we had another party this weekend! pretty soon parties are going to be breaking out at our apartment all the time, and not just the kind at which joe and i make a casserole dish of seven-layer dip and eat it for dinner (though who am i kidding, those parties are amazing). we were more like the host venue for this one, as it was our friend stewart's birthday, and putting together birthday events in new york when one is boston-based (as stewart is) calls for teammates. so i carried in great chunks of ice like an arctic ant, hung a little orange paper lantern from our rhinoceros head made of pants, and waited for clever and dashing people to show up, meet all of our neighbors in the elevator,* and play sexy music for us. technically it was a round of sonic proselytization, defined as
basically, everyone sits around in a comfortable, mood-lit room with a good stereo and takes turns playing songs at each other. people generally tend to go for their more obscure titles in order to show off, but you don't necessarily have to be married to that concept; i played a frickin' REM song one time. whatever you feel like sharing.or, earlier, as
bring your favorite music and force it on others. all fashions, styles, genres welcome.joe played songs from 1979, i went off on a tangent about walter johnson (at which point stewart pulled out a bunch of walter johnson postcards he and eva had found on the street in williamsburg; brooklyn is helpful like that), greg from the internet made an adapter for 7" records out of cardboard apartment detritus. the mysterious-liqueur inventory got more significant as the evening wore on. steve hassled people who ventured into apartment tent.
[...]
system: go around room. each plays one song. everyone listens.
{above: the sonic proselytization track log}
i'm not convinced that certain periods of our adult lives are superior to others, but i do think that, as a general proposition, parties have gotten better as we've gotten older. have we set aside childish things? is it that the gimmick tracks have spun out of our circle of friends over the years, leaving us with greatest hits? in this case i think it's that stewart is made of magic.
*one of whom announced to them that she's promised her daughter she'll shave her hair into a mohawk? i, in turn, only know three of the people on our floor by name - two if olya's husband isn't called jeff.
