The Myth of the Nocturnal White Ball
~
2004.10.31 21:57 (EST + 11 hrs): Haad Rin Nok (Ko Phangan island), Kingdom of Thailand
Last Friday's Full Moon party on Haad Rin "Nok" (Sunrise) was populated, busy and anti-climactic as expected: the lead-up nights being much better than the actual main event. As far as international must-see party venues are concerned, Full Mooning in Thailand could stand a substantial overhaul. Improvements could include a greater variety of music (translation: more genres than hard trance and top-40), less glowing body paint and a proper chill-out space for the chemically mesmerized -- to name a few problems; to trace the tip of the iceberg.
I suspected that it would be a party with the lesser seductive form of "mass appeal" since over 10,000 people normally show up to shake down. Mind you, after talking to the locals, this October's was the slowest one of the year: they usually host over double. Nonetheless, those ten thousand party-goers generously brought with them the gracefulness of varied and excessive consumption, predictable music, lame venues, and hordes of snugglers, gropers and those ambitious enough to screw on the beach while an army of dilated pupils staggered along the sand and water's edge, occasionally stopping or slowing to stare at the moon or urinate in the sea.
All told, I've thought about my time there and have since rallied my own mind to break the myth of this event, to be real. To not remain latched to the fantasy notion of a worldly and ground-breaking party populated with the open-minded and culturally adept beneficient hippies of high-school documentaries. No, more aptly put, full mooning is the orgiastic trophy held high by a cross-section of an unaging generation who simply doesn't care about itself. Somehow, these people find that keeping its notion immaculately cherished maintains their collective tribute to the idolized graven images of their personal "Gilligan's Island Gone Wild." Through these eyes, I don't consider the notion, or beauty, merited.
In the end, I am resolved and truly believe that it might have been a beautiful and honest celebration once ago. When it was original and thus cool. Since that time, in my view, it has morphed into an oversize international tourist convention on debacle and carelessness, relinquished to hide on a beach facing the open, unjudging sea and ever-watchful nocturnal white circle in the sky.
Temporarly and only minorly disappointed, I remain open-minded and hopeful as I continue this venture through The Land of Smiles.
From here to there, all.
S*
Fave current track(s): "Dynamite!" - The Roots, ft Elo
Current read(s) in progress: "Immortality" - Milan Kundera
2004.10.31 21:57 (EST + 11 hrs): Haad Rin Nok (Ko Phangan island), Kingdom of Thailand
Last Friday's Full Moon party on Haad Rin "Nok" (Sunrise) was populated, busy and anti-climactic as expected: the lead-up nights being much better than the actual main event. As far as international must-see party venues are concerned, Full Mooning in Thailand could stand a substantial overhaul. Improvements could include a greater variety of music (translation: more genres than hard trance and top-40), less glowing body paint and a proper chill-out space for the chemically mesmerized -- to name a few problems; to trace the tip of the iceberg.
I suspected that it would be a party with the lesser seductive form of "mass appeal" since over 10,000 people normally show up to shake down. Mind you, after talking to the locals, this October's was the slowest one of the year: they usually host over double. Nonetheless, those ten thousand party-goers generously brought with them the gracefulness of varied and excessive consumption, predictable music, lame venues, and hordes of snugglers, gropers and those ambitious enough to screw on the beach while an army of dilated pupils staggered along the sand and water's edge, occasionally stopping or slowing to stare at the moon or urinate in the sea.
All told, I've thought about my time there and have since rallied my own mind to break the myth of this event, to be real. To not remain latched to the fantasy notion of a worldly and ground-breaking party populated with the open-minded and culturally adept beneficient hippies of high-school documentaries. No, more aptly put, full mooning is the orgiastic trophy held high by a cross-section of an unaging generation who simply doesn't care about itself. Somehow, these people find that keeping its notion immaculately cherished maintains their collective tribute to the idolized graven images of their personal "Gilligan's Island Gone Wild." Through these eyes, I don't consider the notion, or beauty, merited.
In the end, I am resolved and truly believe that it might have been a beautiful and honest celebration once ago. When it was original and thus cool. Since that time, in my view, it has morphed into an oversize international tourist convention on debacle and carelessness, relinquished to hide on a beach facing the open, unjudging sea and ever-watchful nocturnal white circle in the sky.
Temporarly and only minorly disappointed, I remain open-minded and hopeful as I continue this venture through The Land of Smiles.
From here to there, all.
S*
Fave current track(s): "Dynamite!" - The Roots, ft Elo
Current read(s) in progress: "Immortality" - Milan Kundera
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