Fortress Party Retrospective 2002

And then one day, Fortress Party moved to Ann Arbor. We bought a house because of the name of the street it was on... Roon the Ben. 

Home ownership confers many benefits, but foremost is the privilege of hardwiring the house to be fortress-ready. We installed about a dozen screw eyes into the wall a few inches below the ceiling to hold up the line. 

We used drywall anchors so we could put them wherever we wanted. It would be a few years before I learned what a bad idea anchors were. The weight of the Fort loosens them, and they eventually pop out, leaving holes in the wall, and sometimes causing a corner of the Fortress ceiling to collapse. Learn from my mistakes, future Fortress-builders, and always screw your screw eyes directly into studs. 

This Fortress was about 500 square feet, filling the ground floor of the 2-story house. A few leftover temporary tattoos from 2001 made it onto guest bellies.

This couple would eventually get married. Did they meet at Fortress Party? Maybe, but even if they didn't, this event clearly solidified their bond.

Note the little paper sign taped to the wall that says, "Control Room." This was the first time a Fortress room was labelled to represent its theme.

The "Control Room" contained a TV that was hooked up by a 10-foot cable to our Mini-DV camera, which was pointed at the front door of the house. When people came in, we saw them and shouted their names drunkenly. (We were not drunk; we were just shouting drunken-LY. It was part of the theme.) 

The music at FP'02 was... cassettes!

Another future married couple who may or may not have met at Fortress Party.

The London's early board game collection. Pretty sorry, even by 2002 standards.

These two would eventually become BFFs. Is it because of FP '02? A lot of people are saying so.

Ignore the Franzia wine stand for a second, because any party can have that. What's cool about this picture is that this is the first Fortress that included any rooms with uncarpeted floors, and we already knew that was unacceptable. In this case, an afghan was placed on (though not yet taped to) linoleum floor in the kitchen.