The annual Laughing Squid party has representatives of every San Francisco geek stereotype. An organization — Laughing Squid's Scott Beale hosts websites, and publishes party photos — of indistinct purpose. A self-consciously alternative crowd of burlesque performers, a guy in leather, dope-smoking geeks, year-round Burning Man obsessives. And, making their appearance for the first time in half a decade, a new crop of accidental millionaires, such as Kevin Rose of Digg, whose $60m is still notional, and Josh Schachter of Delicious, which was acquired by Yahoo. Rachel's party photos here, and Megan's party report after the jump.

MEGAN MCCARTHY — Laughing Squid's 11th Anniversary party was held Saturday night at Potrero Hill's Mighty club. Laughing Squid bills itself as a combination of technology, culture, and the arts, and the entertainment available encompassed all of those traits. Outside on the no-drinks-allowed patio, you could literally play with fire, using a rake to shift the sand in a gas-lit Zen garden. By the fence, there was a clear plastic Buddha statue the size of a 4th grader, illuminated by embedded neon that flickered and blinked based on the pressure points you touched on its palm. Causing the most commotion was a magnificent fire cannon, safely across the street, capable of shooting flames 30 feet into the air. Inside, onstage, the Twilight Vixen Review burlesque show teased and titillated the audience, with every twirl of a feather digitally caught by the numerous photographers crowding the front row. If the logo projected on the four-story building next door didn't alert you to the avant-garde leanings of the event, the collection of Art Cars (with names like "Dragon Wagon") and overall carnival feel should have clued you in.

Men in Victorian costumes mingled with pirates, but it was the Web 2.0 scenesters who showed up en masse (geeky text messaging site Dodgeball counted at least 37 check-ins). The digerati crowd schmoozed and networked, as per usual, and many power players showed their face at the scene. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid, the host, mingled benignly. Podtech's Robert Scoble arrived in a limo. Kevin Rose from Digg stood by the bar, chatting with Micki Krimmel from Revver and Irina Slutsky from Geek Entertainment TV. Marc Canter continued the fire theme by lighting up a joint in the middle of the crowd and sharing with anyone who wanted to partake. (There were a few.) Other people noticed include StumbleUpon co-founder Garrett Camp, Heather Champ from Flickr, and Josh Schachter, founder of Yahoo's Delicious.

The unofficial theme of the night was how San Francisco was Back, And How. This idea was made clear to me by the presence of a reporter from the Observer, diligently asking people if they were company founders in order to research a piece he was doing for the UK newspaper. If traditional media is sending someone halfway around the world to talk to 24 year old startuppers, that's a sign.

Enthusiastic boasting was present in the form of Kris Tate, founder of photo sharing site Zooomr, explaining to me why they turned down a $2 million dollar offer from Google. "We're going to take over the world!" he answered, telling me that his selling price today would be $15 million, "but that number changes every day." Zooomr CEO and photographer extraordinaire Thomas Hawk contradicted that idea, rhetorically asking why anyone would want to sell and claiming to have "bigger plans than that," detailing his wish to create a site that mixes elements from Flickr, Facebook, and iStock Photo. Groom-to-be Chris Pirillo of Gnomodex gave an outsider's perspective on the economic uptake, unfortunately invoking the Valley's premier epithet - the dreaded "b" word - by claiming that he was in Seattle to stay safe from the bubble.

I'm not sure if he'll be able to avoid it. The idea of the Bubble, to me, is this pervasive sense that business is first and foremost on everyone's minds, and the Laughing Squid party is a prime example. Looking around on Saturday night, you saw more millionaires on hand than starving artists. My question is this: Is big money seeping into the Laughing Squid crowd, or is the Laughing Squid ethos infecting the business world?