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31 December 00
Happy New Year :)
(Oops, I wrote this a couple of days ago but forgot to post it:)
Ahh, I'm such a good little consumer! I play well in the quaint little capitalist economy in which we live. More specifically, I just got back from the electronics store where I bought myself a new television. After too many years of watching a TV screen which was smaller than my computer screen (hey, I had my priorities!), I finally caved in and bought a nice 27". I'll actually get it in about a week. Joy!
This past weekend was spent up at Lake Tahoe with John and Stefanie. We had a great time! Skied for two days - one pretty good day at Alpine and one not so good day at Squaw. There's not much snow up in the mountains and there were bare spots of ground even at 8200' elevation; half of Squaw's lifts were closed because of lack of snow. Christmas eve was spent drinking at a small-town bar in Nevada while playing pool & foosball and listening to karaoke. But you know what? I liked it that way! We got back to SF Monday night, and I think by that time, poor Stefanie had heard more than her fill of thrash metal music!
21 December 00
Well, it's slow at work this week, and it continues to get slower as the weekend draws nearer. Monday is Xmas, so I guess I should go do my shopping soon. Blah, I'm not a big fan of Christmas, so if I can get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible, then I'm doing good! This year my Xmas wil be spent skiing with a couple of friends and that way we can all ignore the holiday.
A few days ago I saw the Velvet Acid Christ/Haujobb/Din_Fiv tour as it wrapped up in SF, and I had a blast! It was my first time seeing each band, and I think they all did a good job. Din_Fiv is my friend Da5id, and as it turns out, he's quite a good performer! He had Tyler and Evan onstage with him playing music, and they put on a very good show. I have a lot of friends in who play in bands, and sometimes I get a little scared when they play a show or release new material - what if it's not good? What do I tell them? Well, I'm happy to say that I honestly liked the Din_Fiv show!
After Din_Fiv was Haujobb, who I had waited seven years to see live. They did a very good show, but they only performed one song (the most accessible song) from their first album - and their first album is the one I really wanted to hear. Oh well. The band was throughly embarassed by certain members of the crowd throwing a couple dozen pairs of panties at them during one of the songs, and that was funny!
Headlining the tour was Velveeta Velvet Acid Christ. Bryan, the singer, is a total wanker who has one of those "Look at me! I'm so outrageous!" stage demeanors, but I love the band's music nevertheless. As long as you embraced the cheesiness that was VAC, they were quite entertaining and I quite liked their show.
Afterwards, I went with Jen, Da5id, Tyler, some other friends, and the bands to Evan's place to hang out for awhile and have a beer. It's funny - I've met so many bands that I like, but I often have nothing to say to them. I'm not the best conversationalist to begin with, and I'm not going to run up to these guys and tell them, "Hey, I really like your music" or something goofy like that; I want to be able to actually talk to them but unfortunately I often have nothing to say. So instead, I just hang out and talk to my friends :)
17 December 00
It is once again Sunday evening, and The Simpsons were on tonight, so life is good :)
I spent the weekend diving in Monterey! As part of my Divemaster training, I need to work with a few scuba classes, assisting the instructor. So this weekend was essentially the "final exam" for the first class that I've assisted. Four weeks ago these students knew nothing about scuba diving, and today they received their Open Water Certification. It was pretty cool being a part of that. And what's even better is two friends of mine - Marya & Bernd - took the class and are now certified divers. Yay!
Okay, now I need to go catch up on sleep...
10 December 00
It's Sunday evening and some dumb football game has pre-empted The Simpsons. That sucks. The Simpsons are so much better than football. So, instead of watching tv, I'm sitting here listening to (old) Metallica and Slayer and taking advantage of the fact that I currently have no downstairs neighbors (read: the music is pretty loud and I've got good bass response).
As a teenager, I used to listen to metal. Then as the years passed and I moved into other genres, I stopped listening to metal and didn't think about it much until several years ago when I started getting back into it. Now I'm not ashamed to tell people I like metal, or at least some of the thrash stuff. My favourite bands are Fear Factory, Metallica (first few albums only), Slayer, and Pantera. It's really just a short jump from thrash metal to industrial, and another short jump from there to psy-trance.
I had a fun weekend - went to the Thump Radio party on Friday, hung out with Mike and John and saw a bunch of other friends. Saturday night John, Mike & I went to a karaoke bar. John is actually a good singer, so it's cool if he goes up there and belts out a tune or two. Me, well let's just say it's probably good if I don't embarass myself by singing in public. I do wish that I could sing because I actually like it; maybe one if these days, if I ever get up the courage, I'll take some voice lessons and see what happens.
I once had a dream that I was a singer. I was on stage with my band, singing my heart out, and I got such an incredible rush from the crowd! All of a sudden I knew what it was like to front a band and have a successful performance - it was wonderful!
8 December 00
Hi. I just wanted to poke my head in and say something regarding not saying anything. I've had a bunch of stuff festering in my head and didn't feel like communicating with the outside world for awhile there. And now this past week, I've just been too busy to write! Matter of fact, I've only got a few minutes here before my fun Friday night begins, so this will be brief.
Ow. My neck has been hurting for weeks. Probably some combination of sleeping oddly, using a mouse all day at work, and stress. I just bought a new fluffy down pillow to help out with the sleep part; I think a massage is in line as well.
Okay, now for 15 minutes of rest before my night begins :)
20 November 00
More thoughts continuing along the tangent of my last entry...
Many years ago, when I started DJing on college radio, I developed an alter-ego. Her name was Lucretia, and she was this very cool person, very noticible, with her own unique image and a fun, outgoing social life. I played her on the radio and listeners developed a picture of her in their heads. Whatever picture they developed, however, was not what I was really like.
Then I went through some major lifestyle changes. Since leaving high school, I have lead three separate "lives". Each "life" marked a definitive time in my personal growth (or, in the case of my late teenage years, lack thereof), and although deep inside I was the same, I was a very different person thoughout each of these lives. So several years ago when I went through the aforementioned lifestyle changes, I also moved from life two to three, and I became my alter-ego. (She was more fun than the previous me anyhow!)
The first outward change was to dye my hair bright fuchsia! I dyed it for a party and liked it so much that I decided to continue coloring it. In fact, I think it looks better on me than my natural hair color; I see pictures of myself with my natural color and think, "ew!". I like the fact that my hair color gets me some additional attention, but there is a lot of attention I could do without. It's not all good, believe me.
I wonder what goes through a person's head when they see me. What opinions do they develop just because of my hair color? I sometimes worry about that. Do people think I'm stupid or a loser or irresponsible because I have "funny-colored hair"? Do mothers not let their children near me because they think I'm crazy? Do police keep a closer eye on me because they think I'm a criminal? I'm none of those things. I'm pretty much a regular person. Okay, well, a regular San Franciscan (we are a little different than people in the rest of the country).
If you see someone with colored hair, they may be making a statement. But more often than not, the statement they're making is, "I like the way this color hair looks on me."
I don't want to be thought less of or looked down upon simply because I have the courage to be different. There's nothing wrong with being different.
18 November 00
My horoscope for today read, in part, "Your Aries Sun Sign shows that you WANT your life to be CONSTANTLY EXCITING. It's perfectly natural for you to be frustrated and unhappy when your life becomes 'normal' and unexciting."
Heh heh, yes, how true :) Although I really do value occasional quiet nights alone at home, I'm usually always up for getting together with friends, going out, or just generally *doing* something. I feel like if friends are going somewhere or doing something, I want to go with them because I don't want to miss anything "fun". I went through a period in my life a number of years ago where I was going out five, six, seven nights a week because I didn't want to miss anything. Of course, after a while, that became 'normal' and I stopped going out quite so often, at least to clubs. Nowadays my going out is a combination of select clubs/parties plus a lot of spending time with friends.
I used to wonder if spending a lot of time at clubs made me a worse person - more superficial or what-have-you. But then I realized that where I went was not what determined if I was a good person; what I did and why I went were more important. And I spent time in clubs for two reasons - one, because I love music and that was a way to dance to stuff I like and (hopefully) hear new music, and two, because I went to be with friends and make new friends. DJing in clubs was just another level of that - it allowed me to be more directly involved in the scene and in the music that the San Francisco club-goers would be listening to.
I still live for those exciting moments! I still try to make life fun and extraordinary! I hope to be around for quite a long time, and there's no reason my time on earth shouldn't be enjoyable.
16 November 00
Here's a picture of my new absurd hat I bought in LA last month. I love it! (Yes, neon green is one of my favourite colors!) You can't see it too well, but the hat is covered in an obnoxious Hawaiian print.
I feel pretty good about things. I've recently made some major decisions, both large and small. Some of the smaller decisions are 1) to start going to the gym again and get back into shape for ski season (I've been going for a couple of weeks now), 2) to move further towards my Divemaster certification (I start working with my first of three classes next week), and 3) to travel to Europe at least once next spring.
The holidays are coming up. Blah. I don't particularly like Christmas - I'm not at all religious, I do not care for crass commercialism, and I already know there's no Santa Claus, so the only thing I really have to look forward to about this time of year is a few extra days off of work. Last year was wonderful because I spent Christmas in Fiji, and although they do celebrate Christmas there, it's not shoved down your throat. Our festivities consisted of the group of us (25 or so people) simply going out for a nice dinner.
Hmmm, Fiji was my last real vacation. (I don't count Burning Man as a "real" vacation.) I like to get out of the country at least once per year, and I was in Fiji for the first several days of 2000, so that much is done. But I really didn't have a desire to travel anyplace in particular, so I pretty much stayed in California the whole year. Now that I've got my mind set on travel for 2001, well, I guess my only real limit is how much time I can get off from work :)
10 November 00
Man, it has been *cold* here! It's barely mid-November and already the temperatures have sunk to the low 40s. Maybe that doesn't sound too bad to folks who live in places with snowy winters, but that's not us. Us wussy California people don't do well when there's frost on the ground! I just hope it doesn't keep getting *colder* as winter progresses.
Right now I'm sitting around relaxing for a few hours before I go out. Currently in my CD changer are CDs from Strapping Young Lads, Velvet Acid Christ, and, um, Rush. Yes, that Rush.
Wait! I can explain!
For several years starting in about 1980, Rush was my favourite band. I
really appreciate good musicianship, and either that's why I like Rush or
vice-versa :) But anyway, they've come up in conversation several times
these past few weeks and that made me realize that I haven't really even
heard Rush since I sold my albums about 11 or 12 years ago. So I saw a
couple of comps at CDNow and bought them the other day.
Some people have large sections of their brains which they use to remember
things like what they learned in school, errands they need to run, what
day it is, etc. Well, those sections of my brain are filled with song
lyrics. LOTS of song lyrics. Lyrics from songs I have not heard in
literally 10, 15, 20 years. Lyrics from songs which I do not know the
names of. Music just sticks in my head I guess.
So I'm sitting here typing away and singing these songs which I haven't
heard for a dozen years :)
7 November 00
Halloween is *the* San Francisco holiday! It's definitely my favourite holiday, so I love the fact that I'm in the middle of a city that takes it seriously! And the fact that I have a bunch of friends who also get off on celebrating just encourages me!
The weekend prior to Halloween was one long party. Tim, Mike B., Zuad & Mike C., Rob & Renee, me and a few others headed over to Brian & Jen's place on Friday night. Many of us hadn't seen one another for the last couple of months, so we all had a chance to hang out and catch up with one another prior to Saturday night's party. Once Saturday evening rolled around, Wendy, Zoe, and a bunch of others came over, and we had a grand ol' time, lasting way late into the night. And we had the special added bonus of an extra hour due to daylight savings time! Zuad put up some pictures from that night. (Sometimes I can describe things well, and other times, like right now when I tried to describe the party but ended up deleting most of that, it just doesn't happen. Please believe me when I say Saturday night was a great party - a very good night spent with some really wonderful people.)
Every good party requires a recovery day, and that's what happened on Sunday. Everyone spent the night at the house after the party, and a group of us hung out all day, just kicking back, watching movies and relaxing. While it's nice to go to a party or other event and see people, you often don't really get a chance to talk to them as everyone is busy running around, dancing, and whatever. So it is good to hang out and see friends in a low-key environment and get to know them a little better.
Tuesday night was All Hallow's Eve, Halloween, Day of the Dead Eve, whatever :) Tim, Mike, Wendy, and Mike's housemate Bob came over and we headed to the Castro for *the* San Francisco Halloween celebration. This is how you can tell that SF really likes to celebrate this holiday! Several city blocks were closed off to traffic, and hundreds of thousands of people (many in costume) were milling about - partying, dancing, socializing - you name it. Area residents stood in their windows and threw candy to passers-by. We had a blast!
Last weekend was back to Brian & Jen's for another, smaller, party. Again, I'm not going to ruin it by attempting a lame description, but I can say it was sooo incredibly fun, silly, crazy, insane, and emotionally intense. As we've said over and over, this crowd cannot do anything in moderation!
Tim left for home (Germany) on Sunday. I really enjoyed spending time with him, but I was also very glad to see him go. I still have difficulty being around him; I have a lot of emotional issues I need to deal with regarding him. Trouble is, it may be a year (when he moves back to the States) before we can resolve things. If he would only do what I say, then everything would be fine! ;)
26 October 00
Okay, another long gap where I haven't written - oops! But it wasn't for lack of things to talk about...
Friday the 13th was this month's Thump party. I went and had a good time, but for some reason wasn't much in the mood to dance. The previous two Thumps had two of my favourite bands playing and were such incredibly great parties that when this one rolled around, I knew there was no way it was going to match the others. But no problem there because I spent the entire night talking to different friends, and still managed to stick around 'til closing.
Susan & I spent the day together on Saturday, and during the afternoon we went to the zoo to visit the snow leopard cubs! The cubs are about 5 months old, and as inquisitive as any kitten. When we walked up to their enclosure, the three cubs were far back from our walkway, inside their protected cage area. We got the attention of one cub and started running back and forth in front of their enclosure, ducking behind bushes and trees, trying to draw him/her out. And it worked! The cub came running to the front of the enclosure and would chase us back and forth as we ran, stalking us if (s)he saw us hiding behind a bush. At one point a second cub came out to join in the fun, but got bored more quickly than either the first cub, Susan or I. It was great fun!
On Sunday, I went to the Renaissance Faire with my friend Monica from work, and a few of her friends. It was only the second time I had ever gone, and the previous time was seven or eight years ago. It's fun to go there once every several years...just don't take it too seriously :)
Now this past Friday, that turned out to be a very interesting night! I had lunch with my friend John who talked me into going to a comedy club later that night with himself, Raphael, Mike (my ex), and his new wife Olga. So I went. We hit the first show which ended about 11, and that was too early to go home so we all went over and played pool for a couple of hours, then wandered along the Embarcadero and Justin Herman Plaza and then down Market Street. Many drinks were imbibed through the course of the evening. But I actually had a good time hanging out with Mike & Olga and surprisingly enough, it didn't even seem weird. I also had a very good time talking with John and getting to know him a little better. It was a good night. I finally got home somewhere around 4am (I think?), and had to hurry and get a few hours sleep because I needed to wake up at 7:00 on Saturday morning to fly to L.A.!
I had made plans to meet Stefanie & Susan at the BART station at 8:30 so we could all head over to the airport to catch our plane. Well, I guess I slept through my alarm, because I when I woke & looked at the clock it said 8:32. I jumped out of bed and into my clothes, brushed my teeth and ran for a taxi. I made it to BART about 8:50. Not too bad! We flew to L.A. and met up with Amber and had a great time shopping that day! I bought the most absurd hat as well as the coolest pair of tennis shoes! I'm sure there will be pictures soon to come!
Next Tuesday is Halloween, and this weekend is when all of the parties happen! San Francisco takes Halloween seriously, and this town celebrates it like no other place in the world! I'll be spending the weekend at Brian & Jen's house along with about a dozen other people, including (Evil) Tim who is flying over from Germany just for Halloween! Yay, it should be a fun weekend!
16 October 00
I love living in San Francisco!
There are so many cool things and fun & unusual people literally right outside my front door! Take tonight, for example. There is a bar down the street from me that plays psy-trance music on Monday nights. I head down there, and along the way, a toothless transvestite hooker complements me on my hair and asks a few questions about how I get it so bright. I show up at the bar and several friends are there, a couple of whom are DJing. I have a chance to talk to my friends, dance to some cool music, and the bar maid gives us yummy apple pastries to munch on. I meet a couple of new people including one guy who was inspired to have everyone in the bar sign his shirt with a marking pen because it seemed like a fun idea!
This is still a great town :)
11 October 00
I had the most disturbing dream the other night. I dreamt that I walked past a convenience store and saw some homeless/derelict-type guy sitting in the parking lot, holding a flaming object in his right hand. I went and did whatever it was I was going to do, and again walked past the parking lot as I returned. I glanced over at the homeless guy just as he looked down at his hand and freaked out - turns out that he was so high he didn't notice the flaming object had burnt his entire hand off, and he was left with only bare bone sticking out his right sleeve!
I took that dream to mean I need to carefully consider the consequences of my actions before I do anything. And maybe I shouldn't play with fire :)
One of these days I need to move to a place with a dining room. I would love to have a home with a dining room and a dining table and I would invite friends over for dinner parties. They wouldn't be stuffy frou-frou dinner parties; knowing me and my friends we'd probably end up throwing food at each other (seems like we can't go to Chevy's without testing the aerodynamic feasibility of their tortillas). But the real reason I want to have dinner parties is so I can cook! I really like to cook, and think I do a decent job of it, but it's just no fun cooking for myself. I like cooking for others.
One of these days I'll be able to afford to move. The beauty of having been in the same apartment for four years means I'm paying 1996 rents (since San Francisco is a rent-controlled city), and that means to move into a similar place in 2000, I'd be paying 50-100% more than I am now. Oh, and that's only *if* i could find a place. The figures I always see show SF to have about 1% vacancy. And buying? Well, let's just say that the only people I know who have purchased real estate in San Francisco are millionaires.
San Francisco may be unique in that it's probably the only city where people wish the neighborhoods would get *worse*. Gentrification is a very bad word around here. Throughout its existence, San Francisco was a haven for renegades and rebels, gays and foreigners, people who didn't fit in elsewhere. Like any world-class city, it had more nightlife than you could shake a stick at, and people would drive to "The City" in search of a myriad of activities not available to 'burb dwellers.
About five years ago something started to happen. Some blame it on the "dot.com" industry, but the "dotcommers" I know are not at fault - they're the ones who desperately want a cool place to hang out at 3am. But little by little SF's "wild and crazy" persona was being replaced by a Starbucks on every corner and an SUV in every garage. All of a sudden Joe Schmoe, who just moved into his South of Market warehouse, is complaining that the workshops and nightclubs on his street are making it difficult for him to get to sleep at night. Hello!?! You just moved into an industrial area and you're complaining about the businesses that have been there for 20 years? What are you doing living in a city? You belong in the suburbs, buddy.
You think I'm blowing this out of proportion? Most of our San Francisco nightclubs have been closed because of irrational complaints like this. And it's not just nightclubs. Gentrification has caused rents to skyrocket. You cannot rent a decent studio apartment for less than $900-1000/month in this city. Escalating rents and astronomical real estate prices are driving lower-income people out of the City. Do we really want to live in a place populated solely by people with $100,000+ yearly incomes? What about the service sector? The artists? The everyday people? The color and character that gave San Francisco the charm it was known for?
Help! Don't let our city die!
10 October 00
Last Saturday the alarm went off at 4:00. That's A.M., as in Ante Meridian. In the morning. If you know anything about me, then you know that if I'm up at 4am, it's usually because I've been up all night long. I am just not a morning person. So, the alarm goes off and I get up to go scuba diving. Susan had stayed over at my place, so she also dragged herself up and stood in front of the coffee pot, waiting for it to finish its elixir-brewing process. Laura wandered over to my apartment, and then Jonathan stopped by about 4:30 to pick us up, and we were off to Monterey.
After stopping at the dive shop to rent tanks & heavy wetsuits, we arrived at Monastery Beach. Everything I've read about this location classifies it as an advanced dive site, but both today and the previous time I had been here, the conditions were calm and clear - perfect, since Jonathan is a novice diver and this was Susan's first Monterey dive. This is also one of the best dive sites in Monterey, primarily because the several-thousand-foot-deep Monterey Trench runs literally right up to the beach. We did two good, albeit relatively shallow, dives along the north side of the beach - swimming through the kelp forests as if we were flying through redwoods! And I had the joy of having my dive computer (which tells me my depth, and more importantly, the amount of air I have left in my tank) die during a dive, so I had to finish the dive "blind".
Most of my dives have been in tropical waters, and it's quite a different experience doing cold water dives. You're wearing a much bulkier wetsuit and two or three times the amount of lead weights, and the flora and fauna are completely different. Cold water fish are much less colorful and much more scarce than their warm water brethren, but the chilly reefs do harbor spectacular nudibranches and anemones. Jellyfish are all around, and we were also treated to the sight of a harbor seal. Virtually all of my tropical diving has been done from a boat where we had to follow a divemaster (except for two dives in Fiji which I was able to lead!), so it was good experience for me to plan and lead these dives as well. Later this week I'm going to the dive shop to buy a new computer, and I think I'll work on the completion of my divemaster certification as well. (There! It's in writing so now I *have to* do it!)
Speaking of tropical diving, one of my most memorable diving experiences occurred in July of 1998, during one of my trips to Mexico...
We were diving in a sea lion rookery on a small island. There were a harem of females who had recently given birth, and they were ready to mate again. This meant the two bull sea lions in the area were particularly territorial and feisty. After observing them for a bit, we could tell that one male had made the beach his territory, and had assumed "ownership" of the harem thereon. The second male spent most of his time swimming to and fro, hoping for an opening and a chance to breed with the females. Periodically, like two drunken frat boys, they'd get into a physical altercation.
So we're diving in the shallow water just in front of the area where the sea lions have hauled out. I see one of the bulls swimming around near me. Then out of nowhere, the other appears and they begin fighting! About 20 feet in front of me! Not wanting to be involved in this battle, I back off and watch the territory-less male, defeated once again, retreat to his spot off the beach. I swim his direction and see him floating not far above me, so I slowly ascend to the surface. The sea lion is now lying on his back, with his flippers in the air the way pinnipeds are wont to do, and he's watching me. I slowly float closer to him and he's not too concerned with my proximity - his brown puppy-dog eyes close as he rests, opening only occasionally to check if I'm still there. I float to within an arm's reach from him when I remember that this is a six- or eight-hundred pound predator with jaws like a lion (why do you think they call them sea lions anyway?), and at any moment he could turn and rip me into shreds. I put an extra foot or two distance between us, and continued to float there with him for another ten minutes. It was simply an amazing experience.
5 October 00
I'm tired. I haven't gotten enough sleep this past week. It's still pretty early (10:00) but my eyes are already getting heavy. (yawn)
I haven't felt like working all week long. We did a major network cutover about week and a half ago, and since then, things have been running so much more smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that we no longer have all the these outages and emergencies we need to research and fix, and now things have gotten sort of routine and boring. I suppose I should enjoy it while I can :)
I'm getting ready to go diving this weekend. It will be my first dive trip since January in Fiji (unless you count the training in the Bamboo Reef pool), and my first dive trip to Monterey in about a year. I'd certainly go a lot more often if the water was warmer around here, but immersing my heat-loving body into a frigid 55 degree ocean for 30 or 40 minutes is something I just don't do too often. Ironically, if I could get off my lazy butt and get down to Monterey more often, I might actually finish my Divemaster certification! Writing this has got me to thinking about diving (obviously), and I've just decided to sign up to work on a shark research project next year! It's a "Reef Predator Project" where I'll be working for a week next June with an oceanographic team to tag and track sharks (as well as lobsters and groupers)! It's so perfect for me!
2 October 00
Wow! What a fun weekend! I was out running around all weekend, spending time with good friends - what could be better?
I met up with Marya and Susan after work on Friday, and we headed out to have dinner with Stefanie and a couple of her friends visiting from Germany. Angela & Adam joined up briefly, and then Susan and I took off to Cell Space to watch a middle eastern music performance with fire dancers and belly dancers. It turned out our friend Bruce was part of the belly-dancing troupe! He was the first male belly dancer I had ever seen, and it just so happened this was his debut performance, although you wouldn't know it by watching! This particular kind of music wasn't really my style, but having the dancers as eye-candy made it okay :)
The highlight of my weekend was going to Thump Radio's first anniversary party. Susan & I went and met a slew of friends - Greg (who was there for the first time and loved it), Raphael, Da5id & Jen, Brian & Jen & Mike, Wendy, Simon, Adam & Angela, and many many more. It took me a little while to get into it that night; as usual, I spent quite a bit of time just talking to friends. About 3am, Susan & I looked at each other and we complained that we were getting tired & hungry and weren't sure how much longer we could last. Then at 3:30, Astral Projection took the stage. The band played and I have never had so much fun watching two guys fiddle with their keyboards! We were right in front of the stage in a group of friends and strangers, and we danced for the full 2.5 hours of Astral Projection's show! It was simply a wonderful experience that demonstrated the power of music; I really did feel like I was on drugs through much of their set because I got so into the music and I wasn't afraid to dance around and show it! Thanks A.P. for such a wonderful show, and thanks Susan, Raphael & Simon for sharing that with me!
On Sunday evening I met up with Charlotte and we headed over to the Maritime Hall to for the Front 242/Cassandra Complex show. We headed over a bit early so we could spend time with my friend Rodney, and we chatted with him for a couple of hours backstage before the show. Again, I ran into a number of friends at this show (including several who were at the Thump Radio party the night before) and got to spend some time talking with them, and that's always nice. Both bands put on a good show, even though Front 242 performed pretty much the same set they did on their last tour in 1998. My biggest complaint about them was that they played "Modern Angel" instead of my favourite 242 song, "Happiness (More Angels)".
It was interesting being at these two shows (AP and F242/CC) and observing the contrasts between the audiences and the way the music was presented. I am of the opinion that techno/trance crowds are much more full of energy and more apt to dance to the music than goth/industrial crowds, and the bands cater to that by playing their music non-stop, with one song seguing right into another. The goth & industrial bands, like any rock band, are song-oriented and pause between each song. But that's okay because most people aren't dancing. There was also a completely different feel to attending each of these shows. It did make me realize (yet again) that I really have moved on and out of the industrial scene. It's not that I dislike the music, but it's just that I now like psy-trance better. And I am so tired of the somber, cooler-than-thou attitudes that I've had to deal with for the past dozen-plus years. I'm happy to have moved on :)
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