Photo: Courtesy of sparrowhall
What did we learn this week? For starters, saying “It’s for the kids,” can turn anything from sloppy and illegal into something philanthropic. Next, girls won’t actually do anything for Mardi Gras beads and Britney can be held accountable as the cause of binge drinking. Throw in some more life lessons and we’ve got ourselves a Party Report full of patriotism, (hospital) patients, and pole dancing. Full deets, after the jump.
Friday Night: It’s for the children
A fundrager that two desperate DM dancers organize to meet the full money deadline brings a small but dedicated crowd to an upscale apartment to “cure AIDS with alcohol,” as one partygoer puts it. While this unofficial tag line may be a bit forward, we admire the plentiful SoCo and Smirnoff that lasts throughout the evening, ending with some attendees forgoing chasers and simply taking swigs of vodka. The party theme of dressing as children seems to have been garbled in communication, as some girls take this to mean wear boxer shorts while others don pajamas and we even spot some full-on suits in the mix (god, they must have been boring as children). Despite this and some of the questionable music choices (that’s what you get when you leave the speakers open for everyone), we decide to harken back to elementary conduct grading styles and give this party a “Satisfactory” this time around.
Friday Night: The Amuurrrican Dream
Even though our school did not grant students the day off for President’s Day (obviously), a certain promiscuous frat nevertheless attempts to celebrate. For them, celebrating our nation’s leaders centers on a country music pregame with 4th of July-esque decorations that leads to a rowdy bar night in Chicago. Girls dress in questionable red, white, and blue apparel while boys don their best sports jerseys and plaid. The frat manages to pack an impressive four Positive Connections buses with drunkards; unfortunately, the Chicago bar was not built for that kind of undergrad capacity. With barely enough room to breathe, a select group of sorority girls escape to another frat’s more sophisticated soirée further downtown.
Friday Night: The Gin Bucket Strikes Back
A club sports team hosts a fundraising party in its dirty but well-decorated basement, which starts off practically empty and then becomes so crowded it’s impossible to get from one side of the room to another by 11:30. Music blasts and partygoers crowd around tables to play pong, Kings and Slap Cup, better known at the house as the “Awesome Game.” An assortment of different colored jello shots sell out quickly, mostly from hopeful boys purchasing them for girls in the hopes of getting a drunken make-out in return, which quite a few receive. The highlight of the party is an overenthusiastic host walking around with a bucket of gin and squirting it into people’s mouths with a turkey baster, spilling more than a negligible amount in the process.
Friday Night: High off Columbia College
After downing a healthy amount of Moscato, a group of Northwestern students hop on the L and head to an apartment party in Belmont. Columbia College throws down to the best of their stoner abilities. The weed gets passed round and round to the sounds of Weezer leading up to a broken down “Proud Mary” dance session. Art school hipsters never stop pouring in to the apartment with more booze, grass, and Doritos. Following the influx of facial hair and thick-rimmed glasses, the giggles ensue and it is time to catch the last Purple Line home.
Friday Night: Fat Tuesday at Ridge & Noyes
An eclectic mix of fratstars and South Campus kings crowd this unique apartment (it has a spiral staircase!) to celebrate Mardi Gras a bit early. With a built in bar as the focus of the living room, good drinks were expected and these boys did not disappoint, serving up hurricanes and strawberry daiquiris along with the usual beer. One of the roommates walks around handing out beads but demanding that girls take three shots to earn them. No thanks. Luckily, another guy is following not too far behind, giving out the beads for free. Now that’s how Mardi Gras should be.
Saturday Night: Sloppy Seconds at Foster and Pratt
The standards for throwing a kick-ass party at NU are surprisingly low. Two pong tables, a speaker system, a makeshift bar, and a shady basement on the corner of Foster and Pratt with low ceilings, dim lighting, and plenty of shadowy corners to find a friend are enough for a dance-focused student organization’s fundrager Saturday night. Throw in a requirement for a certain low-key frat’s pledges to attend, and you’ve got a rager. While we couldn’t help but be a little miffed by beginning the night locked out of the party (is it so hard to prop the door open?) that was quickly made up for by a Keg-worthy dance/grind floor inside. While TKOE can never be replaced in our hearts, it seems that making a suitable duplicate experience is easy enough.
Saturday Night: I Must Dance
A group of upperclassmen attends a fundraiser party at Chicago & Lake. Though the party is advertised as a “2 keg / 12 Handle Rager,” few guests beyond the expected crowd make the trek south. Instead, one of the hosts decides to get creative with the fundraising and offers to do anything for money. He ends up taking five shots in two minutes—anything “for the kids,” right? The party turns uncomfortable during a game of “Never Have I Ever” in the middle of Kings when all of the partygoers realize they’ve made out with at least one person in the room. One girl confesses having a sex dream about a guy in the room, and another has to describe when she most recently masturbated. But all this fun couldn’t tempt the one guest who chose to read a book all night.
Saturday Night: Gimme More Pole Dancing
Undergrads flock up north for a certain frat’s extra special 1920′s-themed party, complete with a guest list full of names of guys who don’t have to call a brother to get in. Cosmos, mojitos and Franzia are served in the third floor rooms while a group mills around the pong table, playing and chatting. “Moonshine” (aka really sketch jungle juice) and weakly-made jello shots await the partygoers on the fourth floor, complete with a rave room dance floor, outfitted with strobing lights and a stripper pole. A hat-wearing male decides to stay on the pole all night, grabbing random unlucky girls and holding them hostage for a dance or two as the same six songs play on repeat. Unsurprisingly, two girls drink way more than their limit–one is escorted out by friends, the other spends a significant amount of time hunched over a toilet before she’s dragged out and sent to the hospital. The rest of the party is unconcerned and keeps at it before thinning out after 1 a.m. A few stragglers remain behind, taking the last of the jello shots and drunkenly dancing around to Britney’s shitshow anthem “Gimme More,” as two couples have clothed sex against the wall until the brothers deem the night over and kick everyone out.
