When I was a kid I grew up hearing the Dave Clark Five and in my mind, probably mixed them up with the Beatles - some of their tunes sounded very similar.

It reminds me that originality isn’t all that we think it is - and why people are / aren’t remembered has more to do with what roles they play in society at any given moment than on talent or originality.

Anyway, according to a post in BizofShowBiz, a Know More Media Blog, Mike Smith, Lead Singer of Dave Clark Five, Dies two weeks before Induction into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How sad. Sometimes we can’t do much about the cards we’re dealt out by life. At least, Mike Smith will be remembered.

Yep, I was there - but I can’t say I liked the photo of me that got splashed all over the Internet - check out FlashMashMeet NY Becomes Inter-Blog Brawl

“…Mashable held a “FlashMashMeet” for New York readers at Dewey’s Flatiron in NYC on Saturday. The event has been covered on two occasions today by the esteemed journalistic news source Valleywag - their colorful accounts are here and here. Well done Valleywag for the accurate reportage (!). Meanwhile, CNet scored some exclusive video footage of how a certain Masher filled his newly vacated Friday night.

Highlight of the FlashMashMeet: a pseudo-brawl breaking out as Allen Stern, of the popular NY tech blog CenterNetworks, rejected Mashable’s generous $100 acquisition offer. More photos are below the fold and available in the FlashMashMeet Flickr set.”

Pete Cashmore (right) and Marshall Sponder from The Analytics Guru, who is also a very talented painter.

I just got very determined to lose some weight - the picture is not flattering at all - I photograph differently depending on how I feel - sometimes I look much better than this.    I think I’ve got to do it by the time Blogger-Social 08 comes up - I’m really motivated now.

Allen Stern reacts to Mashable’s $100 acquisition offer - Ha, Ha, I was there (not that i knew anything about what was going on).

Yeah -FlashMashMeet NY Becomes Inter-Blog Brawl was fun, glad I went.  By the way Valleywag picked up the story too .. Mashable? I’ll show ya mashable! and All the hot Pete Cashmore action you can handle.

Life doesn’t get dull for me in New York, not for long, at least - and I thrive on this kind of thing - I like being where it’s happening - being part of the story instead of reading about.  I wasn’t the story here - but I was close to it - and that’s a part of what I like about my life.

A sad day in New York - Gossip guru Baird Jones dead at 53.

“..A friend of his told the Daily News that Jones, the son of People magazine co-founder Cranston Jones, recently complained about being “sick as a dog.”

I knew Baird Jones, in fact he came to my wedding 16 years ago.  I met my wife at one of his parties, at the Pyramid Club in 1989, that’s why he came to the wedding in the first place.  Hadn’t seen him much afterwards - from time to time I’d see a clip on some of Baird Jones antics in the news, and he had achieved a celebrity for himself that always seemed in search of.

The last time I ran into him was at an Art Opening in Chelsea about 8 months ago - I had not seen him much lately, but used to hang out at his parties on the lower east side in the late eighties.

Arnoult/WireImage -Baird Jones

I know a very bad flu has been making the rounds this year - and Baird Jones did look kinda puffy, so I guess can suppose what that is all about - or perhaps he caught the flu and just did not have the strength to fight it off.

And Baird Jones represented a part of New York that really died with him, I suspect, the parties he created and hosted, the kind of stuff that went over well then, but since got lost, because so many other promoters copied him.