Let it be said: The New Museum makes a good spot for a party. We stopped by Radar's industry schmoozefest for their New Radical awards at the Bowery museum last night and made a few observations.
The fact that Radar 3.0 is publishing issues consistently and can rent out an entire museum bodes well for the publication. Congrats, Maer & everyone else — even if we poke fun occasionally, we're proud of y'all.
The party was accompanied by a silent auction... that almost noone bid on. We checked the books shortly before we left at 9:30 and there were less than 10 bids combined for the five or so items on the block. (Highlights? iAutographed copies of the screenplays to Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan signed by Craig Brewer and a signed copy of Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander.)
Yet again, it was another event where Svedka did the open bar. The folks are kinda, sorta ubiquitous and there were some custom Radar cocktails as well. And Svedka girls giving away pinkish vodka in what looked like lab vials. They were good.
Two floors of the museum were publicly open to party goers: The first floor and the seventh floor. The first floor was mostly a mix of editorial assistants, random art world scenesters and a very confused looking Craig Brewer. On the other hand, the seventh floor was media schmoozefest heaven and had a goddamn killer view of the downtown skyline. Generally a good combo, even if the schmoozing got a bit too ridiculous (we met around three people who were angling for freelance work of one sort or another there).
The New Museum's seventh floor has very nice bathrooms. Unisex, with a few stalls/mini-bathrooms contained inside. Except the faucets in the stalls didn't turn on. Awesome, New Museum!
Among the food at the party? Sliders. Why are sliders being served as hor d'oeuvres everywhere we go? Does every catering chef in the world have a White Castle fetish or something?
As for the guests, we spotted Brewer, Auslander, Kristen Schaal, Amy Poehler, Ed Koch, Spank Rock, Jesse Eisenberg and assorted folks from Gawker (Nick Denton and the departing Emily Gould, Choire Sicha and Josh Stein), The Huffington Post, The New Yorker, Slate, The New York Observer, The Onion, New York and the New York Daily News.
Pics after the jump courtesy of Jesse Wright.
He's still Hizzoner to us.
Flight of the Conchords, meet Radar.
Hey, it's that guy from that Squid & Whale movie.
Mmm... sweet, sweet liquor.
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