About Town Looks Back at 2011's Best Parties

The other day we were asked to compile a list of About Town's favorite parties of the year. News organizations always do these year-end recaps.

They say it's to put a nice bow on the end of the year, but really it's just so they can sucker you into reading their articles or watching their clips one last time. You're watching CNN, and they're like, Qaddafi is dead, and you're like, again, I thought he has been dead for ages, what is he Freddy Krueger or something, or they're like, Congress couldn't come to an agreement on the important blah, blah, blah, but then you're confused because that could have been back in May or every day.

Anyway.

We're just going to give you some links and bring you back to a few of our favorite parties with a line or two in comment. The Patch editor said, just list as many parties as you liked and can remember. Remember? We still have the battle scars!

: Party doesn't have to mean at night and in a bar. This one was daytime for the kids. TRUE Mentors is less than a year old, and already it's made a tremendous impact on the community.

: Here we met the fine Hoboken Irish community. Also notable as the first big public appearance for many of the City Council candidates that spring.

: Here were 150 healthy, beautiful people, and About Town.

: Hey, just go hang out with all these fashion models.

: Just a lot of quality people getting together for a great cause. About Town really did almost catch on fire by accidentally backing into a large flaming candle.

: This was the first of a monthly series. Two hours into the party cocktail waitresses were standing on the bar doing the Party Rock dance.

: Lots of political clout and legendary basketball coach Bob Hurley.

: About Town was never so suave as when Mrs. New Jersey lobbed us an easy bucket in a room full of women. Also the cause was pretty important too.

: For whatever reason, people just didn't come to this. Maybe because it was Saturday and they had a lot of options for going out. But this might have been the most fun we've ever had in Hoboken.

: A party for the opening of the multi-discipline medial practice on 2nd and Washington streets. We learned that a healthy uterus is a happy uterus.

: This is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, but is like the girl who gets made-over in the ZZ Top video for "Legs" and looks spectacular. Carpe Diem is this little bar in a faraway corner, and within five minutes of walking in you think, this is a really great bar!

Eli Manning raises money for the new 14th street rec center, August 5: A rare public appearance by number 10. Look for that new rec center coming soon.

: When About Town has children we want to take them to the spaghetti dinner and say, children, this is your city, this is Hoboken.

: A lot of money raised for a fine institution. The after-party at the Chandelier Room was fun too.

A hall-of-fame performance by About Town. This was like Drew Brees just breaking the passing record.

: Building bipartisan support for About Town's run for President in 2028.

: Written at Union Station, Washington DC. We looked around at all the commotion and thought, these people have no idea how important this work is we're doing.

And that's that. A great 2011, and About Town is looking to keep the good times coming in 2012. Happy new year to you and yours!

Alan Skontra was a big dork who never went anywhere. Then he started writing the About Town column for Patch, and now he's everywhere. Have a hot tip on an event in Hoboken? Send an invitation, questions and comments too, to alanskontra@hotmail.com, and peep his tweets @alanskontra.