Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.misc From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Electing to party Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE M;WASHINGTON WEEKEND \HD Electing to party \BY Laura Outerbridge \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The air is alive with anticipation as the big night approaches, and everyone in town scrambles for party invitations and funny hats. And we're not talking Halloween. No, wilder still. It's election night, an evening haunted with the peril of exit poll results and worse, when werewolves and pundits prowl the airwaves and no household is safe from the natterings of network anchors. Past election nights have slunk by with the dull inevitability of New Year's, as politicos and a few others slung brewskies in hotel ballrooms and most folks dozed off in front of their home sets. This year's different, though. There's an electricity here, powered perhaps by the unpredictability of a three-way race or the buzz of voter unrest. Whatever the cause, if it's got a beat, we'll dance to it. After all - this could be the last time you'll hear a sax play without attaching political grace notes. No, Nov. 3 is definitely not a night to spend alone. Wouldn't be prudent. Better get yourself to a place with a large-screen TV, lots of friends and catfish pate. Or pork rinds. It's just that simple. The pols plan to split along partisan lines - the Republicans to the Washington Hilton and the Democrats to the Omni Shoreham and the National Democratic Club. Lobbyists, meanwhile, will scatter themselves somewhere in between. "We're doing bipartisan because it's the politically correct thing to do," one operative says. The American Nuclear Energy Council (ANEC) has hosted return-watching parties in its boardroom for the past several elections. This year, however, the lobbying group plans to station itself in a hospitality suite at the Sheraton Washington - sort of equidistant from the Republicans and Democrats. "We're just kind of like a pre-party," says Mary Toups, ANEC's manager of member development and special events. The group plans "big-screen TVs, pizza, beer and stuff like that." The National Organization of Women will stake out Trader Vic's for the night. The National Association of Manufacturers will hold gatherings both election night and the morning after at its Pennsylvania Avenue offices. Behind many of these soirees is Washington Inc., professional throwers of power parties. "Even the losers had a great time" at the last election-night parties in '88 and '90, says Patti Dunn, a Washington Inc. account executive. "Obviously, the best way to keep things going is to keep the bar open, and we always have the big maps up to show the latest results, great music, great food and drink. "By the time the party gets under way, it's usually pretty clear how the election's going, anyway." So how do you keep the guests from going glassy-eyed in front of the TVs? Distract 'em with "jugglers, singers and different comedy acts," Miss Dunn says. Jazz combos also are hot these days, as are country acts and the blues. If that doesn't work, resort to chemical inducements, such as Washington Inc.'s white-chocolate donkeys and elephants. The joke circulating on E-mail last week was that Texas billionaire Ross Perot had sent out invitations to the Best Party Ever. Trouble was, he canceled suddenly a few days before the date. But at Perot headquarters, the party is still on, a campaign spokeswoman says. Details are still being worked out, but the festivities will probably take place in Perot HQ's 15th Street offices, a volunteer says. If you want to get your name in the newspaper or your mug on the late night news, head down to the Hawk and Dove, Bullfeathers, the Tune Inn or some other Capitol Hill watering hole. There the media will be watching the Hill aides watching the returns. Outside official Washington, your election-night options are, well, pretty much out there. The Fifth Column nightclub is planning "some kind of Democratic victory party," a club spokesman says. Fifth Column fixture and presidential candidate Russell Hirshon probably will not be celebrating, however. "Russell's going to be in mourning - he's behind in the polls, you know." (Call the club at 202/393-3632 for details). Over at the 9:30 Club, meanwhile, it'll be the Presidential Mudslingers' Ball, featuring a four-piece combo known as the Dick Nixons. The band, hailing from Donaldsonville, La., claims to be dedicated to the proposition of getting Richard Nixon back in the White House. Between punked out versions of Tony Orlando's "Knock Three Times" and other classics, the group extolls its hero in thick Bayou accents: "He the only man who gots the guts enough to get the job done," says group spokesman Kirk Springstone. Based on its own surveys, the band is pretty sure their man is going to win. "We been down to the shopping mall, asking everyone if they going to vote for Dick Nixon and everybody say, 'Yeah, sure.' So we think he going to get elected," Mr. Springstone says. (9:30 Club concert line: 202/393-0930). Wolf Trap goes Caribbean for the big night. Reggae legends Toots and the Maytals perform in the big room at the Barns, together with Haiti's Boukman Eksperyans. Toots Hibbert, Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias have been performing as the Maytals since 1962, hanging tough through every Jamaican musical trend from ska to reggae. The comparative youngsters in Boukman Eksperyans (the band formed in the late '70s), perform a combination of sounds from Haiti's Vodou temples, rara (an energetic springtime celebration), and contemporary Caribbean pop. In the Barns' adjoining bar, meanwhile, TVs will blip the latest returns and the bartender will serve special concoctions in honor of the three candidates, says Wolf Trap spokesman Daryl Friedman (tickets are $16, available from ProTix, 703/218-6500). Complete political escapists will congregate in the cavernous Capital Centre to see Brit metalist band Def Leppard perform. The arena's giant score cube definitely will not display Peter Jennings or the electoral college map on its humongous video screens, a Cap Centre spokeswoman says (tickets available from TicketMaster, 202/432-0200). Washington-grown political satirists will be conspicuously absent on election night this year. The Pheromones had planned a big soiree, says Jimmy Pheromone, but got invited to perform "at a college up north." Mrs. Foggybottom will be "at her Watergate transition office, counting votes and putting her Cabinet in order," reports her friend Joan Cushing, who plans to be out of town. Even the stalwart Capitol Steps troupe plans to hightail it - to Las Vegas, of all places. The troupe will entertain "an automobile company" at a private election night party at Bally's Casino, a spokesman says. "I'll probably be getting a transfusion," says John Simmons, actor-in-chief at Gross National Product and the troupe's Bush impersonator. GNP has engagements every night through Monday, most of them private parties. "We usually just watch" the returns, which are entertaining enough on their own, he says. "We'll be figuring out whether we're going to do Bushcapades or Buscapades" after the election." GNP has performed "Bushcapades," its satirical revue, at the Bayou every Saturday for the past four years. Perhaps in deference to the candidates' political slugfest, a handful of local poets will be slinging verse at each other at the 15 Minutes club (202/789-1044). The event, called a poetry slam, is "sort of like a battle of the bands, only with poets," organizer and emcee poet Art Shuhart says. Poets go head to head in a series of round-robin events, with the audience choosing the winner with its applause, he says. At evening's end, one poet comes out on top and wins $50. The evening's theme is "A Poet for President," Mr. Shuhart says, so the winner also will walk away with "the keys to the White House." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM