Before meeting Peter Zonis, I was expecting him to be a bit of a pompous ass. I had done some research on him prior to this videocast and had read an article where he stated: “A fashion designer at Bergdorf Goodman calls me a contemporary Lautrec.”

Maybe I’ve just dated one too many arteeests, but I was definitely relieved to find him not only humble, but actually quite shy. Being the real-estate obsessed New Yorker that I am, it was great seeing his paintings of NY’s famous buildings, museums and restaurants. I also thought it very cool to see the difference in how his art looks in front of Barney’s as opposed to being hung in a frame as part of a gallery collection that was on display.

The Andy Warhol comparison I made at the end of the videocast was from a quote I found from Peter Heidt, a senior vice-president at Prudential Securities.

I mentioned before that I want to make this an hourly segment on IntoTheBox. The real estate goodness on YouTube is truly better than fiction. How can I not share this bit of sweetness with you?

I love the twirling ballerina. I love Trumpy’s techno-groove marketing strategy. I love Rick and Charlie enough to fly them to New York and take them shopping at Barney’s. Mostly, I love my job.

A few years ago, I was on a date with a guy at a bar on the Upper West Side. While leisurely sipping my vodka tonic, he pointed out a group of about 20 people who seemed quite hurried in their drinking activity.

“They’re speed dating,” he said.

“What?” I responded.

“Speed dating.”

I had never seen anything like it — as soon as a bell would ring, out of their seats they went and off to another potential lover they would go. We spent the rest of the night trying to figure out who would be getting some sweet love and who wouldn’t be quite so lucky.

As for this videocast, I’m interested in doing more of this type of reporting. It wasn’t scripted — we heard about the event and just showed up and let fly. Fortunately, the group at the RE Speed Network had a good sense of humor, although after interviewing one male professional he looked at me (rather stunned) and told me that he “just got ambushed.”

We stuck around for the entire night’s festivities and as far I saw, there was no nooky in any bathroom (I checked a few times). I was smiling to myself while thinking that investigative journalism is alive and well here in the NYC real estate game.