3 posts tagged “dancing”

Sacrilicious?

A good end to a good week.

This week: On Tuesday I turned in my third assessed essay, which was sort of an evaluation of the online Arctic exhibition we're working on.  I was pretty happy with the essay; we'll see what the examiners have to say.  That evening I watched a few BSG episodes with Liza.  Thursday saw a visit from a delegation of Zunis from New Mexico who are here to examine the museum's holdings from their territory.  They're filling large gaps in the catalogue and correcting mistakes (for example, one piece of hollowed bone with a hole in it was marked as a bead; it is in fact a whistle that used to have a piece of deer sinew in the hole, which helped amplify the sound).  This is great because it fosters a better relationship between the museum and the Zuni people.  They also get to take a closer look at what we have, and there's a good chance that we might repatriate some material.  Today was the last day of term (hooray!); we had a dissertation meeting and did some more work on the exhibition.

And then, the mighty mingle.  What a night.  Five hours of dancing and revelry in the various rooms of King's College.  Cambridge kids really know how to cut loose.  As I mentioned earlier, the affair was jungle-themed (basically an excuse for Kingsfolk to walk around in leopard prints, face paint, and lots of skin).  I've already spent a fair amount of cash on costume elements this year (viking and old man outfits), so I wasn't keen on dropping anymore for this.  I still didn't have any ideas for a thrifty costume roughly an hour before the mingle, and then I ran into Aileen and Helen. 

They had decided to go as annoying gap year kids (British kids who have just graduated but decided to travel the world helping others, but it's mostly an excuse to go on vacation for a prolonged period of time).  They decked themselves out in faux-Indian jewelry, baggy pants, scarves (which seem to work their way into most any fancy-dress party costume you see in Cambridge), and fake tattoos from their "travels."  It was a great idea, so I co-opted it and went as the American analogue of the gap year kid: the Peace Corps volunteer.  It worked well, I blended in nicely amongst the animals and big-game hunters at the mingle.  Great costume included Kevin's panda suit (a great costume, because everything you do in it, especially dancing, automatically becomes funny), Bill's 19th century botanist, and the incomparable Tom Riddick as, well, the jungle I guess.  He adorned himself with green and brown streamers, face paint, and cutouts of jungle creatures.  None of us thought that his outfit would survive his furious and acrobatic dance moves (this man truly is poetry in motion), but it held up.  And it managed to grow as the night progressed.  He added a neon green flower, a pith helmet, and a large curtain decorated with jungle motifs.  It was incredible.

The event itself was pretty tight.  Lots of music everywhere.  Mostly electronic dance.  My favorites were the (brief) "indie" set in the bar and the crazy old school rave breakbeats in the Keynes hall.  That was pretty awesome.  The room had a huge projector showing what looked like National Geographic films of monkeys picking fleas off one another and other jungle scenes.  Pretty trippy stuff to dance in front of.  Unfortunately, to get to that room I first had to pass through the drum 'n bass room.  I DESPISE drum 'n bass.  It's so mind numbing, and it tires me quickly without bringing much enjoyment.  And this particular brand of d'n'b featured a live MC on a mic yelling random crap over the already terrible beats blaring through the speakers.  Awful.  The other rough spot was the cellar.  I usually enjoy the cellar, even though it has the charm of an armpit, but the place wasn't in its best form tonight.  The other three venues were all loud, sweaty, sticky, crowded, and had rather dim lighting.  But the cellar is like that all the time, so that atmosphere became intensified with all of the extra people.  Going down into the cellar after checking out the other rooms was like descending into the ninth circle of hell.  Pitch black (with black lights), wall to wall with people, floor positively covered in sticky dried beer, and HOT.  And the music made me feel like I was in a really bad science fiction movie.  Very strange  Other than that it was a pretty good night.  King's was packed, and everyone was in high spirits.

And now I am amazingly tired.  Must sleep.  Cambridge science fair tomorrow, helping out at museum.  Hundreds of children.  Much mayhem.  And babysitting.  Goodnight everyone.

I just purchased my ticket for the Mingle, which is a huge party that the King's kids throw during Michaelmas and Lent.  It should pretty sweet.  It's going down this Friday from 9 PM to 2 AM.  College shuts down for people who don't have tickets and they set up four different music venues that play on all night:

Keynes Hall
DrumAttic Twins (Breaks)
Beatnik (Psytrance)
Parametric (Breaks)
Farfield (Progressive)

Chetwynd Room
DJ Dollar & MC Slimladen (Hip hop/urban)
SampleForce (D'n'B)
Hektic & DJ D feat MCs Simsi & Jimmy Danger

Main Bar
Nice UP! Selectors
Tempest Riley (electro)
DJ Munch (Mainstream/dance)
Moleman (Indie)

Cellar
Reggae
Twitchah Sound System (Dubstep)
Amit & George (Dubstep)
Metaflux b2b Gurps (Minimal/house/techno)

I don't know any of these DJ's (the info was copied from Facebook), but it looks like I should be able to find something fun at pretty much any time.  I missed the one last term, so I'm really looking forward to this.  It's jungle themed as well, so I'll have to come up with something primal to wear.  Hopefully something salvaged from my viking and old man costumes.  King's is going to turn into a writhing, sweaty and drunken mess.  And everyone will be there.  Holla.