Theme: The Scarf Scrum

Location: Spectacular Sky Palace, San Francisco

Year: 2001

Art: Paul McGhee

Invite backstory:

When my train-riding swim buddy and dedicated party attender Mark Welsh auctioned off his infamous ‘Spice Girl Orgy’ Barbie sculpture , my brother and I pooled our savings and won. We purposed some of it to capture the frenzied Artichoke scrum feed we had witnessed at previous parties for the flyer art.

This is the first invite where we built the image and took a photograph. We went with black and white to capture the stark and raw nature of the Madness.

This is also the first time where you can’t see the full artichoke lady but I hoped the lips and beauty mark were familiar-enough to make it work.

To capture the full glory of the party in our marketing and get the “maybe’s” out of their homes and over to the party, we up-leveled the website to include all 10 party options. Yo continued the Artichoke preparation arms race with 8 Artichoke preparations, including sauted, stuffed, blanched and the fan favorite - deep-fried.

My friend the Rat Girl wrote up the Underground Neighborhood Rat Tour, highlighting local stops like the Jeremiah O’Brien liberty ship, a virtual Gallo Salami Plant tour and the great dive bar Boondocks “where alcoholics go to die”.

Particularly colorful was her take on the Sailing Ship restaurant across the street titled: Burnt out Starlet. “Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.” This wooden ship had starred in Gilligan’s Island and The Caine Mutiny before easing into the restaurant business.

Another nice touch to help shape the path for guests to come was a map showing where everything was in advance - the main party, the human foosball court, the ball park and where all the public transportation drop-offs were (Cal Train, Bart, Ferry and Light Rail).

Party Highlights

The party is really gaining steam, the marketing is working, it’s starting to get on bucket lists and people are starting to travel for the party. We host 140 guests this year, including 29 kids showing up with wands and Sorting Hats for the Harry Potter Kids party.

We up-leveled the ball park tour option by outlining the different tour stops (dugout, press box, luxury suites etc.). We creating a separate in-party flyer with a walking map, tour times and the guide names. It is a 5 minute walk and the party gravity is really strong so we need strong tools to help guests achieve escape velocity.

One guest had such a good time at the party he wrote a 14 stanza poem titled ‘Ode to the Scarf Scrum’ (below).