Fortress Party 2007 Retrospective

In 2007, my cousin Kyle Ravreby had the honor of leading the walkthrough video. 

Totters of the American Revolution

This room had American flags from different eras, drum and fife music, Revolutionary War maps, and a teeter totter, courtesy of former Ann Arbor local, Homeless Dave Askins. I suppose anyone who used to live in Ann Arbor would qualify as a former Ann Arbor local, but Homeless Dave used to keep his finger on the pulse of the local scene at a much deeper level than the rest of us. He built a teeter totter behind house (because he wasn't actually homeless) and host local politicians, business owners, and weirdos for Teeter Talks, recorded one-on-one conversations while seesawing. The prior year, I had been one of those weirdos, and leveraged that to borrow the custom Totter for Fortress Party.  

Calico Jack's Bloody Sadness Bar

This room was a sailor's dream, full of rum and nets. We hung microphones from the ceiling, passed out a bunch of hand-held percussion instruments, projected lyrics on the wall, and recorded an entire album of sea shanties and drinking songs. By 4 am, one of Lauren's community theater friends was teaching the last of the guests barbershop quartet songs. I don't seem to have any still photos from that night, but I was delighted to find that the recordings had survived, and sound great!

All For Me Grog

Blow the Man Down

Cigareets and Whiskey

Drunken Sailor

Sally Brown

New York Girls

So Early

Fortress Barbershop

Cabela's

The best Fortress room ideas are those that utilize the resources we already have at our disposal. In 2007, Scarlett was a toddler, so we owned a surfeit of stuffed animals. This was perfect for recreating the infamous Cabela's mountain of taxidermy. Instead of cougars and elk locked in deadly combat, we had Eeyore and some fluffy puppies.

Double Black Diamond

This was a mash-up of ideas we had used in the past... hanging chairs and fake snow on the floor. It was fairly uninspired but quite relaxing.

The Cosmonaut Penthouse and Wine Bar

The obligatory trippy room, with black lights and lasers. We bought a case of Voga red wine, which is notable for its futuristic shampoo-like bottles. This started the trend of basing theme rooms around a single type of alcohol. 

With warmest regards,

Zach

Appendix: Fortress Party 2007 Invitation

Happily, it's almost time for FORTRESS PARTY 2007

Saturday December 1, 7pm - 7am
2720 White Oak Dr.

This fort was designed for you, one of our elite loyal fortress regulars. It has been built from the ground up (or more specifically, from the ceiling down) to exceed your expectations in terms of physical stature and intellectual content. I guarantee that this will be the largest, fiercest, most exhilarating and most thoroughly disorienting fortress in the 13 year history of the event. 

Feel free to bring friends and relatives, even if they are nerds. (Just kidding: no nerds please!) If your friends are children, they can come too if they can trusted no to be too "runny" and "grabby." Please let me know if you have any questions about our children or nerd policies.