The Dude Opera

The Dude Opera (embedded report)
It is nighttime. We are inside a Public Establishment. Dudes are arriving, everywhere - mingling in the room, smoking out back, minding the door, spinning the records. There is a general hum. And then: a noise, and some Dudes stop mingling to follow it. There, on the stage - more Dudes. The Stage Dudes are familiar to the Audience Dudes - their roommates, ex-band mates, partners, crushees, other bands ... so that when the Stage Dudes put on their show, the Audience Dudes - arms crossed, nodding - are implicated.
Dudes not on the stage appreciate the line of the stage, because everyone gets a shot at the stage, if they want it. But the stage is not the location of the Dude Opera. Each and every outfitted Dude who got to the place can be a player in the Dude Opera. Some Dudes got to do it big - they want to be a Network Star, to set the opera tone - they preach or shred or tremble little voices into the microphone. Or they bring their own Spectacle, sexy outfit, drugs to share, an arsenal of gossip. Or maybe it’s early yet, and it’s not trying too hard - crowd around, drinks and comments, waiting for the juice to get Dudes loose, they got some time before the opera’s climax.

Audience Dudes can’t wait - they need sensory. Like a chorus, they start with a weird normalcy of standing still, facing forward, looking and listening, each Dude, this Dude, that Dude, known Dudes, Hey Dude, a group of young Dudes get aggressive with each other, amping up the hum, people come, go, Hey Dude, little groups, attraction and repulsion, out to smoke, in to drink, looser now. Some laugh some dance some chat some cheat and now it gets interesting. Someone’s getting silly; someone’s getting dangerous. News travels fast, maybe someone’s getting angry. General escalation on all fronts, intimate clusters gather in corners. The big sound and the low lights make a sensory smear.

And what now? More, perhaps more still. It’s a rare opera that has a single climax touching all participants, and that will come to be an Opera of Renown. More likely, climaxes break in large and small waves through the crowd, moments of hilarity, accidents, connections and disasters. For all in the opera, the night leaves the sense that something has happened - if not of life-changing importance, then at least deepening one’s presence in and awareness of the Dude Network. And on and on … until sleepy hours force some dudes away - but rest assured some push on, sending expeditions to whatever afterparties and enclaves echo the opera into the dawn.

Dude Opera (observational report)
This is any public event put on by Dudes and attended by Dudes, the crucial hotbed of the Dude Network. It is the Public Dude Network at its most sensational. The Dude Opera can be viewed and appreciated in looking out for its distinctive component parts: primary plumage/couture, additional accenting (jewelry, tattoos, glasses, etc), positioning of feet and ways of shifting weight from leg to leg, the array of possible positioning of hands and arms, blankness of facial expression vs. overt expressionism, attempts at dancing.
These last two attributes hint at the general push and pull of possibilities that generally mark one’s approach to the Opera- how should one allow one’s Dudeness to shine through at these key moments. Can you wear the largest glasses in four counties and still do hand stand dances?