Yelp, the local-reviews site, is as infamous in San Francisco as it is nonfamous anywhere else in the country. Its parties, always hedonistic rampages of drunken conversations, burlesque troops, and makeout sessions in the photobooth, helped establish its local reputation and cement the loyalty of hardcore users. (Even the founders get in on the action!) Last night, Yelp held its holiday party at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Upon entering, I was greeted by a mass of San Francisco Yelptards, each louder than the next, all laughing, cajoling, flirting, and hugging each other. Self-congratulations were clearly in order.

When Snocap and music retailer CD Baby ended their partnership earlier this month, Snocap made like it pulled the plug. But today CD Baby president Derek Sivers put out numbers that show why it's no surprise Snocap had to lay off 31 of its 57 employees. Its partnership with CD Baby only generated $12,000 in revenues.

A tipster reports that Snocap, the once-hot digital music startup from Napster founder Shawn Fanning and Silicon Valley bad boy Jordan Mendelson, has laid off 60 percent of its staff, and the company is up for sale. If true, it's not surprising, giving industry trends. Snocap was something of a second coming for Fanning; rather than fight the music labels, he aimed to help them release copy-protected files on peer-to-peer networks, so they'd get paid even if users shared files. But despite cutting a range of deals, the idea never really took off. And lately, the music industry has started to embrace the idea of doing without digital-rights-management software altogether. It's not clear who would want to buy Snocap, really. At any rate, this explains why we haven't seen Mendelson, pictured here in bubblier times, at many parties lately. Anyone hear more about Snocap's firings? Drop us a line.

PAUL BOUTIN — Note to Vivian, the lady who wrote Tuesday's entertaining party report on Snocap founder Jordan Mendelson: Yes, Jordan is upset with you. No, he didn't give the OK to send us that writeup. Yes, we all loved it! No, it did not make him look good - it gave the impression Jordan has higher priorities than Snocap. Yes, we know you meant well. No, you are not his paid publicist. Yes, we did some reporting on this and have sources, Vivian. No, we are not going to run a correction, because we used journalist kung-fu to avoid stating as fact anything we didn't know for sure, e.g. that Jordan is or isn't a playboy, or that he has or has not hired a publicist. Yes, we envy him. Night and day!

Snocap's Jordan Mendelson is quite serious regarding his duties as the Valley's new symbol of personal bacchanalia. Witness these pics of a private cocktail party held this past weekend, sent along by a Mendelson fan who claims not to be his publicist. Large, lurid editions of the photos after the jump. And because we can't resist, there you'll also find the accompanying "party report," which is one of the funniest things we've read this month.