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Valleywag
LOS ANGELES — Pictured above is a perplexed Michael Arrington receiving a strawberry milkshake — with a cherry on top — courtesy of Valleywag. Why did we have a milkshake delivered to Arrington after he blew us off at the Geek Goes Chic party, had our photographer escorted from the premises, and kicked out the dreamy Pete Cashmore of Mashable? The full report from Hollywood after the jump.
It all started innocently enough. Sugar Publishing's Rebecca Gruber was nice enough to put us on the guest list for the party, which was cosponsored by PopSugar and TechCrunch. After leaving our car with the valet we sauntered into the Vanguard, a well-known dance venue on Hollywood Boulevard, without a care in the world. The comely Bonny Pierzina accompanied your correspondent as a photographer. After running into some friends near the door, we procured sodas and set out to mingle. We stopped to admire Perry Farrell mixing hip-hop hits from the Wu Tang Clan and the Beastie Boys.
I figured I'd introduce myself to Arrington and thank him for throwing the party. That was a mistake. I shook his hand, and before I could finish saying "Hi, I'm Jackson West, the new guy at Valleywag," he huffed, rolled his eyes and walked away. Laughing it off, I suggested to Bonny she roam the crowd and get some pictures of the party goers while I circled through the rest of the venue.
But it wasn't over with Arrington. He wrangled event security, tracked down Pierzina, and told the bouncers that she wasn't supposed to be there. She was then escorted off the premises, but not before being asked where I was — presumably to be disappeared from the party as well. The hero of the night was social networking entrepreneur Nick Dynice, who suggested politely to Arrington that it was rude and tasteless to turn Pierzina out.
After a flurry of text messages, I snuck out to check on Pierzina, and found some guerilla marketers from Vimby also being asked to leave. Back inside, tasteless 1938 Media videoblogger Loren Feldman traded barbs over Valleywag's traffic (and how little of it went his way). Recent Bay Area transplant Marjorie Kase, CEO of Blogger Reps, lamented the travails of her former employer MeeVee.
The rumor started going around that Cashmore had also been ejected, which turned out to be quite true. One Hollywood agent complained that the "douchebag level" was high, even for him. Once we caught wind of the planned afterparty at the Roosevelt Hotel, we tracked down Arrington one last time to thank him for the free drinks, getting blown off again once recognized.
So there we were at the Roosevelt, enjoying some fine hamburgers at 25 Degrees and dishing with Mahalo's Sean Percival when who should sit down at a booth but Arrington. The Valleywag team thought maybe we'd buy him and his entourage a round of drinks. After explaining the situation to our sympathetic server Leah, she suggested that maybe a milkshake would be more appropriate to the evident maturity level, and we agreed.
So with a signal agreed on and the camera ready, we walked by just as the milkshake was delivered. Hope you enjoyed it, Michael — we hear they're delicious, especially the strawberry.
(Photos by Bonny Pierzina)
Comments
Arrington hungry. Feed him more. MOAR. When Will We Have Our Next Valleywag Strawberry Shake?
YOU guys! I talked to Lisa last night and she said Mike is really suffering from depression bad. You should be careful about all this teasing you do, it really hurts him. You don't want blood on your hands do you?
Don't you see the black circles under his eyes? He is suffering from insomnia, low self esteem, I mean, LOOK at what he is accompanied by! Whew. Her dermatologist had a patch on his eye.
He could very well have changed his anti-depressants and this just might send him into orbit.
I think that was really cruel of you and you really need to think about how it is that you are really benefiting from causing emotional distress to a fellow human being. Are you perfect?
Call LISA MIKE-ASAP!
(am I banned yet?)
that guy just ahve some self esteem issues..
do you think he was being ironic by wearing a blue oxford?
@rumourone, who's lisa?
Who's that fugly woman sitting next to him in the picture? Ewww...
@qadude: u aint seen ugly till u seen the nvidia troll
did he drink the milkshake?
@rumourone: Medical issues or not that was some very unprofessional behaviour. If he keeps up that kind of douche behaviour then all he will end up with is egg on his face. Karma will bite him in the butt.
i hate to say, but he went to give a speech and not one person listened to him, and 4 people gave him golf claps. poor guy.
Milkshake! classic!
Had to bail before mike climbed the roosevelt to swat down the planes.
URR. WHAT THIS? MIKE CONFUSED. MIKE NO WANT MILKSHAKE. MIKE WANT TO KICK MILKSHAKE OUT OF RESTAURANT.
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.....
LA LA LA LA.
@QADude: Bad photo of her (sorry Bonny).
Perhaps he gave VW the boot for the April Foolery that was recently added to his Wikipedia page:
"In April, 2008 rumors emerged on the internet that Arrington was considering leaving TechCrunch and joining Gawker Media to work with Gawker's Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag...."
[en.wikipedia.org]
@QADude:
Her name is Ohma.
MA is just like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. The Soup Nazi can afford to be and continues to be arrogant and abusive. Why? Because people line up to get a serving. If no one was in line, I'd bet the Soup Nazi would get an attitude check quickly.
That goes for Wal-Mart. Powerful, huh? What if the people didn't shop there. Who'd be effectively kicked in the nuts?
[www.localseoguide.com]
I talked to Kim or talked to Lisa and she said he was really stressed out that night. He was going to break up with Ohma to go back out with Lisa, but then you guys interrupted him.
She said, she said, that he said while on the phone in the mens room, IN TEARS, that Ohma was not the kind of girl he'd bring home to mom. She is more of the predator snake type, I mean-look in her eyes. She could be taking advantage of poor Mike. So Mike was upset by the OHMA joke talking about his Mom. And he doesnt like anyone talking about MOM! He thought that I work for Valleywag...well NOT. No way, shape or form. I have better things to do than gossip. Geeze.
I work at the DMV-because I like a job where I can work at my own pace.
Anyhow, this experience thrust him momentarily back into his childhood.
In his mind, YOU were the bullies.
Mikey doesn't like that.
When Mikey was a kid, this other kid named Donnie would tease him at school all the time.
Yer Momma this, Yer Momma that. One day Mikey just lost it. The kids said he went scarlett red in the face, nutso like a beast and started bashing Donnie's face in. He beat him so bad the kid needed stitches.
Just be careful, you just...never know about Mikey. Let's not bring out the inner child.
It's important, when throwing a party, to invite a few well-connected people whom you intend to throw out right away. It gives everyone else something to talk about and makes you look important.
I always do that, myself. It really livens up an afternoon playgroup.
Anyone know if Mike's got a date for the Time 100 party? I think crazy's pretty sexy.
Well, this is my last post. My fiance is going nutso on me about my innocent flirtations here, so I must go.
This type situation happened to me not too long ago. An angry butch woman sprayed me as she shouted, "WERE YOU TAKING UNAUTHORIZED PHOTOS DURING THE SHOW!"
First I was insulted, then terrified, and then the longer it went on, I became raging pissed.
It happens. Don't let it get the best of you or dampen your spirit. If you had been a woman, the exchange would have possibly been smoother.
The photos show a great deal of testosterone.
Congrats on your new job; make some memories.
I think we've found someone more entertaining than bigdowro
@Fidel on the Roof: Are you saying that Mike Arrington is the Soup Nazi of the Interblogs?
My grandmother passed away when I was in my early teens. It was a very traumatic event for me, as we were extremely close. To this day I miss her dearly, and have only recently been able to begin the process of letting go.
The tragic circumstances surrounding her accidental drowning in a strawberry shake left me questioning if there was a god.
At the moment you snapped that picture, I had just realized that whether or not God exists, the Devil certainly does, and his name is Owen Thomas.
@rumourone: Please tell me you're not joking, vw causing arrington to off himself would be the best thing in the history of the internet
@michaellamb: Blue Shirts!
@Fake Jimbo Wales: You should take him Jimmy, Arrington is a bottm.
@matto: Hahahahahaha.... What I'm saying is that we made MA into a Soup Nazi.
People pitch to MA because we made and continue to make him a Soup Nazi of the Interblogs. :-D
Before I begin, I would like to say that I would NEVER speak low of any person but Michael Arrington is the following things :
1)Out of shape in body & mind - needs the gym and a therapist.
2)Needs sleep
3)Needs to find more creative ways to generate content.
4)Needs to get into a new profession.
5)Deserves to be banned from sharing his thoughts with the world.
6)a)Looks like a very depressed human that needs love - not strippers and hookers.b) Needs to get on anti-depressants.
7)Learn that if his internet connection was cut off, he would not exist to the known world and he would serve no purpose to society.
Just my thoughts. Enjoy.
Love this! Mike the DushBag Troll.
Baby Mike don't cry!
ValleyWag give him a Pacifier next time..:)
hey bonNEEE, wa'sup?
ps. bloggerreps. wait ... , what? I nearly rolled on the puke in my mouth.
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