Current events aren’t the focus of this project, but I would be remiss if I did not recall some hazed memories from the jewel of January 2023 events: Phoebe Nir’s second Edward De Vere Ball, The *Winter* Edward De Vere Ball - All that Glitters.
Nights in New York City have been uncommonly warm for winter, but the night of Saturday, January the 28th was electrified with a kind of magic that only arrives after darker Yugas have receded. Not to veer into too much magical thinking, but something about that Saturday night conjured deja vu, dreams, good times, and even more beautiful people. I knew I was in for something strange when I made the rare decision to hail a yellow cab. The driver was a time traveling Paul Schrader character. He was a clean good ol’ boy, like he pulled in out of a Rod Serling script. 1960s neutral all American tone, horn rimmed glasses and a silhouette that said “I don’t spend all my time sitting down in this car”. It’s not statistically insignificant to have of all things, a retro white cab driver. It’s even more remote for the man to start reciting all the different Shakespeare truther conspiracy theories he knows from his old NYU classes - all while driving you to your peculiar iconoclastic anti-Shakespeare event.
For those not in the know as my cool cab driver was, The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship is the most popular among several alternate Shakespeare authorship theories. Founded by English schoolteacher John Thomas Looney, it proposes that the body of William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets were in fact written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. There’s a lot of academic takes and political slants to the Shakespeare authorship question. Not delving too deep here, the Oxfordian argument combines several theories, one being that a commoner probably couldn’t have had the wealth of travel, worldly experience and knowledge of court dynamics to write William Shakespeare’s oeuvre. Half of Shakespeare’s plays are set in Italy with a high level of detail, matching De Vere’s travels and time spent in the region. I don’t have too strong an opinion on the authorship question, but believe any event sufficiently far into the past is open to interpretation. We barely have a handle on events from 2020, let alone 1963, or 1600. It’s a fun theory with a lot of evidence to play around with. Edward De Vere was a philanderer, a poet, and an adventurer, all things we love to see here on Thirst Trap For Annihilation. Given some more time maybe Phoebe might have me convinced that such a cool guy was lost to time. I encourage readers to listen to Nicholas Dolinger’s interview with Phoebe Nir and Junker Jo on the origins of the first De Vere Ball, and their interests in The Oxfordian theory.
While not exactly fringe not exactly mainstream, Oxfordianism itself falls into the background lore of the De Vere Ball itself. What is The De Vere Ball, really? If it was just about Shakespeare trutherism, the event would not be subject to nearly as much myth and infamy. In many ways, Phoebe’s elaborate meditation on questions of the past crosses into questions of the present. If the downtown NYC art scenes converging on “Dimes Square” or “Republican Art-Fag Socialism” take the form of a hyperreal series of Warhol factories, then the De Vere Ball is not so difficult to understand. The ball is both 100% sincere in its intentions and presentations, while simultaneously wrapped in ironic glam. There will come a time in the near future when no one will remember how to ask these questions, much less answer them.
I arrived to The De Vere Ball as the guest of a guest to a talented artist and friend I made the night before over dinner and later another subsequent excessive downtown Manhattan Friday night house party attended by the likes of tech founders, and dandy vampire himself, Lucian Wintrich. The De Vere Ball was night two of extensive cognitive research. Speaking of my dinner friends, and fellow De Vere Ball attendees, do check out Isaac Simpson’s Substack and podcast, The Carousel and the films of Alex Lee Moyer.
The De Vere Ball’s Greenwich Village venue was just the right amount of opulent. Phoebe’s notorious cheese plate was luminous adjacent to a merch-table full of De Vere Ball t-shirts and g-strings. The open bar featured an eye patched bartender and a selection of spirits, beers, and wines that I did *not* fully sample - I stuck to my red wine, at least one gin and tonic, among other upward and less alcoholic poisons that need not be mentioned.
I met and didn’t recognize at first, Katherine Dee, who’s piece on The De Vere Ball was endearing, accurate, and hit all the pangs of nostalgia. Kat was lovely and amused we all saw her Tucker Carlson appearance. I myself come from the old early 2010s NYC club scene. Her mentions of Cat Marnell, Sophia Lamar and the hot tub at Le Bain that most certainly had/s syphilis felt like a warm kaleidoscopic montage. All that was missing were the burlesque contortionists of The Box down the block from Nikki Sneaker’s “Weird Party” where you just might catch Genesis P-Orridge doing the worst poetry reading you won’t remember. Katherine is right. There’s nothing terribly shocking about this new downtown set unless you’re deeply out of touch. Unless you are gay *and* retarded.
Among the characters were all the lit scene locals. Stained Hanes, creator of Cars and Women Magazine. NYC Novelist and podcaster Dan Baltic hot off the release of his novel Nutcrankr. Writer and podcaster of The Beautiful Toilet notoriety, Nicholas Dolinger. Podcaster, art-critic and author Adam Lehrer of Safety Propaganda. And of course Salomé, castrato, ascendant author, and musician better known as Pariah the Doll.
Between the event itself and the subsequent very fun, very boozy afterparty, I wasn’t one for recording memories or treating this thing as a networking event. It was a snapshot of something both strange and at the same time not that surprising or excessive about New York. Everyone looked great, had something stimulating to talk about, and left a good impression on me. I did miss the infamous Salome slap, and did not meet nor speak to Mike Crumplar. Ariel Pink did a wonderful surreal little set over pre-recorded background music. Salome’s Shakespeare De Vere reading was fun to watch. Of course the coolest and most unexpected moment was James O'Keefe’s performance of the St Crispin's Day Speech from “Henry V”, just a week after the Pfizer exposes dropped.
I have no judgmental thoughts about the downtown set. The bohemians are partying just as they always have, we always have. I’ve been deep in NYC nightlife and art scenes my whole life and dipped out to look inward. I’m glad to descend back in around such lovely people. Phoebe Nir’s De Vere Ball is elegant and harlequin at the same time. There’s great art being made, music being recorded, literature being written, and beautiful young edge-lords drinking and drugging as time immemorial.