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BEA 2007 Parties: Taschen Books at The Store
June 4, 2007

We left The Maritime Hotel (by the way, its restaurant is La Bottega, not The Cabana... ) and hopped into a cab heading downtown to The Taschen Store on Greene Street. (The cabbie kept muttering in a thick Russian accent about how The Maritime Hotel used to be "place for sailors and prostitutes... now so busy... ") I think I said this before, but I'm really grateful to publishers who hold their parties later, like Weinstein Books and Taschen. Getting back to one's hotel after a long day on the BEA show floor and having time for a rest is invaluable.

Anyway, back to Taschen: we knew where the party was because two models clad only in stenciling and and strategically place flesh-colored elastic bits were greeting guests at the door. (I asked the male model, Blake Adams, what he means to Taschen: "I'm a brand ambassador!" was the response.) We arrived just behind artist Christo and his wife (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Patricia Field -- except that Mrs. Christo is much more tastefully dressed).

The fantastic thing about this party is that there was so little going on (by that I mean no live entertainment, no tricks or schticks), yet everyone was so happy to be there -- the store was packed with booksellers and artists and publicists, and everyone was talking, talking, talking... the conversation was aided by something that isn't always in evidence at BEA parties: books! Yes, most of us were standing around the store's islands, leafing through some of the company's beautiful volumes. (I refuse to reveal whether I spent more time on this one or this one.)

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on June 4, 2007 | Comments (5)