How boring of a name for something with so much grandeur! That was an intentional design – the Assembly is a social experiment where people can shed their every day selves and let the brilliant flames inside be seen on the outside. Boring exterior with an interesting subtext. The name and the function are perfect for each other.
While I was conceptualizing “Days of the Phoenix,” the most broad version of the concept was “social experiment,” and “being who you are without aesthetics getting in the way.” It didn’t have to be an assembly, it could have been anything: a bunch of introverts getting together to play smash mouth basketball, drag rang in a big store parking lot, an MMORPG, or an actual experiment where people’s brain chemicals were being altered. A few simple criteria had to be met: it had to be where people, who wouldn’t associate with each other otherwise, were grouped together; the second criteria had to be a platform where people could reveal their truest selves.
A.P. Miller 