SUMMARY: Special event bar and catering crew for Best Beverage Corp. in NYC and SF. Also, under this umbrella, other temp event companies large and small, here and there. The further you go into arts and culture, the more you discover how alcohol, fuels almost every gathering from art openings to parties to weddings to massive concert halls. And, whether as side gigs or main gigs, is a means for many to make ends meet. Beyond that, working special events, brings you into unique venues and circumstances, some as intimate as a private dinner at a loft or a two-person crew for a day-after-the-wedding brunch for only friends and family or as massive as a 100.000 person racetrack peddling beer walking the stands. Learning to move seamlessly between realms, in and out of roles, from one’s own economic status into the layers and layers of commerce and hierarchy, meeting ritual moments sometimes somber sometimes festive, handling emergencies and having to even cut off the person paying the bills for fear they may not take another step. Weddings in delux settings in Napa. Art openings on Treasure Island. Catering crew for donors at the Hall of Science. Loft parties on the Upper East Side. Going off shift and dancing with the wedding party in Montauk till you are considered a near relative. The Bill Graham Civic Center concerts from Avicii to Phish. The amount of plastic, of bottles, of trash bags, oceans of event tchotchkes left behind or disposed of, the arrivals for shifts meeting new crews and reconnecting with known peeps, the departures shirts untucked  The managers and their cool and their worry. The extraordinary planning and the sometimes having to entirely wing it– going off script to handle requests or deal with situations. Harassment and great appreciation. The Black Shirts. The black slacks. The black shoes. Counting tips. Counting the bank. Loading and unloading the gear. That last push of the night. Bidding farewell. Till next time. That extraordinary fatigue that can hit just as you reach the bus or the subway and you look around and you know who’s been working and who’s been out.