Although alcohol probably played a role at many of these events, it’s not the subject of this study.  The NY Times takes a look at mapping the geography of cultural ‘buzz’ in both New York and Los Angeles.  Elizabeth Currid, an assistant professor at USC collaborated with Sarah Williams from the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University to map out ‘buzz worthy’ parties and events based on photos obtained from Getty Images.  The photos were taken over the course of a year starting in March of 2006.  The maps were geocoded to a street location and categorized by type of event (e.g. art, fashion, film, or theater to name a few).  By doing so, hotspots were identified in each city for the various types of events.

Read more:

• Mapping the Cultural Buzz: How Cool Is That? – NY Times
• Maps – Density of Cultural Events in New York and Los Angeles