Henry Abbott

This week, we’ve been thinking a lot about how space matters at the parties we go to. Below are some of our thoughts:

MG: You’ve been stoked about the Stolen Gin concert at the Pub last week. Tell me about that.

BA: I think it highlighted that so much of what makes a great party is a good space, and how there aren’t actually that many great spaces on campus. I think the Pub did a great job of mixing a dance floor with live music and sitting areas where you can chill and talk. And then there was a great mix of students there.

MG: Agreed. Because the concert was open to the whole campus, it brought an interesting crowd. Everyone came with a different agenda. For some, it was a Thursday night study break. Some people came to dance, some to pregame Tonic. I’m sure some came because they liked Stolen Gin. Hell, I came because the beers were $2—and then I ended up really enjoying the concert.

BA: I think at a certain point in your Bowdoin career, the functions that you go to become relatively the same group over and over again in different places. If I get an email for a Park Row apartment party, there will be a function at that apartment with some music, it’ll be half dance, half talking, but it’ll definitely get really hot, and then it might get too crowded, so I’ll go outside and smoke a cig. But I think there’s an issue that always applies. At a college house party, same thing. You always know what to expect. I think a great party has something unexpected to it.

MG: The registration process is set up to make the event as smooth as possible. But ultimately, you don’t want the night to be smooth, you don’t want to know where the night’s going when it begins. Where’s the mystery or excitement in that? There’s no nuance or variation. It’s like having your mom come to a party. You weren’t gonna do anything in the first place that would have warranted security coming. But now you feel watched, and weird and afraid to be spontaneous.

BA: I think that really neuters the unexpected, crazy, “oh my god, the floor broke” aspect of a party. A lot of nights that are super fun at Bowdoin are super chill: Your friends go to Supers after you smoke a joint and have a good time, but I think there’s less space for unexpected moments. On top of that, Bowdoin’s social scene is constricted anyway. I think for a lot of people, it’s awkward to get sloppy drunk, dance like crazy and fall face down outside Chambo. Because then you have to go to Light Room the next day and look everyone in the face. That’s a bit awkward. So sometimes people’s ability to let loose gets stifled by the conventions of the school.

MG: Maybe that’s a product of the space, too. Something I’m realizing about the College Houses versus being in an apartment or off-campus is the level of responsibility and stake involved is different. College Houses are really no one’s space. There isn’t any fun or risk in trashing them, or personal stake in having a party flop. If you throw up on the floor in a College House, if you steal something, if you break something, it’s the College’s property, so nobody cares. But, at Pine, or Bruns or off-campus, there’s more of this edge of what could happen. Because there are real repercussions; that is someone’s house, that is someone’s apartment. When shocking things happen, they’re even more shocking, and they make the night crazier. When the same things happen on campus, if the fire alarm goes off, if the police show up, it’s not exciting. You know you won’t get in trouble, so you just walk away unscathed. I live off campus, and random first years will show up to my parties and I’ll catch them rifling around my stuff. Of course, when they do it, I’m like, “What are you doing? Put it back and get out.” It’s disrespectful, but it’s also kind of cool that people are trying to let loose, be risky or get up to mischief.

BA: On a related note, I think it makes throwing the party more exciting too because inviting people into your space gives you a stake. If you’re throwing a party in your apartment—be it your crappy Tower quad, your Park Row or off-campus—you want that shit to be popping, because it’s your house, and you’re inviting people in to have a party. It’s Benny Adler’s house, it’s not Boody Johnson. I think when you have a stake in it, you’re more incentivized to throw a banger.

MG: Pine and off-campus to me, both feel pretty fun in a special way that’s different from the rest of campus, maybe because there’s a level of detachment. The College Houses are right on Maine Street. You walk out and you see the library and you see Thorne, whereas Pine and off-campus sort of have an air of mystery about them, and they require a quest and a buy-in of time to get to. Those spaces also have areas to interface with the party. You can dance inside, talk outside, sit on a couch, meet someone new, all without leaving the party. Sort of like Stolen Gin at the Pub. Whereas on campus proper, you’re either in the basement or you’re outside or you’re at Supers.

BA: To end with a quote from John Steinbeck, “It is, however, generally understood that a party has a pathology, that it is a kind of an individual and that it is likely to be a very perverse individual. And it is also generally understood that a party hardly ever goes the way it is planned or intended.”