Has Colombo Stopped Having Ludicrous Theme Parties or Have They Stopped Sending me Invites?

-here, take some free publicity

Remember the time when your Facebook messages page was only crammed to the hilt with invitations to theme parties happening around various nightlife establishments in the city of Colombo?

It’s surprising how quickly Facebook marketing was used by local event organizers. Just goes to show that they maybe understood their target audiences better than scruffy tie wearing corporate executives but i digress.

I for one didn’t appreciate their kind invites. I am not a party animal. At least not in the conventional way. Yes i like to stay away from stereotypical conventions. It reflects my rugged individuality and adventurous disposition but i’m digressing again.

Anyway this ‘shotgun’ approach to marketing parties over Facebook greatly offended my august sensitivities. This was where marketing innovation became overkill. I even had one chap whom i know distantly send me enthusiastic weekly messages inviting me to parties he was DJing at, in Washington DC.

After patiently declining his invites for many months I have now politely removed him from my friends list. And am no longer troubled by these invites. And my Facebook message page has since been taken over by infrequent messages from old friends and the long and repetitive conversations of the blogger gang trying to find appropriate times to meet each other, celebrate birthdays, fling random friendly insults etc.  Definitely an improvement.

So i got a bad taste in my mouth when i opened my inbox to find an invite from ‘the JUNGLE all the way to HOLLYWOOD’. Sitting there for my perusal. It was the usual hash. Except that it seemed to be referring to our wholesome nation as a ‘jungle’ and talked about its amazing party innovations such as red carpets, catwalk models and ‘live paparazzi’  and a ‘crew’ with the word HOLLYWOOD in their name to presumably add some authenticity to their claim of transporting you to Hollywood for one night. I quote:

We make you a star as our TV camera’s, paparazzi’s and prestige’s dj’s will show you what the glamorous life is all about !!
Do you’ll like to celebrate the Hollywood awards night with brad pit, tom Cruz, Megan fox and Angelina jolie???

Well here is your one and only chance.
For the first time Hollywood comes to Colombo!!

Gee I didn’t know all those A-listers were going to be in Sri Lanka but i suspect Brad ‘pit’ could be a lookalike impostor. Anyway all theme parties are filled with your standard drunk guys (who missed the memo about the dress code) and one or two good looking girls attached to rich, thuggish looking guys who take it in turns to cocktease the whole club (with other women, not thuggish looking guys). The bouncers stare at you like you’re a criminal waiting to incriminate yourself and the waiters are only polite after you’ve ordered liquor worth a cool few thousand.

Kind of depressing, unless you’re a rich thuggish looking guy with a beautiful girl on your arm who can get a kick out of parading for the laity. Iwas under the impression that theme parties had died out in Sri Lanka. But then i got invited to Hollywood.

Small note on ‘Foam parties’; I’ve never been to one but i have sighted people leaving these events. Remind me to go if the ‘depressed wet chicken’ look ever comes into fashion.

• Facebook
• Sri Lanka
• Theme Parties