This photo shows the “Man Cave”–one of several spaces at Lee Park’s usually staid Arlington Hall that were all tricked out last night to mark the second anniversary of The Social Book, Dallas edition. Seventies rock blasted in the “cave”–actually, the Hall’s patio–as party-goers tossed back 360 Vodka and chomped on appetizers. Other parts of the building were decorated with an “organic green” feel or to ape a swanky lounge, complete with tunes by the Marc Toussaint Combo. Meantime Scott Evans, The Social Book‘s Houston-based publisher, explained why for the second year in a row, he’s giving the leather-bound books away for free.
Evans’ book, an annual resource guide to fund-raising events and the people and companies that produce them, has been published for nearly 15 years in Houston.
Down there, he says, the book has 1,000 devotees who pay $300 annually.
But in Dallas, the going has been slower.
Evans gave the book away last year, and this year he decided to do it again. He’s got 500 of them stashed in a local warehouse, and anybody who asks for one can have it.
How come?
“I want to do this for Dallas, to get them used to using it,” he said.
Indeed, everyone at the Thursday bash found one of the books in their “goodie bag” when they left stately Arlington Hall, which was turned for one night into a Hotel ZaZa-like party pit.
Mary Frances Hurt of DFW Events, which oversaw the transformation, said the point was to make the space “the opposite of what you’d expect.”
And, she did.
For example, I never expected to see hot models posing with an oversized bear head at Lee Park.
Even though old-timers say that, back in the day, some pretty wild things happened in that park.
