Christmas Party at the Military Club
Tuesday night I was invited by an embassy friend to another Christmas reception. This one was sponsored by an air freight company in Bulgaria. The reception took place at the Military Club in downtown Sofia. I don’t know the history of the military club, but it was quite ornate inside. The club was fairly large – there were several hundred people at the event. At one end of the room was a stage. There were also balconies along the two sides of the room where guests could look down on the crowd. The floor was all wood – probably designed as a dance floor. The most important thing, however, were the two open bars on either side of the room. I promptly went up to the bar and ordered a glass of Jameson Irish Whisky.
I walked around for a bit, but quickly realized the effort was futile since the room was so packed with people. There was some food in the back, but none of it looked particularly appetizing. After a while some official looking person got on stage to talk. Perhaps he was the director or CEO of the freight company, I’m not really sure. Regardless, very few people stopped their conversations to listen to him. He was talking into a microphone, but the crowd noise was so loud I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. Obviously the crowd was here for the free booze and had little interest in listening to a CEO – even if he did invite them.
After the speech there were some interesting performance acts. The main lights went down and some middle-eastern-ish music came blaring out of the speakers. The crowd quieted down a bit for this – but only a bit. Three women came out on stage doing a performance twirling around flaming balls on a chain. It was actually pretty interesting. Since the lights were down low the flames made some pretty cool patterns when they were spun around.
Now, as these three women were twirling around six flaming balls I gazed around to what was surrounding the stage. What I saw were large cloth curtains – large flammable cloth curtains. As the balls of flame were twirling around they came quite close to these cloth curtains. In the United States I’m sure the fire code would state that a fireman was required to be on the premises during the performance, but there probably wasn’t a firemen within 10 miles of this building. I looked around to the 400 people packed into the hall, then slowly shifting my gaze to the one and only marked emergency exit. All I could think was, thank goodness Bulgaria is fireproof or this had the potential to be a big catastrophe.
The flaming ball twirlers finished their act and the main lights came up. Everyone went back to their conversations. The stage lights remained off, but within a couple seconds some new music started up – it sounded like ballet music. I looked over to the stage and in the back of the darkened stage I saw a ballerina dancing. After 30 seconds or so the lighting guy finally figured out that the show wasn’t over and brought up the stage lights and dimmed the main lights. Now everyone could clearly see the ballerina. The ballerina was probably pretty psyched too because now she could see the edge of the stage. There was a collection of musical instrument and amplifiers strewn about the stage (in preparation for some musical entertainment later in the evening) that required the ballerina to strategically dance around – I’m sure the lights helped for that as well.
The ballerina finished her act, the stage lights went off and the main light came up. Almost immediately a new ballet-esque song came on. I looked to the stage and again there was a ballet act being performed on the stage in total darkness. Again, it took the lights guy about 30 seconds to realize the show wasn’t over and bring up the stage lights and dim the main lights.
This performance ended and the whole process repeated itself. I don’t know what the lights guy was doing, but it certainly didn’t involve paying attention to what was happening on the stage. Another ballet act came on to perform in total darkness and 30 seconds later the lights guy finally figured out what was going on and hit the stage lights. The lights guy obviously does not learn new concepts through repetition. This time, however, the lights guy must have let a 5 year-old take control because the stage lights were going on and off, changing colors, different lights from different parts of the stage were being used in an apparently random fashion. I nearly had an epileptic seizure watching it all.
After a few flaming ball and ballet acts a band came out to finish the night. Now I’m going to provide some background information about the band. There is a restaurant in Sofia called Bitburger – which is actually a brand of German beer, but in this case the name of a restaurant that happens to serve Bitburger beer. I’ve been to this restaurant twice and on both occasions they had the same live band playing. They were pretty good. They played mostly cover songs from the 70′s and 80′s (Clapton, Doobie Brothers, etc.). The second time I heard them I knew they were the same band without even looking because they played the exact same set list as the first time.
Fast forward back to the party. I was on one of the balconies talking to a guy when the band started playing. I wasn’t looking at the band or really paying much attention until I started to recognize the order of the songs. I peer over the balcony and, low and behold, it’s the Bitburger band – playing the exact same set list I heard them play twice before. It’s like those guys who play in the subway and only know four songs. They keep playing them over and over assuming no one will figure it out since the train always come before they finish their mini-set. Ok guys, I know you like Clapton to come after the Doobie Brothers, but you can mix it up a little bit.
I listened to the band for a few minutes but since I had heard this exact set list twice before I decided to head home – full and happy with our free booze.
