New York City is OVER.
Dead.
Finito.
At least, that’s what NYC nightlife blogger Kristina Marino tells me. She doesn’t get the obsession with the Hamptons, either, (“You’re like: ‘this isn’t cool. Why would I drive 3 hours just to go to the same clubs they have in the city?’”), and it’s not like you can go to Goldbar, Kenmare, The Jane, or Le Bain every night. At least… not once you’ve landed a full-time job that you value and enjoy. Plus, maybe you’d like to find the time to learn a language or two. Not to mention that you’ve started to think about the possibility of going back to grad school. Oh, and you’re also trying to get in shape (on account of all the bridesmaid’s dresses you’re being asked to wear lately).
FOTP BBQ at Good Company. Photo credit: Kelly Neal for Metromix New York.
… Let me back up for a moment:
Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristina, the girl behind The Downtown Diaries, a blog about nightlife here in New York City (or “The Scene,” as Kristina begrudgingly calls it). We chose to meet at Good Company in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Finger on The Pulse was hosting their final BBQ of the summer season, with Andrew W.K. DJ-ing and $5 plates of deliciousness courtesy of Frankies Spuntino.
I arrive at 7:30 on the dot, belly up to the bar, and order a sweet tea vodka with lemonade (which, happily, is served in a Mason jar). A short while later, a pretty girl with dark hair and smoky eyes sidles up next to me: “Are you Esther?” she asks. It’s Kristina!
I buy her a drink. She orders a sweet tea vodka, too, and I like her immediately. Every few minutes someone new comes up to us to say hello to Kristina. They’re young, attractive, hip, creative: writers, photographers, DJs, bon vivants, musicians and artists. Kristina is a natural hostess and her networking skills are evident right away. She’s pleasant with everyone and careful to make thoughtful introductions. She talks with a friend about meeting up on the Lower East Side later in the evening (“At Pianos?”… “I’ll text you.”), then we make our way out to the courtyard to get some grub.
Kristina (R) & friend Nicole Wasilewicz (Senior Music Editor, Free Williamsburg)
I ask Kristina what prompted her to start the blog. I always love the story, and hers doesn’t disappoint: it all began thanks to the MTA.
… Ok, Ok, I kid, I kid.
Well, sort of, anyway: after a long night of partying in the city, she was waiting for the L train to come and take her back to Brooklyn. Broke A*s Stuart and his girlfriend were also waiting for the L, and the two ladies struck up a conversation about the cute boots one of them was wearing (“Will you believe they were from Charlotte Russe?!”). An hour later, the L still hadn’t come (thanks, MTA!), so the threesome decided to share a cab back to Williamsburg. Stuart mentioned how he needed help planning his upcoming book release party, and Kristina jumped at the chance (“I told him I was an event planner. I wasn’t, at the time, but I knew I wanted to be.”).
Long story short: Kristina got the gig. She may not have been an event planner, but she knew a thing or two about parties. After all, the girl was sneaking into Limelight at the tender age of 15 (when Limelight was still a nightclub, not a chi-chi marketplace for expensive gelato). So, it’s not surprising that she planned an amazing book release party for Stuart (fire breathers, hundreds of beautiful people, the works), and she was on her way. She met a lot of people in “The Scene,” and soon she was going out ‘til the wee hours almost every night of the week. Conveniently enough, around the same time, Kristina got laid off from Yahoo! along with about 2000 other people. She found herself with a hefty severance package and lots of free time on her hands.
It was time to party, clearly— and party she did, for about two months straight. She then did a brief stint selling advertising and hated it. It was during that wretched time that she started toying with the idea of blogging. Then, on one particularly epic evening, she found herself at Mr. West rubbing shoulders with Katy Perry and Rihanna and she knew she had found something worth writing about: “I mean, who gets to do this sh*t?!”
And so, The Downtown Diaries was born: a place to chronicle the adventures of a New York City Scenester who’s also a Queens native, a die-hard resident of The ‘Burg and a refreshingly down-to-earth gal. The blog quickly took off, so after leaving the miserable Ad Sales gig, she decided to give herself six months off to have some more fun (it turned out to be only two months, but we’ll get to that later). During that time, she planned parties, discovered that “Wednesday is the new Monday,” (wait, what? Did she say Monday?) and affirmed her beliefs that: 1) you should never pay for your own drinks (“Blasphemy!”) and 2) “Knowing the DJ is key,” when you’re trying to get into a party.
If knowing the DJ doesn’t work, you should just tell the unlucky soul working the door that you’re writing a story about [insert nightlife-related story idea here] or that you’re there with [V.I.P. X] (“Doormen will never know if the story runs so it doesn’t really matter.”). Try to do this with as much swagger as you can muster. This is called ‘Dropping The Card,’ as I learned, and it’s as simple as that: giving your business card to the person at the door, explaining to them who you are, what you do, why you’re there, and why they should just be a doll and let you past the velvet rope, like, now. I asked Kristina how often she has to ‘Drop The Card,’ these days, and she laughs: “I try to keep it to a minimum.”
… So, if she’s doesn’t have to ‘Drop The Card’ much anymore, what kind of wild shenanigans is Kristina getting into these days? And, why is she now insisting that “New York is dead,” after having finally established herself as a fixture in the city’s see-and-be-seen nightlife landscape?
For one thing, she’s no longer living the charmed life of the blissfully unemployed: after about two months of partying like a rockstar (quite literally), she was contacted by Mirrorball, a consumer engagement agency specializing in live events for beverage and spirits brands such as Dos Equis, Pernod Absinthe, Perrier, Amstel and Hpnotiq. They needed an in-house blogger and someone to handle their social media strategy, and they thought Kristina would be perfect for the job. She agreed, and has been happily employed at Mirrorball for the past six months. Plus, while she still has her Scenester moments (“I don’t just want to write about the ‘IT’ girl, I want to be the ‘IT,’ girl.”), Kristina’s found that a whole host of new interests have sprung up in her life (“I want to learn Spanish, I want to learn Italian. I want to learn to play the keyboard, learn to DJ and I want to get really good at yoga. I want to lose 10 lbs, so I’ve been going to the gym a lot instead of going out. I want to study for the GMATs… but, it’s like, when the f*ck do I have time for that?”).
Me & Kristina. Photo credit: Kelly Neal for Metromix New York.
So, I ask her: now that she’s back to working full-time and taking up new hobbies, how does she handle her rigorous social schedule?
… Ah, yes. Now we’re getting somewhere. I can tell by her expression that I’ve clearly asked a tough one.
She goes out a lot less than she once did, because her life is changing. She only goes out on Wednesday through Saturday nights most of the time, and she doesn’t drink very much when she goes out because, well, she’s got to work the next day. The Scene, on the other hand, has remained more or less the same, which is one reason Kristina’s grown a bit weary of it. It must be exhausting, I imagine, bouncing from party to party, neighborhood to neighborhood, scene to scene (“You’re never a regular, really.”). Plus, when your social schedule is dictated by openings and special events, it can feel a bit contrived (“That’s exactly it! I don’t have any sort of organic lifestyle.”). Not surprisingly, when ‘The Scene,’ stops being fresh and exciting and begins feeling more like a chore— like work— it can become boring, routine, stale. And you’re in real trouble when you add to that the fact that you can forget about dating, because “if you’re in The Scene you can’t date someone in The Scene,” Kristina explains with mock drama. “At least that’s what they say,” she adds, laughing. “I don’t know who they are, but… that’s what they say.”
Kristina’s also admittedly become a bit jaded by some of fair-weather friends she’s made (and lost) in recent years. I get the sense that she’s been burned more than once. She’s friendly with everyone – and does keep a handful of close, trusted friends – and yet she wonders aloud what many of us often think to ourselves: “Where do I belong?”
This isn’t to say, of course, that Kristina doesn’t still enjoy a fun night out on the town. She definitely does, and it’s not uncommon for her to stay out until 3 a.m. on a weeknight. But she senses a shift in her attentions: after all, once you’ve partied with Katy Perry and Rihanna, been interviewed by BlackBook, been written-up by Eater, met Lady Gaga – you get the idea – what else is there?
Well, quite a lot, as it turns out: Kristina is looking forward to the fall, to colder weather, a bit of hibernation – some relief from the relentless party schedule that engulfs New York City in the summer months. She’s not sure what’s next for her, exactly, but she has a lot of ideas, both for the blog and for herself. For starters, she wants to make the blog more of a personal narrative. And she plans on making more time to see her family now that summer’s over (“My Nana lives on Havemeyer Street,” she explains, adding that her Italian-American family has a long history in Williamsburg). She also wants to help plan some underground dinner parties with her friend Adam Aleksander.
While the big picture is still evolving, these days this 26-year-old nightlife blogger finds herself staying in her home borough more often. For one thing, she says, getting off the subway in Brooklyn is still one of her favorite feelings:
“It’s like a huge sigh of relief: I have everything I need right here.”
A blog vacay doesn’t have to mean leaving town. If you’re anything like Erica, it can mean spending some QT catching up on your favorite reality TV, like SYTYCD. It’s YOUR blog vacay: do what you want! 
