or an older brother. We clicked instantly (maybe it's because he's one of the few male Eps writers that's pocket size, like me), and his friend David (who is a fellow Jersey City resident), was cool too.
As far as the non-member specifics about the Meet And Greet, I can say this. I didn't try any of the food except for a touch of pound cake that I got from krissieliz. Yes, Kristen, it was salty. I did, however, have five very well-made and tasty screwdrivers, although I should tell the waiter next time that I like my OJ with no pulp. And I didn't win the Ipod. Tom did. The B8stard.
With a short three-hour run time, the objective quickly became shake hands, talk for a couple minutes, and split. Unfortunately, that didn't give me the opportunity to spend quality time with a lot of people that I really like and/or respect, including several of the people I mentioned earlier, as well as the charming and sarcastic davidmanning. The Meet could have easily doubled in length and I don't think anyone would have minded. Before I go on to the aftershow, here were some Meet highlights.
*Marytara's gorgeous baby Isabelle doing the Drunken Baby Walk through the crowd.
*Lorrie, the CEO of shopping.com, who was geniunely interested in the things we had to say about the site, and was unbelievably personable, even though she reneged on her promise to join us at karaoke later that night :)
*Becky and Kristen constantly walking up to me and asking "Do you think he's gay?" about various handsome male attendees.
*Pvreditor and his ever-present guitar, plucking those chords in an attempt to get me to take over for the venerable plorentz as the doer of the Infamous Towel Dance. I respectfully declined, but I did join him and Becky for a singalong of "Dust In The Wind".
Too quickly, the Meet was over and we had to leave the ESPN Zone Skybox (the m**f**kas cut the lights out on us. Boo). After a quick trip to the crowded arcade (I didn't feel like whooping some rugrat tail just to play some games), we made a return trip to Chevy's, where we hooked up with the Epinions staff and Mr. Tomato cannily grabbed some VIP ears and discussed some things that he and I had discussed privately regarding the site. Smooth move, Andrew.
Then came the part of the evening most of us had been waiting for. On suggestion from a friend of Becky's, I'd reserved a place called IBop (on 33rd between 5th and 6th) for private karaoke. Becky and I (and some of her friends) were joined by the Tomatos, tbthorn, Davidk93, roheblius, andyman, Tomiko, pyfr (and friend), the lovely Ned1 and her boyfriend/man-ho Marty (very handsome, Nancy. Good catch!), colonialpara (the official karaoke photographer), Dizzybint, Krissieliz and...I think that's it, for what turned out to be a rollicking good time. It turned out to be ten times better than sitting in a bar buying watered-down drinks and awaiting your turn at the mic. For five hours, we sang our little Epinions hearts out. Our little drunken Epinions hearts. Our little increasingly drunken Epinions hearts. As I'd already karaoke-d with some of these folks before, I knew what to expect. Davidk was his usual campy self, rolling through "I Will Survive", "I Touch Myself", and "Hollaback Girl". Becky was the diva in training, ripping through Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and "It's Raining Men". The Tomatos provided a couple of starry-eyed duets with "You're The One That I Want" and...some song about Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors? Am I right?
The new jacks rolled with it, too. Kristen rocked The Cure's "Just Like Heaven", which I think she said was her favorite song about eleventy times. Pyfr is damn near the canniest David Bowie impersonator I've ever heard and does a mean Trent Reznor impression as well (and I had a lot of fun doing background vocals on "Closer"), and he's a great duet partner as well. We wound up sharing duties on Prince's "Gett Off", and the night's closer, Van Morrison's "Moondance".
Me? I forgot words...a lot. My voice cracked a couple of times, and I got to dance with the very sexy Tomiko. All in all, a memorable night.
But nothing can top our performance of "Livin' On A Prayer", which was not only unforgettable for the tomato/pyfr/pyfr's friend/speeddemon lead vocal attack, but also for ned1's go-go dancing. Thankfully, there was no sex in the Champagne Room that night.
But later on, at another bar, Nancy did show us her pierced tittie.
I've written a hell of a lot, but I could easily have written twice as much. Through nearly 4 years and 600 reviews (two milestones I appear to be coming up on simultaneously), I have met many people from this site, forged quite a few friendships, and on the other side of things, I have also become at times disillusioned, both with the site itself and with the people on the site. It's events like this that have kept me sticking around for so long. Ultimately, this event could have been held in a toolshed. As said many times before, it's the people that make this site. And while it may be cool to shrug this thing off as "just a silly old website" (and to be fair about it, I've become significantly more "blase" about the site recently, probably to my benefit), Epinions is truly about "community", and nothing has made me believe in that sense of community more strongly than meeting all of you guys and getting to know you as flesh and blood people rather than just avatars and names on a page.
'Til next time,
Speeddemon531, signing off.
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Epinions.com ID:
speeddemon531
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 in Music |
 - Top 200 |
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Location: Somewhere On The East Coast
Reviews written: 954
Trusted by: 303 members
About Me:
I let y'all play with it for a little while. Now Daddy's back.
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