[LEMONS]


1.29.2004

Ain't No Party Like a BART Train Party

Subway parties are the new flash mobs. Or something. They were a few months ago, at least. After puzzling commuters in New York, London, and even Toronto for a few years, it looks like they've finally hit the Bay Area, complete with Bay Area polemics:

A round man named Michael with a shock of tomato-colored hair sneered and pointed his digital camera at the reporter. Later, he posted the photographs on the Internet, with commentary. "Fight the real enemy," it read above one photo of the reporter. "Damn the man," it said on another.

When the reporter approached Marc, the party's nonleader who was described by others on the car as both a chef and hacker, Marc asked to see proof of employment. He looked disdainfully when handed a New York Times business card, refusing to take it. Marc then declined to speak further.
(snip)
Once back on the train, with the party crashed and the last car again as quiet as the first, Marc sought out the reporter. He let it be known that the reporter had been an unwelcome partygoer and the events of the evening did not belong in any newspaper, especially one interested in profits, he said.

"You are stealing our art," Marc said in what became a long lecture about corporate journalism. "You are commercializing our culture."

In other words: everyone's welcome, everyone's beautiful, everyone's a part of this great grand unique community, this party-cum-public space. That is, everyone except you.

What's this guy thinking? It reminds me of the organizer at an Earth Day festival I attended a few years ago who was running around, angrily-yelling at everyone to "Get in the peace circle, or get out!" Both statements are a little antithetical to the message I assume each wants to promote. Subway parties seem great, and like a lot of fun. But get with it. Your happening is neither original nor creative (nor even underground, except in the most literal sense of the word, if you're advertising it on Tribe.net). You copied it. You swiped it. After you, assumedly, read about it in the paper. Parties are--or should be--fun. Not Festivals of Judgment. Stop oppressing me, Marc. And at least have your own idea before you go Sticking It To The Man for Commodifying your Art. You want to make some art? Come up with your own thing; do something original. You want to keep your party private? Don't advertise it on the Internet. The faux-hawk's a nice touch, though. That hasn't been done before.

I hate idiots like Marc.

0 comments
- l i n k -

-###-