Stargyrl Explains It All: Rittenhouse Picnic Turns AwkwardFest 2008
The Twitter/Facebook personality “Rittenhouse Square” invited his followers to gather at the square for a potluck dinner this past Saturday night. A handful of Twitter groupies showed up with various dishes and cupcakes to eat together and make small talk. Stargyrl, one of our Phileb interns, who doesn’t even twitter, was invited by a friend and showed up for the free food. Let the awkward begin. She tells the tale after the jump.
“First off, the food was really great and it was a perfect night for a potluck outside; however, I was not really prepared for this event. Everyone seemed to be nice and they were all really into Twitter. Someone suggested we go around the circle and all say our names, our favorite color and our favorite ice cream. I was suddenly transported back to college orientation where each student gave answers that one-upped the previous person and showed how cool and unique they were, only this time, it wasn’t so cool as it was strange. One guy had a green toothbrush sticking out of his pocket, and oddly enough, his favorite color was green. Another potluck attendee sported a tiger tattoo creeping down her arm and a tiger t-shirt to match. And here’s where the magic happens: The twenty-something sitting beside her actively collects tiger memorabilia! Posters, stuffed animals, tiger themed coffee cups, the works. The best of all was the Philly.com guy who snapped close to 1,000 pictures of people on their cell phones ‘tweeting’ and walked around the circle at the end of the potluck mouthing to people asking if they were indeed ‘Rittenhouse Square.’ He thought he was being suave, but it was just really uncomfortable. At first, the conversation focused around the use of Twitter, and whether or not people found it as a successful tool for social networking. Things really got interesting when someone proposed everyone discuss the affect of television of today’s youth. Let it be known, that this is not a conversation topic, this is an essay topic for the SATs. The awkward went into high gear when one of the females in the circle brought up her 10-year-long use of/battle with Weight Watchers. Let it be known, this girl was not heavy at all, but the confession in a group of strangers made me squirm.
After about an hour of food and fun, the potluck was starting to die down and I made a quick getaway. Some of the people that attended Facebook-friended me days later. AWKWARD. Let it be known that I still do not use Twitter, and after that night, I never ever will.”
Previously:Rittenhouse Square Anthropomorphizes Self, Wastes All Day On Facebook And Twitter
August 5th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
We’re all looking for our 15 minutes of fame, even if it’s in 15 seconds increments or until the next Twitter rolls in.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
The Jesus Raver could’ve smoothed all this weirdness over.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:57 am
oh! i’m so glad someone chimed in about this. it WAS a little awkward - but not so much about the things that “stargyrl” points out, but mostly because the mysterious picnic facilitator and his friends - who, by the way, stargyrl came with - were all so intent on showing off and playing with their iPhones and bragging about their pretentious majors (really? is it THAT WRONG to ask a “design and merchandise major” if she would ever open her own store?) and bashing the very program that put them in that park in the first place.
i thought the conversation content and social dynamic was just as awkward as stargyrl did, but i didn’t choose to publish my demeaning and bashing comments on a local blog. she and her group were the epitome of pretentiousness.
i don’t want an iPhone, and now i never, ever will.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:54 am
It was awkward? Really? What did u expect, attending a meet up with an anonymous tweeter who pretends to be a park? Come on now.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I thought it was great. It was like a first date after having sex with a one night stand the week before.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Dear Annelynn,
Take a deep breath. I do not have an iPhone, I have a XV6900 from Verizon.
Although you made a point of saying how you DID NOT publish demeaning and bashing comments on a local blog, you actually did just that. “she and her group were the epitome of pretentiousness”. Just Saying.
Love, Stargyrl
August 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
stargyrl - you were blatantly, personally judgemental about every single person in attendance aside from your friends. maybe you should have taken a deep breath before you allowed someone to post your ‘event review’ that was four times as long as my comment.
maybe you were suddenly transported back to college orientation because you sat back and made superficial comments about everyone back then, too.
don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
annelynn- You are very much missing the point. I stated that everyone seemed nice and even referred the event as “food and fun” towards the end of my post. I did not call anyone names or make personal jabs. I just reviewed an event I attended and discussed the particulars that I thought made it awkward. You even agreed that it WAS awkward. Yes, I was a bit critical of certain aspects of the event, such as the conversation, and you have every right to be just as critical of my review, however I was not personally attacking you or any other attendee. You can continue to post comments about how pretentious and superficial I am all day long, but the fact of that matter is that the potluck on Saturday was a giant first date situation and I found that funny enough to write about.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
When’s our second date. This is is the best viral I have ever had.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
oh sure, you used one sentence to say that the “everyone seemed to be nice”. The rest of the huge post, however, includes:
“One guy had a green toothbrush sticking out of his pocket, and oddly enough, his favorite color was green.”
“Another potluck attendee sported a tiger tattoo creeping down her arm and a tiger t-shirt to match.”
“And here’s where the magic happens: The twenty-something sitting beside her actively collects tiger memorabilia! Posters, stuffed animals, tiger themed coffee cups, the works.” (super nice of you, btw!)
“The best of all was the Philly.com guy who snapped close to 1,000 pictures of people on their cell phones ‘tweeting’ and walked around the circle at the end of the potluck mouthing to people asking if they were indeed ‘Rittenhouse Square.’” (which, actually, was closer to about 10, not 1,000).
“The awkward went into high gear when one of the females in the circle brought up her 10-year-long use of/battle with Weight Watchers.”
how are those not personal jabs? and publicly! you know, the use of a social networking site to experiment with a meeting of strangers to see the cross section of people who use it and are willing to talk about their experiences with it isn’t all together a bad idea, but when the inviter’s friend makes comments like this afterwards, on a blog people read, it sort of leaves the door open for some countercriticism, no?
ultimately, i think this post was a conversation that should have been kept between you and your friends and a simple “oops” would have helped, but you stand by your insults, so i’ll stand by mine.
next time, think about a different venue to throw your feelings of awkwardness, rather than on the heads of people who choose to be - gasp! - friendly.
August 6th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
rounds 1,2 and 3 to….annelynn, mainly because of one line - if you can’t take it then don’t dish it out. am a bit intrigued by the pretentious comment though. unfortunately, nearly everyone who has moved to philly in the past ten years (or ever in fact) can be considered pretentious, so it might even be pointless to bother pointing it out anymore…
August 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I ended up missing the picnic (walked up just after some had left) since I was stuck at the Hacktory’s open hack, then pushing a stalled Honda of a stranger out of the middle of walnut st. Are Hondas even permitted by law to stall?
I agree that meetings of strangers needn’t be a contest to see who’s the wittiest, but there’s no need to pigeonhole what’s considered comfortable. The author might want to relax and learn how to gracefully navigate strange conversation and unwelcome facebook/myspace invites.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Stargyrl, I think the reason why your review came across as demeaning and bashing to annelynn and also myself was that many of the reasons you sight that made the potluck “awkward” didn’t actually happen, or didn’t happen the way you describe, so it seems like you went out of your way to make the event sound really negative. The fact that the event was designed to foster a sense of community and friendship makes your seemingly purposefully negative review feel a bit like a punch in the gut, although I didn’t mind my cameo.
To name the most glaring examples:
1. The philly.com guy did not “walked around the circle at the end of the potluck mouthing to people asking if they were indeed ‘Rittenhouse Square.’” That just didn’t happen.
2. There was a brief discussion of whether internet is dumbing down society–not television. While that’s still a somewhat serious question, it’s a logical brief conversation to have with a group of internet-focused people.
3. The attendee who mentioned Weight Watchers didn’t awkwardly confess that she had a “10-year-long use of/battle with Weight Watchers” She mentioned counting calories (while eating cookies and cupcakes) and someone (I believe one of your friends) asked her about what program she used. She mentioned the length of time she used it in response to a different question. This in no way resembled a confession (unless dieting is now embarrassing?).
I understand you’re trying to be satirical and exaggerate events to entertain the readers of philebrity (1,000 photos, etc), but your review came across as just plain old mean spirited.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
when a journalist writes things that are not true, even as an intern, the public trust is gone and that person has no business being a journalist anymore. i hope the Editor is mindful of this, as Philebs has a habit of calling others out on their journalistic integrity and i would honestly hate to see your abilitw to do so compromised by some girl who hasn’t adjusted to life outside of high school yet…