How to Throw a Matrix Party

My family and friends, who know I love The Matrix, decided to throw a surprise birthday party for me with a Matrix theme in May 2003. I was impressed, they were really creative. In fact, they were so creative that I suspect others might want to throw one like it. So, if your loved one likes the movie series too much, here's one way to give them a fun surprise. I'll describe this from the viewpoint of the victim (me).

On the door was a nice big Matrix-style poster declaring that "The Matrix has you". Take the Red Pill, or Take the Blue Pill When I walked in, I found a TV tray with two bowls of jelly beans: one with red beans (with a sign saying "Take the Red Pill") and one with blue beans ("Take the Blue Pill"). I took the red pill, of course. The tray also had a set of (water) guns to choose from. Everyone was wearing black clothes and shades, and were sporting the water guns and toy cell phones. They immediately handed me my cell phone and special "secret agent pistol" (another water gun). I quickly went to change into the black T-shirt and pants that seemed to me completely necessary :-).

Lots O food Parties require food, but the table's spread had signs explaining all the contents. Here were the signs, and the contents (all based on references to The Matrix):

"Really Good Noodles" - noodles
"Everything tastes like Chicken" - chicken
"Steak" - Steak, of course
"Kung Foo Kabobs" - well, this is cheating, but they wanted some fruit
"Follow the White Rabbit Food" - Veggie tray of carrots, celery, etc. I thought this was really clever.
"There is no Spoon" - forks and knives. There was a separate container for spoons, too, but those spoons were plastic -- so they weren't real (grin).
"(Not) Everything the Body Needs" - tapioca pudding (a personal favorite -- it looked just like the goop they eat aboard the Neb, and I'm partial to tapioca pudding anyway)
"Have A Cookie" - chocolate chip cookies

All the decorations (streamers, balloons, tablecloths, etc.) were black and green. The black and green cake had a matrix-like screen on top (made with colorflow) saying "Happy Birthday" in matrix-like letters. My age was in there (in binary), but I won't admit it here :-). The gift collection included several books on The Matrix and philosophy, and the big gift was a Sony Playstation 2 with the Enter the Matrix videogame (an excellent PS2 game, by the way; that and Baldur's Gate are really quite good).

Here are a few shots of people having a good time....

All about Trinity 1 All about Trinity 2 Tall Trinity and Neo Neo with Trinity Jr.

If you like the Matrix, you should definitely look at ping pong Matrix.

Not done yet? See my Matrix-related essays, Man as the World-Builder and Why are Humans used as Batteries in the Matrix? Or, for many other things, see my home page.