Friday, September 7, 2007

Block Party: Another Case Cracked

SCOOP: Jimmy's Block Party looks great- no admission fee, 2 $ Bud Light drafts, and beer pong, from noon to 2 am, this Saturday Sept. 8.
MY TAKE: I'm going to give you a synopsis of what it took for me to find this information. I don't mean to self-promote (actually, I do), but this is why Stamford Talk exists.
1) I looked at the Advocate online. I'm in Maine so the paper paper is most likely in my driveway, run over by my husband on the way to work. In the Jimmy's entry under Clubs, there's no mention of the Block Party. Did I imagine this event, like I thought I imagined the Ukraine Fest? No, this event I'm pretty confident about, since a human voice told me about it when I called Jimmy's on Monday to find out about Open Jam. Again, not to bash Stamford Talk over your head, but do you see what I mean about the haphazard nature of finding info in this town? I love surprises, but sometimes I just want to know what the hell is going on this weekend.
2) I googled "Jimmy's Seaside Stamford ct" and found their unbelievably hideous website. You should really take a look. Under the Calendar section, it says, "Block Party Noxzilla, RockStar." Are those bands? Or companies that sponsor the event? Let's click on the link below (for boneyardproduction's myspace page) and find out.
3) Oh! There's no information! It says, "Saturday Sept. 8... Rock Block and Beats Party at Jimmy's Seaside." I knew all that. OK, here are icons along a rope graphic. Let's click on "About Me"- an empty box. Maybe that's an error- let's click on the next icon- another empty box!
Are you surprised? Stamford Talk isn't. She's used to this.
4) I started writing this entry, but wanted to double check that the site was truly a dead end. Why would Jimmy's direct you to a useless website? Oh wait, if you scroll down, there is a flyer describing the event. Another poorly done website. It's a good thing I took a second look and looked "below the fold," as my techie husband says. The flyer is an image in the "Comments and Friends" section. That section title is visible above the fold, but the flyer isn't. Um, Boneyard? REDESIGN YOUR WEBSITE.
5) If you squint at the flyer, you can see that Noxzilla and Rockstar are bands. I guess Boneyard Productions is some sort of booking agency. No idea. The flyer does include the essential info, so thank you, Boneyard, for that. I'll put it on the blog.
6) I went back to the rope to check all the other tabs and clicked on the least obvious, fuzzy skull icon. "View Photos" pops up, and you're linked to myspace, but have to log in. Obviously, at this point, it's not worth it. I don't even know whose photos I'd be clicking on. Boneyard's? I still don't know who that is. A booking agency? Well, I hate them. Not to perseverate, but if you click on the "music" tab, there's a tiny picture of a skeleton with headphones on, and the words "coolbuddy.com" in the corner. Don't click on it. Nothing happens.
VERDICT: Access to information about Stamford's social scene is limited. It took 15 minutes to confirm an event that I only found out about by chance. You'll have to follow my steps to see the flyer, because this computer doesn't have Firefox and adding links in Safari takes forever.

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