An Elder Millennial Birthday
Brief:
- The party should be an experience for all the guests.
- It should not suggest that I am a self-centred basic bro who thinks he can solicit his wisdom just because he turns 40.
- I do not care if the experience is good or bad.
- Play Toto’s “Africa” on loop for hours.
A psychological experiment for a birthday party. A 40th birthday party.
We’re all in to be subjects.
We organised the event.
Dress code: Safari, Tiger King shirt for the birthday boy.
Birthday cake: Moody Baker.
LC: Dara. DJ: Conna.
At 2100 hours, the DJ set played various renditions of “Africa”. After one hour and technical issues, only the original version was played on the loop…For the next three hours.
“No more Toto!”
We were spared by intermissions of other songs: “Mortal Kombat”, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, “One More Time”, “Don’t Call Me Baby”, “Ray of Light”, “Pure Shores”, “Too Young”, “Dancing in The Moonlight”, “I Don’t Know Why”, “Rockafeller Skank”, and even “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!”
For local content, “Mencontek”/ “Back for Good”; “Pingin Beken”/”Breathe Again”; and “Lampu Neon”/”What’s Going On” (back to back, to provide context on 90s unlicensed Padhyangan parody–the Weird Al of Indonesia);
“Sinaran” and “Ekspresi” at Dara’s request.
The real Millennials–those born in the 90s–couldn’t recognise many songs. But DJ Conna played not just the Noughties, but the 2010s: “Clarity”, “One Kiss”, and, of course, “Feel This Moment”.
Okay, now the report on the psychological experiment:
Subject Suar does not experience any trauma. There was a time when he was utterly annoyed by the repetitiveness of “Africa” (and the dad jokes on clues for the next song: “the Black Continent”, “Nelson Mandela”, “a famous water closet brand”…).
It seems that the song is not something anyone can hate.
The Subject, as always, preferred whiskies and whiskeys. But when they ran out, the Subject would settle with gin (the preferred drink of the majority of the guests).
The Subject was not too drunk and managed to capture the moments with his Q. He is very happy with the results (see pictures).
The Subject realised that he actually likes dance parties, especially private ones in which the guests list is his chosen family (and the playlist reminds him of the era when he came of age). He was a bit depressed for some time. He was burdened by guilt for indulging in a hedonistic event such as this (he inherited a Jesus Complex from his mother); he cannot grieve for his mother because he had lost her long before death. He was anticipating waking up with a heavy feeling, a hangover, but he felt so good after sleep. It was as if the party shook the sadness out of him.
Despite his love of one-on-one conversations and his dark brooding jokes made him mistaken as a misanthrope, the Subject is a highly extroverted individual with a strong need for social interactions.
The Subject, during the party, managed to write a note about the host, the birthday boy:
From this man, I learned the rules of power and the psychology of money long before I read Robert Greene and Morgan Housel.
Ostracised by Indonesian traditional family values, left with no chance to satisfy societal heteronormative norms, he became an Outsider who could observe the cracks and loopholes of common people’s expectations.
He taught me to recognises privileges and set aside conventional moral judgments based on envy or political correctness. Ruthlessly leveraging strength to compensate for our weaknesses, while having compassionate views on how the world–people–operates.
He educated me that it is not enough to know how to play the game. You need to know why, so you can opt-out when it’s not worth it.
The most important lesson he imparted is to see money as it is: not a status symbol, not a self-worth index–just one of the social currencies. A tool to buy freedom and to live according to your own terms.
He is vulnerable to addiction and hedonism, but he is a functioning adult. His life seems irresponsible, but he got his shit together. He contributes to the development of the national education system. Whether such a venture is successful or makes an impact is open to interpretation.
He tried.
He jumped inside the arena. Leaving the crowd of spectators and commentators who bitch and moan and tweet and repost.
He could fill that one unforgiving minute with a sixty-second run.
His mouth is sharp, but he’s got a bleeding heart.
I’d call him ‘Bro’, but would it be too basic?
Fuck it. Happy 40th, Bro Angga.
Please note that this report is a self-report and may not be representative of all other subjects attending the experiment. However, Subject Suar believes that all subjects had fun and love the host so much that they are willing to spend a fraction of their life to celebrate him.
