Fly on the Sociological Wall

On Thursday night I went to one of my usual hangouts, and found a rather close acquaintance of mine who revealed to me that there was a fashion show on at one of the residences that she was involved in, and whether I would like to come, despite 'the VIP tickets being sold out'. Ever the yes-man, I duly assented.

As reflected by the tone of my latest entries which has, perhaps, been a bit subdued, Ive been in a bit of an odd headspace lately with those existential and teleological conundrums creeping in. However, this event turned out to be some very nice 'art therapy', though not entirely because of the event itself.

I suppose in a manner akin to first- and second-order logic, one can consider first and second order observation. What struck me, as a few hiccups at the beginning and a late start were duly remedied, was the second-order absurdity of the spectacle: the 'mingling' of people with their drinks, the VIP tags on certain individuals ('very important person'? because they paid an extra R20 for their ticket, get free alcohol, get to sit in the front row, and get some goody-bag giveaway item? How does one define importance in this manner?). Then during the show, there was the DJ, the lighting, the catwalk, the emcees, the catcalls and screams from the audience, and, of course, the models. I summed it up to a friend of mine in a text as 'a bunch of youngsters trying to emulate Western high society' though that may be a bit unfair. It WAS interesting as a first-order observer, though I still don't and probably never will understand what is fashionable about giving the white models giant bed-head afros and slopping them all over with strange make-up, but maybe that's just me.

I suppose this sort of second-order observation comes to me more often than perhaps it does for most, and maybe it is a reflection of the interest I take from seeing not necessarily how people act in given situations, but rather how they REact to given situations; i.e. what makes them tick and why.

All in all, I will not deny the organizer my kudos for the fact that she did a wonderful job and I thoroughly enjoyed the event, both first-order and second-order enjoyment, and I was very dismayed that there was a police raid that shut down the night-club that all attendees were supposed to get free cover for that night.

Talk about bad timing...