Gawker: Rufus Griscom

Rufus Griscom and Alisa Volkman

Nick Denton — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:29:09 EDT

One side-benefit of Wall Street's turmoil: cabaret club The Box hasn't been entirely booked up by cash-waving bankers this year for holiday parties. And that let Nerve, the sex-and-babycare web publishing group, take over the venue last night for a party. Here with his wife Alisa is Rufus Griscom—now a father-of-two—trying to recapture Nerve's erotic heyday. After the jump, an unusual branding opportunity for Hendricks gin, sponsor of the event. (NSFW).

Hipster Daddy Throwdown A Vortex Of Do Not Want

Ryan Tate — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:51:50 EDT

Alternadad and struggling writer Neal Pollack (pictured, right) has, of course, his own "alternative online parenting publication" called Offsprung, and the site in turn has a chat section called "the Playground," and Pollack figures no one else should be allowed to ever use the word "playground" in the name of a parental discussion board. But that's exactly what Nerve.com founder Rufus Griscom (pictured, left) has gone and done, with his "Babble Playground," attached to his existing hipster parenting site Babble. And so the hipster parent flamewar is on. Cue the requisite nauseating, passive-aggressive bickering over which site is authentic and which site is derivative and tacky. To make things more fun, lawyers are involved.

Roughly a year ago, Pollack started his "Playground" discussion forum. In the last couple of weeks, Griscom's Babble started a similar forum called "Babble Playground."

"We felt usurped, if not completely ripped of," Pollack wrote. Some of his commenters went and started a thread on the competing discussion forum about how their own Playground was totally better. Mature, right? Griscom deleted the thread, which he called "inaccurate and kinda tacky."

Then Griscom sent an email saying, basically, What, you exist? I'm sorry, I hadn't noticed your little chat board. ("We had no idea that you had social networking functionality on your site... I haven’t been there in some time.")

Then Pollack asked his legal counsel if Griscom could somehow be sued and made to starve in the street for daring to copy his brilliant "Playground" naming scheme, and they said Uh, definitely not.

So Pollack exercised the only attack vector left at his disposal, calling Griscom a yuppie and a square:

Babble is an expensive downtown urban loft rehab, where everything looks pretty, but it all feels so perfect, so smooth, so sterile, so target-marketed, so…fake. Offsprung, on the other hand, is like going over to the house of a good friend, a friend who has three kids and can’t afford to even dream about a nanny. The house is imperfect. It’s loud. There’s a weird yellow stain with hair clumps behind the toilet. But it’s home, and it’s comfortable, and it’s yours.

Then all the hipsters went back to ruining their children and the world forever, The End.

[Offsprung via NYM]

'Babble' Publisher Doesn't Know When To Shut Up

Emily Gould — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:00:00 EST

We're excited to start reading Nerve publisher Rufus Griscom (center)'s offshoot parenting web magazine, Babble, because it is obviously going to be sooo awesome. Just like Nerve, it aims to appeal to that elusive "urban hipster" readership. ("It's a very valuable psychographic in that the urban hipster lifestyle is something that a lot of people aspire to, even if they don't technically live it," says a marketing exec quoted in the article) and to shatter taboos. Like, for instance, the taboo around being a decent fucking human being:

We've found that there are a lot of taboos around parenting, as much as we felt there were around sex when we launched Nerve," Mr. Griscom said. "There are a lot of things you can't say, like, 'We wanted a girl, but we got a boy.' Or, 'We're pregnant with a third, but we don't know if we want it.' "
Babble, he says, will say it, and with wit and style. Or at least with irreverence.

Yeah, fuck wit and style. When you're talking about the fact that you only want a third little Bugaboo-filler if it's a girl, it's better to just go for the straight-up irreverence.

Healthy Babies Need Irony [NYT]

Your Chance to Live Like a (Smart) Porn King

Jesse — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 13:00:29 EDT

If you're looking to sublet a fab Tribeca pad for the summer, and if you happen to have $3,750 to spend on it each month, have we got the place for you. Allow us to quote from the Craigslist listing:

Beautiful 1400 square foot 1 bedroom / 1 bathroom loft apartment in heart of Tribeca in one of the most desirable buildings.... Gorgeous building, large open loft apartment with high ceilings, wooden floors, brick exposure, island kitchen, keyed elevator, air conditioning, laundry in the apartment, etc.

Even better, according to an email now circulating in medialand, the place is owned by Nerve.com founder Rufus Griscom. So not do we have to assume the karma will ensure you get laid all summer long, but, even better, you'll finally get to see what all those "winks" and "collect calls" paid for.

Rufus' email is after the jump.

Dear friends —

We have a beautiful 1400 square foot 1 bedroom loft apartment in the heart of Tribeca available for rent this summer. We would like to sublet it to a friend or friend of friend between June 15 and August 15, possibly longer, at a reduced rate of $3,500 per month or best offer.

Apartment is located on Duane Park, gorgeous building, large open loft apartment with high ceilings, wooden floors, exposed brick, island kitchen, keyed elevator, air conditioning, washer dryer, etc. Steps away from great restaurants, shopping, parks, etc.

Photos: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sub/168110594.html

Feel free to pass this on to friends.

Best, Rufus

.. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rufus Griscom

[ ceo ] Nerve.com, Inc. (www.nerve.com)

520 Broadway 9th Floor NY NY 10012
212.625.9914 xXXX 212.202.XXXX fax

.. . . . . . . . . . . . .