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January 29, 2004
San Francisco knows how to party, and also hates the man
Hilarious and cynical piece in the NYT about subway parties on the San Francisco BART. Such parties have been taking place in New York and London for many years, and you might not be surprised to hear that the SFO version is smaller, weirder, and much more pretentious. Lots of freaky, indepedently-minded people were there, like Romance the Love Pirate, a clown with a rubber chicken, and a whole lot of unemployed programmers. Maybe my take on these partiers is being colored by the disdainful tone of the article, but come on, can you honestly read this: "the party car was up and running... a time and place to meet, mingle, act up, wind down, express themselves, dangle from poles, rage against the machine or do none of that, anonymously, anarchically, all in the cramped, swaying confines of a subway car," and not feel disdainful too? It all reminds me of the flash mob trend from this summer: "The point of the party was that there was no point."
So then the cops come on board, and the already unfun party gets busted, and the unemployed computer people all start in on how the journalist covering their unfun party is "stealing our art" and "commercializing our culture."
If I didn't hate San Francisco's irritatingly self-obsessed "counter-culture" already, I sure do now. Oh wait. I did already hate it.
