Amid all the talk of IRL proms, don’t forget that the Academy’s spring formal is coming up soon and needs planning, too. It’s the high point of the academic year, so let’s make it a good one.
For inspiration, you might want to consult the proceedings of May Balls held in 2011, 2010, 2009, and
2008.
May Day Ball! I think the last (and only) one I’ve been to was 2009.
So, will we be having a theme this year?
Of course, if we can think of one. How about Alice in Wonderland? Or Alice in Muserland? It would be a good way to introduce Catwoman (already an avid Muser) to the glories of Muse Academy and the blog.
That is a beautiful idea. I am already excited for all the mushroom decorations we simply must have.
Also, I liked the maze idea. Perhaps we could have another one of those on the Rooftop Garden?
Plus, as always, the wonderful refreshment stand.
Oh that’s perfect.
How would we reconcile this theme with the usual strict enforcement of the laws of physics we have at the Muse Academy functions?
Through creativity, ingenuity, and intelligence.
As well as a healthy helping of insanity, I assume.
After all, we’re all m–
I should hope so.
Or even MuseBlogland, at the risk of falling into an infinite loop.
We’re all mad here.
awwwwwwwww
I like the idea of Alice in Museland. As to the application of physics, many Wonderland aspects can be achieved through the judicious application of optical illusions and the kind of effects people use in theaters. For instance, I was once in a museum (sorry, I can’t remember which one) that had a hallway with a gently sloping, black-and-white tiled floor, and a ceiling and walls of mirrors. If you walked down the hall one way, you felt like you were getting smaller. The other, and you felt larger. If you opened a door and walked into another room, you suddenly felt normal-sized again.
It would be a fun opportunity to play with optical illusions… I personally always love mirror mazes etc., or anything where you end up feeling like there is a reflected hall that goes on forever…
Do you think a mirror maze with rose bushes planted at strategical intervals to make you feel like you had shrunk and where trapped in a giant rose garden would work?
Yes! And it twists you and turns you around enough so that, by the time you find the end, where you eat your personalized cake, you think that cake has grown you large enough to walk over a miniaturized version of the maze.
Alice in Wonderland? Oh, yes, yes! I like everything that’s been said so far.
My own Underground ideas:
Perhaps the entry hall could be got up with furniture attached sidelong to the walls and ceiling and floor, to look like the rabbit-hole turned on its side.
I suggest large mushroom-shaped seats to lounge around on, saying: “Who are you?”
A croquet game?
We really ought to dance a Lobster Quadrille, at some point.
Looking Glass ideas:
Giant chessmen somewhere.
An archway to the garden ornamented with an arch formed by a lion and a unicorn (fighting for the crown)?
Those are beautiful ideas. I suppose a croquet game and a giant chess set would fit wonderfully in the rooftop garden, as an alternative to a maze this year? Or perhaps, we could incorporate both into the maze itself, with plenty of mushrooms! Giant ones, of course.
Also, I think we should set up a tea party somewhere, perhaps in the rooftop gardens as well.
Thank you, *Cskia!
It sounds to me like we have more garden ideas than interior ideas. What if we turned the ballroom into a garden and the garden into a room? Ooh, inversion…. The ballroom (which I’ve always pictured with a very high ceiling) could have trees and other plants and a sky-patterned ceiling, while the rooftop could be covered with a trompe l’oeil tent.
The tea party: It could be the buffet itself, but we might also have it somewhere separate, where people could sit to eat and ask riddles.
I love it! Except I have one question: What are some dress ideas, other than Alice of course. It wouldn’t be any fun to have a billion Alices and Queen of hearts. Wait! I’ve found a way to contradict myself! We could have a lookalike contest! I’m torn. Any ideas?
It’s not a costume party. It’s the spring formal, MA’s equivalent of a prom. The decorations can be Carrollian, but any costumes could be worn only by the (I may regret saying this) faculty.
Wait, people don’t normally go to their prom in costume?
>_>
<_<
Enceladus – Perfect! As soon as you exited the maze (presumably after eating your cake – which is not a lie) you would feel like a giant!
Cerulean Pyros – I like all your ideas in post 3. Perhaps we could have a giant chess set for a dance floor? And we would have to dance among giant chess pieces playing endless games of chess? Wait, we DO have a dance floor, right? This will be my second May Day Ball ever, so I’m a little uncertain…
Also, I think the tea party might work best in conjunction with the buffet table but not part of it. As in, you pick up food and tea at the buffet table, and then bring it to a long table with chairs of varying heights around it to eat and drink. That way there is no risk of clogging the buffet with people, and we have a designated space to sit on chairs that are never the right height and ask each other riddles and such.
*Cskia – I must admit that I’m very partial to the shrinking maze idea. However, perhaps we could play croquet in the maze? Or is there to much risk of breaking a mirror?
I love that dance floor idea.
I think I didn’t quite connect the ideas of “Rooftop gardens” and “mirror maze” when I read what you wrote, but otherwise, that sounds fantastic! I suppose we could use Cerulean’s idea of the inversion after all, otherwise we wouldn’t have much free air as far as I see it. Now, the croquet game, could we play it among the chessmen? Or would playing croquet and dancing and trying not to crash into giant chessmen be too much of a hassle?
Um, yes I think it would be too much of a hassle. But that could just be me…
So, on one hand we risk breaking a mirror maze with croquet, and on the other we risk breaking each other?
I think the Academy can afford unbreakable mirrors. Tough but flexible plastic, maybe.
(In fact, on such a pie-happy campus, mirrors like that are already standard issue in dorm rooms.)
The optical illusions sound like a great idea! Inspired by the holography gallery at the MIT Museum, could we have some holograms in the decorations, the really good ones where you reach out and try to touch the picture because you swear something’s floating there in front of you?
Yes! And interspersed with them should be real objects that look as though they are holograms, for added confusion.
Mr. Coontz – Wonderful! So croquet in the maze, then?
KaiYves and Ambystoma – That’s a great idea! But what shall we hologram-ify? At first I thought of a picture of Humpty Dumpty, but that’s from Through the Looking Glass.
Oh! I just realized something about the maze. Because of the nature of the optical illusion, if you ever had to backtrack, you would feel like you were getting larger again until you got to whatever size you were at at the point you were backtracking to. Also, the further into the maze you got, the smaller you would get. So you wouldn’t be shrunk and then walking, you would be shrinking while you walked.
SFTDP. In retrospect, I should have realized that immediately…
Is this really a triple post? It is two days later…
So what are we going with at this point?
Sorry for vanishing on you. Stuff happened.
I think we’re going with:
Entry hall: furniture attached sidelong to the walls and ceiling and floor, to look like the rabbit-hole turned on its side.
Ballroom: Indoor garden; large mushroom-shaped seats; chess; lion and unicorn archway to roof; tea party; holograms.
Rooftop: Tent, to turn it into an interior; croquet; clever and complicated mirror maze, as described extensively above.
Dancing will be: Lobster quadrille, and an assortment of interesting music. Food extant according to guests’ imaginations. Attire to be formal, comfortable, stylish, and individual. Interactions not relegated to fellow MBers, due to the infinite range of Mysterious Strangers who attend the ball.
your avitar makes me hungry for grape jelly for some reason
what IS that?
no offense
hey! i have an idea! a GAPA please consider this idea.
we have a thread where someone who is picked to be the leader is like the “chief” and we are all detective agents working for the “Chief” and everyday the Chief sends all who are interested out on a mission. like just now i spied on my neighbor who was asking for money. i don’t mean to interfere with my neighbor’s private buisness but i couldn’t resist. that’s what gave me the idea for this thread! GAPAs please consider this idea very carefully. discuss with your fellow GAPAs, (p.s. i thought up this mission my imaginary friend was telling me to pet one of my other neighbor’s black and white cat. but withought being seen or heard by my Aunt (who is neighbor #1 i mentioned earlier) so it turned out kind of fun)