Perez PR

It's nights like last night (and bagels like this morning) that remind me why I love New York City. I had the chance to attend a Perez Hilton party, and, while it's the kind of thing I might have avoided in the past, I am so glad I went and made the most of Manhattan.

I confess I don't know a lot about Perez Hilton, aside from his reputation as a (formerly?) snarky, popular celeb blogger. The first time I read his blog was last week, so I can't compare the content to his pre-attitude-adjustment work, but I will say that judging from his presentation last night he seems pretty sincere about being a nicer, better person. I have begun to really enjoy my own journey of self-improvement so it was encouraging to hear someone famous express the hope that more of humanity and society was perhaps heading in the direction of kindness and compassion. Fingers crossed!

[On that note, I'm excited to announce plans for a new blog/website of my own that will promote kindness and compassion along with hopefully-productive navel-gazing. The vision for ThisIsWheretheHealingBegins.com is strong but the website is weak, so don't bother checking out the link until I update otherwise, but consider this advance warning.]

Back to the amazingness that is a Manhattan PR party: Perez Hilton uses BlogAds for his advertising needs and so does my company, for which my sister is an ad rep who also uses BlogAds, sometimes to advertise on Perez Hilton's blog. Hence her ability to get wristbands for the BlogAds/Perez Hilton party, the purpose of which, as far as I could tell, was to celebrate general awesomeness.

So my sister and I and two of our friends show up at the appointed time and after a short wait are released into Stone Rose, which is on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle. Because the room had yet to be filled, the four of us easily snagged comfortable leather chairs by the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked Central Park as well as the iconic Columbus Circle statues and traffic.

Within minutes polite waitstaff came by with sake-inspired beverages: I would never have thought to pair sake with berry iced tea, but it was delicious. And then came the hors d'oeuvres. OH the hors d'oeuvres. I recently attended an event that promised "heavy hors d'oeuvres" but meant "lots of mini pizza slices," so the food at last night's party was the real deal and a welcome contrast. Pastry puffs filled with goat cheese and feta, chicken and pesto finger sandwiches, smoky spiced hummus on crackers, and more were continually offered to us over the course of the night. It's been a long time since I turned away free food, but the pickings were so good that we were eventually sated and started focusing more on the sake.

Around that time, my sister and her friend decided to make the rounds of the room while I stayed put in my comfy leather chair and chatted with my coworker. My sister and her friend returned with two photos: one a digital camera shot of them with Perez, with whom they chatted briefly, and another of them that was a professional photo booth shot.

I am familiar with the concept of photo booths at weddings or promotional events, but have never partaken until last night. But after Perez gave a welcoming speech and his pal Sandra Bernhard gave a comedic performance (I think that's what it was; I was laughing anyway), I was ready to take on the photo booth.

I'll let the following picture tell the rest of the story, but let's just say I am decidedly in favor of dress-up props. We had such a fun time and, given the incredible view that accompanied us, I must declare it an Only In New York experience. So, for the time being anyway, I ♥ NYC!

OFA Fail

I figured a follow-up to my OFA praise was due, though my tune has changed.

Basically, I'm done volunteering. I might chip in another $10 or $15 if the emails get particularly persuasive, but I'm no longer convinced my actions really matter.

It's ironic that the campaign has actually inspired political apathy, but here's how it happened:

First of all, hearing Michella Obama speak live was pretty cool, but it wasn't cool waiting on hold for fifteen minutes first. Nonetheless, it was exciting to hear her voice when at last she came on the line. She was "thrilled" to be on the call and assured us that volunteers like us are President Obama's "compass, his guiding light, what keeps him going!" She reminded us we need to work harder than ever, because we've done a lot in a short time but desperately need to keep the momentum.

I agreed, though I didn't make it to the phone banking event two days later. I did, however, pay attention to the email I received the following weekend alerting me to the reestablishment of the OFA phone-on-your-own database.

I loved that database in 2008 because it let me take action without leaving my couch. So when an OFA official asked me to make just ten measly phone calls, I was all over it.

And then I started calling. No answer, no answer, no answer. Message, message, message. Even with a digital script provided I was out of practice and no doubt garbled a name or two in my voice mails, but I trudged on, understanding the importance of getting first-time 2008 voters back to the polls.

Around call seven I made human contact, and that's also when I called it quits. Because the woman sounded old, possibly frail, and she was not happy to hear from me. Yes, she was planning to vote—and how many more people were going to call and remind her? I was mortified and backed off as quickly as possible.

Why, OFA, are you asking me to disturb elderly women who are already voting? I'm sure you have reasons, but at this stage in the game, I don't think my phone soliciting is going to make a (positive) difference. Seems to me like there are plenty of other people already making those calls, so, I'm out. Fingers crossed for Nov. 2....

Nice work, OFA

So you may or may not know that I am casually political, and fickle with my loyalty. In theory I'm a raging Democrat, but only because I really like Barack Obama. I totally wanted him to be president and I even did some volunteer work to help make that happen. But before I tried to help him, he came to me. He found my friends, too, and he got our attention. Yes, I waited with a huge crowd for hours to hear (not see, unfortunately, as he was too far away) the man speak. But I was only on the email list because I was tempted by potential Daily Show tickets and clicked my way into a database.

All of which is to say, Obama has mad PR and marketing skills, and they've hooked me yet again: Michelle Obama is speaking on a conference call this Wednesday and I get to listen. What's more, not everyone shares the privilege—only "top organizers." (Although I'm not sure what qualifies me aside from the ability to go to this website.)

I'd already been thinking about volunteering this week, since get out the vote campaigns are easy for me to agree with. I don't mind telling you who I'm voting for and why, but I'm honestly not trying to convince you to do anything but go to the polls. Even if that means my picks don't "win."

Because if I'm going to pride myself on my citizenry, it's counterproductive for me to discourage individual choice. I do, however, want my fellow citizens to do their jobs and to support the governing body their ancestors created. Our country functions by a voting system, and if you don't vote you are not participating. And if you're not going to intelligently participate in our government, stop benefiting from my tax dollars!

I flew in to Newark last night and on the shuttle bus to the city the surly driver was listening to talk radio. The speaker—who may have been Al Sharpton but I'm not sure; I know he was in some way involved—was imploring his listeners to get out and vote. I was impressed to note he was not telling people to vote for the sake of voting. He actually warned against voting along party lines unless citizens were sure those parties were serving their interests. What a novel concept! Encouraging people to consider what is best for them and then elect leaders based on their principles!

So maybe I was primed for action by the radio man, but when I got the political email from Mitch* today I was genuinely enthused to get more involved--and the prospect of hearing the First Lady live on the phone sealed the deal. I'll listen to what she has to say, and maybe I'll even take some action Thursday. God bless the power of communication.

*Mitch Stewart, Director of Organizing for America. We're on a first-name basis because I saw him speak at a kickoff rally back in June and he was pretty cool.