| Subject: Re: article? |
| From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 4/7/09, 14:36 |
| To: Christopher Koulouris <christopher@scallywagandvagabond.com> |
There is nothing more irritating to those of us who love to drink than an open bar at a well-attended event. On a normal night, the bartender will be reasonably accessible to those of us who need him most; but when a commodity is free, it becomes attractive even to those who place no value upon it. And thus the amateur drinkers the ones who drink only in the company of others, and typically only when bathed and nicely dressed - crowd the bartender, leaving the lifestyle drinkers in the cold.
On this particular night at Antik, a Bowery bar that was serving as the after-party venue for the ongoing Gen Art film festival, the bar in question was mobbed by the worst possible thing by which a bar can be mobbed, which is two dozen twenty-something females in expensive dresses. Such girls, by and large, have no moral qualms with slipping in next to someone who has been waiting for several minutes and then trying too get the bartender's attention before that person has been served. It is simple evolutionary biology; in a competitive situation, qualms are rare.
As with many open bar situations, the free drinks in question were of a particular brand; the evening was being sponsored by Three Olive Vodka, and thus one could pick from one of three vodka-oriented mixed drinks listed on a placard. This seemed fairly straightforward, but one of the bartenders seemed genuinely surprised each time someone ordered one of these three drinks, which is to say that he seemed genuinely surprised each time. This tended to slow down the process of obtaining free drinks insomuch as that each patron had to explain that the drink which he or she had just named was listed, ingredients and all, on the little placard sitting right there. It was a perfect storm of inefficiency.
Elsewhere in Antik, one could watch the dance that is always danced on such occasions. The VIPs of the evening those who had directed, starred in, or otherwise contributed heavily to one of the films that was to be screened at this year's Gen Art festival were seated at little tables on both sides of the narrow space which makes up the venue's main chamber. Each little table had a little placard on it naming the particular film to which the little table was dedicated on that particular evening; in this way, the nascent film professionals in attendance received a taste of exclusivity for their troubles. Meanwhile, dozens of other attendees simply stood around.
This is a terrible idea. The Stanford Prison Experiment famously established that putting people into roles such as prison guards and prisoners even on a make-believe basis - would almost certainly bring about personality changes within both groups, with guards acting sadistically and prisoners taking on a docile attitude. Likewise, taking the creators of minor films and providing them with the trappings of celebrity can have no beneficial effect on either themselves or on society as a whole, and putting dozens of their mostly female fellow attendees in a position of relative subservience can do little more than to reinforce the unfortunate fundamentals of Hollywood at its most corrupt, although I'm exaggerating quite a bit.
It's easy to criticize such an event as this, and it's just as easy to forget that such things have a legitimate purpose, even if it does tend to bring out the hierarchical nature of human gatherings. This was a small celebration to recognize the work of several groups of young people who had successfully produced independent films of the sort that were worthy of recognition. I met one such fellow, Jesse Gay, a Floridian who served as the protagonist in one of the seven short films that was to be screened at Gen Art alongside seven full-length features. He and his fellow Floridian film buffs had made Veer!, a ten-minute comedic short about the day in the life of a washed-up professional skater whose endorsement contracts have all dried up. Jesse was probably the most wholesomely enthusiastic person I have ever met at such an event he and his friends were genuinely proud to have had their film selected by a major film festival, were equally happy to have been invited to come to New York, and were excited that this sort of recognition would provide them with an easier time of recruiting talent back in Florida when it came time to make their next movie. When you meet a good natured-fellow who's had some success in a field that rarely rewards good natures, it's hard to begrudge them their table, and easy to forget that you only managed to snag a single free drink.