Laughing Squid: Decade 2 – 11/18/06

by Brian Solis on November 20, 2006

by Brian Solis

Technically this is the first post after the official launch of bub.blicio.us and I can’t think of a better way to do it.

Scott Beale, primary tentacle of Laughing Squid threw what had to be one of the best parties I’ve been to in a long time, more than rivaling anything I’ve been to outside of the tech world.

I’d love to call it another example of just another party in the new bubble, but this was clearly too cool for such a label. This was something right out of a dark, sordid, sinful, carnavalistic, intoxicating escapade strung together with booze, popcorn, music, art, fire, and a fantastic mix of techies, artists, brainiacs, culturists, and just plain cool people.

Seriously. words cannot describe the experience. But since, this is a blog (and not a vlog yet), I’ll do my best.

Approaching Mighty is like walking on the Playa at Burning Man, or some very cool industrial street carnival, complete with a fire cannon, light shows, popcorn stand, art cars, booths, fire “zen” garden, crazy bikes, a steam powered car, doggie diner heads, and fortune tellers.

The primary tentacle himself greeted us as we arrived…very cool. And behind the guy checking IDs, was none other than R2D2.

Oh yeah, it just keeps getting better.

Down the stairs we went, into a huge, dimly lit room, adorned with digital projections of Laughing Squid logos, posters, along with a 1,300 “greatest hits” image slide show.

This place is huge!

Laughing Squid had no problem filling the place. And even more importantly, keeping the crowd entertained.

Things kicked off with hilariously, mind-blowing “positive rap” ensemble Freakotronic. No I’m not kidding. It was brilliant. But there was more.

Photo Credit: Julie Blaustein

Then the alluring Twilight Vixen Revue rode the stage with their very special guest, Anita Cocktail.

Photo: Julie Blaustein

Anchoring the night’s performances, will be the one and only Mr. Lucky & The Cocktail Party featuring that crazy man on the horns, Ralph Carney.

What an incredible, assortment of unexpectedly seamless and perfectly assembled line-up of performers.

Now, let’s talk about the people buying the cocktails.

Kevin Rose of Digg chilled at the bar, and was very approachable. Although, I forgot to snap his mugshot. Oh well, next time.

It was also nice to finally meet Kristopher Tate of Zooomr. I’m pretty sure there will be some good things to work on with him in the future.

Hot from Silicon Valley’s Vic Podcaster was fresh off the PodCamp West Day One sessions.

Kevin Burton of Tailrank, Jeffrey McManus of Approver.com, and Niall Kennedy of SF Tech Sessions talked shop including the hype around the new Nintendo Wii.

Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher was pretty pumped-up on his video interview with Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble.

Let me tell you, that it was finally great to meet Veronica Belmont of CNETTV in person aside from commenting on each other’s pictures on flickr.

Chris Heuer and Veronica Belmont

I even bumped into the other man of the hour, Nick Douglas who said, “Man, I tell ya. Getting fired from Gawker turned out to be pretty lucrative. I’ve got a big announcement coming next week.”

Megan McCarthy was feverishly taking notes and talking to everyone for Valleywag.

Thomas Hawk snapped up what I’m sure will be incredible pictures.

Jeremy Pepper smiled his way into a million photographs.

Leah Culver and Jeremy Pepper

Micki Krimmel and Shannon Clark chatted it up for a bit. I wish I wasn’t locked up in another convo, because I’d been hoping to meet Micki since I knew she was in town for PodCamp West.