Fortress Party 2022 - Happy Little Trees

Bob Ross, a bunch of imitation Bob Ross paintings, and an audio clip of him teaching the Joy of Painting. And that's it. 

Fortress Party 2022 - Fortle

In 2022, everyone was playing Worldle. We built a dictionary of five-letter words that related to Fortress Party or past fortress themes, and built Fortle. Rather than using a keyboard to enter letters, Fortle utilized 4"x4" cubes with fluorescent letters on one side, and a QR reader on the back. 

 

When he game ended (either with a win or loss), a definition and picture of the word was displayed. Often, but not always, they would include actual pictures from previous Fortress Parties. 

The sign-in sheet was also Wordle-themed in 2022.

Fortress Party 2022 - Neurology Resident Room

This room was mostly an inside joke, but I knew there would be a lot of people at the party who were in on it. The University of Michigan neurology residents operate their consult service out of a glorified closet that hasn't had a good purge in years. People pin things they think are helpful, funny, or cheerful to a cork board, and they just stay there forever.

Over the prior month, I photocopied or stole everything from that cork board and built a replica of it in my living room. 

A giant pager showed a variety of "urgent" messages. 

The highlight was a rotating playlist of short music videos starting puppets and many of the actual University of Michigan neurology residents and rotators. None of them knew exactly why they were being filmed, but went along with it anyway, because they are good sports. (And blah blah power dynamics blah blah blah. I'm going with good sports.)

Here are the videos:

Fortress Party 2022 - Pedal Pub

Add wheels and pedals to a dining room table, and you've got yourself a pedal pub. On the wall, we projected a nice relaxing trip around Ann Arbor. 

Fortress Party 2022 - Belly of a Whale

Most fortress rooms are noisy, well-lit and activating, but some guests prefer a room that is more calming... a place to escape the din of flashing lights and shouting mannequins. This year, that room was The Belly of a Whale.

The journey started at the other end of the whale's digestive tract and worked it's way up to the belly. 

There were checkpoints at the sigmoid, ileum, and jejunum. Once you get to the duodenum, there was a partially-digested Pinocchio. 

The Belly room was lined with soft pink and red sheets covering comfortable surfaces. A giant beanbag served as the tongue. White sheets were rolled up and used to imply ribs around the ceiling and walls.

And projected onto he window from the outside of the house were underwater scenes through an opening and closing mouth. 

The rest of my family was very disturbed by the fact that teeth of this mouth appeared to be human teeth, rather than baleen. I had to remind them that some whales have teeth, and some of them just have better dental hygiene than others. Here is the full video. 

Fortress Party 2022 - Tower of London

The first of our three U.K.-themed rooms was the Tower of London. At the top of the stairs there was a tower, the Crown Jewels, the decapitated heads of Henry VIII's wives, and ravens. 

A rotating cast of Beefeaters tended the bar. 

There was a menu of five prefixed drinks, many of which were gin-based. (Though we didn't actually use Beefeater branded gin. Shhh.) 

The drinks and garnishes were kept backstage in the bathroom. 

Fortress Party 2022 - Queen Elizabeth Tribute Concert

The Queen of England died in September 2022, so the timing seemed right for a tribute concert. The centerpiece of the room was a an open-casket with the Queen's remains. We set up a functioning treadmill in front of the casket, so guests could efficiently view her lying in state.

The lineup included a variety of British pop stars, including (but not limited to) Amy Winehouse, Nick Drake, Paul McCartney, Prince Harry, and others. 

Lauren and I did a set as "Tulled Spices," the Jethro Tull/Posh Spice mash-up. Thankfully, I don't think any video footage of that performance survived.

The night ended with some karaoke.