| January 13, 2010 | Snuggie Shenanigans |
 For Christmas this year - as something of a joke - Chris' sister Elizabeth got us Snuggies. (Mine is a stylish leopard print.) Elizabeth has a great sense of humor, and she is the person who convinced us we should dress up as Nadya Suleman and Kate Gosselin for Halloween this past year. Between me and the dawgs, I'm not even ashamed to admit that my Snuggie is getting some serious usage. Yes, the rest of our living room decor is solidly mid-century modern (to suit our tastes as well as the extreme mid-century modern styling of our 1969 townhome). But if you look beyond the cream-colored flokati shag rug, atop the low Italian leather modular sofa you will find one of the greatest home decor/clothing inventions of the 21st century - the Snuggie. So, needless to say, Snuggies have been on our minds. (Come to think of it, from the Radiskull and Devil doll doll (circa 2000) on my dresser, to the pair of Thinkgeek Tauntaun sleeping bags I purchased for us this Christmas, we *do* have a lot of internet phenomena ephemera around in our house.)  Yesterday Chris found this photo and posted it to Facebook with a link to this blog post on "The Baby Snuggie". Chris wrote: "Pure genius - It's like the Snuggie is giving birth. I know a couple of people who need this now, and some who'll need this VERY soon."Eighteen people commented on his "Baby Snuggie" Facebook post, and Chris wrote, "Hell, you might see me carrying Jess around like this before too long." And then while we were watching the season premier of "American Idol" he was inspired to create this image which he posted to his Faceobok wall last night. Being engaged to a creative guy with serious graphic design skills has its advantages. For example, say you want to take a picture of yourselves in an authentic Sid and Nancy pose when you're dressed up for Halloween. Or if your mom just graduated nursing school and you  want to make her a personalized "Nurse Jackie" poster. Also, he might be inspired by seeing a "Baby Snuggie" and decide that he would want to carry his fiance around inside one. When Chris posted this picture to his wall on Facebook, he wrote: "Jess is totally at home in our new Baby Snuggie... she can't wait 'til it comes out in the zebra pattern." Mindy's response was, "now i know what NOT to get jess for her bday!" THEN, Joanna (another talented graphic designer)  created this "Baby and Bunny Snuggie" and posted it to Facebook, with the message:"chris, if jess ever decides to adopt a bunny you will be all set with this snuggie." Chris wrote back, "Forget going into outer space or widening the 405, this is truly one of the best things humans have ever created... genius." Now this "Baby and Bunny Snuggie" is Chris' current Facebook profile pic. Should I be afraid, or just give in to the lahv of Facebook and graphic design shenanigans? Labels: chris, elizabeth, holidays, internet posted by Jess Barron @ 5:00 AM 
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| November 2, 2009 | The (Frog) Princess and the Pea(pod) |
 It's hard to believe that I blogged about our Halloween costumes this year, and neglected to mention the dogs' costumes. What good is Halloween if you don't get a chance to dress up dogs in costumes? Any excuse to dress dogs up in outrageous outfits must be visually documented. Searches for "Dogs in costumes" needs to give "Funny cat viral videos" a run on Google trends, right? This year, we dressed Maggie and Bocce up as the (Frog) Princess and the Pea(pod). Bocce was a Dalmation puppy sidekick to my Cruella De Ville for her first Halloween in 1998. This is Maggie's first time dressing up. Labels: bocce, chris, costume, dog, halloween, pics posted by Jess Barron @ 7:27 AM
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| 'The Crazy Eights' - Nadya and Kate |
After much deliberation this year for Halloween, Chris and I dressed up as "The Crazy Eights" (I was Octomom Nadya Suleman and he was Kate Gosselin).  We packed up sixteen of our children and went out to meet Bri and Derek at a Halloween party at the W in Westwood. Bri and Derek wore traditional German outfits -- she carried a giant beer stein, and he wore lederhosen. There were two Michael Jacksons and plenty of scantily-clad ladies, but we were shocked to find that I was the only Octomom in the entire place, and Chris was the only Kate!  We made out at the bar and made up a story of how Kate and Nadya went from catfights to kissing and became lesbian life-partners and started their own new reality TV show called "Nadya and Kate Plus Twenty-Eight."
posted by Jess Barron @ 3:16 AM
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| October 15, 2009 | It Takes Two |
Chris and I have two great ideas for our costumes this Halloween. Unfortunately I can't tell you what they are so that you can help us decide, because that would ruin the surprise. We take Halloween VERY seriously, and we don't like to announce our costumes ahead of time. It would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it? Last year we dressed up as Sid and Nancy and imitated their classic poses. When we were out at a party in Santa Monica at Joanna's house, to complete the effect, we made sure to shout key lines from the 1986 film "Sid and Nancy: Love Kills." Of course, this meant I was saying things like, "Siiiiid! They wouldn't send us any money! They said we'd spend it on DRUGS!" Check out our pics from Halloween 2008 in LA. For Halloween 2007, we dressed up as Rick Deckard and Rachael the replicant from 1982's "Blade Runner." We are both HUGE fans of the film, so we didn't forget the important details. For example, I don't even smoke, but I held a clove cigarette during the Voight-Kampff test "interrogation scene" photos. See our pics from Halloween 2007 in LA. For Halloween 2006, we dressed up as Britney and K.Fed. They were still married at the time. And we had the babies, and everything. No detail was spared. Chris wore huge diamond (well, Cubic Zirconia) stud earrings and white sneakers, and I drove the car with the babies on my lap. See our pics from Halloween 2006 in LA.For Halloween 2006, we made a video of trying to decide what to wear. We posted it on Yahoo! Video and YouTube and it went viral and received over 13,000 views. Check it out: Labels: chris, halloween, pics, video posted by Jess Barron @ 8:16 AM
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| October 13, 2009 | Chris and I Went on CNN |
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When we woke up yesterday, we were supposed to look at a wedding location in Malibu, but they canceled on us. Then we got a voice message from a friend who said, "You should call me. CNN is looking for people for a segment that you guys would be perfect for." A full week after the announcement of David Letterman's affairs, office relationships are still something everyone is talking about. CNN wanted to speak with people who had gotten engaged/married after meeting in the workplace. Chris and I met in 2005 when we were working together at Yahoo!. We met in a company-wide editorial meeting in Sunnyvale in a conference room called Apollo. There was an initial attraction for both of us, but since our careers at Yahoo! were incredibly important to us, we debated whether or not it was worth risking an involvement with a co-worker. We sat 30 feet away from each other in an open newsroom. Overall our advice to anyone contemplating a romance with someone in their office was to take it slow, and be aware of the rules in your workplace. Chris and I waited four months before we ended up kissing each other. We also researched our company policy about workplace romances. I was an editorial manager at the time, and I didn't want this to reflect poorly on either of us. We were honest and up-front with our co-workers when we started dating, and we tried to be self-aware with no PDAs or flirting in the office in order to make sure none of our colleagues were uncomfortable. I was nervous about telling them about the relationship, but surprised at how supportive our co-workers were. My hope is that we had some good advice to offer, but sometimes I think luck plays such a big part in success. There is no doubt about it that we were lucky. I'm not entirely sure I would recommend a workplace romance to anyone who is contemplating it. I have heard the opposite side of this tale (the horror story) from many friends, and I know if the relationship ends up badly it can have uncomfortable consequences. I guess the important thing is to go in understanding the risks involved. Here's the video from CNN: posted by Jess Barron @ 4:56 PM
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| February 23, 2009 | Elizabeth and Stephen Got Married |
 Chris' sister Elizabeth married Stephen Piccone on Feb 21, 2009 at the Chart House in Scottsdale, Arizona. Despite the fact that the make-up artist might've been on meth (the gal was completely unfocused, shaking, talking way too fast, incapable of styling hair as promised and kept running into the bathroom), Elizabeth looked gorgeous. Her daughter Zoe was the flower girl. I was the Maid of Honor. Chris was the DJ. The harp-est was wonderful, the geese were well-behaved, and the location was perfect. Excellent job, Strimbu clan!Labels: chris, elizabeth, strimbus, wedding posted by Jess Barron @ 9:03 PM
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| June 20, 2008 | Yahoo! News' Scores First Online-Only Interview with President Bush |
 It was mentioned on The Daily Show, MSNBC, Huffington Post, AOL, and too many other places to count... Here is the link to Yahoo! News exclusive interview clip with President George W. Bush where he tells us that he hasn't played golf in 5 years and the reason why. It actually made even more news a few days later, when MSNBC's Keith Olbermann found a video of Bush golfing two months after he said he gave up the sport (following the bombing the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003).Since April when I moved into to my new job as director of programming at Yahoo! News, this exclusive Bush interview is one of the things I am most proud of that we have accomplished. The whole team worked so hard on planning it and devising the questions and shooting it. And, in the end, we were actually able to get Bush to talk about (and do) some things that made news. A whole team worked on this Bush interview, but most of the credit goes to my boss Neeraj Khemlani (who came to Yahoo! from CBS News), producers Robert Padavick and Erin Green, and Didrik Johnck who shot the interview. Also, Mike Allen from Politico was the interviewer. Here's the link to the full interview transcript. The ever-talented multimedia designer Chris Strimbu (full disclosure: he's my significant other, though this does not diminish his talents) created the animated Bush photo montage that appears at the beginning of every Bush interview clip. Labels: bush, chris, news, video, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 1:52 PM
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| November 8, 2006 | Elex Success |
Even though I've been awake and working for most of the last 48 hours, I'm definitely excited about the Elections results, AND  I'm excited to point out that SearchEngineWatch just published a post titled "In the Elections Results Race, Yahoo!'s the Winner," saying that Yahoo!'s Election Day 2006 coverage was better than Google's, MSN's, and AOL's. They called out this interactive map that Chris built in the post. Considering this is pretty much one of the only positive pieces of press I've seen about Yahoo! vis a vis Google in the past year (see this Drift post "The Swift-Boating of Yahoo!" for more info), I'd say it was a smashing success.See, just as I pointed out two years ago in my post and flickr photoset describing how the 2004 Presidential Elections as covered at Yahoo! there are benefits to having actual human journalists taking care to gather and present information, rather then computer algorithms choosing and presenting news -- especially about important, controversial, and complicated topics. Labels: chris, elections, google, journalists, map, media, news, reporting, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 2:58 PM
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| October 31, 2006 | Birtney and KFed Do Halloween 2006 in L.A. |
Chris and I dressed up as Britney and KFed this year.  Check out this video showing how we decided what to wear. We started Saturday night at the Halloween Vlog Fest party in honor of Amanda Congdon in the lobby of the Yahoo! Center in Santa Monica, and then we were headed to West Hollywood to a fabulous bash at Court's place. My two favorite costumes of the evening were Strawberry Shortcake (a.k.a. Sam of daily online video serial show Sam Has 7 Friends at the vlog party) and a seriously decked-out Marie Antoinette (in WeHo). Check out the photos. Labels: britney, chris, halloween, kfed, la, party, photos, video, vlog, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 11:40 PM
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| September 21, 2006 | The Elephant in the Living Room |
Graffiti artist and prankster, Banksy, (you know, the guy who famously and fantastically spoofed Paris Hilton's CD  opened his first Los Angeles show on Friday, Sept 15 in a warehouse downtown Los Angeles. Chris and Chris and I popped over to take a peak. The elephant's presence was controversial. Check out this article. The elephant was painted for the show's opening night, but most/all of the paint was washed off or worn off by Sunday when we stopped by the show. Someone outside had done some graffiti of their own outside in the alley that said "How much for the elephant?" poking fun at both the elephant's inclusion at the show and the fact that Banksy was selling prints of his graffiti for $90 and one canvass -- ironically this one "Sale Ends Today" -- for over $2000. My favorite pieces were the stencil of the girl on the phone (ostensibly to Banksy himself) and she's saying "That's so cute the way you just drwa on stuff and think about yourself all the time." It really shows that he's not afraid to poke fun at himself and is willing to point his fierce criticisms at himself too. This "How's my bombing? Call 1-800-648-0403" sticker he had on the back of the truck was great too. Chris called the number, and it's a Navy recruiting office. Labels: art, artist, banksy, chris, elephant, graffiti, la posted by Jess Barron @ 10:39 PM
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| September 7, 2006 | We Faced Our Fears at Burning Man 2006 |
Chris was a Burning Man virgin this year.  (Not me, My virgin burn was 1999 -- you can read my journal about it. I also went out to the desert in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005...) During our drive to Nevada, I asked him what he most feared about Burning Man."Seeing naked guys kinda freaks me out," he said. "Oh, you mean dude-ity?" I said. "Yeah, I guess." We arrived on the playa at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday after driving for over 13 hours (it's a much longer drive from Los Angeles, than from SF!) It was the middle of a dust storm, and we were freezing cold and tired and both had to pee. It was very hard to find a space to camp. In the past, I had almost always camped with a group of friends in a theme camp with a reserved spot. We drove around for at least a half hour, being turned away from every spot, until we arrived at 4:30 and Hope. We set up camp in the dust storm and it wasn't until much later that we viewed the theme camp directly across the street: called Our Lady of Schlongs: Meat Inspection camp. Talk about Chris facing his fears!!! Needless to say over the course of the week, they had a lot of visitors and we saw a lot of schlongs. They gave us the best bloody marys I have ever had. So spicy and delicious. Check out all my photos from Burning Man 2006. Labels: burningman, chris, dudity, photos, slang posted by Jess Barron @ 10:50 PM
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| July 21, 2006 | I Feel the Need, the Need for Speeeeeeed! |
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When I'm not blogging here on poprocks.com -- you can rest assured that I'm busy blogging somewhere else, probably for work reasons. This blogging machine never stops. Other places to find me, when you need your fix: Along with the ever-lovely Ms. Heather Moylan, I'm writing the AT&T Yahoo! Broadband Editors' Blog, asking the users what they think about such topics as skinny celebs, male infidelity, and the Middle East conflict. We also ask the users to shoot and submit their own cell phone videos of  themselves speaking on these topics. Then on Fridays we read the web comments and show the video clips on-air on Seen and Heard, a new interactive video show show on ABC News NOW (ABC's 24/7 online news channel). We're collaborating with the ABC folks on the show, and we get to talk about what Yahoo! users are saying and what they're searching for each week. It's a really interesting interactive media experiment, and I encourage you to check it out. We also use the AT&T Yahoo blog to highlight the users' best Flickr photos. It's been a cool project. It's exciting to me that the technology finally allows us to pull off interactive user content like this much more easily. The fact that all the users are on a fast broadband connection doesn't hurt either!Something else I'm blogging about that goes very fast: motorcycles! Those who have read my site for a long time know that I'm always curious about new things. In that vein, along with the fabulous Chris Strimbu, I'm writing the MotoGP blog from Laguna Seca in Monterey. MotoGP is motorcycle Grand Prix and it's something that's been really huge in Europe for years, but is only in its second year in the U.S. -- so most Americans aren't hugely familiar with it. The motorcylists ride on a curvy track at speeds of more than 200 miles-per-hour. It's pretty incredible. And loud! Right now, we're in the media tent working on the blog. Later today, we'll upload some awesome photos and interview the riders. Since I'm on the topic of fast stuff, I ask you, dear readers, to tell me about the fastest you've ever gone? Labels: blog, chris, motorcycle, speed, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 11:47 AM
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| June 15, 2006 | You Can Lead a Whore to Vassar... |
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"You can lead a whore to Vassar, but you can't make her think." -Frederick B. Artz, noted medieval historian  For some inexplicable reason, we went back to Poughkeepsie, New York to celebrate the Vassar Class of 1996 10-year reunion. Thankfully, there was a lot of drinking. You can look at the pictures. It struck me that ten years is somehow both a very long and a very short amount of time. And I'm not the only person who had profound thoughts. In one of the bathroom stalls in Josselyn dorm, one of my classmates scrawled in black Sharpie marker: "I love Vassar, but my girlfriend won't." Ah, the coed college bathrooms of my youth. Being back at Vassar, I realized it was probably the only place where Chris, Mindy, Erik, and I could all pee standing/sitting alongside each other. Ah, co-education is a beautiful thing, despite what one of the women from the (female only) class of 1946 exclaimed loudly at my classmates. Little did she know that by far the most popular party during my time at Vassar was the annual Homo Hop. The other Vassar 10th reunion take-away I will share is that those tiny twin-sized dorm beds with plastic mattresses are completely uncomfortable and I have no idea how we ever slept in them. Nevermind, with more than one person in a bed. Which reminds me... "If all the girls at Vassar were laid end to end... I wouldn't be at all surprised." - Dorothy Parker As I said, you can look at the pictures. Nothing too risque this time. The five-year reunion was a bit more lively. Does this mean we're *gasp* getting old? Have you been ever been to your high school or college reunion? If so what did you think? Labels: chris, college, mindy, pee, photos, reunion, vassar posted by Jess Barron @ 10:45 PM
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| April 10, 2006 | Haunted House |
 This is no lie. Chris and I are staying in a haunted house, and we can't sleep. We're in Calistoga at a Bed & Breakfast called The Elms. We drove up from Monterey (where we attended Chris Barton's wedding yesterday) and we didn't arrive until 6:45 p.m. We pulled up and parked in front of the large white Victorian, walked through the iron gate and approached the front door. There was a white envelope taped to the door that said "Strimbu party." We plucked it off. It contained 2 keys, and a note that said our room was on the 3rd floor. It also had a phone number to call "in case of emergency." Check in time for the Inn is between 4-6p.m. and there's complimentary wine and cheese. We had missed that, and apparently the owners weren't around. It's a huge house with about 7 bedrooms, but the hotel manager told us that only one other room was to be occupied. It was incredibly quiet inside the hotel, and doors to all the unoccupied rooms were open so we peaked into a few of them. Up on the top floor in our room, the weathered books on the book shelf included a box set of The Chronic(wah)les of Narnia, Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, and California Hauntspitality: A Ghostly Guide to Haunted Inns, Restaurants, and Taverns. Of course, I picked this one up, and immediately thumbed to the page for Calistoga. And of course, there was the name of our hotel, the only haunted place listed for Calistoga, California. "Oh my god!" I said, handing the book to Chris before reading the entry, in an attempt to avoid freaking myself out. "Don't tell me this place is in that book," he said, and immediately started reading the page I had open. "Wow." "Should I read it?" I asked. "I don't know if you want to see it," he said. Of course, I had to read it. And now I can't sleep. Here's what it said: History:The house was built in 1871 by A.C. Pallmer, who was the first circuit judge in the area. He and his bride went to Europe on their honeymoon. While in France, they picked up the seedlings to the French Elm trees, then came home and built the French style Victorian. The Elm trees are now the tallest and oldest elms in the Napa Valley. There were originally eight "great" Victorian houses built in Calistoga; The Elms is the last one standing today. After reading that passage, we just had to look around inside "Blithe Spirit," the empty room that was our nextdoor neighbor on the top floor. It was similar to ours with a different color scheme (blue walls, red bed) and a larger bathroom. On our way downstairs to leave for dinner around 8:30 p.m. we had to look around inside La Chambre, which had its light on. It is a beautiful room with hardwood floors and a giant wooden mirror. The bathroom is gorgeous and spacious, with a claw foot tub. We climbed down the long windy staircase and there was old fashioned music playing downstairs in the empty parlor on the first floor. "Was that on when we arrived?" I asked. "Yes, I think so," he said. "I wonder if it stays on all night." Labels: calistoga, chris, haunted, inn posted by Jess Barron @ 12:24 AM
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| November 17, 2005 | Gawking at 'Yahoo! Jocks' |
Last night after our day-long editorial conference at The Viceroy (I presented on the  topic of "What Works and What Doesn't for Yahoo! Broadband Portals"), a bunch of us Yahoo!'s and our entourage went to a cocktail party at Arianna Huffington's house thrown by Yahoo!'s Lloyd Braun and Scott Moore in honor of Gawker's Nick Denton and Mark Lisanti and celebrating the Yahoo!/Gawker syndication deal. (That's right, you can now check out a random assortment of Gawker posts co-branded on Yahoo! News. Yay. I think. Or maybe that's just the party line...)Arianna was an amazing hostess. She greeted us all personally as we arrived. (just as sweetly as she greeted Bill Maher and David Mamet.) And her bartenders certainly poured some stiff freaking drinks. Chris took tons of photos, as always of our posse at the party. I'm not so sure I can run for President anymore. Sarah also took a bunch of pics. Sadly, no Arianna. Our reflexes were obviously dulled by the drinks again. While sipping vodka and sodas, I met Gawker's Lockhart Steele, who it turns out is also class of 1996 and also a former college newspaper geek. Lockhart, alas, did not try to pick me up, though our very own superstar editor John Briggs did and succeeded (and I didn't even spill my drink!) Here's gridskipper's little post about the party. They called us "Yahoo jocks." Dunno what they're talking about. I thought that whole cool vs. uncool, nerds versus jocks thing went outta style in 1987. This means war! You know how I'm so sensitive about these things... I pinged the URLs to Esther today, and she IM'd back: esther: funny that gridskipper calls it a 'melee'/gang war and chris calls it a 'love fest' Chris described the scene more accurately. I witnessed a lot more lips-to-ass contact between the Gawker and Yahoo! crews than any actual threats of personal violence. It was all about the laaaaaaahv. Sweet, sweet laaahv. And I, personally, loved it. You can read more about the party on Defamer, and look at their pics. After Arianna's, I drove Oren, Rick, and Mali (followed in another car by Heather and Allyson) to the In-n-Out burger in Westwood for some late night cheeseburgers (with onions!). We drove with the top down and blasted Spandeau Ballet's "True" (screaming along at the top of our lungs) as we headed back to Santa Monica to the Viceroy. Labels: ariannahuffington, chris, gawker, in-n-outburger, la, party, photos, viceroy, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 2:23 PM
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| November 12, 2005 | Sake Bombs Over Beverly Hills |
Andy is in town visiting from SF, and he met me and the Santa Monica Yahoo! crew at Ariake in Beverly Hills for  sushi dinner and many, many bottles of sake, including sake bombs with gold flakes in them (to keep hangovers away!)You really need to look at Chris' flickr photoset to understand just how the Yahoo! Santa Monica posse rolls. We can't even eat sushi without going completely cray-cray. I put my bright red lipstick on Peter and Yun, everyone wore my cream leather coat, and Andy declared that it was all very different than the Yahoo! get-togethers up in Sunnyvale. Afterward, around midnight when we all got back to my house in Venice. Kim and Mary Jo brought 30 people over dressed in wigs and flamboyant clothes for a Dance Dance Revolution / Karoke Revolution party. They were their friends, and my Venice-area neighbors who had been drinking all night at The Whaler. This went on until 6a.m. when the beer (and everyone's energy) ran out. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Chris' camera's battery died around when the party started, though there is this one random pic. Labels: andy, chris, ddr, karaoke, la, party, sake, santamonica, sushi, venice posted by Jess Barron @ 1:55 PM
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| October 31, 2005 | Can You Distinguish Substance from Fluff? |
Dear fans of math and logic puzzles,  I have some questions for you to ponder. If Jess Barron was in New York City for 4 nights and slept no more than 3 hours-per-night (for a grand total of 12 hours of sleep in 3 days):1. How many fellow journalists did she exchange business cards with during the ONA conference? 2. How many cocktails did she consume? 3. How many hours did she spend in the post-midnight pre-dawn hours running around the city with co-workers and friends? 4. How many seconds was her face in lights on the enormous Reuters billboard in Times Square? I've been pondering these questions for several hours myself on the plane ride back to the West Coast, and the only answer I can determine is A LOT. If you can provide more specific or accurate answers, perhaps you should consider applying to Mensa. Or perhaps you should stop stalking me. Contrary to the popular belief of my co-workers (Dave Carpenter, for example), I do usually like to get 6-8 hours of sleep per night under normal circumstances. My body wants that much sleep, and on some greedy nights my brain would probably be happiest with 9-10 hours of sleep. But the problem I run into again and again is that there is generally so much I want to do and sleep merely gets in the way of my ability to get it all done. There are so many people love spending time with, there is so much work I want to accomplish, and there are also numerous personal projects. As a certain boy famously told me back in February 2002 "You have -- as we say in the office -- 'a tendency to overcommit.'" It's become ever-increasingly true, and it seems like I'll never stop trying to stretch the space-time continuum. My professional work-type duties while in New York included:
My dad's advice when I told him on the phone about the podcasting panel, "Just don't drink too much the night before." In addition to these professional obligations, I had planned to see my longtime friends Jeff and Lee and also possibly meet Jeremy Abbate who wrote a song called "I Wanna Be as Cool as Jessica Barron" after reading my blog without having ever met me. Of course, there were other friends and people I wanted to meet (including Brooklynite Ted Gesing who created the infamous and much-loved Nutria documentary), but I figured it might be prudent if I focused only on these three. Even though neither one of them has yet to compose a single song in my honor, I gave my scheduling priority to Jeff and Lee since they've been my dear friends for 16 and 10 years, respectively. (I met Jeff when we ran against each other for a student government position in 1989. I met Lee while traveling in Turkey in 1995.) After they've put up with me for so long, it's the least I can do. I arrived at JFK at 5p.m. on Wednesday, and called Jeff and Lee during my cabride to the hotel (the Hilton on 6th Ave). Jeff took the subway to my hotel and we hungout in my room and raided my mini bar, concocting what seemed to be some really strong gin and tonics. Though you will actually be charged on your bill for the snacks and liquor you take out of your hotel room mini fridge, breaking the plastic seal on the door still feels more like "raiding" to me. It brings me back to hotel stays during barely-chaperoned junior high and high school class trips when we would physically break the cheap locks on the mini bars and spend the evenings getting drunk on the little nip-bottles we didn't quite understand how to combine and mix. Jeff suggested the idea of eating at The Odeon in the East Village which he (and Citysearch) described as a place that had "a decadent heyday during the hard-partying '80s." Since I can hardly resist anything that's decadent, hard-partying, or from the 1980s, I announced that I was game. Lee called to say that he and his girlfriend Brett would meet us there for dinner. The food was decent. I had an heirloom tomato and goat cheese salad (my two absolute favorites) followed by an entree of broiled scallops. Jeff had a steak. We debated and discussed San Francisco versus New York City versus Los Angeles. After dinner Jeff and I went to the Stone Rose Lounge, a big airy bar inside the Time Warner Center with high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. We drank $17 martinis until about 2 in the morning. When arrived back to my hotel room, I couldn't sleep. Throughout the evening I kept calling the West-Coast-to-East-Coast time difference the "West Coast Advantage" to my friends, because it enabled me to easily party until dawn, but as I sat propped up on pillows in bed checking email on my laptop until 4 in the morning, it was clear that it wasn't quite an advantage. Especially since I needed to be at the Associated Press office by 8:45 a.m. for an all-day Flash class to learn how to build automated slideshows with audio soundtracks. Wednesday night (umm, that'd be Thursday morning) I slept from 4:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m., and I was still 10 minutes late for the class. Though I generally have a strong aptitude for picking up computer applications, it was quickly apparent that I was the worst student in the Flash class. I had to ask the teacher to explain everything and show me everything personally one more time. I was pathetic. And, sadly I can't honestly blame my remedial status on the lack of sleep and amount of drinking. Between timeliness, layers, keyframes and tweening, Flash is a complicated program, and it can easily explode your head. Or, at least it can easily explode my head. I wasn't familiar with being the slowest student in the class, and consequently it was a very difficult day. When I got back to my hotel room a little after 6 p.m., Lee called and told me he made 8:30 reservations at Bread Tribeca. "I made reservations for 4 of us," he said, "So you can bring one of your friends." I was starving, and I wanted to make the phone calls to see if Sam or Dave had arrived in New York yet and extend an invitation to dinner, but first I needed to close my eyes and attempt to extend myself an invitation to an hour-long nap. I set the alarm on my cell phone, took off my clothes, put on a t-shirt and curled up under the covers. As exhausted and drained as I was from a day spent inserting keyframes and creating tweens in Flash class, I closed my eyes but could not sleep. Still, I was determined to keep my head on the pillow. At 6:45 p.m. my phone rang, and I jumped out of bed to answer the call. It was my friend Sam who works on content programming for yahoo.com. He had arrived at the hotel and asked if I wanted to go grab some food. I invited him to dinner and quickly got back into bed to try to catch that elusive nap before it was too late. Twenty minutes later my phone rang again. It was Dave from the Toronto office. He had already arrived and headed out to dinner by himself, but suggested that we meet up later for drinks. I tried for a third time to nap, but quickly gave up and turned on the TV and started changing back into my clothes. Sam, Lee, Brett, and I had dinner at Bread Tribeca. The food was decent. I had cauliflower puree soup as a starter followed by linguine with clams. We also shared a few bottles of red wine. After dinner Dave called and said, "I'm at a really fun karaoke bar in the East Village called Second on Second, you should come over here." It was approaching midnight, and as much as I love karaoke -- I wanted to head back closer to the hotel. I honestly every intention of getting to bed at a sober and decent hour. With that in mind, I asked Dave to meet Sam and me at the W hotel bar because it was the only thing I could think of. During our cab ride to the W, Bill and Chris called. Bill was out with colleagues and asked me if I had talked to JB yet. I told him I hadn't but that I had left a message. I also told him that Sam and I were heading over to the W. Chris and the Yahoo! News team had just finished dinner and were wandering around Times Square near our hotel. I told them we were in a cab headed for the W. They said they might meet us there. Dave found Sam and I at the W, but by y 1:30 or 2, we hadn't seen Bill nor the Yahoo! News folks. We were wondering what to do when Bill phoned to say that he and JB were at a bar called Faces and Names near the Rihga hotel. We left the W to walk over to Faces and Names and phoned Chris and Ron on Yahoo! News to let them know. By 2:30 we were all hanging out together at Faces and Names. By 3a.m. there was talk of heading back to the hotel. JB, Chris, Sam, Dave and I started the walk back, but were immediately seduced by the bright white lights of a neighborhood pizza place. JB ordered us a pie to go, then he and Dave went into the bodega nextdoor to pick up some beer while we waited for the pizza to be ready. We carried brown bags of pizza and beer back to the hotel and decided to continue the party in JB's room. I headed to my room to get Bocce since she had been cooped up in the hotel all day. We ate pizza and drank beer until around 4 a.m. when we were kidnapped and gagged by guerilla marketers for Yahoo! News' Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone. Bocce liked the pizza, but didn't necessarily enjoy her time as a walking Hot Zone advertisement. At 4:30a.m. Sam and Dave headed to bed. JB, Chris, and I took the dog outside for a walk, and Chris snapped action photos of me picking up Bocce's poop. Can you say poop-arazzi? I thought you could. After all that excitement, Bocce and I decided it was time for bed. The next day I attended some panels and prepared for my own. It went fairly well (you can listen to a portion of my talk), though afterward I wished I had talked more about content for podcasts than mostly just focusing on the how-tos. After the ONA-sponsored cocktail hour where I met Mark Fiore, some folks from CBS News, Anj from Yahoo!s Toronto office and many others, we all headed back to our rooms to freshen up and then bundle up and agreed to meet up at 8:30 at South's in Tribeca where we would have some more drinks before our 9:45 dinner reservation at 66. While back in my hotel room, I decided to don my Jackie Kennedy outfit which I had packed in case an inkling of Halloween spirit hit me. Post-cocktail-hour I felt it was a great idea to wear a bright pink suit and pillbox hat even though none of my other compatriots were dressed in costume. This is how I roll. Lee and Brett met Sam, Dave, Anj and I at South's. Then Bill showed up carrying an unopened container of marshmallow Fluff that he said he had brought for me. "I hope you're not implying that our Yahoo! Broadband Portal content is fluff!" I said giggling and grabbing the container of Fluff. After a while, the Yahoo! News crew (Neil, Ron, Oren, Chris, Sarah, and Peter) arrived at South's, and we all walked down the block to 66. Jeff and his boyfriend Daniel were sitting in the lounge drinking cocktails when we arrived. Sam -- who was just meeting Jeff for the first time -- commented: "It was obvious that Jeff had known you for years because when you walked into this chichi restaurant dressed as Jackie Kennedy and carrying a giant container of Fluff, he wasn't the slightest bit surprised." At 10p.m., we found out the hard way that NYC reservations for big groups rarely start on time. At 10:30 p.m. we were drinking ginger margaritas in the lounge area and noshing on appetizers as we waited for our back room to be ready. By 11 p.m. (I think) we were seated for dinner at three tables in our own room. I was seated at the end of a table surrounded by my NYC friends. Daniel and Jeff were on my left, Lee and Brett on my right. Before any of the food started arriving on the tables, Bill instigated the idea that he and I would open the container of Fluff and offer it around to the other tables. "Would you care for some fluff?" I said as I did my best 1960s stewardess impression. Our hard work and dedication paid off. We were triumphant. We managed to get nearly every person to try a spoonful of Fluff -- and several brave souls plunged their fingers right into the container. Others used chopsticks. The barbarous and uncouth "Fluff course" of the meal mortified my black-clad NYC friends. Living in San Francisco for five years (and going to Burning Man five times) definitely enhanced my already overactive capacity for absurdity. If a group of twenty of my co-workers are giggling and sticking their fingers into their mouths -- in my mind it was a great ice-breaker. It was the least I could do. Dinner ended sometime after midnight. Lee, Brett, and Daniel headed home and many of my co-workers decided to call it a night, but Jeff, Anj, Dave, Oren, Sarah, Ron, Chris, Mic, Peter and I ventured to Second on Second. We arrived, got ourselves some drinks and put our name in for karaoke to do Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Unfortunately the stack of song requests on the KJ's podium was enormous and we left to head back to the hotel before our name was called. This time the late night after-party was in Ron and Chris' rooms. We drank beers from the mini bars and chatted as music played from Chris' laptop. He played Echo and the Bunnymen and The Smiths at my request. The TV was on playing an endless loop of Larry King interviewing commentators about the Libby indictment with the volume turned all the way down. It seemed certain that Chris and I will become fast friends. And Anj and me too. Even though we just met -- she and I were having a great time hanging out together. Sam, Dave and I are already pretty tight after working together for over 2 years. (Dave and I have even partied in London together on a work trip...) On Saturday I attended a bunch more panels. My favorite was Digital Visual Storytelling, though the Saturday afternoon panel "Journalism 2010: Who's leading the way?" (which our own Neil Budde sat as a panelist on) was also quite interesting with its now-seemingly-obligatory and impassioned blogger versus "dinosaur" bashing. Afterward we went to the Reuters-sponsored cocktail party. Then we headed to a bar in the East Village, where we smoked flavoured tobacco out of a giant hookah. For dinner we went to Il Bagatto (on Jeff's excellent suggestion). I ate with Daniel and Jeff while unfortunately my starving co-workers (Sam, Ron, Anj and Chris) and their entourage of young journalism students were kept waiting at the bar for almost an hour (unacceptable!). Luckily, they made lemonaide from lemons and befriended the perky bartender (she gave Jeff and Daniel three olives each in their martinis!) After dinner we wandered around the East Village spotting (and accosting) folks in Halloween costumes. There were even more Ali G's this year than last year (this Yahoo! one was my favorite). Then we went to KGB for some drinks amid Soviet paraphernalia. We got back to the hotel around 2:30 and I took Bocce for a walk and then went to bed. I seriously needed some sleep. On Sunday morning I packed and checked out of the hotel, and took a cab to Park Slope Brooklyn to visit Jeff and Daniel at their apartment and meet their Great Dane puppy Ace. Ace is beautiful. He's sleek and gray. He's also HUGE! He weighs 125-pounds and is still growing. Jeff and Daniel say he will soon be 50 pounds larger. Unfortunately it was difficult-if-not-impossible for 12-pound middle-aged Bocce to play with a teenage dog who was ten times(!) her size. Jeff and Daniel made us brunch of pumpkin pancakes, eggs, bacon, and Daniel's homemade (from scratch!) pumpkin pie. It was awesome. And then I got in a car to head back to JFK to fly home. I'm sorry I didn't meet my personal songwriter Jeremy Abbate, but I'm psyched that I ended up getting my photo displayed in lights on the huge Reuters screen in Times Square (thanks Sarah!) P.S. Almost all photos I'm linking to in this post were taken by Chris Sarah, Ron, and Jeff as I left my camera behind this time... Labels: bocce, chris, costume, dog, jeff, karaoke, lee, nyc, ona, photos, radio, slang, travel, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 11:20 AM
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| August 26, 2005 | 22 Hours in Los Angeles, 2 Hours in a Karaoke Booth |
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22 hours in Los Angeles 3 hours in meetings 2 hours in a karaoke booth Allyson, Heather and I flew down to Los Angeles for 22 hours to meet with our Yahoo! co-workers on the entertainment, music, and news teams to discuss all the exciting upcoming content which, of course, I can't tell you about. But I assure you it's cool stuff. Since I always like to begin any excursion or adventure well-rested (ummm, who am I kidding? perhaps well-caffeinated, or maybe well-dressed), I started the day yesterday on 3.5 hours of sleep because I was down in Sunnyvale at 5a.m. to do some East Coast radio interviews for Yahoo! Buzz on my office landline. (My housemates and I don't have a landline phone at our house and it seems ridiculous to sign up for one when I'm moving to LA in just 2 months.) The highlight of our trip down south was definitely the 2 hours we spent with Laura, Richard, and Chris in an Asian-style (private room) karaoke place off of Sawtelle in West Los Angeles. I would pay at least $35 for an mp3 recording of our sextet's (the use of this word makes our behavior sound more debaucherous) awesomely-outrageous rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." It certainly brought a tear to my eye. Similarly, witnessing the tortured magic of Chris and Laura's spontaneous and unplanned performance of Akon's "Lonely" can hardly be described. Thankfully, Heather took some photos of it all, and we can console ourselves that soon she will be posting them to flickr. postscript: Here's Heather's flickr photoset. Labels: allyson, chris, karaoke, la, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 2:53 PM
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