Vegas, baby
Today, some of my best friends left for a bachelor party in Las Vegas. I am 100% terrified for them. Bachelor parties are about pushing extremes – but my friends are comedians, their boundaries are practically non-existent to begin with. Committing to taking this party all the way to Vegas pushes it into the realm of “something terrible will DEFINITELY happen”. There will be live sex shows, there might be animals. I expect to get a call about a decapitated hooker any time between now and Monday.
I know, I have never been to a bachelor party, so how can I talk? Well, I have heard enough horrifying bachelor party stories to approach all of them with a degree of trepidation. I have friends who have done unspeakable things to women, themselves, and each other, and more than a few friendships have been ruined. No shit – one of my friends lost a ball. (Ok, that’s more of a euphamism than a literal truth, but it’s a euphamism for “got herpes from an illegal”, which is still pretty bad.) Isn’t there a way for men to bond with each other and say goodbye to their singlehood without completely raping their inner children in the process.
Basically, I think of this Vegas bachelor party the same way I think of my experience seeing the Bodies Exhibit at South Street Seaport. I looked forward to going for weeks. It was so cool and twisted -I was going to see the human body in states that most people only IMAGINE. Then, halfway through I started thinking about who these people really were before they became this exhibit, and how their parents would feel about them being displayed playing football with no skin, and why they left the eyebrows on them. By the next day I wished I could remove the part of my brain that had ever seen those things. But I can’t – I will forever have those sights inside of me, and know that I paid $50 for them to happen.
Enjoy the party! (My phone will be on.)
June 19th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I swear Gunther von Hagens is 120 years old and through his own technologies kept as a creepy creepy 60 year old Polish man.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Had the exact same experience with the Bodies thing while in Chicago. Exact same progression of curiosity & marvel to yuck to that wish-could-remove-that-part-of-brain thing. I totally wish I’d not seen it. I would have gotten the same kick out of it if it were all just wax & hokey skeletons in clever life-poses — BUT now with muscle & nerves & gristle on ‘em! — …yuck. And did they really have to include the buzzkill “Reproductive World” exhibit? Thanks for re-fetching me the fond memory.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
And you do know that there is controversy about the Bodies exhibitions because supposedly some of the bodies are stolen from Chinese families that have no idea that their (former) loved ones are on display for the world to gawk at? You would catch me paying a dollar to the scumbags running the show.