What: 2010 Ivey Awards and VIP party
Where: State Theatre
When: September 20, 2010
Why: Honor the Twin Cities amazing theater community, especially this year’s top performers, playwrights, set designers, sound editors, lighting technicians, and everyone else who helps make a performance great.
Who: Those involved in the Twin Cities theater community and those who simply enjoy a night out (or ten) at the theater. Needless to say the State was packed.

This is what I hate about the Iveys: Each year, as I watch awards go to amazing actors, set designers, directors, playwrights, et al, I kick myself for missing that particular production. How did I miss Live Action Set’s The Happy Show? What was I doing that one night it ran at some theater I have never heard of? What I love about the Iveys: Everything else.

Who: Media folks, PR peeps, and food lovers
What: Rojo Mexican Grill Preview Party
When: Friday, August 20, 2010
Where: The Shops at West End, St. Louis Park
Why: To celebrate the opening of West End’s newest culinary haunt

Attending a party at the Shops at West End is a uniquely fun and refreshing experience. It’s not just about the abundant free parking, the wide streets, and bright storefronts. Falling in step with the retail complex’s Recession? What recession? swagger almost makes one forget about a wheezing housing market, bleak jobless claim numbers, the growing debt crisis overseas, and—wait, hold on. Did someone say free margaritas?

Who: Socialites, style setters, media mavens, restaurateurs, and other TC notables
What: Macy’s Passport Presents Glamorama 2010
Where: Orpheum Theatre and Macy’s Minneapolis Eighth Floor
When: August 6, 2010
Why: To raise funds for Children’s Cancer Research Fund and to raise the bar on Twin Cities fashion

Twin Cities fashionistas made their annual pilgrimage to the Orpheum to show off their style, soak up fall looks, and celebrate fashion at Macy’s Passport Presents Glamorama 2010.

Who: Foodists meet the art elite
What: CuisineArt 2010
Where: The Walker Art Center
When: Friday, May 21, 2010
Why: To party with fusion chef extraordinaire Wolfgang Puck and raise funds for the Walker’s programs

“The only thing you are missing is a room so you can have sex,” said chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck.

For clarification, he was referring to the Walker Art Center during his introduction to the crowd at CuisineArt 2010, after he rattled off all the other wonderful things you can do at the world renown museum, like taking a class, seeing an exhibit, or eating at 20.21.

Who: Dan Buettner and his hoodrat friends
What: ButterBall 2009 aka BuettnerBall
Where: Graves 601 Hotel
When: Saturday, November, 21, 2009
Why: A benefit for Open Arms of Minnesota

It’s been two years since I wrote about Dan Buettner’s blue zones, and our relationship is still stuck in a weird blue period of our very own, but despite that fact (or maybe only because Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is a media sponsor), I got a media pass to Buettner’s big party, The ButterBall, held at the fifth floor ballroom at the Graves.