Kate and I did the party circuit tonight, and it was … weird.
Our first stop was a party thrown by the Bipartisan Policy Center. Grist readers will be familiar with the BPC via its founder and current president Jason Grumet, who is Barack Obama’s top energy and climate adviser.
The BPC also threw a party in Denver at the DNC. That one was relatively modest — in a smallish bar, with maybe 50-75 people. This one, however, was huge. It was held in a ginormous chi-chi bar/restaurant called the Bellanote, which is apparently the hip spot in Minneapolis right now. There was hip techno music playing, gourmet food, an ice sculpture, an enormous outdoor space with a fire pit, and beautiful people everywhere (also Jonah Goldberg, not known for his commitment to bipartisanship). The level of energy and fabulousness was orders of magnitude greater than at the Denver party.
It’s probably unfair to draw any conclusions about the BPC or Grumet from this, but if you want to speculate recklessly in comments, I won’t stand in the way.
After that we headed over to the party being thrown jointly by the Wind Energy Association and Solar Energy Industries Association. Smaller space, fewer people, mind-bogglingly loud and annoying live flamenco music … but the weirdest thing? Old people! Everywhere! Probably 75 percent of the attendees were Old White Dudes. I don’t know what we expected exactly, but … not Old White Dudes. I talked with the head of a wind development company about it, and he said they were all there representing ginormous companies that wanted to eat small companies like his. He said the wind biz, which he’s been in since 1992, is no fun any more. I don’t know about that, but the party sure wasn’t.
Now it’s very late and I’m very tired, so to bed with me.
