SJC LIVING GUEST OPINION: By Paddy Fallon
San Juan native Nick Iavarone (left) and Australian Xavier Di Petta are viral sensations as the entertainment duo PARTY SHIRT. Photo: Deanie Chen
The Five—Year Overnight Success: PARTY SHIRT Goes Viral on TikTok
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lthough the COVID-19 pandemic has left many people in a state of uncertainty, the government’s stayat-home order has allotted time for artists to hone their craft. In light of this new Renaissance period, San Juan Capistrano native Nick Iavarone and Australian Xavier Di Petta wrote and produced a song that would change their lives. The duo released the first single off their EP Liquid Powder under the stage name PARTY SHIRT, and the pair watched as their debut single “Dancing Tonight” hit No. 1 on the TikTok pop chart. Since then, the song has been featured in more than 50,000 TikTok videos and has accumulated more than 200 million views. Put simply: the song went viral, and we are now officially living in the PARTY SHIRT era. Before topping the TikTok pop chart, PARTY SHIRT was born when Di Petta (“X”) and Iavarone (“Ivy”) met in a USC dorm room in the summer of 2016. The two music producers immediately knew
GUEST OPINION: Moments in Time by Jan Siegel
Recognizing The Ecology Center
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dozen years ago, a young man came to San Juan Capistrano with a dream of making agriculture sustainable, usable and workable for an entire community. Evan Marks had run an organic farm in Costa Rica and taught agriculture in Nigeria before returning to his home in Southern California. The City had purchased the Kinoshita Farm and the entire area including the historic Congdon House, which was part of our Open Space. Twenty-seven acres of the area was being used as an organic farm. The one acre surrounding the Congdon House was vacant. Marks leased the land from the City. That one-acre The Capistrano Dispatch August 14-27, 2020
they wanted to work together after bonding over a mutual appreciation for music, acting, and fashion. They set out to build a multidimensional brand that could encompass all of their shared passions, and PARTY SHIRT was the result. With their versatile and polymathic approach, X and Ivy embody the DIY ethos of the 21st century artist: they produce SNLinspired skits that get hundreds of thousands GUEST OPINION of views; they model By Paddy Fallon for established apparel brands including Von Dutch; they write catchy electronic music for a devoted following; and they do it all from their tiny Hollywood apartment across the street from Rock & Roll Ralphs.
While music is the foundation of PARTY SHIRT, it is the unique chemistry and synergistic relationship between X and Ivy that separates them from the rest. Xavier Di Petta is a serial entrepreneur from Shepparton, Australia who has been featured in “The 15 Smartest Teens on the Planet” by Forbes and “Top 25 Under 20” by The Times for his precocious advertising career that began in his early teens. Iavarone, meanwhile, balanced academic and athletic pursuits before committing to music production full-time. He had been enrolled in Whittier College to play lacrosse, but left when his college advisor informed him that the school did not recognize electronic music as an art form within their music program. The idea to make comedy sketches for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok came when PARTY SHIRT’s cinematographer,
Pedro Camgro, watched as their friend, David Dobrik, rose to fame for his YouTube videos with the “Vlog Squad.” X and Camgro watched as Dobrik became an established star in Hollywood, and recognized the power of social media engagement and viral content. PARTY SHIRT’s blend of original music production and sketch comedy content have quickly established them as social media powerhouses with a rare capacity to achieve virality. Paddy Fallon is a writer based in Los Angeles. CD
lot soon became known as The Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization that worked with the farm to bring agriculture into the 21st century. In 2018, the City Council unanimously voted for The Ecology Center to take over all 28 acres and to become a model for the future of community farming. Marks had realized his dream. The Ecology Center has been recognized by the California Association of Nonprofits as a California Nonprofit of the Year for all that it has done for the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. San Juan Capistrano is extremely fortunate to have a large working MOMENTS farm right in the middle IN TIME of the community. BeBy Jan Siegel fore COVID-19 changed our lifestyles, one could go to The Ecology Center, walk through the rainbow arches, stop and pick your own vegetables. The ability to walk through the farm is not possible during the pandemic.
But that does not mean that you cannot experience farm-fresh vegetables. The farm stand is still open for anyone to stop by and purchase farm-fresh fruits and vegetables. The Ecology Center still has what they call Farm Share. You sign up online for either an individual or family-size box, which has 8-10 garden-fresh fruits and vegetables every week or bi-monthly. The boxes are filled randomly, so every one of them is different. The amount of produce is for two or more people, depending on appetites, for a week. The other item that you can order is pizza—organic pizza with fresh vegetables. There is only one recipe each Tuesday and Thursday, and it changes according to the produce. Sounds like a great way to get your children to eat those veggies! All information for The Ecology Center, Farm Share and pizza of the day can be found on their website: theecologycenter.org. Hours and prices are listed. And, of course, all is subject to change in this pandemic world. Spend a Moment In Time going to The Ecology Center and see how the dream
of one person became an important community development. We are lucky to have such a treasure in our community that not only shows us the way to the future, but recognizes our past history and culture. Jan Siegel was a 33-year resident of San Juan Capistrano and now resides in the neighboring town of Rancho Mission Viejo. She served on the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission for 13 years, has been a volunteer guide for the San Juan Capistrano Friends of the Library’s architectural walking tour for 26 years and is currently the museum curator for the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society. She was named Woman of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce in 2005, Volunteer of the Year in 2011 and was inducted into the city’s Wall of Recognition in 2007.CD
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PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to provide our readers with a wide variety of opinions from our community, The Dispatch provides Guest Opinion opportunities in which selected columnists’ opinions are shared. The opinions expressed in these columns are entirely those of the columnist alone and do not reflect those of The Dispatch or Picket Fence Media. If you would like to respond to this column, please email us at editorial@thecapistranodispatch.com. The Capistrano Dispatch and Picket Fence Media do not publish content that is defamatory.
PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to provide our readers with a wide variety of opinions from our community, The Dispatch provides Guest Opinion opportunities in which selected columnists’ opinions are shared. The opinions expressed in these columns are entirely those of the columnist alone and do not reflect those of The Dispatch or Picket Fence Media. If you would like to respond to this column, please email us at editorial@thecapistranodispatch.com. The Capistrano Dispatch and Picket Fence Media do not publish content that is defamatory.
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