Posts tagged loserkaraoke

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My new found love affair with Toronto continues. I don’t even know where to begin so I guess I will start with just the last few days. By the way, HUGE appy polly loggies to my readers for disappearing for the last couple days. Won’t happen again, I pLomise.

I would say that around Wednesday is when things got busy so I will break it down. Note that, as per the title of this post, all of the events described herein have occurred downtown.

I CAN HAZ TWITTER CUPCAKEZ?!?

It’s no secret that much of the social media game is being, well, social. If you were under the impression that we social media managers just sit behind computers all day writing blogs then you’re sorely mistaken. Consider that for a blog to be engaging and entertaining there must be something to blog about. Sure I can lock myself in my room all day and write depressing poetry but I would sorely limit my audience to a small demographic of like-minded emo kids with one too many Smiths albums. The rest of us “conformists” like to get out in the summer and meet new people, hang out with good friends and, dare I say, support one another in our respective endeavours whether we’re trying to get the word out about a product we’ve created, a website we love and curate, or just to bounce ideas off one another as a wonderfully creative community. So why do I go and hang with the social media circle jerk? Because when the toast in the center is all but eaten, you find that you’ve made some pretty awesome friends.

Anyway so here’s part of the recap of Wednesday alone!

Social Media Day Mashable Meetup at The Madison Street Pub.

Ah, The Maddy pub. My old friend, my worst enemy. Right up until I left Toronto originally the Madison was always the epitome of animal house.

If you’ve never been there, imagine a pub that is made up of 3 multi-level heritage houses that has multiple bars, several patios, lots of room and is a labyrinth full of secret passages to different parts of the establishment. Now imagine that the place is smack dab in the middle of U of T frat house country and you will get the picture. The Madison is, in a word, hell. A drunken fighting, loud talking, beer flowing, college hell – and it’s close to my heart…like a narrow-miss bullet wound.

I think many people have a love/hate relationship with the Maddy, but as for me my love for that place was so strong that I could never go there again for my own health. But that was many years ago and Mashable was doing a meetup there and had free cupcakes!

Plus the infamous Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) and the equally infamous Casie Stewart were doing keynote speaking spots there, so I decided to suck it up and get over to the old Maddy pub to network a bit before heading off to my good friend Jeremy Wright’s birthday at my NEW drunken, loud talking, beer flowing grownup hell, Tequila Sunrise.

In all I would say that the experience was positive, if not short lived. Short lived simply because there were just too many people there to really maximize your networking opportunities. I mean the joint was packed. When it’s that packed people tend to seek out others they already know and just cling to them. Although I managed to meet a few new folks, I also sought out some familiar faces. So guilty as charged. Regardless I still very much enjoyed Scott’s rant and Casie’s tips on how to manage multiple personalities…online. Here are the videos.

After that it was off to Jeremy’s 31st birthday at Tequila Sun Rise, and the funny thing is that many of the people I met or met up with at Mashable showed up there too. I think it’s safe to say that Karaoke with Jason Rolland is one of, if not THE best, karaoke experience in Toronto. It’s a great place to sing new and current songs (unlike the shitty Gladstone hotel, which Rochelle and I call Geezer Karaoke) and chat with our little contingent of social media gurus. Going to Loser Karaoke is what began my new love affair with Toronto, Who knew a tiny bar on Adelaide and Simcoe could melt my contempt for this city? It goes to show that it’s not the place you’re in, it’s the people that are in there with you that make all the difference. Here are some pictures from that night. I tried to get as many people as possible to wear these rad glasses with flip down shades! The rest of the set is on my Flickr account.

If you’re reading this and you’re feeling lonely, come to loser karaoke downtown, where everything’s waiting for you. If you search #loserkaraoke on twitter you will get all the details nearing each Thursday, when we do it. We’ll be there.