With the holiday season in full swing, we're starting to get reports from various company parties. The common denominator seems to be that a) nobody serves food, and b) the parties suck. After the jump, we share reviews of two recent shindigs: Hearst and VNU.
Our latest holiday gift report comes from an ICM staffer who considerately provided us with this brief review and photo of the company's small (estimated retail value: $3.95) token of appreciation for its employees, which doubles as a subtle reminder that as long as one is part of the ICM family, all of one's time belongs to the agency:
Paramount employees on the studio's Melrose lot are still nursing whatever hangovers they managed on three drink tickets' worth of hooch at last night's holiday party, while any of their marginalized, uninvited CBS Corp neighbors who may have misguidedly attempted to infiltrate the event are quietly wondering whether the genital stun-gunning they received for being caught without a proper bracelet will have repercussions for their future reproductive plans. We've received some reports from last night's festivities, including one from a brave and resourceful CBSer who used Jedi Mind Trick-levels of deception to bypass the gatekeepers, score his free drinks, and take in the opulent, Christmassy delights (which, unfortunately, didn't included the Bono appearance rumored yesterday) that Brad Grey never wanted him to enjoy:
Some readers have written in with updates about Paramount's CBS-Excluding Holiday Extravaganza, including reports of measures for throttling employees' alcohol consumption, an allegedly huge decorating budget, and whispers of a visitation by someone whose presence would be more buzzed about than a drop-in by the baby Jesus:
The industry gifting season seems to finally be upon us, as we've received a couple of reports that UTA's present to assistants lucky enough to regularly handle the agency's calls have arrived; unfortunately, they seem to have squandered an opportunity for gift-giving creativity, falling back on last year's Wonka-inspired Lucky Bar (pictured—feel free to send in a picture of this year's version for comparison purposes), perhaps hoping to clear out some boxes of spare chocolate they had left over from Christmas '05. Says a reader:
We thought that all of the intramural tension between stranded CBS Corp employees rendered nothing more than unwanted tenants by the Great Viacom/CBS Schism of 2006 and their Paramount landlords would have worked itself out by now, but this report from a member of the Melrose lot's untouchable caste indicates that the holiday season, normally a time for people to put aside their differences over some spiked eggnog and mistletoe-enabled makeout sessions, seems to be providing a fresh opportunity for CBS staffer persecution:
We asked, and you answered. (We also got a little help from the the folks at the Observer). Here, in all its glory, is Gawker's Holiday Party Guide. (Click to enlarge). The full list of corresponding events is after the jump (including the location of the top secret Vogue party.) Print and use, and let us know if you get in to anything good.
This morning's WWD carried an article with a fairly comprehensive list of media holiday parties. Always on the cutting edge where service meets technology, your friends at Gawker are working on a map that will help all you wannabe Priyantha Silvas out there rub shoulders with drunk and frisky middle-management media types. (Alternately, it will help you know what to avoid.) Still, there are a couple of names missing from WWD's list: If you work for a media company that's throwing a holiday party (particularly Vogue, those tight-lipped mofos) or have knowledge of same, please send us the information, including date, time, and venue (or actual invitations, if possible). Do it for us, and do it for Priyantha.
This week's New York is chock full of handy suggestions for the amount New Yorkers should tip the various service types they encounter on a daily basis. But we couldn't help noticing that the list skews a little upper class in its recipients (doorman, personal trainer, nanny, etc.). After the jump Gawker offers some suggestions for those of us who don't have to worry about tipping the guy who garages our Beemer.
Brought to you by the October issue of Martha Stewart Living and your local Grand Wizard Kids' club.
For Memorial Day weekend, the Times' resident geek David Pogue attempted to install a portable GPS unit before he and his family took a road trip. The GPS device was a Christmas gift, given to him by a relative. Unfortunately, Pogue had some problems — tiny memory, no loaded map data, a "dog-slow" data transfer, outdated road maps, invalid authorization code, etc. Ostensibly, Pogue writes an 850-word review of the product's inadequacies, with some lessons learned:
An afternoon look at Weather.com:
Yahoo gets festive today for Cinco de Mayo, while Google snubs the Mexican holiday for the seventh year running:
We're told this an email sent to Fox News staff today from its senior vice president of news editorial, John Moody. We have no confirmation that it's from him, and — come to think of it — we'd be thrilled to know we're totally wrong:
It's gonna be a long day.
From the AP:
We know this has been around a bit already, but we couldn't resist noting the anti-Bruce Ratner Passover Haggadah ("for an Atlantic Yardseder") that's been circulating for the last few days. Because, hey, if this doesn't say, "Oh no, we're totally not a bunch of barely sane kvetchers," we don't know what does.
Discovered while self-Technorati'ing:
