When Nick, Evan and I stumbled out of “Star Trek” at the Metreon last night, it was 1am. Nick announced that there was some kind of party at the Mezzanine, and Jack was there, but it seemed pretty late, and my iPhone said there was a final bart train in 10 minutes, so I decided to clock out and go home. Nick and Evan went on to the club.
All 4 bart entrances on Market around Powell were gated up, though. (How exactly is one supposed to take the last bart train?) So I texted back that I was coming anyway and went to the Mezzanine in Mint Plaza. The place was set up like an LA bar in decline, with bouncers and a bunch of signs celebrating the “Sidekick LX”, which is apparently the name of the final Sidekick. I wasn’t sure I was at the right place and had to text Nick a bit before I decided to go in.
It was packed, even at 1am. There was no cover and it was an open bar filled with all kinds of kitchy decorations to celebrate the launch of Danger’s final phone in some sort of fake Metropolis-slash-amalgamation of all American cities (plus an English phone booth). One of the first things I witnessed was a set of fake “telephone poles” fall on top of partiers, light bulbs tinkling under our feet. I immediately took this as a metaphor for Danger.
There were no other Danger people there, and a very buxom woman wearing a Sidekick LX shirt wasn’t even sure what Danger might be. But never mind, the drinks were free, and DJ Jazzy Jeff was on stage. Another guy was “MC"ing, which appeared to mean that for several hours he had to walk around on stage shouting "What! What! DJ Jazzy Jeff in the house! Say what! Yeaaaaah!”
Everyone in the audience was taking pictures of each other and texting – using blackberries and iPhones. The only Sidekick I saw anywhere was in the hands of a drunk T-Mobile rep. But Twitter was represented! A looping movie behind the “MC” showed a bird flying around, and a Sidekick that opened up to reveal 3 apps: Facebook, Myspace (?!), and Twitter. Neet! Jack teased me a few times about the work I’d put into making a push-notification service for the Sidekick, which they were too disorganized to make use of for six months until we finally just threw the code away. I think the current Sidekick Twitter app just uses the same polling API as everyone else. Not a metaphor: That’s a good example of how poor Danger’s follow-through was.
This all could very well have been a dream or nightmare, or both combined. Certainly an event that combines Twitter, Danger, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and free drinks sounds highly improbable. But I must report it as I remember it, because that is the only way I know how.