There are now more sites on the Web than there are stars in the heavens.

       POV Magazine selected 100 sites - “The POV 100 Top Sites” - and threw a party to honor the winners.

       My site was Number 76.

       It was the only personal site in the 100, and one of three that you might call creative or artistic, the others being theremediproject.com (Number 96) and word.com (Number 50).

       The other 97 were corporate ventures (broadcast.com, mp3.com, amazon.com).

       The party was held at China Club, a velvet-roped space in the Times Square area. The location suggests a certain tourist-friendliness. You could take in “Cats,” then round the corner for a night of authentic New York City club essence.

       My invitation gets me right inside.

       One flight up, executives from food.com are picking up their winners’ badges.

       “What company?” asks the badge lady.

       “Zeldman,” I say.

       “What number?” she asks.

       “Number 76,” I say.

       Two flights up, they are giving away free Makers Mark and Amstel Light.

       Above me, on a small wooden stage, six female employees of beenz.com have donned giant bean-shaped outfits and are boogying to the new rap “anthem” of beenz.com. You know this is a hip company because they actually hired a rapper to throw down rhymes about the company’s product.

       The bean shaped suits are bright red, and the boogying employees resemble the dancing cigarette pack girls of 1950s television commercials. Except that the dancing cigarette pack girls were trained dancers, not office workers. And cigarette packs with women’s legs are images of the unenlightened past, while this is the enlightened cusp of a new millennium.

       And the Web is the medium of the millennium.

       Behind the dancers, a Powerpoint slide show displays the logos of the winning websites, intercut with the logos of the event’s sponsors. sixdegrees.com. pbs.org. Amstel Light.

       I stand watching the slide show and smoking cigarettes.

» A woman approaches me…