Went to a party last night. One of those “black out anniversary” parties you might ask? No. It was a tropical themed backyard BBQ thrown by Brian Klunk, (a.k.a. Brian Ballantine, of the now defunct Beer Drinking Fools). Went with the former band’s premier artist, Joe, plus C.R.A. (or is it finally I.R.A.?) and my once future bride to be came along for the fun.
It was a nice, laid back affair with some good food, plenty of booze, and an interesting mix of folks. There was a large contingency of Brits in attendance who brought some food from the U.K. including pork pie (as much as I’ve always wanted to try out a bit of Hogwart’s cuisine, I passed) and a snack chip called Twiglers which wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t call it good either.
Former front-man for the BDF, Richie Reingold, was there of course; got to tell him how hilariously shit-faced drunk him and the bassist were at the Siren fest from a few weeks past. Another interesting fellow was this big French dude who could twirl a whole wine bottle in his hand with total ease and grace. Klunk’s girlfriend was super concerned over the potential of red wine getting all over the floor, but there was never any danger of that even coming close, and even tried teaching Joe how to do it.
Overall it was a pretty decent shin-dig, and even if I didn’t have a good time, it still would have been much better than any of those stupid black out parities I was invited to.
But before I get into that, I suppose it’s worth clarifying that yesterday was the one year anniversary of that massive black out that engulfed much of the northeast last year. And I guess I might as well share my experiences from that event, which was actually pretty pleasant. Here’s it is, copy and pasted, from an email I sent last year…
“… I had just gotten home from an EA event in the city. I was at home [I was living in Bay Ridge Brooklyn at the time] when all of a sudden, the power just died out. At first my roommate thought it was just us, but I figured it might be the whole neighborhood; since it was hot out, I assumed everyone was cranking their air conditioners, and boom, a blackout. Figuring it might take a while for things to get patched up, I went to get batteries for a flashlight.
At the corner deli, I passed some guy with a small radio and he said that much of the northeast was also without power. I asked for the exact cause, and his reply was “They don’t know, but it’s a bit obvious. It’s terrorists”. I hate to admit it, but his statement did startle me. I mean, it really wasn?t THAT hot, so the possibility of everyone using their AC’s was not entirely plausible. Once inside, the deli was packed and the mood was a bit grim, yet everyone was extremely polite (way more so than usual). I ended up spending my last $2 on said batteries and I was kicking myself for not going to the ATM earlier in the day. When I realized how VERY quiet it was out in the streets of Brooklyn for a Thursday afternoon, I went home to relay the info to my roommate.
I grew up in a military household, where you learn what to do in times when food and energy is scare or nonexistent, plus my roommate was in the Boy Scouts, so our survival instincts kicked and we immediately set out to get nonperishable food and supplies. Then were the attempts at contacting others, but neither of us had much luck since lines were either down or overloaded, plus my cell phone has always been spotty at best.
But I did manage to get a hold of just one person, my friend Dave, who informed me his place of work in Time Square was evacuated and that the streets were filling with throngs of wandering people. He, like everyone else, was trying like crazy to get a hold of friends and family, and I was the only one he managed to get through. I told him of the news of the northeast being without power, which he passed along to his coworkers who he was still with (and all just as unsuccessful at making outside contact). Afterwards, Dave told me that the news I delivered was met with “that’s bullshit.”
To conserve battery life, I tried calling people from pay-phones. Thank God for calling cards. I spoke to a friend on the West Coast who passed along info she got from CNN. I spoke at a laundromat, which also sold ice cream, and they gave me a ton for free since it was set to spoil soon anyways.
By the time I returned home, my roommate wasn’t there, so I decided to abandoned my original plans of reading comic by candlelight the whole evening and instead search for friends. My destination was about fifty blocks from where my place, and the long trip there was hard but enjoyable. All along the way, people were outside, chitchatting and having a good time. It was like that episode of the Simpson’s where Marge ends up getting Itchy and Scratchy cancelled and the neighborhood kids are forced to go outside and entertain themselves.
When I showed up at my friend Raphael‘s place, he was both surprised and relived to see me. We went to the roof to enjoy the spectacle of a totally darkened Manhattan skyline and he cooked me a hot dog for dinner. Since we were both so enamored and energized by the blackout, we decided to go on a road trip to various other parts of Brooklyn. Ran into Serge, another friend of mine and neighbor of Raphael’s, on the way out. Despite thinking against the idea, I managed to convince him to join us.
We drove to a part of downtown Brooklyn where a lot of young and artsy-fartsy people hang out, and once again, the streets were lined with people just enjoying each other’s company. The best part is that people were talking about everything BUT the blackout, and instead just cheerfully living through a temporary moment of inconvenience. Everyone we encountered on the streets was in high spirits and more than happy to talk.
Soon we reached Prospect Park, one of the largest in Brooklyn. From the outside it totally pitch black, and you could barley see where the tress and the sky met; the scene was ominous, yet also quite inviting (and reminiscent of my childhood). At one point we reached a large grassy clearing, about 100 years wide and completely surrounded by tress. A helicopter came from nowhere up and hit us with a spotlight as if we were escaped convicts. We waved like idiots and they went away, convinced that we were no threat. As the spotlight zipped across the ground, it exposed about six different couples having sex in the grass.
We walked some more, then drove some more. Ended up at a bar under the Williamsburg Bridge where they had a generator running some lights. I drank warm tap water as Raphael tried describing some weird game he played in Japan, which turned out to be Vib Ribbon.
By 2 a.m., we were all spent. After one last pass of the Manhattan skyline (which was partially lit due to auxiliary power unfortunately), I went home. I ate a can of cold Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs (it was pretty gross, but I was starving), took a shower, and ended up reading a comic before falling asleep…”
On a side note, that was from an email I sent to an EA p.r. rep that I had a crush on at the time. Despite the fact that I hung out at the event for over two hours, mostly to have lunch with her, I wish I stayed longer cuz it would have been a chance to keep her company since she was out of town and had nothing else to do… plus she was staying at the same hotel where the event was taking place so….
Well anyway, as you can tell, I had a pretty good time. And I know others have similar stories, and I even enjoyed exchanging them around the time of the blackout, and I suppose I’m not opposed to talking about it today. But that’s as far as it goes. Others on the other hand seem to treat the event as if it was the greatest day in human history and are way too proud of how everyone “behaved”. For Christ’s sakes, it was a fucking blackout. The fact that people have to go on and on about how amazing it was that no one killed each and how proud they are of themselves that they “survived” one day without email is pretty pathetic. As are the all the “celebrations” that took place yesterday to mark the one year anniversary. For the most part, there were quite a few parties going on (I knew of least four or five that went down personally). I understand a few restaurants served food in only candlelight, which I have to admit is at least sounds appropriate (if anything, it was restaurants that were actually hard hit since I know many incurred heavy losses due to food spoilage). But by far the stupidest I heard of was some film festival that took place in Williamsburg which featured movies that all dealt with the blackout. Great, films that explore the woes of not being able to log into MySpace via an Airport Extreme enabled PowerBook G4 from a WiFi hotspot at the local coffee/poetry hang out PLUS dealing with a lack of espresso for a night. No wonder the rest of the world hates us.
