Post: #1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/...ml?hpid=z3

Quote: Kate Michael answers the door to her top-floor co-op wearing pre-party sweatpants and flip-flops, yet somehow managing to look like the beauty queen she once was. Her purple T-shirt has a crown splashed across the front, and she’s in full makeup, her deep brown eyes expertly lined and painted in shades of plum.

The former Miss D.C. — and current writer, model and local cable talk-show host — even has a schedule like a pageant champion’s. On this night in late March, she’ll appear at Zaytinya restaurant’s Greek Easter celebration in Chinatown, the Pink Tie Party at the Renaissance Downtown Hotel and something called Emerald Spring at Erwin Gomez’s Karma salon in the West End.

As the editor of the online K Street Magazine, Michael, who goes by the moniker “K Street Kate” when she’s not referring to herself as a “D.C. Darling” or “Concierge of Cool,” will run the party gantlet in high heels, with a clutch in one hand and camera in the other. Snapping photos left and right, she’ll document her evening — the people, the food and, in the case of the Gomez event, the free manicure — and post the results on her Web site, where the party recaps will address the curiosity of invitation-less readers, give exposure to those captivating enough to be caught on film, and provide publicity for the cause or business the parties are being held to promote.

But first she has to pick out an outfit. Michael, who is 31 and has long, dark, shiny hair, heads to her dressing area, a narrow hallway between the living room and bathroom of the Foggy Bottom studio apartment, which has a Murphy bed and sweeping views of the Watergate. “I have two closets,” she says. “One is just for cocktail and evening gowns.” The other, stuffed with outdated business suits and more casual items, is rarely entered. During the day, Michael is usually dressed in other people’s clothes, promoting designers such as Oscar de la Renta while parading around Tysons Galleria for $75 an hour, or donning wedding gowns as a fit model for David’s Bridal in Philadelphia.

“I’ll get a gazillion e-mails a day from people asking me to do things. I try and do three things a day and do the best three things.” Kate Michael

Flipping through an impressive amount of glitz, Michael considers wearing the obvious to the Pink Tie Party before deciding to buck the trend. She settles on a bottle-green Elizabeth and James dress so short it appears as if she has forgotten her pants.

“If everyone is wearing pink,” she reasons, “I want to stand out.” That will be easy to do in the four-inch heels she straps on, which make her a neck-craning 6-foot-2.

Negotiating all the places to go and people to see over the course of just a few hours will be harder. For that purpose, Michael sets the alarm on her iPhone to sound at intervals, reminding her to move from one party to another.

“I’ll get a gazillion e-mails a day from people asking me to do things,” she says, swiping on more blush. “I try and do three things a day and do the best three things.” Because this particular Wednesday night features more than three parties, she’ll dispatch a small team of K Street bloggers to cover what she considers the lesser events, including a benefit for veterans and a happy hour for an organization that fights multiple sclerosis.

Michael says she decides which invitations she’ll personally accept based on “who the VIPs in attendance are, who’s giving a keynote, who can I get a quote from.”

“No one cares about some Joe Schmo at a fundraiser for breast cancer,” she adds with what seems like completely unintentional glibness.

Kate Michael is one of a small crew of Washington women who — through eponymous blogs and sheer force of will — are working hard to establish themselves as social leaders and influencers, a band of Zeligs in stilettos who pop up in the middle of Washington’s inextricably linked social, charitable and professional circles armed with nothing but a palm-size camera and an unabashed desire to mix business with pleasure.

If you’re still scratching your head about what she does, allow Michael to explain, in a voice-over for a Cadillac advertisement that has run locally on a handful of social Web sites. “People ask me all kinds of questions. ...” she says from behind the wheel of the 2013 Cadillac ATS she was paid to test-drive for a day, her hair whipping in the wind. “I get, ‘Where should my girlfriend and I go to dinner tonight?’ ‘What movie should I watch?’ I answer every single one of them, and I think in order to answer them authentically, I actually have to live that life.” It’s a life she lives every night of the week. Although she would never acknowledge it, Michael’s competitors in the social and virtual worlds include Pamela Sorensen, who has a similar Web site called Pamela’s Punch, and Andrea Rodgers, whose site, Ask Miss A, has the tagline “Charity Meets Style.”

While several newer sites, with names such as Guest of a Guest and B----es Who Brunch, have arrived at the party, Michael, Sorensen and Rodgers are generally acknowledged to be among the first to document Washington’s boldfacers on the Web: Sorensen and Michael started in 2006; Rodgers in 2008, as an offshoot of earlier Web writing.

“They pioneered the idea of social news and saw the potential of providing insights into D.C.’s charitable and social scene on the Internet long before anyone else did,” says Daniel Swartz, founder and self-proclaimed “lifestyle architect”of Revamp, a party pic site he began four years ago. “How do you insert yourself into that world?” he asks self-reflectively. “Well, you take pictures.”

It was a game changer, says Kevin Chaffee, senior editor of Washington Life Magazine, a party-photo-packed glossy that was joined on the scene by Capitol File and DC Modern Luxury in the mid-2000s. “You have a computer, you have a cellphone to take your pictures, and voila! You have a magazine.”

Kate Michael is editor of K Street Magazine. Kate Michael is editor of K Street Magazine.

Pamela Sorensen’s blog is Pamela's Punch. Pamela Sorensen’s blog is Pamela's Punch.

Andrea Rodgers’s Web site is Ask Miss A. Andrea Rodgers’s Web site is Ask Miss A.

The parties Michael and her competitors cover feature a modern-day cafe society of ballplayers, boutique owners, DJs, high-end stylists, local TV anchors, restaurateurs, club promoters and professional pretty people. It’s a crowd several rungs below the elite dinner-party milieu of senators, diplomats and A-list pundits that outsiders consider to be real “Washington society.” Yet Washington is a town obsessed with power, and according to Linda Roth Conte, president of public relations and marketing firm Linda Roth Associates, the bloggers have a new one: “Their power is they know what’s cool.”

Of course, power also comes from followers and influence, factors that in this case are difficult to measure. As of press time, Website Outlook, an online analytic site, estimated that K Street Magazine gets an average of 326 page views a day; Pamela’s Punch, 682; and Ask Miss A, which has a presence in 21 cities, 5,351.

Rodgers, who prefers to be called a publisher, also had the most Twitter followers, 18,604. Michael, who prefers to be called a writer, had 8,799, and Sorensen, who is fine with being called a blogger, 6,926.(People are stymied when asked how to refer to the women, who have been described as “media mavens,” “socialites” and “blog-ebrities.”)

Then there’s each woman’s Klout score, a number compiled using proprietary algorithms, with 100 being the Justin Bieber-level pinnacle. The three bloggers come in close, somewhere around 60, which is considered the tipping point for influence. It was Michael’s Klout score that brought her to the attention of Cadillac, and it is perhaps the Klout scores, as well as the women’s sociability, attractiveness and style, that makes them perennials on many Washington invitation lists.

Roth Conte often invites Michael and Sorensen to functions promoting her clients’ businesses. When asked what the women could do to make her stop inviting them, she quipped: “Move.”

None of the bloggers can support herself from her Web site; each has a day job, or three. (All are single; Sorensen and Rodgers are divorced; Michael is dating Michael Andrews, a bespoke clothier based in Manhattan.) But their goal, speculates Barbara Martin, a principal in the public relations firm BrandLinkDC, goes beyond self-sufficiency. “They all want the glory of Graydon Carter,” Martin says, referring to the longtime editor of Vanity Fair. “They all want to be considered the premier social Web site.

Post: #2

I read the article. And then saw the pictures attached to the original.

For a model, I don't think she is that good looking. She looks like the product of judicious application of makeup and Photoshop. From her recent photos, it looks like her wall is coming up for her face (she is 31).

I dont know why, but instinctually I feel she is the kind of person that would be insufferable to be around.

What do you guys rate her?



She is thin, I'll give her that-

Post: #3

Life is good if you're halfway attractive and have half the smarts to parlay that into money and access.

Post: #4

What she looks like to men doesn't matter. She's part of an ecosystem that exists to sell a certain ethereal lifestyle to a cohort of young "professional" women. She's thin enough that most women will envy her, but plain enough that none will feel particularly threatened.

Post: #5

(06-02-2013 05:06 PM)augen sehen Wrote:  Life is good if you're halfway attractive and have half the smarts to parlay that into money and access.

Hey, there is no knocking her lifestyle. It's not that bad.
Though, in the long term its untenable since it is heavily dependent on her looks and modeling those clothes.

It would be funny if any of the RVF members in DC tried to find her at one of the social events and game her.

Miss America Pageant Contestant Flag?

Post: #6

She called herself a "girl about town," a ripoff of the term "man about town," meaning a playboy. She should just go by 'DC Strumpet.

(06-02-2013 05:11 PM)j r Wrote:  What she looks like to men doesn't matter. She's part of an ecosystem that exists to sell a certain ethereal lifestyle to a cohort of young "professional" women. She's thin enough that most women will envy her, but plain enough that none will feel particularly threatened.

Very perceptive, didn't think of that. On that score, I can see her succeeding. Funny, this is the sort of behavior you see promoted when women have money and no children.

In that light, it's valuable to ignore her as a person, and identify WHY she has succeeded, as you've done. There will always be some women like this, as well as the opposite, but it's notable that women like her are now rising to prominence, and getting *rewarded* by society for their vapidity and blatant meaninglessness.

Post: #7

Quote:Still making the rounds, Michael says, “I love your tie!” to a barrel-chested man flanked by two women. “I’m Kate!” she adds brightly, offering her hand. The man asks for her last name.

“Why do you need to know that?” she asks, slightly taken aback.

Yup. Vintage DC chick. I wonder if there is any value in penetrating this charity scene, likely not to be worth the effort purely for girls alone.

Post: #8

(06-02-2013 05:11 PM)j r Wrote:  What she looks like to men doesn't matter. She's part of an ecosystem that exists to sell a certain ethereal lifestyle to a cohort of young "professional" women. She's thin enough that most women will envy her, but plain enough that none will feel particularly threatened.

Fuck yeah brah !

I've always noticed how chicks very rarely compliment or say good things about girls more than 2.5 points above them in looks.

They'll compliment and ego boost their fat, mediocre or slightly above average peers to oblivion but when it comes to truly beautiful women it's always a disapproving expression with something like " She's not all that" or " Really, is that what you're into ? ".

I guess that is why the sexiest actresses like Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox & Jessica Alba always have a huge male following while being generally ignored or despised by women.

Post: #9

Quote:As the night progresses, however, the attention seems to be wearing on Michael, and Miss D.C.’s crown loses a bit of its polish. She complains about the “weirdos “ who will descend upon her if she stands in one place for too long and decides to seek refuge on the dance floor. She disappears just as the lights go on, casting the room and the people in it in a much harsher light. It’s midnight, and the party is over.

This paragraph is dripping with irony. While the author probably intended to write a puff piece about how glamorous her life is, she instead shows how empty Kate's life really is.

Honestly, what does she have?

Attention- but it's not the kind she wants. It's mostly from "weirdos," i.e. betas. She wears a dress that barely covers the smell, and yet is shocked that men want to talk to her. Bitch, please.

Not friends- it sounds like she mostly hangs out with other scenester cunts.

Not achievement- her most significant accomplishment is her Miss DC title from last decade. She competed in pageants in her native Georgia, but she competed for Miss DC because she knew it was less competition.

Not glamor- most of the parties she goes to are B-list events for DC, which isn't exactly bringing in A-list stars. The biggest names dropped in are an E News reporter, and a NFL player she doesn't even know (Pierre Garçon).

The only thing that she has are her looks. She looks good, but she has to know that her best days are behind her, and it sounds like she's very careful about concealing her flaws. In the past, those looks would have been enough to get her a high-status husband. Now, she can trade them in for a blog, twitter followers, and some pump n' dumps from DC's cool crowd.

It's a real life Patricia's Smartphone.

Post: #10

(06-02-2013 05:36 PM)Menace Wrote:  

Quote:Still making the rounds, Michael says, “I love your tie!” to a barrel-chested man flanked by two women. “I’m Kate!” she adds brightly, offering her hand. The man asks for her last name.

“Why do you need to know that?” she asks, slightly taken aback.

Yup. Vintage DC chick. I wonder if there is any value in penetrating this charity scene, likely not to be worth the effort purely for girls alone.

actually she's more stylish and entreprenurial then the typical DC chick. most DC chicks work for someone else, typically a govt contractor or non-profit, and dont have the sense of style and aren't as in shape as this chick. thats why they all look up to her.

Post: #11

(06-02-2013 06:28 PM)TheBMan Wrote:  most DC chicks work for someone else, typically a govt contractor or non-profit, and dont have the sense of style and aren't as in shape as this chick. thats why they all look up to her.

If you meet someone who takes your idea of fun and makes a paid job out of it, you'll respect them. Sports, Scrabble, video games, pussy hunting, novels or tweeting, doesn't matter. You never saw it as a way to make money, and the fact that they've staked their livelihood on it is impressive... at least if you find the activity itself respectable.

Post: #12

(06-02-2013 06:19 PM)Bacchus Wrote:  

Quote:As the night progresses, however, the attention seems to be wearing on Michael, and Miss D.C.’s crown loses a bit of its polish. She complains about the “weirdos “ who will descend upon her if she stands in one place for too long and decides to seek refuge on the dance floor. She disappears just as the lights go on, casting the room and the people in it in a much harsher light. It’s midnight, and the party is over.

This paragraph is dripping with irony. While the author probably intended to write a puff piece about how glamorous her life is, she instead shows how empty Kate's life really is.

Honestly, what does she have?

Attention- but it's not the kind she wants. It's mostly from "weirdos," i.e. betas. She wears a dress that barely covers the smell, and yet is shocked that men want to talk to her. Bitch, please.

Not friends- it sounds like she mostly hangs out with other scenester cunts.

Not achievement- her most significant accomplishment is her Miss DC title from last decade. She competed in pageants in her native Georgia, but she competed for Miss DC because she knew it was less competition.

Not glamor- most of the parties she goes to are B-list events for DC, which isn't exactly bringing in A-list stars. The biggest names dropped in are an E News reporter, and a NFL player she doesn't even know (Pierre Garçon).

The only thing that she has are her looks. She looks good, but she has to know that her best days are behind her, and it sounds like she's very careful about concealing her flaws. In the past, those looks would have been enough to get her a high-status husband. Now, she can trade them in for a blog, twitter followers, and some pump n' dumps from DC's cool crowd.

It's a real life Patricia's Smartphone.

She still will get some well-off beta to marry her. Remember, this is DC and she is a former beauty queen. She just hasn't finished riding the alpha cock carousel yet. I figure she will get hitched around her 35th birthday.

Post: #13

Quote:“No one cares about some Joe Schmo at a fundraiser for breast cancer,” she adds with what seems like completely unintentional glibness.

Quote:A graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s joint MA/MBA program in government, Michael works the room as if she were a seasoned politician, a career path some observers think she might follow. After all, she has steadfastly sought office before — the office being Miss America.

Post: #14

(06-02-2013 06:44 PM)The Texas Prophet Wrote:  

(06-02-2013 06:19 PM)Bacchus Wrote:  

Quote:As the night progresses, however, the attention seems to be wearing on Michael, and Miss D.C.’s crown loses a bit of its polish. She complains about the “weirdos “ who will descend upon her if she stands in one place for too long and decides to seek refuge on the dance floor. She disappears just as the lights go on, casting the room and the people in it in a much harsher light. It’s midnight, and the party is over.

This paragraph is dripping with irony. While the author probably intended to write a puff piece about how glamorous her life is, she instead shows how empty Kate's life really is.

Honestly, what does she have?

Attention- but it's not the kind she wants. It's mostly from "weirdos," i.e. betas. She wears a dress that barely covers the smell, and yet is shocked that men want to talk to her. Bitch, please.

Not friends- it sounds like she mostly hangs out with other scenester cunts.

Not achievement- her most significant accomplishment is her Miss DC title from last decade. She competed in pageants in her native Georgia, but she competed for Miss DC because she knew it was less competition.

Not glamor- most of the parties she goes to are B-list events for DC, which isn't exactly bringing in A-list stars. The biggest names dropped in are an E News reporter, and a NFL player she doesn't even know (Pierre Garçon).

The only thing that she has are her looks. She looks good, but she has to know that her best days are behind her, and it sounds like she's very careful about concealing her flaws. In the past, those looks would have been enough to get her a high-status husband. Now, she can trade them in for a blog, twitter followers, and some pump n' dumps from DC's cool crowd.

It's a real life Patricia's Smartphone.

She still will get some well-off beta to marry her. Remember, this is DC and she is a former beauty queen. She just hasn't finished riding the alpha cock carousel yet. I figure she will get hitched around her 35th birthday.

Not necessarily. I know at least one aging woman in this crowd who was on Craig's List looking for a "generous gentleman." This was last year when CL let you see email addresses. I ran the address and traced her back to being a close friend of a woman in this story -- someone who I am FB friends with. She's part of the same charities and crowd, yet was basically looking for a guy to put her up in an apartment, pay her a stipend, and get the "privilege" of siring her around town and (one hopes) occasionally screwing her.

I should dig up the email exchange. She got pretty pissed when I told her she was getting to old for this (she advertised as 35 and is around 50).

Post: #15

What angers me is that her lifestyle is ultimately dependent upon the metastatic growth of the federal bureaucracy in recent decades. Without the expansion of the alphabet soup of agencies, federal contractors, lobbyists, non-profits, think-tanks, and the like which rely upon the leeching of the American taxpayer, this bitch would be forced to develop a real career or better yet, get married. Where do you think all that money sloshing around for charity events is coming from?

Post: #16

Tallness is so unattractive in a woman. You can see her gangly ape-arms in the picture where she's holding the camera. They look like legs--with man-hands at the end of them--holding a camera.

   

Post: #17

(06-02-2013 07:32 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

(06-02-2013 06:44 PM)The Texas Prophet Wrote:  

(06-02-2013 06:19 PM)Bacchus Wrote:  

Quote:As the night progresses, however, the attention seems to be wearing on Michael, and Miss D.C.’s crown loses a bit of its polish. She complains about the “weirdos “ who will descend upon her if she stands in one place for too long and decides to seek refuge on the dance floor. She disappears just as the lights go on, casting the room and the people in it in a much harsher light. It’s midnight, and the party is over.

This paragraph is dripping with irony. While the author probably intended to write a puff piece about how glamorous her life is, she instead shows how empty Kate's life really is.

Honestly, what does she have?

Attention- but it's not the kind she wants. It's mostly from "weirdos," i.e. betas. She wears a dress that barely covers the smell, and yet is shocked that men want to talk to her. Bitch, please.

Not friends- it sounds like she mostly hangs out with other scenester cunts.

Not achievement- her most significant accomplishment is her Miss DC title from last decade. She competed in pageants in her native Georgia, but she competed for Miss DC because she knew it was less competition.

Not glamor- most of the parties she goes to are B-list events for DC, which isn't exactly bringing in A-list stars. The biggest names dropped in are an E News reporter, and a NFL player she doesn't even know (Pierre Garçon).

The only thing that she has are her looks. She looks good, but she has to know that her best days are behind her, and it sounds like she's very careful about concealing her flaws. In the past, those looks would have been enough to get her a high-status husband. Now, she can trade them in for a blog, twitter followers, and some pump n' dumps from DC's cool crowd.

It's a real life Patricia's Smartphone.

She still will get some well-off beta to marry her. Remember, this is DC and she is a former beauty queen. She just hasn't finished riding the alpha cock carousel yet. I figure she will get hitched around her 35th birthday.

Not necessarily. I know at least one aging woman in this crowd who was on Craig's List looking for a "generous gentleman." This was last year when CL let you see email addresses. I ran the address and traced her back to being a close friend of a woman in this story -- someone who I am FB friends with. She's part of the same charities and crowd, yet was basically looking for a guy to put her up in an apartment, pay her a stipend, and get the "privilege" of siring her around town and (one hopes) occasionally screwing her.

I should dig up the email exchange. She got pretty pissed when I told her she was getting to old for this (she advertised as 35 and is around 50).

Obviously, if she waits too long to settle down, she will end up like your friend...but she said in the article that she gets plenty of "weirdos" bothering her when she is alone at the bar at an event.

I guess my question is: what is this girl (on a 1-10 scale) in DC (and specifically in DC)? Is she a 7 or 8 or 9????

She hasn't hit the wall yet, so she still has some shelf life.

Post: #18

(06-02-2013 07:43 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  Tallness is so unattractive in a woman. You can see her gangly ape-arms in the picture where she's holding the camera. The look like legs--with man-hands at the end of them--holding a camera.

I agree with you, but she is just on the cusp of being too tall. She is 5'10'' which is tall but not too tall. I have dated chicks who are around that height and they are ok if they wear flats. 6ft or taller is where I generally draw the line.

Post: #19

I love tall gangly, wispy, waifish women. But this one isn't that. She has bizarrely broad shoulders and a squarish midsection with thin hips. Her breasts aside, her body is very androgynous.

Post: #20

(06-02-2013 07:58 PM)basilransom Wrote:  I love tall gangly, wispy, waifish women. But this one isn't that. She has bizarrely broad shoulders and a squarish midsection with thin hips. Her breasts aside, her body is very androgynous.

Waifish goes with short and mousy--a combination I love. Tall girls are rarely-rarely-rarely that. They're usually mannish, boxy, and tall-beer-can looking. If, by accident of birth, they have a cute-ish face on top of that monstrosity of a body, they think that automatically makes them "models."

I have an article for ROK on this very subject. It's like 60 percent done, but maybe I should move it up.

Post: #21

She's easy to hate on. She is excelling at a lifestyle eminently suitable for women: gossip, triviality, fashion, and attention whoring. Good for her. Can DC guys leverage anything about her into more lays? That's the question. I have subscribed to her social calendar, which is quite handy. I may attend one of these charity events at one point and see the kind of girls that go there.

Post: #22

More pics of her:







Definitely passes the boner test.

Post: #23

she needs a nosejob, STAT!

Post: #24

(06-02-2013 08:37 PM)sucio44 Wrote:  she needs a nosejob, STAT!

+1

But hey I wouldn't expect much since this is the best that DC can offer. LOL

Post: #25

(06-02-2013 08:26 PM)The Texas Prophet Wrote:  More pics of her:







Definitely passes the boner test.

DC, busted beauty queens or grad school ghetto manjaws. Gotta get the fuck out Rome.