Scene B Seen

Ports 1961 at Bloomingdales

Sabrina Bailly — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:29:16 -0400

On Thursday Bloomingdales and Vanity Fair Magazine hosted a fashion presentation of Ports 1961 Spring collection with designer Tia Cibani and fashion expert Ann Caruso.

The brief show was followed by a cocktail party during which guest enjoyed bubbly and treats by La Maison Du Chocolat. Attendees had a chance to examine the details of the tailored dresses worn by the models as they sauntered through the crowd. A DJ spinned entertaining tunes and Ports 1961 catalogs were passed around to the fashionable guests for review.

Click here for the gallery

Ports 1961 at Bloomingdales

Sabrina Bailly — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:22:17 -0400

Esquire Celebrates Launch of Faustina

Sabrina Bailly — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:19:32 -0400

Chef Scott Conant latest restaurant, Faustina at the Cooper Square Hotel, has been buzzing since its soft launch early February. Tuesday marked a more formal opening celebration. Esquire and Scott Conant, who is also owner of the renown Scarpetta, hosted an event featuring numerous samples and yummy cocktails courtesy of William Grant & Sons.

A large Italian style wooden bar featured oysters with jelly , assorted charcuterie, and cheese selection while the many waiters passed dishes such as tuna and avocado salad, crispy rock shrimps, fried chicken with porcini and potato , Mediterranean octopus fingerling potatoes and olive oil and many more.

All the elements of a lovely and successful evening where brought together in the sleek new decor of Faustina, formerly Table 8.

Click here for gallery

2010 Irish Spirit Award Honoree: Jimmy Fallon

Britten — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:43:04 -0500

Thursday, March 11th: Jimmy Fallon received this year's Irish Spirit Award from the New York based Young Leaders, an American Ireland Fund program, at Cipriani Wall Street.

"I'm proud to be Irish! Thank you American Ireland Fund for the honor." Jimmy Fallon

The American Ireland Fund (AIF) is the largest network of people of Irish ancestry and friends of Ireland dedicated to raising funds to support projects of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development throughout the Irish diaspora. The New York Young Leaders is a key program attracting young friends of Ireland. The goal is to foster their involvement and provide a forum for networking, while financially supporting the philanthropic work of The American Ireland Fund.

Patron:  Robert J. McCann and  UBS Financial Services Inc.

St. Patrick’s Committee  Co-Chairs : Terence Doran, James Duffy and New York Young Leaders

The Young Leaders is a key American Ireland Fund program attracting young friends of Ireland. The goal is to foster an emerging generation of philanthropists dedicated to supporting causes and interests of the global Irish community.

For event photos, please visit: NBC NitePics

*photo 1by J. McCarthy: Britten Heft, Jimmy Fallon, and Lauren Rae Levy

*photo 2: Fallon's TwitPic of his award

Random Night Out: #CHEVYSXSW Road Trip Challange - #NYCHAOS Night 3

Britten — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:39:26 -0500

Chevy SXSW Road Trip Challenge: Team NY

Physical Challenge:
The entire team goes and gets a pedicure. Bonus Points for each male who gets colored polish.

Have one member of the team get a temporary tattoo of your SXSW team hashtag or the Chevy bowtie.

Collection:
Bring back 5 newspapers from small towns you pass through.

Bring back 10 brochures of the most random activities and adventures you can find of things to do in the states you pass through (content must come from at least three different states).

NY Team Twitter Hashtags:

#chevysxsw
#nychaos

NY Team:

@JessicaRandazza
@SarahMcSimmons
@iamkhayyam
@Bsimi

Random Night Out: #CHEVYSXSW Road Trip Challange - #NYCHAOS DAY 3

Britten — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:18:03 -0500

Chevy SXSW Road Trip Challenge: Team NY

Physical Challenge:
Aerobics Instructor: Go to a public place and start conducting an aerobics class for the team and try and get as many people as possible to join in.

Charity:
Stop at a nursing home/retirement community and run a game of bingo.

Interaction:
Interview a waiter or waitress at a truck stop/diner and ask them about their most interesting customer interaction.

NY Team Twitter Hashtags:

#chevysxsw
#nychaos

NY Team:

@JessicaRandazza
@SarahMcSimmons
@iamkhayyam
@Bsimi

Esquire Celebrates Launch of Faustina

Sabrina Bailly — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:24:43 -0500

Tuesday, March 9th: Esquire and Faustina Cocktail Event, hosted by Esquire's David Granger- Editor in Chief and Nick Sullivan- Fashion Director.

Chef Scott Conant and Klaus Ortlieb treated guests to an exclusive cocktail party celebrating Scott’s new restaurant Faustina at The Cooper Square Hotel and toast his return to the Bowery.

Faustina:
25 Cooper Square | between 5th & 6th Streets

Random Night Out: #CHEVYSXSW Road Trip Challange - #NYCHAOS DAY 2

Britten — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:43:39 -0500

#NYCHAOS Chevy Road Trip Challenge team made their way through Nashville.

Scene:

Birthplace of Bluegrass: The team helped made the world a cleaner place by picking up litter.
Nashville Humane Association: Gave some homeless doggies some love and play time.
Climb Nashville: Did a little indoor rock climbing challenge and donated t-shirts to the children of Haiti
Seanachie: Rounded out the day by gettin' their groove on at The Irish Pub.

NY Team Twitter Hashtags:

#chevysxsw
#nychaos

NY Team:

@JessicaRandazza
@SarahMcSimmons
@iamkhayyam
@Bsimi

Random Night Out: #CHEVYSXSW Road Trip Challange - #NYCHAOS DAY 1

Britten — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:04:40 -0500

For certain brands, a "social media strategy" consisting of a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account is last year's model.

One of the trends you tend to see at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas, is that it's where big, non-tech brands show up to test edgy social-media marketing initiatives in the ultimate geek test bed. A brand we'll be seeing a lot of at this year's SXSWi, which starts Thursday, is the General Motors-owned Chevy.

A sponsor of the festival, Chevy is going all-out with just about every variety of social media campaign imaginable: it's commissioned eight cars full of prominent bloggers and Twitter users to drive from their hometowns to Austin, naturally tweeting and TwitPic'ing their every move. (One of the members of the New York team, ubiquitous downtown party photographer Nick McGlynn, has been posting updates from the squad's Chevy Tahoe hybrid like "PANCAKE ON A STICK!")

For the SXSWi festival itself, Chevy is experimenting with some of the most buzzed-about mobile technologies: location-based networking, barcode advertising, and augmented reality. It's partnered with Austin-based geolocation app Gowalla to scatter around a variety of virtual goods, accessible by Gowalla check-ins, which can then be redeemed for free Chevy rides. It's also using quick response (QR) barcodes to provide access to mobile sites with information about vehicles (presumably these QR codes will be distributed around promotional posters and the like), and has launched an augmented reality app called "iReveal," which will "unlock three-dimensional models of Chevrolet vehicles," according to a release.

Testing this stuff out with eager SXSWi-goers is a preliminary move for Chevy, since launching a Gowalla tie-in or an augmented reality app isn't the sort of marketing campaign you can introduce to the mainstream just yet. A year or two down the road, the situation may be very different; it was a full two years between Twitter's impressive debut among the SXSWi crowd and its appearance on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, after all.

This big social-media push comes as Chevy draws closer to the launch date for the Volt, the electric sedan that some pundits say is essentially tasked with saving the beleaguered General Motors. SXSWi attendees, who are generally well-educated, early-adopter types hailing from digital industries headquartered in major cities, may not be representative of the general U.S. population. But they sure are the kinds of people who might buy electric cars.

As a tie-in, Chevy will have Volt-branded electrical charging stations around the Austin Convention Center where SXSWi attendees will be able to plug in their various mobile devices. Clever.

The New York based team is driving a Chevy Tahoe hybrid to Austin for SXSWi.

New York Team:
http://www.facebook.com/nychaos

NY Team Twitter Hashtags:

#chevysxsw
#nychaos

NY Team:

@JessicaRandazza
@SarahMcSimmons
@iamkhayyam
@Bsimi

Other Teams:

http://chevysxsw.posterous.com/

Black Eyed Peas Perform in Times Square for Samsung's 3D TV Launch

Britten — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:42:19 -0500

Wednesday, March 10, 2010: The Black Eyed Peas let the beat drop in Times Square with a surprise performance for Samsung's 3D LED Television launch.

The masses gathered for a worldwide broadcast of Samsung's latest and greatest. As James Cameron remarked, "When you look back 10 years from now, you will be able to say, 'I was there. I was there in the center of the whole wide world when the future began.' Right here, tonight."

Boom-Boom Pow.

For red carpet picts, please visit: Neon Limelight

*Additional photos by Theo Wargo/Getty Images North America