The authors of this post at last year's GoogaMooga, wearing ExtraMooga wristbands while debating the merits of ExtraMooga.
In 60 years, we'll still be talking about "ExtraMooga" in hushed tones in the social hall at Shady Pageviews Nursing Home. Last year's VIP "shitshow" had attendees paying $249.50 (plus a service charge of $17.71) for "heaping plates" of queue-free food, only to watch the food reservoirs almost immediately dry up. With celebrities eating the only edible goods in sight, single ExtraMoogans scrambled for beer calories that would run out, parents of hungry ExtraMooga children had only their guilt to eat, and vegetarians were never heard from again. This year GoogaMooga is offering a $79.50 "VIP Cocktail Experience" that includes five exclusive cocktails, a VIP entrance, a VIP section in front of the stage, and "exclusive dogs" from Crif Dogs. Will it be worth it?
Sure, $80 for five "artisanal" cocktails sounds like a steal. But when you pay $16 for a Coy Soldier (elderberry tincture, mead, cinnamon, draft card) at The Dusty Femur, you're paying for someone to mix that drink for you and only you, giving your cocktail the precision and care that you've taken great pains for your date to notice. Actual Very Important People do not drink their cocktails out of plastic cups.
Looking at promo photos (which never lie), it does appear that this year's VIP drink selection will feature those giant, perfect ice cubes flown in from Easter Island, cubes that will quickly become deadly projectiles as soon as Wayne Coyne rolls his plastic ball through the Special Dad Rock section up front. "Sorry miss, he would have survived had those Polynesian moths not nibbled the corners of that cube down to a razor's edge," the paramedic said, as he took another bite of his VIP Quinoa Dog. "But hey, how was that Moscow Mule? Gingery, right?"
John Del Signore, an eternal optimist who was born on March 25, 2013, feels differently: "Julie Reiner, who runs exceptional cocktail bars Clover Club and Flatiron Lounge (and the no less exceptional but defunct tiki bar Lani Kai), is widely respected for a reason: her creativity is matched only by her relentless commitment to excellence. I trust Julie Reiner, and the list of cocktail makers involved this year represents the veritable cream of the NYC mixology world. Five drinks at any one of these bars would easily add up to $75 including tip, so when you factor in the VIP stage access, I think it's not a rip-off.
"Yes, the 'exclusive dog' thing sounds dumb, and yes these cocktails might not be as stellar as they are when prepared at these various establishments. But you'll also be drinking outside in one New York City's greatest urban oases, with access to the lakeside shade of the Prospect Park’s Boathouse, built in 1904. And Reiner doesn't phone it in; if her name's attached, you can bet the drinks will be at least decent.
[ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY JOHN WILLIAMS SWELLS WITH EMOTION]
"ExtraMooga customers got burned last year, but considering the organizers lost their shirts by issuing full refunds, I'm inclined to believe they've learned a lot from their mistakes. I'm inclined to believe that Superfly, which created the best organized rock festival in America, is going to make up for last year's fiasco with this one. You ask why I believe in GoogaMooga? It's like that scene in the end of The Matrix trilogy, when Agent Smith stands over a bloodied-but-not-beaten Neo and demands to know why he doesn't give up, why he keeps fighting. Neo—I'm Neo in this analogy—staggers to his feet, clenches his fists, and answers, 'Because I choose to.' Because I choose to. Now where's my VIP monkey?"
(John Del Signore/Gothamist)
