Dinner as Drama, Party as Play

[IdleRich]

I guess the idea that generates the excitement when you head out to a party party (ie not a dinner party)

In fact thinking about dinner parties vs party-parties; in Abigail's Party, one of the signs that the third woman is posher than the first two is that she hasn't eaten, that is to say that when invited round she thinks she is coming to a dinner party, when in fact it's just a piss up with some salted peanuts (and olives of course "Nah they're disgusting aren't they?"). Demarcations of the strata of lower-middle-classness shown simply but with almost scientific precision.

 

[IdleRich]

Often these parties have a nested physical-sociological structure of inner sanctums—the VIP lounge is roped off, or there are private bedrooms at the house party, or there's an upstairs, or an after party (this one being a temporal—instead of spatial—distinction that reflects and reinforces sociological distinctions)

So many nights trying to lose certain people at that point... "no I think I'll just turn in"

 

[sus]

Isn't Gosford Park like a low-rent remake of La Regle du Jeu? Although I guess that doesn't take place over one night.

Yeah def this is the frequent overlap between "party as drama" and "comedy of manners"

 

[sus]

Gatherings of people of various class relations, states of familiarity, different interests (in both senses) lending itself to this sorta critique/lens/humor

 

[WashYourHands]

Read this Gus, ie how to put on an actual party worth dedicating your time to



and before you spout “where’s the dinner?”, note the distillation of dedication to liberation through fun

 

[william_kent]

Gatherings of people of various class relations, states of familiarity, different interests (in both senses) lending itself to this sorta critique/lens/humor

this may be of interest to you:

Every Bay Area House Party

A man with a buzz-cut. His shirt had an incomprehensible symbol - his favorite band’s symbol? His company’s logo? A chaos magic sigil? and he was carrying a half-decayed slice of pizza.

“I’m Ramchandra,” he said. “I’m working for a fintech startup. Love to hear from anyone else in the business!”

“I’m Bob, good to meet you. Who do you work for?”

“You know ViraCoin?”

“No, tell me about them.”

“New crypto. You mine it by promoting about it. Once every eight minutes, a decentralized algorithm searches for tweets containing the word ‘ViraCoin’ with a positive sentiment score, weights them by number of likes, and then picks one at random to award a ViraCoin to.”

“Sounds…awful.”

“No, you don’t understand. This is just the first step. Once we make it super-big, we’ll introduce other things into the algorithm. Charities. Political causes. We’ll have millions of people competing to praise UNICEF in order to get that next million-dollar ViraCoin drop. If you think about it, all problems are caused by lack of awareness. We’re an at-scale solution to awareness. Solve that, and you solve poverty, inequality, racism…”

Another Bay Area House Party

Even More Bay Area House Party

I found the first instalment mildly amusing but the joke wears thin fast....

 

[shakahislop]

what happened to san francisco is tragic isn't it. mad that somewhere that used to be a point on the counter-cultural constellation got eaten up by the kind of people you can make jokes like that about.

 

[Leo]

A lot of people admired my coat apparently

we need a photo of you in that coat, rich.

someone selling CDs outside a pub,

did you transport back to 1998?

 

[shakahislop]

there's a load of descriptions of really attractive sounding parties in kerouac. girls and three day binges, and all the lads talking about poetry. its one of the things that makes that whole mileu sound great, which is the appeal of kerouac really. especially to 16 year olds.

 

[IdleRich]

did you transport back to 1998?

I had to respect this guy's hustle, he was outside the pub and I was eating a sandwich so a captive audience, he took me through every track on the album in detail. Saw him again after kicking out time seven hours later, maybe 5am, at that point felt I had to buy a fucking cd.

 

[IdleRich]

we need a photo of you in that coat, rich.

It's one I've had for years but never worn cos it's too hot for Portugal. It sort of looks like it's gold and it claims to be made by Dolce & Gabbana but I suspect that to be a lie - although I got it second hand so don't really know.

 

[Leo]

you still occasionally see some kids hawking their own rap cds here.

 

[wild greens]

I saw this late last year and thought it was quite good, a good twist on the idea


*

I saw a good one about a surprise party years ago, husband throwing it for a wife, loads of prep, hides all their mates away then her first words as she walks through the door, "i want a divorce". No idea what that show actually was, but do remember that moment so specifically.

Most ive been to have been boring until the drugs turn up or there's heavy cocktail drinking. I have quite often been the class contrast, mind- nothing worse than a posh boy across the table asking you to do scouse catchphrases

 

[Leo]

It's one I've had for years but never worn cos it's too hot for Portugal. It sort of looks like it's gold and it claims to be made by Dolce & Gabbana but I suspect that to be a lie - although I got it second hand so don't really know.

p-h-o-t-o

 

[IdleRich]

you still occasionally see some kids hawking their own rap cds here.

Yeah well this was him rapping over jazz-reggae fusion on the first track... he started saying afore my eyes glazed over a little.

 

[IdleRich]

p-h-o-t-o

I think not... I've built it up too much. It was weird actually.

 

[IdleRich]

I saw this late last year and thought it was quite good, a good twist on the idea

Is this the one with Ralph Fiennes as a celebrity chef who eats the guests or something?

I saw a good one about a surprise party years ago, husband throwing it for a wife, loads of prep, hides all their mates away then her first words as she walks through the door, "i want a divorce". No idea what that show actually was, but do remember that moment so specifically.

Famous urban legend about a woman comes home and starts having sex with her dog - unfortunately in front of all the guests gathered for a surprise party.

Most ive been to have been boring until the drugs turn up or there's heavy cocktail drinking. I have quite often been the class contrast, mind- nothing worse than a posh boy across the table asking you to do scouse catchphrases

How do you mean you "have been the class contrast"?

 

[IdleRich]

Is this the one with Ralph Fiennes as a celebrity chef who eats the guests or something?

No, ignore me, that's called The Menu (I haven't seen it)

 

[wild greens]

How do you mean you "have been the class contrast"?

In my early 20s i was seeing a girl for a while who had went to a very posh uni with lots of well to do trust fund mates, whereas I... Didn't.

So, by proxy i got invited to lots of quite high end dos with lots of rich kids and/or adults, and stuck out like a sore thumb. You just have to embrace it though, really, and see what you can get out of the situation. Some were quite awkward

 

[IdleRich]

Ok got you. Reminds me of that horrible film the Riot Club which is clearly based on Bullingdon Club - loads of rich kids at Oxford hire a restaurant and smash it up. They refer to going out with non-fee paying school girls as field research. Very nasty film I thought but worth seeing. And fits in this thread neatly enough.



Nice cameo from Tom Hollander as a prime minister who may as well have been called Terry Blare, and there is a (deliberate?) irony in a film satirising hereditary (and other types of) privilege starring Freddie Fox (as wikipedia has it he is the "son of actress Joanna David and actor Edward Fox. He is the younger brother of actress Emilia Fox and the half-brother of Lucy Arabella Preston (the Viscountess Gormanston), the grandson of actress Angela Worthington Fox and theatrical agent Robin Fox, and the great-grandson of the playwright Frederick Lonsdale. He is the nephew of producer Robert Fox and actor James Fox, and a cousin to actors Laurence, Jack and Lydia Fox") and Max Irons (son of Jeremy).