Parties I Have Had

Just back home from a Rumpus prep session. This party on Saturday night is gonna be special. Over on LJ people are discussing what to wear.
I’m excited about it, enough to take a moment and think back over some of the other parties I’ve hosted.
Olden Days
I lived at home until I finished University. It was cheap. I never had a student loan. Instead, I have an unfeasibly large collection of roleplaying books. Hurrah for staying at home!
My First House Party
Parents went away. Invited lots of people around. There was drinking. Not understanding beer, I bought some Bighorn for people to drink. No-one drank the Bighorn. Until the end, when people became desperate. Infamous for late-night drunken Kieran panicking about Champ the Raccoon falling off a wheel. And then he just got back on! And then he just fell off again! Poor Champ the Raccoon.
My 21st
Took over a bar. Loads and loads of people. I still occasionally hear gossip about things that happened at my 21st. I drove several people home at the end of the night, on account of being stone sober and completely single. Huh. Such is life. Infamous for being the one where I had to kick out all the underagers. (I had thought it sorted. Turned out, not.) That felt… not so wonderful.
The Brooklyn Years
Then I moved to Todman St, Brooklyn. Ah, the Todman St flat. Such a wonderful place. Five large bedrooms, a gigantic kitchen for kitchen parties, and cool flatmates. We did good parties there, hell yeah.
Halloween 1999 and 2000
For two years running we had the best damn Halloween parties in the city. Everyone came in freaky costume. In ’99 we had bubble wrap everywhere. Pearce leant his spooky mojo to these gigs, and when he moved elsewhere, the Halloween vibe went with him, as it should. Nota bene, that Pearce cat delivers on the Halloween front. Infamous for: Adrian standing in the middle of the road wearing a cow mask. That was freaky. (Also: me topless.)
The Jon Ball
Fancy invitations to this one, a ball in honour of new flatmate Jon Ball. He turned up late and steaming to his own gig. Heh. Infamous for: Jon not being there, and then Jon being there very very drunk, and just generally infamous for Jon. Hi JB!
Pigphone Party
Communication is divine,
but not for swine.
Except the phonepig!
In the kitchen was a whiteboard. Chuck drew a picture on the whiteboard. The picture was a phone. The phone looked like a pig. So we had a party! Infamous for: being the one no-one can explain. Two people came in costume as phonepigs, and I will love them for it forever.
The Stay Human Party
In the wake of 9/11 everyone was feeling pretty stressed. This, our mellowest party, was called in order to give everyone a chance to re-ground themselves in the wonderful community of our friends. Infamous for: setting a positive tone and just being a nice night.
The Survivor Party
This one was ambitious. Downstairs, everyone mingled and mixed and drank and watched TV, because the TV showed what was unfolding upstairs – a live transmission of a Survivor contest! Over the course of the evening, we whittled down ten contestants to five, then three, then finally two, who faced the votes of the other contestants to determine the winner. The prize: a night for two in one of Welly’s swank hotels! JB and I co-hosted, and Dan Rabarts spent four hours with a camera on his shoulder – hero! Infamous for: come on, do I really need to say? No-one else in the world ever had a party like this. (Also, I’ve got the whole thing on video. Not kidding. Two tapes worth.)
Treadraze and the Funkatechtonic Grindwarriors
Previously, I’d convinced everyone to make one party’s theme be the nonsensical ‘phonepig’, and that worked out okay. This time I didn’t even consult the flatties about party name and theme and stuff, I just sent out a frankly ludicrous invitation email. And yet people came anyway. Infamous for: a friend who responded to my invite with “morgs, I love you like a brother, but sometimes I have absolutely no fucking idea what you’re on about.”
The Shove Off Party
After nearly four years of good service, the Todman St flat was coming to an end, and Leon and I were preparing to head off to see the world. And so the Shove Off party was called, to raise a glass to good times past and good times yet to come. It was sad. It was wistful. It was exciting. It was wild. It was a good way to call it a day. Infamous for: being the last one.
I think there were one or two other Todman St events but I’m blanking on them right now. And I can remember a bunch of really memorable things at Todman St parties, but not which parties they belong to. Most of the things are kinda scandalous anyway, so better with the not-posting I feel. (And there was one other party of particular note, just before I left the country, but it wasn’t open-invite so I’m not gonna rave about how cool it was.)
I love parties, I believe in parties, getting lots of good people all under one roof smiling and talking and meeting each other – it’s magic. And there’s nothing I like better than seeing friends of mine become friends with other friends of mine. That’s right, people, build a network! Become a community! I loves it!
So I’m really excited about this little Rumpus we’ve got coming. I’m back on home turf and it’s time to get back in the game. Let’s get it started…
Rumpus 06 – 7 East St, Petone – Saturday. The Rumpletron’s expecting you.

9 thoughts on “Parties I Have Had”

  1. Heh. The Jon Ball. I remember it fondly… or wish I could.
    That Survivor party was the shiznit. I swear, I tell people about it to this day, and they don’t really believe it.

  2. This brings back memories. You’ve had some great parties in your time. I came to your first house party with the most giant zit in the universe on my nose. (Alastair Galloway convinced me to go, this zit was so bad I was going to stay home because of it.) I spent most of the party trying to hide my nose behind my hair to hide the zit. It was the first time I met Kieran, and I remember it well, because he was the only person I didn’t know who was prepared to talk to me while I was sporting this giant zit. Kieran – ten years later I’d just like to say that you rock!
    As Alastair said afterwards, I need never worry about being embarrassed at a social occasion ever again, that zit was so bad.

  3. I don’t remember any glass-raising at the Shove-Off party, but I remember a lot of dancing, hugs, and back-rubs.

  5. They’re just copyists!
    It was the TV-fication of our Survivor party that really made it unique. I’ve heard of other Survivor things – but I’ve never heard of a party televising half of itself for the viewing pleasure of the other half.

  6. There were many good times at Todman street. I remember survivor in particular, I was too nice that night, too nice.

  7. i can’t believe you didn’t mention the emergence of the web-invite and internet ‘party’ presence. I put a whole lot of time and *cough* misplaced work resource *end cough* into getting the word out about a couple of those parties, and I’m glad to see that you are continuing the tradition with the Rumups.
    Have a great night, wish I could be there, will attend in spirit if possible…

  8. Not to mention the puppy of love being thrown out the window or down Fi’s top, or the hanging out on the verandah roof waving at traffic and passers by at todman street. Or the room of stone. Or the screening of “Fritz the Cat” at the bighorn party, or that that party didn’t start until half past ten at night as you were working.
    Fi and I met at one of your parties too 🙂 She also says “I want to see that video cos I was on it and so I never saw what happened!”
    Mmmm, Bighorn…..

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