Article By: Taylor Ray ’17, Contributing Writer Using the label ‘Versace’ to describe everyday objects and occurrences, Riff Raff gives us a peek into the marvelous real of his world. We are all Riff Raff. You and I both lust after shots of iced buttermilk ranch, but we would never admit it to an audience of strangers.
Riff Raff would ignore your childhood pediatrician just like your mother did: he can grow three inches taller in his thirties if he so chooses. Your mother scoffed at the doctor when, post-puberty, your head climbed higher and higher on the stadiometer every visit. Your mother loves to be right. Your mother is Riff Raff.
Riff Raff is a collection of quick-cuts of major U.S. city skyscrapers against a trendy beat. Riff Raff doesn’t want any rules. Riff Raff wants two dozen oysters. He is a performer, but post-stage, he thinks: I don’t want my performances to define me. He is an introvert.
Riff Raff can be awkward at the dinner table. He knows that he is being watched, even by his friends. But Riff Raff is in his element, almost completely candid and comfortable in front of the camera, when his big and small talk reflects the parts of life that he is most passionate about. He falls into the comfortable pattern of sauces — barbecue, sweet and sour, honey mustard — and loses himself, almost forgetting his audience. Sauce is the soup du jour. Sometimes, Riff Raff thinks about gender roles and how they have influenced him as a man. He is still learning to check his privilege. He fills online shopping carts only to exit out of Google Chrome without a purchase or a second thought. Riff Raff is a little bit embarrassed about his self-affirmations taped to the mirror — he’s only trying to be more introspective lately. Riff Raff has trouble saying “I love you” in a sincere and meaningful way to those around him. He ordered a Warby Parker home try-on. Riff Raff wakes up before his alarm every morning.
What do we see in Riff Raff? Ourselves. We should be so lucky enough to chew on life with the same vigor with which Kody and Jody Husky chew on their Versace bones. Life can be neon if you let it.