New York – April 18, 1997 (Full Issue)
| NEW YORK | April 18, 1997 |
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Related Links: House of Borax GeoCities Best Unsigned Bands Contest LPNYTHink’s Creative work for Canada Calendar of Events |
April 18, 1997
House of Borax
YOU’VE GOT TO LIKE the space at House of Borax. Exposed bricks, old arched windows, high ceilings and exposed beams. It would be any real estate agent’s dream project. But on April 5 it was a truly classless place to be. The reason? House of Borax and Thinking Pictures produced the third episode of the hit cyber series, “Class-less Classics.” The event did have some class-less classics alright. I hadn’t seen such bad acting since I was in freshman acting class. Yikes!
In addition to a live theatrical parody of a literary classic, the evening included a performance by the New York band “Hot Water,” web surfing, and a multi-media art exhibition. As far as the crowd, well, everyone looked like they were trying to be Razorfish, more plastic outfits and accessories than I’d seen since Barbie in the 70’s. The party was graced by the elusive, sexy D Church, who said: “The best part about this is the box that’s talking on the floor!” (a nice little Mac sitting all by its lonesome in the middle of the floor, speaking some gibberish).
Everyone was in their own little group, aside from the most fascinating “performer” of the evening: a petite woman pacing the length of the floor, wearing her walkman, cooly smoking on a cigarette, with her bags across her shoulder and her coat on.
Josh Harris, best known from Pseudo radio, was looking quite 40’s style detective-ish, but paled in comparison to his cohort “Luigi” Don Carlo, who was decked out in a white three-piece suit, white fedora hat, black shirt, wide white tie, and a red pocket square. Oh my!
GeoCities Best Unsigned Bands Contest
GEOCITIES, A PIONEER in the development of Internet-based communities, recently celebrated the launch of its first annual “Best Unsigned Bands In America Contest” with a party at New York’s trendy downtown nightspot, Mother. Presented in conjunction with SPIN magazine and sponsored by Intel and RankIt, Visa’s college site, the event attracted the obvious melange of media buyers, ad execs and New York digerati. It was all very slick and very schmoozy and you couldn’t help but notice the bartender near the entrance, (I like to call “her” Ms. Thang. Her blond locks and big eyelashes almost distracted me from her stuff-em-in-a-wonderbra breasts).
After attaining a beverage from said bartender, I overheard one cute guest comment, “The tension between the music and the new media industries was as palpable as that of the fin de siecle.” Oh sure. The contest will run through April 28 with a winner set to be announced in mid-May. Throughout the promotion, GeoCities will feature great music from the entries, chats, seminars and contests for concert tickets and CD’s.
LPNYTHink’s Creative work for Canada
ANDREW LEVY at LPNYTHink told me they have been hired by the Canadian Government to create a marketing program to encourage business between Canadian new media companies and New York companies. LPNYTHink is a printing company that grew into a creative agency. Like many traditional printing houses, they’ve merged the two disciplines into one smooth process and invented a new kind of creative/production facility for the new media. They do packaging, corporate and promotional materials.
ON THE CALENDAR: Calling all Intrepid NetNauts! Come help out on Saturday, April 19, for NETDAY. Here’s your chance to help wire public schools — starting with Washington Irving High School. This is an effort fueled by private companies and individuals. Using the “Adopt-A-Highway” metaphor, the goal for this particular school is to put in 54 work-stations. Andrew Rasiej of Irving Plaza has already installed a T1 line. Please come join the effort to enable our city’s youth to get connected and advance technologically. You can contact Cecilia Pagkalinawan, 212-886-3964, or Andrew at: 212-777-6817.
Echo‘s latest interactive series Alt.Film uses the power of online communications to increase awareness and promote the work of independent and alternative filmmakers, producers, writers, and directors. This month’s Alt.Film event is an sponsored screening and party at the GEN ART Film Festival. Join them on April 25th and see the future of filmmaking with the first-ever digital-video, special-effects-saturated love story to hit the big screen– LOVE GOD, a film by Frank Grow. It’s your standard love story: monster eats transvestite prostitute, schizophrenic boy meets mute girl, worm probes monster. All this on the streets of our beloved New York City.
Guy Garcia, the founding editor of Total New York and an executive producer, at Digital City Studio, will be appearing on NBC (Sunday, April 27, 6:30am) and PBS (Saturday, May 3, 1:30 pm) to talk about old media, new media and his critically-acclaimed novel, Skin Deep, which is being published in paperback by UC Berkeley Press this month. Garcia has always been alert to the malleability of original content. On the cyber front, Garcia, who is busy these days helping to build network content for Digital City, will be speaking about interactive content at Seybold at the Javits Center on April 22nd, and will appear with Word‘s Marisa Bowe in a panel discussion moderated by Roger Black, titled: “It’s the Content, Stupid: Editors Tell How They Did It,” at the Cooper Union on April 26.
Join the Russian WebGirls in their chat-room for a real conversation with the best russian actress of 1995. Alla Kliouka will be a special guest on April 28 at 8 pm. Alla is married to the notable inventor Ken Shaffer and mother of Kibo — the youngest domain name owner and winner of the 1st Internet Baby Search!
Take in Jonathan Sarno’s “The New York Filmmakers and Webmasters Spring Ball” on May 3. The Ball is going to be on the “Frying Pan,” an old hull of a ship, moored on Pier 63, one block North of Chelsea Pier. There’s room for 400 people and just next door is a pier with a tent (in case it rains) for live bands and Samba dancers to perform and another 400 people. All this and a view of the Statue of Liberty, the crystal clear waters of the Hudson River and the scenic New Jersey shoreline. Admission to the Ball will be free but there will be a cash bar so.