Presenting:

A Night at a Frat Costume Party.
(photo story, personal narrative by Victor Fitzsimons)

As an up-and-coming media photographer, I've been attending various (semi-)public events to snag a few photos
to use for my JRN 220 class.  If I were getting paid for it then I might enjoy doing this stuff a little more.  But, ah, that's
not a very noble reason for getting into this line of work.  I'm sure I'll have to work even harder to land a job that pays
well.  Ah, but enough of this: let's get into the photos.

You see, if you've never been to a party hosted by one of those social fraternaties, you've missed something.  But
whatever it is you've missed, well, that all depends.  If you're like these young ladies in the above picture, then if you
didn't attend this party you'll be missing out on beer.  Not cheap beer, mind you: at the door it was five dollars for
a drinking partygoer but only one dollar for a non-drinker.  Debate still rages on as to whether drinking at parties
actually increases fun...

This all began on a Saturday evening.  There wasn't much to do so sitting around in my room, watching cartoons and building
this beautiful (and austere) website was all I was going to do.  Well, I think it's all I planned for.  If it wasn't sitting around it would have been going to the Malt Shop to get some pita and hummous.  Thanks to IM (instant messenging, for people like
me who didn't use it until a month ago) I was offered a chance to tag along with a group of people on my floor to this
wonderful little party.  But, well, you know me: having fun must not be on my list of things to do.  Since it was a costume
party, I used the opportunity to dress up in the khaki vest and carry around a bunch of photographic paraphernalia to finish an assignment.  The main purpose of the assignment was to use a bounce flash to try to light situations a little more naturally, or
otherwise use the flash to fill in with ambient light.  In any case, that's what I did, and so I did it.  Here is the story ('bout time, eh?)

Let's start off by clearing something up: frat parties aren't my scene.  For some reason I just don't get any kicks out of swimming through an insane crowd of people in a small house just to hang out by the beer line.  The beer line is in the basement, so you can imagine it's a fight to get down there and to get back up, and it gets pretty crowded.  The picture of the ladies with the plastic cups was taken in the basement.  Unfortunately, I don't think I could ever get a decent print from the negative: the ceiling of the basement was cluttered with ducts and the light probably got trapped in the corners.

People who have had a lot of alcohol to drink are often quite friendly.  Most of the people didn't mind getting their pictures taken, even without knowing who I was or what I was doing there.  And I had to explain that these pictures would probably never be used in any professional publication, and that I would not get any frat in trouble... so, um, if you recognize anybody in these pictures, pretend you don't.  I started off the night following this group I tagged along with into one frat house that wasn't partying quite so hardy, so we moved to another nearby frat where people were swimming through each other.

This is my prize of the night.  Sure, maybe it's a posed shot, but look at the textures!  So, um, you get the idea: wild frat parties are even wilder when people are dressed in Halloween costumes.  I cruised around between both frat houses until about 1:30 AM, when some of the guys in one of the frats got a little nervous about having their pictures taken.  I can completely understand.  If I were providing under-21 adult women with beer then I might be a littler nervous.  I walked home (since it was safer than riding with any of the members of my group) and ended my eventful night with a little disgust at what I'd seen.

Okay, I'll admit that I am a bit biased.  I don't know what it is I have against fitting in... there just must be something inside of me that doesn't want to be part of the "in" crowd.  But I just don't see the thrill in getting so blasted that you can't put on your socks until Wednesday... maybe I'm weird.  But, drunk people are fun to interact with when you're sober... especially the ones that don't have the normal sense of spatial relations.  You know the ones: the guy who's so close to you that you'd think he'd plant a big sloppy kiss on your face somewhere if his breath didn't smell of beer or liquor... regardless of your being male or female.  I should just screw around with these people's minds sometimes... you know, give them a couple different names or say some things a few times over.  Hmm... but until the next time I get to interact with people like that again, I think I'll just take it easy and do something productive with this webpage.