💸 Dinner Party Money

Part 2 of my interesting dinner with a crook.

The conviction of a high profile patron of the arts spurs numerous first-person accounts and reflections from people who are witness to the kinds of behaviour that will, in some instances, be taken to illegal extremes.

I’m one of those people. My experience is very different.

I go into it with open eyes and keen senses, thanks to intelligence I now know to have been passed down the trauma grapevine. I’m a bit older, I know exactly how to behave to keep things under my control. I’m not afraid to speak out if I witness anything I deem egregious. Frankly, I’m fascinated to be here. It’s the beating heart of a legendary queer underground. I never get invited to this stuff. It’s also the engine room of arts patronage in NZ. All I have to do is turn up, look around, eat, drink and be merry. Maybe flirt a little if I feel like it. Easy.

I don’t want to contribute to a dog-pile of vitriol.

Nor will I deny or diminish anyone else’s experience.

I’m writing about this to set the scene for a deepe…