The Blue Moon staff members rummaged in Walla Walla dumpsters to provide the decorations for the release party of the 2007 edition of the magazine. Throughout the evening the staff kept the coffee warm, the ice cream frozen, and the baguettes soft.
This year’s theme of the release party was PomoBoho and the special guests that were playing music were Portland bands Menomena and Talkdemonic.
People started gathering at the Reid side lawn as early as 9 p.m. on Saturday, dancing and talking until midnight when the
2007 blue moons were released to all guests.
“The party met and exceeded my very high expectations and hopes! The bands were both a pleasure to work with, extremely gracious as well as gifted. KWCW and ASWC sound and lights carried the technicalities of the show with great finesse–– and also fielded calls from the Walla Walla police department; that was a huge gift to us,” wrote in Blue Moon Editor-in-Chief Carly Lane Rue in an e-mail.
The preparation of the release party took more than a month. “Yeah, it was a ton of work, set-up and take-down wise (to make no mention of coffee, baguette, ice cream, and of course, magazine service –– some staffers were there all day, worked through the evening, and stayed on to do clean-up). But what a way to celebrate this year of big-pushes, long hauls, and achievement too! It was an honor to have such a big crowd –– professors, prom-goers, families, as well as students,” said Rue.
“I enjoyed the decoration pieces–– they brought a touch of the blue moon’s artistic spirit to Reid’s side lawn,” said sophomore Caitlin Shoenfelder, just a couple of seconds after getting her issue of the blue moon, “However, I was disappointed that the music ended at midnight with the release of the magazines –– shouldn’t the actual release of the blue moon give us all the more reason to continue celebrating with music and dance rather than marking the end of the high-energy festivities?”
“My hands-down fave-take-home image is a wide-angle of the just-post-midnight side-lawn scene –– hundreds of heads bent over hundreds of open books, and the hush of so many readers. Trés hip,” said Rue, long after midnight when the staff members of the magazine were finishing up the cleaning of the Reid side lawn.
For the coming weeks until the end of the school year there will be lunch tables in Reid and everybody that has not received the magazine yet can pick up their issue of the Blue Moon.
