Luckily, no one made any "Can you GIG IT?" jokes.

Last night, a varied crowd of rappers, rappers' entourages, music industry types, and startup folks gathered downtown at Capitale, for the launch of Gig It.

A new Facebook game--bold timing, considering the current dismal state of Zynga--Gig It allows gamers to create custom concerts using 3D avatars. It's basically The Sims Social crossed with Guitar Hero, but starring famous rappers. More than 50 artists have cut deals with the company to lend their faces to the project.

On a giant screen behind the stage: #THIS AINT NO FARM. (Get it? Because it's concerts, instead of agriculture?) In between introducing the acts, emcees DJ Khalid and La La hyped the game constantly, going so far as to call it a "movement."

But it was an impressive lineup of talent (many of whom are licensing their images to Gig It), including Busta Rhymes, French Montana (who only bothered with a single verse of "Pop That"), S.W.V, Fabolous, 2Chainz (periodically hollering "2 CHAINZ," as is his wont), and Nas (who inspired the most iPhone videographers). Also in the house: Jamie Foxx and Rick Ross (though they never showed their faces), plus we spotted Raekwon and Cody Simpson milling about.

Oh, and let's not forget Randi Zuckerberg. Mark's big sister appeared on stage early in the evening wearing her trademark sequins. "She's a very important person," La La assured us in her introduction.

"It's so awesome to be here," Ms. Zuckerberg gushed. "I just got introduced by La La, I met Rick Ross upstairs. I think I just won Instagram tonight."

"I think tech and music coming together just makes so much sense, in so many ways. We always saw in the beginning of Facebook it was always the music stars that were getting the most fans." She added, "The thing I'm most excited about is finally the celebrities and musicians themselves have a chance to directly connect to their fans." You know, in case 2Chainz is looking for a marketing vehicle besides his lobster-filled Instagram account.

After a reunited S.W.V. closed out the show, attendees filed out through the elaborate entrance, passing underneath a slogan from the building's days as the Bowery Savings Bank: "Your Financial Welfare Is the Business of The Bank."

https://twitter.com/randizuckerberg/status/329403594673623040

Speaking of Mr. Schmidt, goodies from his upcoming book, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business are beginning to trickle out. Today WikiLeaks released the transcript of a five-hour conversation between Mr. Schmidt and Julian Assange, used for the book. It opens with some really riveting stuff. Mr. Schmidt: "Well do you want us to start eating?" Mr. Assange: "Well, we can do both." Guess there's not much time for leisurely meals in the life of a WikiLeaker.

But the real punch line comes when Mr. Schmidt's co-author, Google Ideas guy Jared Cohen, turns up to the discussion late, blaming Delta. It seems Mr. Assange was expecting someone a little different:

"Larry?" he asks. "Jared," Mr. Cohen replies. "Jared! Jared," Mr. Assange attempts to recover. Now that's the GIF we'd really like to see.

You oughta see the other guy Seems whoever's defacing ads these days as some pretty strong feelings about Mark Zuckerberg. Witness the work of some wag with a marker, as captured by AllThingsD's Peter Kafka.

Lost in translation Speaking of the Facebook dynasty, this week Randi Zuckerberg took to her LiveJournal account digital lifestyle site Dot Complicated to blog hard about her super fun and exciting trip to Japan. She learned so many things, you guys! Well, just a dozen, but still. She reported that the country has many non-spoken societal rules like not speaking on the subways and ratted out her baby for breaking the quiet of the train car. ("Honestly, the loudest person on the subway by far was my son, who would announce, “All done!” every time the subway came to a stop.")

Another nugget: The very first question she asks upon entering a new country is, “What apps and websites is everyone using here?" That puts our "Where the hell is the bathroom?" to shame.

Mr. Photogenic Is there anything that Kevin Rose can't do? (Well, except for save Digg.) Earlier this week Mr. Rose used his Facebook to promote his wife's upcoming book, Foodist, declaring himself "stoked" for the release. But we suspect the post was also just a chance to show off his dashing/dorky appearance in the book trailer. He should pivot to being a Pottery Barn catalog model if his coffee-drinking/investing/oversharing gig fails. Potential clients might want to remember what happened the last time he took a cover modeling job, though.

Bonus: A cameo by Toaster, the dog who gave his name to the Instagram filter.

Everyone's a critic Facebook rolled out a cleaner and more streamlined look this week, but not everyone is enamored with it. Newly minted Yahoo! millionaire, design divo and Summly creator Nick D'Alosio tweeted his meh-bivalence about it. "Good to see the directional change to flat design except the colour used is still heavy and muted." That "u" is adorable even when he throws shade!

Promo FOMO Would-be part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets Alexis Ohanian wants to know why Reddit's logo isn't on his season tickets. Hell, given the price tag, he ought to get a monogrammed commemorative edition.

I'm the trash man Jack Dorsey continues his Sisyphean struggle to clean the streets of San Francisco, all by himself if that's what it takes. Here's his latest snap from the Clean Streets initiative, filter-free and everything. A design enthusiast's work is never done.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/325319564349034497

(The Hollywood Reporter)

Feeling blue about missing Sundance? Cheer up. Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs biopic is slated to arrive April 19 at a theater near you. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Apple set a company record for iPhone sales last quarter, but it wasn't enough to placate investors, who sent shares falling in late trading after Apple announced its quarterly results. [AllThingsD]

It wasn't all bad for tech stocks. Netflix soared after the company announced better-than-expected profit on the strength of new subscribers. [Bloomberg]

Careful. The NYPD has a new device that detects the energy emitted by the rocket in your pocket. [NYDN]

"While I haven’t seen hard data on how this plays out across the industry, my personal experience has been that women in tech are primarily found in these emotional labor-heavy departments, even in the tiniest companies." [Quartz]

Raaaaaaandi! [Fast Company]

(Screencap: YouTube)

Today Bravo producer and famed Facebook sibling Randi Zuckerberg tweeted a YouTube video that captured a very exciting moment for the spotlight-hungry entrepreneur. Not content to be outshone by her brother Mark, who debuted a new Facebook feature just an hour prior, Ms. Zuckerberg announced that she'd had a walk-on role in a Bay Area edition of the Broadway musical Anything Goes, arranged by the theatrical company SHN San Francisco.

The video shows Ms. Zuckerberg, dressed in full hair and makeup, dancing with a pair of sailors and being outfitted in a '20s-era costume. Then comes the big moment: the 45 seconds she spends walking across the stage, arm-in-arm with a handsome besuited actor. "Pretty sure that I invented a new Tony category tonight for 'Best 45-Second Crossover in Stage History,'" she joked.

We eagerly await the angry posts about how Ms. Zuckerberg's Broadway debut will ruin the tech industry.

Typical for Art Basel, said the source, brushing off complaints. “Less so for tech startups :)” Too bad they missed Demi Moore’s highly gif-able turn on the dance floor next to Lenny Kravitz. Perhaps our partier will have better luck with Tumblr, which is hosting its own Art Basel extravaganza tonight.

(Photo: NYMag)

Ball So Hard Venture capitalists have certainly replaced i-bankers as the finance boyfriend of choice. But does that mean they have as much disposable income? Lerer Ventures and Thrillist cofounder Ben Lerer almost had us fooled on Instagram when he posted a receipt of a $50,000 tip on $251,769 bill at The Dutch, the Soho restaurant that boasts a $19 bagel. Mr. Lerer captioned the image, “dinner was good.” It wasn’t until the next day that he mocked friends for believing he would bro down like that. “dude, that wasn’t actually mine. hahaha. what kind of maniac do you think I am??,” he commented on the photo, adding, “whoevers bill that was is a psycho.”

Sorry, DABA girls. Might want to stick closer to Wall Street.

(Photo: Instagram)

Holiday Cheer There’s been much ado about 3D printed guns and drugs, but we fear there may have been one damning oversight when it comes to the adult industries touched by 3D printing technologies: where are all the sex toys? Luckily our fears were squashed when we saw MESA+ partner Jacob Brody tweet a photo from the 3DEA pop-up shop, a temporary holiday store featuring objects assembled by a Shapeways printer.

Though much merriment was made--the printer was making holiday ornaments for the store’s tree!--there was also a cordoned-off XXX section. “The sign actually says you need to be 18 years or older or accompanied by a guardian, which I think is super funny,” Mr. Brody said. Behold: it was a room of dildos, with one even molded into the shape of a fist. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

(Photo: Jacob Brody, Instagram)

The Lo Down The Hills’ Lo Bosworth is trying to shirk her MTV image and make a name for herself in New York’s startup scene, and rubbing shoulders with Randi Zuckerberg probably doesn’t hurt. Ms. Bosworth Instagrammed a photo of the two of them out for a fancy sushi dinner, along with former CNBC anchorwoman Nicole Lapin. Perhaps Ms. Zuckerberg wants to pick Lo’s brain as to who to cast for the Start-Ups reboot casting in New York?

(Photo: Instagram)

24-Hour Party People It seems Square CEO Jack Dorsey might want to rearrange his medicine cabinet. Earlier this week, just before before midnight California time, he announced to his 2.2 million Twitter followers: "I just mistook NyQuil for mouthwash. Goodnight!" What Mr. Dorsey was doing drinking what he thought was mouthwash is anyone's guess.

Does Not Compute Lots of us get annoying pings from sad, sexy bots just looking for companionship. Most of us just delete and block. Not Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose! He can't resist the chance for a little fun:

Randi, Can You Hear Me?

But we hear Ms. Zuckerberg may have some competition. A source mentioned that MTV is also working on a startup reality show rumored to be produced by peripatetic Foodspotter Soraya Darabi and "a Reddit cofounder." Ms. Darabi told Betabeat she was "not involved" in the project and Reddit cofounders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman did not immediately responded to our inquiry, so it's hard to say if that was just wishful thinking. However, an independent New York City-based casting director--not the lovely gentleman from last night!--confirmed that "There’s a bunch of networks" currently testing reality programming about startups, including MTV and possibly CNBC.

In fact, the casting director said he put together a reel of potential entrepreneurs--some in New York--for Bravo this summer, before "Start-Ups: Silicon Alley" had even aired. "Kind of like the 'Housewives' was successful, you look for more 'Housewives," he said, noting that the success of "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel begat "American Pickers" and "American Restoration."

"Tons of networks," he said, "are looking into the startup space."

"Right now, there’s a little trend going on where poeple are kind of into almost like the American dream," he explained. "You could turn on networks and could see people who are the best at what they do, celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay. But there hasn’t been a whole lot of documenting people with amazing ideas starting off." Networks want to "ride the journey," along with entrepreneurs. As for what kind of characters Bravo requested, "Every network has a demographic. You’re not going to send Bravo four 80-year-old people starting a company," he acknowledged. "We’re first looking for really great idea and then you just pray the people have personalities. You just need to be not be really shy."

Sounds like enough fodder to keep Pando Daily's coffers stocked for a week.

Live From New York, It's Makerbot Last night, at the launch of Wired's new holiday popup, Betabeat made the acquaintance of SNL stars Vanessa Bayer and Fred Armisen. Despite the fact that the room was decked out like an electronics store with gadgets galore, Ms. Bayer, in a grey and black Zara top, could not get enough of the Makerbot 3D printer Wired had on display.

When we asked what her favorite gadget there was, she told us it was "definitely the 3D printer." We suggested that perhaps she might want to check out Makerbot's new store in Nolita, where you can purchase little printed objects. "Did you know," she asked, her eyes wide, "that the 3D printer printed that set of headphones?" She gestured to a pair of red headphones in a glass case across the room. "That is so cool. I literally can't stop telling people about the 3D printer."

As we were leaving, Betabeat ran into her again, and mentioned that a friend of ours had joked that the party space looked a little too much like a Best Buy. "What kind of Best Buy has a 3D printer???" she asked, aghast.

GOOG Goes to Spam Betabeat receives a lot of press releases, and almost all of them route directly to our inboxes, leaving our spam folder for the detritus of the web. Except for one peculiar thing: almost every single email we’ve received from a PR person--or anyone with a @google.com email address, really--gets directed immediately to spam. It’s strange, considering Gmail is a product created and maintained by the company whose emails we are fielding. We’ve asked multiple Google PR reps what the deal is, but their best answer is that we should just continuing marking them as “not spam” to retrain Gmail. Ah, tech reporting is a rough gig.

Bromance Another day, another social media gem from Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer. This time, it’s a bit of Twitter back-and-forth:

Peer Pressure Congrats to Matt Langer, who as per his Twitter account just celebrated six months as a nonsmoker. What’s more interesting is the reason: He admitted to Anil Dash, human conscience of the tech scene, that “not even joking, one of the pros when i was trying to psych myself up to quit was ‘anil won't think i'm a fucking terrible person.’” We thought that seemed a little extreme, until we saw this riposte from Mr. Dash: “Ex-smokers have nothing but my appreciation. Smokers can go die slow, painful deaths.”

Excuse us while we dash out for a packet of Nicorette.

The scene. (Photo by Michael Gold, via Instagram)

When we arrived at the Dream Hotel on 55th, there was already a substantial crowd of would-be attendees worrying that the one-hour open bar at #techdrinkup's holiday party would end before we made it upstairs. Ahead of us, two young men were debating the relative merits of Sean Parker in the wake of Airtime's abysmal numbers: "I'm a fan," said Mr. Parker's defender. "Everyone has success and failing."

What no one mentioned within our earshot: Gotham Casting would be in the house, looking for personalities to feature in a possible New York spinoff of Start-ups: Silicon Valley, Bravo's oft-maligned, Randi Zuckerberg-produced reality show. According to a recent casting call getting passed around Silicon Alley, they're looking for locals "who have a full time career and a full time lifestyle!" In a reminder email, #techdrinkup organizer Michael Gold billed the event as "not the night for name tags and demos," but rather "the night for schmoozing, boozing and good music."

When the elevator finally whisked us upstairs, the doors opened onto a scene that looked like, well, the set for a Bravo reality show. Tank-top-wearing waitresses slung drinks before a backlit bar; enormous picture windows looked downtown toward the bright lights of Times Square. As we surveyed the crowd, David Bowie's "Fame" begin to blare over the loudspeaker. Seriously.

Amid the crush we spotted events maestro Gary Sharma, and we met several of the ladies of Appular, including Haley Hammerling and Michelle Lauren Addo, who pointed out the man of the hour: casting director Justin Ruse. 

"We're finding some really great personalities in Silicon Alley," he said. Mr. Ruse has worked on projects like Top Chef, but he's a relative newbie to the New York tech scene. "It's almost like an underground world." (Vogue spreads notwithstanding, we suppose.) Then he turned the tables, asking a few probing questions about where we might find potential fameballers. Don't worry, we didn't name names--but you know who you are.

We were a bit surprised at Mr. Ruse's distinct lack of a swarm, but it seemed he was operating a bit under the radar. Upon meeting someone new, he simply said, "I'm in television," without waving an "Audition For Me" sign.

On the other hand, no one was nakedly angling for a spot either. One man frowned and said asked whether we thought auditioning might be worthwhile. Only NeNe Leakes knows for sure, and she’s too busy posing in piles of diamonds to say.

One contender emerged, in the form of a visibly tipsy woman who shrieked as she greeted Mr. Ruse. After identifying herself as a digital marketer, she complimented this reporter’s skirt and, seeing us give it a downward tug, reached over and tugged it back up. She then attempted to pull it all the way up to our waist, giggling wildly at her own antics.

Half attempting to stop the onslaught, half genuinely curious, we asked this character whether she wanted to go on the show. In response, she flung her head back and forth in an emphatic no.

We thinks the imbiber doth protest too much.

(Photo: Connected Social Media)

With 634,000 viewers tuning in for last week's premiere of Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, newly-minted Bravo TV producer Randi Zuckerberg already has her sights set on New York. According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg Media, Bravo and the production house responsible for Start-Ups, Den of Thieves, have all confirmed that they're planning a tech-focused show based in NYC. It won't be a Start-Ups reboot for the Manhattan set, but according to the Journal, "Ms. Zuckerberg and her team are looking to expand and see what techie opportunities there are."

So why pivot to New York, especially when everyone knows the weather in Palo Alto is as close to perfect as it gets? It seems Valleyites may be just a smidge too boring for Bravo's drama-driven programming. Writes the Journal:

“I’ve been here (in Silicon Valley) for 7 years, and know that after 10 p.m. it gets a little quiet,” she added. Even when it’s daylight, most techies spend countless hours in front of a computer or a white board — not exactly television material.

By comparison, New York is an epicenter of show business, Ms. Zuckerberg added, and will likely attract a broader swath of colorful personalities. The casting call will go out Monday.

Ms. Zuckerberg also stressed that the concept for the show is still in its infancy, and whether or not she goes through with it will depend primarily on finding an interesting cast. (We're sure Betabeat could come up with a few suggestions.)

However, it does appear that even highly respected international newspapers are no match for Silicon Valley spin. "This post was updated to remove an erroneous assertion that Ms. Zuckerberg believes Silicon Valley is not as interesting as New York," reads a correction to the piece. Oh Randi, we know what you really meant.

Update: A prior version of this post said the show had garnered 430,000 premiere night viewers; the correct number is 634,000.

Mr. Crow

Carsabi, a comparison shopping site for cars that graduated from Y Combinator this March, just announced that its cofounders would be joining Mark Zuckerberg to "help Facebook users connect and share." Facebook isn't actually acquiring Carsabi, just the talent. "We're looking for someone to buy the Carsabi service, so the two of us can focus on our new jobs," cofounders Dwight Crow and Christopher Berner wrote on the company blog.

TechCrunch reports that features baked into Carsabi--including a social element that lets you ask friends for shopping advice and the startup's ability to crawl all available car listings--make the duo a natural fit to help develop Facebook Gifts or Events. However, we hear that Carsabi first got an offer from Google (another natural fit!) and then parlayed that into a counteroffer from Facebook.

It's no Teresa vs. Melissa, but some of the inner workings of that deal might be covered in Randi Zuckerberg's upcoming Bravo show, "Silicon Valley Start-ups," where Mr. Crow's blond visage can be seen horrifying self-appointed moralists starting Monday, November 5th. Will the rest of the cast, which just lost two tentative members, come out of the Bravo's Real-i-Tron smelling as sweet?

Mr. Lovingood (Photo: Bravo TV)

You didn't think we'd forgotten, did you? It's Friday afternoon, which means it's Rumor Roundup time!

One Day You're In, Next Day You're Out Randi Zuckerberg's Bravo reality show finally has a (disappointly un-innovative) name--"Silicon Valley Start-Ups"--although we assume the shenanigans will make up for it. According to a press release, the hour-long show will premiere Monday November 5th at 10 p.m. EST, so set your DVRs or prep your voodoo dolls, depending.

This part got left out of the release, but we hear the show will launch sans two reported cast members: Marcus Lovingood and Jay Holanda, although both gentleman will appear as sub-characters.

If you've been wondering why you're seeing so many LOLCats on Bravo in between the screeching ladies of leisure--Did Andy Cohen just discover there's an Internet beyond Twitter??--the press release also mentions the premiere of LOLwork, set at the ICanHasCheezburger.com offices and due to test whether the Cat Pics = Traffic formula works as well on TV.

Speaking of screeching--in this case, Bravo has Sarah Lacy's approval.

@benhuh congrats! are you beating the shit silicon valley show to market?

— Sarah Lacy (@sarahcuda) September 20, 2012

Fine Young Cannibals On his mirco-blog, Tumblr editor-in-chief Chris Mohney revealed that the entire office, excluding him, started a juice cleanse today.

Not your correspondent of course as I’m a lost cause cleansewise, but whoever of that persuasion survives the weekend will show up monday morning crazed and belligerent, shot through with explosive episodes of the whooping dropsy. Next week should be interesting expexially when you factor in Yom Kippur’s nutritional denial, so let’s peg it at 72% chance of autocannibalism by Wednesday and that’s Nat Daddy’s official projection on the subject going into the otherwise temperate weekend, drive carefully now.

If this counts as a thinspo post, we are so reporting you to Tumblr!

Cyber-Bullying Who's giving startups a hard time? That's what we want to know, as per this opaque, exasperated tweet from Texts From Last Night founder Lauren Leto, who shut down Bnters and took on the general manager role at Findings, a Betaworks startup, in May:

A certain 'influencer, curator' lady needs to stop being a bully to small start ups. Go create a company yourself.

— Lauren Leto (@laurenleto) September 19, 2012

Based on another recent tweet, however, one of Ms. Leto's followers did a little process of elimination.

@laurenleto so i guess she's not the "innovator, curator" you mention earlier ;)

— christy purington (@cpurington) September 19, 2012

Having perused Ms. Leto's winsome new book, Judging a Book By Its Lover, we are sorry to report it does not contain the answer to this particular mystery.

The Reality Distortion Field Reaches Los Angeles Even the youngest Kardashian kares about keeping up with technology.

Reverse-Reverse Sexism Still wondering what $50 and an App.net membership will get you (besides a word cloud of Twitter references)? Well, former GroupMe employee Matt Langer reports that the social network is "where you go to bro down with your /r/MensRights bros," like Favstar founder Tim Haines. However, no one with $50 has agreed to support Mr. Haines' cause.

Wedding bells On the mergers front, we hear that serial cofounder and investor Zack Klein recently married girlfriend Courtney Lewis, a partner at Hard Candy Shell. The pair booked "all of Aurora" earlier this week and issued an open invite via Twitter, in order to celebrate in style. To make everything ultra-official, the new Mrs. Klein has even rechristened her Twitter handle. Much luck and many Goodfellas-style envelopes of cash to the two lovebirds.

As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com