Climbing the trail of swag

Continuing my adventures with scenemaker Andrew Brin, DJ Daisy O'Dell and Yosi Sargant.

From the MySpace cafe, we marched up Main Street to Marquee, the nightclub whose door Brin will patrol this evening.  (Marching up Main Street when you haven't acclimated to the altitude is no easy chore, at least not for one as out of shape as myself with a laptop on my shoulder, and I was fairly well panting and drowning in sweat by the time we reached the chic-est door on the street.)  The Marquee venue by evening serves as an ultra-exclusive club. By day it is transformed into that other touchstone ritual, a gifting lounge with stations set up for invited guests to receive T-shirts, Primp sweatshirts (famed as the signature sweatshirt of Britney Spears), New Balance sneakers, kefir yogurt smoothies or parfaits mixed with gummie bears and free cellphones with a year of service from Boost Mobile, the room's sponsor.

The most fun vicarious experience I've enjoyed in Hollywood lately is taking in the gifting suite through the eyes of DJ Daisy, who is in her 20s and only in the last year has achieved a fair amount of fame in her high-profile field and who was, for the first time, qualified to grab freebies. An infectiously open and unaffected young woman with a barely perceptible mischievous gleam in her eye, I saw her light up ever so slightly as she gazed upon what could be (and soon would be) hers.

Pointing to a table full of jewlery, Daisy mentioned to our hostess, Jessica Meisels, a partner of Fingerprint Communications who is running the room,  "I'd love to wear one of these to the party I'm working at tomorrow night, just because I really didn't bring anything."  With a snap of Meisels' fingers, Daisy's bling dreams come  true.  Daisy abstains, however, from collecting the most ostentatious item on display -- a diamond-studded Ipod protector made by Ice Podz -- the most expensive of which features rose gold and diamonds and retails for $20,000. 

Milling about the suite, the one place on Main Street that is not overcrowded today ("it's by appointment only," Meisel explains) are celebs including Rex Lee of "Entourage" and David Boreanaz of "Bones" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Within minutes, Daisy has accumulated two armfuls of bags and seems to be experiencing some post-spree guilt ("You must think the world is a really terrible place, watching this" she says to me), as well as the flush of excitement one must feel from winning the jackpot, which she clearly has. As much as one does, in fact, believe the world is a totally insane place and that this must be bad, it's hard not to feel a little bit of delight watching a non-jaded  girl like DJ Daisy getting to reap the rewards of the system.  And, as she points out, at the clubs where she works she will be seen and likely photographed in her bounty, so the investment does make sense for New Balance, et al.

Andrew Brin rejoins us, feeling no mixed emotions about his visit, wearing what looks like a steel padlock chain plated in gold around his neck.  "I get one of these every year to wear my credentials on."

Before we leave, we meet Vegas nightclub impressario Jeff Beacher.  I ask him if he has brought the mini-KISS and mini-Britney acts that he manages along for the trip.  "Oh, no," he says.  "I leave the kids at home when I travel."

"You call them kids," I ask, eyebrow raised.

"You should meet them," he said.  "They are like kids. They whine and complain like kids. It's like having four 10-year-old children.  Except they drink a ton."

-- Richard Rushfield

Comments

[jon levine]

The blingin ipod charm line is called icepod, not Ice Podz. Website is www.icepod.com

Signed,
Ice Man Jon
Owner & Creator