Happy birthday to me! (3/5/2007)

This weekend I realized that PV is getting 5 years old today, 5th March of 2007.
Yep, the first PV email was sent out on 3/5/2002. I thought: How shall we celebrate this birthday? and I decided to create my first blog:

Party Volcano Blog
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com

You will find all old PV issues going back to 3/5/2002 in the Cold Lava section!
There is no need to subscribe to it, because you will still receive the PV letters via email. But now you'll also have the opportunity to search for past events or Computer Corners.

If you want to you can subscribe to the PV feed and you can also add the PV blog to your Technorati favorites:

Subscribe to the PV feed
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Add to Technorati Favorites
http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com

Last but not least let me give you my personal list of favorite PV letters:


1. Welcome to Party Volcano
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/our-very-first-pv-email-from-252002.html

The very first PV letter from 3/5/2002.


2. funerals-a-poppin'
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/4112002-funerals-poppin.html

George decided to move to NYC and start a new live. But you can't start a new live before you end your old life. That's why George had his own funeral with pastor Caleb and friends that shared touching and sometimes embarrassing stories about the old George, who just passed away.


3. Deran Ludd hate letters.

After the Stranger article about PV we got a lot of new subscribers and also one psychopath:

Not used to the publicity we were also surprised to find an email that wishes that Susan, Andrew, and I, who run Party Volcano were dead (see Letter to the Editor). I feel a little bit like Steve Martin in The Jerk, who first is enthusiastic seeing his name being printed in the telephone book, and then realizes that such fame comes with a price. A random serial-killer uses the same source for picking his next victim...

To be honest I was thrilled. A real psychopath was sending us emails! We took the opportunity and involved Deran Ludd in an absurd conversation. I got the idea from a Woody Allen short story: two friends play chess via an exchange of letters but strangely grow apart as their moves become disconnected from each other. Both players are not playing together instead they play their own games.

We took the freedom to borrow this idea as follows: Mr. Ludd would send us a hate letter and we would interpret it as a resume for a job position at Party Volcano. In part 3 Mr. Ludd revealed that he had spent some time at Harborview's psych ward. Here was our response:

The job position you are applying for, Senior Crazy Fuck, calls for skills your application letters have demonstrated well: self-contradictory rambling and reference to ownership of a cattle prod. In your application, you refer to Party Volcano staff members as "fucking little rat-assed clowns" and "tumorous invertebrates." That's strong, muscular self-expression that makes you stand out from the crowd! We are also very impressed that you have participated in Harborview's famous residency program.

Well, you can read the rest for yourself:

Part 1: "Hi, I wish you all were dead."
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-41003-to-41603.html

Part 2: "...hope that you will all be pecked to death by seagulls."
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-41703-to-42303.html

Part 3: "I suggested the low tide and crabs eating your faces off."
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-42403-to-43003.html

4. Welcome Back Party for Newly Released Prisoners @ POCAAN
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-815-to-8182002.html

This is one of my all time favorites. It is very short but brilliant (kudos to Andrew):

The press release says: "Help ex-prisoners become part of the community."
Generally speaking, men--even drug-addicted, violent and sociopathic men--after having been locked up for several years, are fairly open to meeting new people, making new friends, and maybe even meeting that special someone. Thus, if you want to liven up your social life in any of these areas you have a pretty good chance at this party. Highly recommended.

4. The very first downgrade
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-44-462002.html

About a month after our first PV letter I decided to add some spice to our weekly emails. My first downgrade was for Nations, the club that closed later after some people died in a shooting. Although that might have been unrelated. Either way at that time I felt I had to warn our readers about Nations:

I have no idea what sub_sonic is and I only have vague memories of January. On the other hand I do remember clearly the first time I went to Nation two or three years ago. It had just opened and a friend of mine and I went to check it out. The cover charge was ten bucks and we asked the guy at the door "for what?". The whole place was empty and not even filled with smelly hippies on drugs (Nexus). He said: "New York style, you know?". That guy had obviously never been to New York City. We laughed so hard he eventually let us in for half the price probably to get rid of us.

5. Party Volcano's Halloween Consumer Report 2003.
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/party-volcanos-halloween-consumer.html

I tell you, the Party Volcano's Halloween Consumer Report 2003 was a lot of work. But our readers loved it. I could have never pulled it off without Uncle Daddy, Loud Jacket Russ, Gates Ballard, and Ron Jeremy. Please note that there is a follow up in the Cold Lava section of PV 11/07/2003:
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-11703-to-111303.html


6. Naked Sushi downgrade
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-416-to-4222004.html

I have written so many downgrades I can't remember them all. I do remember downgrading Ballard several times. One of the harsher downgrades was for the naked sushi guy:

When I saw my first Naked Sushi performance at the Brick House party I accidentally talked to the guy that was about to hold the Naked Sushi ceremony. He was so full of himself that he said he invented Naked Sushi. I thought: "What a coincidence. I invented fish!" Naked sushi is a tradition coming from Japan and it is older that the dirt under his fingernails. Even if this gentleman was the first who swung fish at Burning Man. It should not entitle him to being the inventor of Naked Sushi.

7. Chainsaw Carving Competition in Westport
http://partyvolcano.blogspot.com/2007/03/events-for-88-8142002.html

Kelly D. went to a chainsaw carving comp to help her friends shoot a documentary about carvers and danced the two-step with an 82-year old Iwo Jima vet who only had half a mouth of teeth and purportedly carried a penis pump in case he got "lucky."



Well, that's it for now.
I'll talk to you on Friday!

Don Volcano