The best party I\u2019ve ever attended was themed around European Union expansion.<\/p>\n
The interior of the house was West Berlin in all its cosmopolitan glory\u2014the backyard was the East, the Schwarz\u2013Rot\u2013Gold and compass keeping close watch over the revelers below. Dividing the two was a wall haphazardly constructed out of hundreds of cardboard boxes, stopping partygoers (who were sorted into sections by a doorman in a long coat and ushanka) from interacting with their brethren on the other side of the barrier. Two DJs and two drink menus, each themed around their respective zones, gave each side its own unique aura.<\/p>\n
And then the clock struck midnight.<\/p>\n
The music cut out.<\/p>\n
And a sharp cry pierced through the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!\u201d And so it was.<\/p>\n
Maybe LARPing German reunification isn\u2019t your idea of a good time. Thankfully, on any given weekend at Penn, there\u2019s no shortage of parties\u2014both on and off campus\u2014open for you to enjoy. With clubs, bars, and house shows open every weekend, there\u2019s also no reason your social life should be constrained by the irregular borders of Penn\u2019s core campus. Whatever space you find most comfortable, you\u2019re more than likely to find it profiled in this issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the spirit of Penn\u2019s \u201cwork hard, play hard\u201d culture, we at Street have worked hard on the Party Issue to question the state of play on Penn\u2019s campus. From queer party profiles to bar reviews, we examine Penn\u2019s social scene on Locust Walk and beyond, exploring the social spaces students seek out in order to take a load off after a long day of work. In a feature on the Penn administration\u2019s recent crackdown on fraternity life, we investigate where Penn\u2019s social scene might go after it is squeezed off campus. And we would never relegate you to the status of a passive reader\u2014with our crossword and DIY frat ranks, you\u2019ll find plenty of opportunities to make your mark (literally) on the pages that follow.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve read this far, here\u2019s some advice for you: It\u2019s easy to work hard and play hard. It\u2019s harder to find a unity between the two. Don\u2019t waste your life here doing work you know is meaningless. Don\u2019t waste your time in social spaces where you feel like you don\u2019t belong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Building a cardboard wall, finding two DJs, manning a door\u2014all of that is hard work. But to see the fruits of your labor in the joy people feel when they enter the space you created makes all that work seem like child\u2019s play.<\/p>\n
In the spirit of reunification, let your work and play become one. Dear Reader\u2014tear down that wall!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best party I\u2019ve ever attended was themed around European Union expansion. The interior of the house was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-288769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}