Inferno
Interhovse '99
by Nate Austin, frosh work chair '99 and BHDC '00

The Courtyard is dark and foggy, lit only by tiki torches and floating candles.  The floating candles are floating on 60' by 60' representation of the river Styx, which is serviced by three docks and two ferry boats.  the posts on the docks are topped with skulls with red glowing eyes, and an odd eyeball can be made out staring up from the wooden platforms that lead out over the water.  Normally this space is the Blacker Cortyard, but not tonight.  Several thousand square feet of Black Plastic have sealed the courtyard; over the past two days it has been flooded to sixteen inches.  The fog covering the water comes from a dewar of liquid nitrogen on a scenic island where the Olive Tree stands.

Visitors line up on the docks to be ferried across the river by not-so-ghostly Frosh in robes.  No golden coins change hands.  Across the river the twisted, metallic Gates to the Inferno are guarded by a monstrous 3-headed paper mache dog, the CerBeerus, a mythic beast that dispenses beer from its mouths.  Inside the gates is a raging... party.         A torture chamber is separated from the rest of the first room by a welded steel cage.  The ceiling is low, made of red paper decorated in hellish patterns with oil so that it is eerily transluscent.  A large mural of the underworld decorates the north wall, and sheeps-brains under glass adorn the mantle-piece along with a collection of candles.  Here there is food.   Outside on the Balcony drinks are served.  Through a narrow, icy tunnel to the Dance Floor, where a DJ and stage dominate the scene.  The Stage breaks halfway through the night, but no one seems to mind.

That's how it was, the night of Blacker Interhovse '99, Inferno. Frosh and Upperclassmen poured (seemingly) endless hours into construction and decoration over many weeks for one tremendous party.