The Party

Now we're finally onto the party, the final installment of this epic four-part saga. First of all, everyone should read Karol's account of the party. She does the best write-ups of parties, really capturing the feeling of being there. And Karol is damn right about the quality of the open bar booze. That was one area at least in which OSM was on point. But, what's this about there being something wrong with drinking Merlot. I mean, yes, yes I know a nice Pinot Noir of Shiraz would be preferable but at least it's red wine.

I myself chose to have a few glasses of the Merlot as well as a couple Martinis, upon hearing this Ace of Spades said "That's good. They say you should mix." Well met sir. For some reason I don't dig his over-the-top online persona but the couple of times I've met him in person I've found him funny. And it was nice to see his commitment to his various ventures. He was immediately on the "get" for the radio show when he saw Cliff May in the room.

I talked to Cathy Seipp. (It turns out her last name rhymes with pipe not seep or tape, all three of which I had thought were equally likely). We talked about David Ehrenstein, this crazy lefty commenter at her site, (who is also a published author apparently). She said he was a really nice guy in person, always wears a nice blazer etc., just gets crazy on-line. Also, he lives in LA without a car so he spends a lot of time stuck in his house. That explains it.

I talked to these two friends of the charming Englishman in New York. They were photographers. One had some sort of UK accent I couldn't place and the other some sort of continental European accent I couldn't place. I thought they were the most hilarious people there, but maybe because they caught me when I was at the perfect point on the graph of drunkenness.

I talked to this Jewish guy named Ben about the great Gene Wilder/Harrison Ford film The Frisco Kid. He said that in the late 70s when it came out he took his family to see it and the older generation all assumed it was anti-Semitic. The kids explained to them that it wasn't, that it was quite the opposite. Now it's a beloved favorite of his whole family. He said that the very fact that he's alive at all is a miracle. I felt like crying, but in a good way.

I didn't really approach any of the gazillion huge name bloggers there. I guess I didn't want to appear sycophantic or something. I spent most of my time during the party proper with Judith, Mary, or Karol. When the party was over many of us repaired to one of the downstairs bars. I talked for a long time with Clive Davis, not the music guy, the real Clive Davis. It was a great conversation and we see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. He agrees that it's ridiculous how people slagged Andrew Sullivan off for his pledge drives and vacations. We talked about how surprising Blair's reaction to 9/11 was and how there was no one else in English politics to carry Blair's foreign policy forward.

All the while Glenn Reynolds was in deep, deep conversation with Pamela of Atlus Shrugs.

I also briefly met the legitimately funny (not just by blog standards) Tim Blair. He's a really, nice friendly unassuming great laid back guy, just like everybody says.

Comments

[d-rod]

I hate missing a good party.