March 6, 2009 – Burp! A BIG thank you to the dazzling Tara Hunt for putting on the Beer Redistribution Party (also known as #BRP or B*RP)! It was held to celebrate the grand re-opening of Citizen Space (@citizenspace) at it’s new location-downstairs from the old location and in a much larger space! It was a fun way to *celebrate* the crappy economy! Citizen Space is a coworking space in San Francisco located at 425 Second St on the first floor.

The Beer Redistribution Party mission:

We’ve heard the accusations of the new administration wanting to ‘spread the wealth’. We’ve been scared by the calls of socialism and communism on what we are about to receive. Let’s test this out on a micro-level and see what this wealth redistribution is all about through a re-enactment with our beer.

Here was the social contract:

1 – you MUST bring beer

2 – the type of beer you bring has to be in accordance with your financial standing:

a. $50,000 – $80,000/yr – you can bring whatever brand you would like. 6 – 12 pack.
b. $80,000 – $120,000 – you have the choice of bringing a discount brand (but bring 18-24) or a microbrew (bring a 12 pack).
c. > $120,000 – you have the choice of bringing a microbrew (24), a high end international beer (18+ or if it’s a big bottle like Chimay, 4 of those).
d. <$50,000/yr – you can come empty handed and just try the other beer.

I know people don’t like to talk about what they make as a living, so we can do this on the honor system. Bring your contributions in a re-usable bag* and one person at a time will be let into the beer area to deposit their beer tax.

3 – As for what you ‘take’. Everyone can help themselves to the pool afterwards, because, as with our public system, it’s freely available.

Beer was everywhere!  Lots of it!  I didn’t bring any as that’s where I fall in accordance to my *financial standing*, but I have a feeling that a few people brought beer regardless.  I was very tempted to, but I was trying to play along with the experiment! I think that seriously there is enough leftover for another party without anyone bringing anything!

I’m not really a beer drinker.  I did try some Red Nectar beer, was okay.  I drank half of it and called it a night with the beer drinking.

I had a great time and had fun catching up with Tara (aka @missrogue, author of the upcoming book The Whuffie Factor), Jen Myronuk (@jenmyronuk), Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer of Social Media Club, John Yamasaki (Yama!), Bessie, (@infodiva), Roderick Chow (@fogfish), Derek Overbey (@doverbey), Thomas Knoll (@thomasknoll), Cathy Brooks (@cathybrooks), Matt Klein (@matt_klein aka tim_stein (j/k)…lol to Cathy Brooks!), Ginger (@gingerw) and Ridley (@Ridley).

It was great to meet Stephanie Quilao (@skinnyjeans), Seg (John “Seg” Seggerson, @theseg) (I still like to think I’M responsible for getting Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer) on Twitter! LOL!), Ruth Kalinka (ruthkalinka.com), and KyNam Doan (kynamdoan.com, @kynamdoan), magician Safire (http://www.MagicSafire.com) and a few others-who didn’t give me their cards and whose names are escaping me!

I’m voting for a wine redistribution party next time!

If you’ve read this far…please comment and say “Hi!” so I know that you were here! Thanks!

For more pics from the partay see my flickr photostream here!

December 20, 2008 – I have so much to say-to share-where to begin? (Not to mention I need to remember to only space once after sentences as @markdavidson taught me. Old habits die hard!)

Okay, I am a FAN-in capital letters-of Amanda Palmer’s and The Dresden Dolls (of which she is also a part of). I wasn’t a FAN until after I saw them live, then I was. Since then I haven’t missed a live show in Northern California.

On August 6, 2008 Amanda Palmer played at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Amanda started a new segment she called, “Ask Amanda” and fans were encouraged to write questions on slips of paper, and she would take a break in the show to answer a few questions. I asked Amanda, “Will you join Twitter.com?” Amanda said, she didn’t know what Twitter was, but that she would probably look at it. Nothing happened for awhile, then one day she was there! November 28th! And she was planning a party on the internet! She’s done two “Party On the Internet” events, the last one was from author/blogger Neil Gaiman’s home! On December 11, Amanda held a twitter trivia contest for her fans. Amanda asked Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls trivia questions, and those with the fastest fingers and right answer won prizes! She hasn’t quite got the hang of micro-blogging, but I love what she is doing!

I feel like a proud mother! I, the Social Media Butterfly, an advocate for Social Media, feel like I’ve given birth to a Social Media Sensation! Amanda has embraced Social Media and taken it in brand new directions – just like she always does! I can’t wait to see what she does next!

This brings me to last night. Friday night/Saturday morning/afternoon I spent in the hospital emergency ward in excruciating pain with a kidney stone. Saturday night I went to see Amanda Palmer play. Why? Because she’s worth it, because I’m that big of a fan. That’s why.

Last night Amanda Palmer played at Harlow’s in Sacramento, California. I attended the show with my 19 year old daughter, Alexandra. Amanda has enlisted The Danger Ensemble, a performing group from Australia to perform with her, they act out and enhance her songs, it’s almost like a magical musical play! The show opened with Builders and Butchers, a band from Portland, Oregon. Builders and Butchers includes 5 guys and many instruments. The ended their set by giving out little instruments to the audience to play along with their last song. Alexandra loved them and I purchased their CD for her. Next was Zoe Keating. Zoe is the most amazing cellist. Zoe’s music is extremely complex and unique. She plays a few bars, then with a tap of her toe she loops that music. Once again she plays a few bars, taps her toe, and loops it again on top of the first! Then she plays over and under them both creating a room full of beautiful magical cello melodies. Zoe played solo, then later returned and played with Amanda on many of her songs, she also is a featured performer on Amanda’s new CD, “Who Killed Amanda Palmer”. Another performer who added much to the show was a violin player, who I believe was part of The Danger Ensemble as well.

At last we came to the main event-what we all had been waiting for-Amanda Palmer. A member of the Danger Ensemble speaks to us and tells us that he’s sorry but Amanda Palmer is dead and won’t be performing tonight, instead we will be having a wake for her. Amanda walks through the crowd covered in lace to the stage and is lifted up to the stage by the Danger Ensemble members. The crowd erupts and Amanda plays, sings, emotes, drinks red wine, talks, charms her way through the night. No one wants it to end and we chant until an encore is performed.

No one is like Amanda Palmer. No one. Amanda loves her fans, and they love her. She gives herself to us. She blogs-amazing blogs-full of humor and insights into her life and sometimes just life in general! She jots off notes to fans letting us know about new tour dates or videos posted. She signs them – AFP – which stands for Amanda F#$king Palmer. During her show Amanda talks candidly, during last night’s Ask Amanda segment when asked if she perfers pads or tampons, she shared she uses a sponge first, then non-applicator tampons to finish. We also learned that her current favorite CD is Teagan and Sara. After the show Amanda takes the time to meet and greet her fans, to sign anything you want, plus take pics with fans. Who does this?! Amanda F&%king Palmer that’s who.

Yes, we stayed after, and I was thrilled to meet Zoe Keating! And, yes, as always, to talk with Amanda Palmer!

If you get the chance to see Amanda Palmer, The Dresden Dolls, or Zoe Keating – take that chance!

To see more pictures and a few amazing videos, please see my flickr photostream here.

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November 19, 2008 – THIS was an example of social media at it’s finest! Digg meeting and connecting with their Diggers! People talking, laughing, networking, drinking, dancing together. This is how you do it, this is how you build brand loyalty. A lot of websites are doing this now – including Mashable, Seesmic, Plista, Facebook, Ch.imp, ROFLcon, BlogHer, Social Media Club, and WordPress – to name a few of the events I’ve attended this year. Twitter users are so determined to connect and network with each other that they make their own events, that they fondly call Tweetups.

Last night I went to the Digg Meetup in San Francisco at Club Mighty with Holly. Holly is a writer, mainly writing heavy metal music articles for magazines.

“Digg is (a website) democratizing digital media. As a user, you participate in determining all site content by discovering, selecting, sharing, and discussing the news, and videos that appeal to you.” If I find an awesome article online I Digg it, I submit it to the Digg website or I click on the site’s Digg button, if they have one, to submit it. When you see an article that has a lot of Diggs, that lets you know a lot of people thought it was good and that it’s probably worthwhile to read it. I have my own Digg button here on my blog site as well as a Digg button that I downloaded for Firefox to easily Digg articles I like.

Holly and I went inside Mighty, looked around, then proceeded to the Photoboof. You take photo booth pics and get copies back, just like a regular photo booth, but in addition, your photos are randomly shown on the big screen out in the main room in different patterns! Fun!

We both received one drink ticket each, and they didn’t make white Russians, so Holly gave me hers. I ended up having two glasses of white wine, then later one more that John Yamasaki, of Tech Karaoke fame, gallantly bought for me. Luckily I ate before going, since there is no food there, so I was fine to drive.

At first I didn’t see anyone I knew, but slowly people arrived. Karen Hartline, event coordinator with Mashable.com was there, and yes, we met in the bathroom and took our requisite pic there! I also saw Nicholas Iannone, Nick is with GETV-Geek Entertainment TV. He shared a secret with me that MC Hammer was our surprise guest! Later 5 other people told me the same thing as the rumor swirled around the room.

I finally got the chance to talk with Cathy Brooks from Seesmic for a couple of minutes. She was brilliantly moderating a panel at the last Social Media Club event I attended, but I didn’t get the chance to speak to her then. She was so nice and said she has been following my blog and can see the progression! Yay for my progression! I am MAD that the pic we took together came out a bit fuzzy. We’ll have to do a new one the next time we run into each other!

I met Larry Chiang last night, too. Larry is a tall handsome blogger who blogs about business and social media. His newest project is some old-school article writing for Business Week! I just discovered Larry’s blog recently and was really impressed with his intelligent writing style, laced with bits of humor, so it was really a pleasure to meet him in person!

Holly and I briefly met the founders of Digg. All the Digg people were very friendly and fun, they had about 50 employees there socializing and mixing with each other and the crowd. I enjoyed sitting next to and talking to a girl who works in Digg’s financial department, a sweetie!

The founders, Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson gave a brief speech, then turned the mic over to a rapper named Jelly Donut – who was actually wearing a jelly doughnut costume complete with hot pink tights! Rapper Two Touch joined him and they freestyled to words picked out of a bucket! Rap isn’t my top choice – but they definitely rocked the crowd! Finally MC Hammer was announced! Very fun! He didn’t actually perform, at least while I was there, but he did have a mic and was singing along from time to time. He was supposed to be judging the dance-off, but if they had a winner, I didn’t hear it announced. It was a blast to watch the dancers though!

Near the end of the night Sukhjit appeared sitting next to me like magic. That was a fun surprise for both of us! We keep intending to get together for a cup of coffee or glass of wine, but it hasn’t worked out yet, hopefully soon! It was too loud to have a proper talk during the dance-off, but we did go get our picture taken with and meet MC Hammer!

Really a fun night, only thing is, I came home with NO schwag. What’s up with that?! Well that’s not entirely true, they did pass out some fun stickers. I really wanted one of the Linux ones to give to my son, but those had disappeared by the time I got up to the stage. Grrrr!

For more pictures from the event, please see my flickr photostream HERE.

If you were there or not I would LOVE to hear your comments on the night!

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