this made me so happy
Sep. 13th, 2008 03:33 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpeter
http://www.hulla.info/archive4.html
reading matt and j3s's party review from 10 years ago is a fucking trip. so awesome to catch a glimpse of us at our finest -- to revisit how young and earnest and free we all were.
H4 was definately a Rave if there ever was one. in a single word, it was beautiful. at one point in the evening, dj frisky dropped a hh remix (by stompy on homegrown) of the classic tune 'one family'. for the first time ever i *really* experienced what the song meant. all it took was a look around to realize that everyone there was together: be it people smiling at strangers, laughing, dancing frantically, singing along to happy hardcore, jungle or old school rave music, wearing crazy fun fur outfits, or carrying around stuffed animals and toys. the night peaked for about seven hours. in a weird way, i felt that i was home. chicago's a very interesting place but as of late (say the last three years), it's had its fair share of problems. i love chicago and will do everything i can to make things at least a little better, but H4 showed me something that i usually just dream about. it was that special. - DJ matt positive
man, i miss those days! people seem to forget that rave was in many ways an incredibly moving and empowering cultural phenomenon. it provided so much meaning and a terrifically counterhegemonic social framework for countless adolescents just beginning to really explore themselves, their emotions, and their place within a social world that just didn't seem to have a place for hope. what impresses me to this day is the uproarious force, the violent intensity of our collective desire to imagine a better experience of being together, to create (if only for a night) a better, happier world, a world whose sole purpose was to lift you up. sure, in the end it became (or perhaps always was) politically inert. it certainly did not form a lasting community of like-minded individuals working together to attain an ideal. but that's perhaps why it is so beautiful to me -- precisely because it was so much about moments of explosive contact and unexpected intimacy, knowledge, bliss that continually escaped capture. it was something that could only briefly be held, and it arrived with so much force! it could shear people into raw wounds and stitch them back together in the same beat. in one night you would be so moved to tears, so affected by the crowd and the music and the furor that you could forget how ugly and shitty and misunderstood you were and feel in your bones that you were a part of something amazing (and you were)i guess i just want to say that amid bashing my old youth culture for its hedonism and (*ahem*) fash'n mistakes one must remember that this microcosm was precious for many people who craved a degree of freedom, intensity, community that quotidian life did not readily provide. rave was a space for hope, a privileged space perhaps (an insular space) but a space for hope nonetheless. and you never know how precious hope is until it's gone and you experience a life impoverished by its absence.
hope is a part of feeling alive. without rave, i wouldn't be here. SO SUCK IT, H8ERS!
Jes's review
wow. i dont know where to begin about this weekend. it was one of the most amazing experience i think ive evver had. adventure!
we left chicago at 4am friday morning after cleaning up after a super fun positive thursdaze, drove straight thru to arrive in toronto sometime friday afternoon. yeah, it was a bit tirring but it was nice to rest up and have a chance to see the sites of the city and all.....
along the way we talked a lot about raving, the philosophy of it, history, what it means to be a "raver" etc.....matt was especially endorsing of the term rave as a gathering of ewnlightened souls come together to collectively celebrate life thru ecstatic dance and unity......ive always been rather shy of the word and all the negative connotations it brings, but after this weekend, i love it. i love rave.
i met some kid at hullaballoo who said it was his first rave. even tho ive been doing this for two and a half years, i had to reply that this was my first rave too. it made me wonder what ive been doing all this time.
the vybe there was unbelievable. we'd been a little discouraged saturday day when on the streets no party kids so much as returned a single smile, not to mention eric got *stuck* (of his pager and cash by a gun) at the check point. shit happens. but once inside it was a whole other world, a cocoon of good vybes. i hate to make massive generalizations, but *everyone* there was super friendly, smiling, ready with a hug to share, stickers, toys, pompons, glowstikx.....it was candy raver heaven, and it was beautiful. i did not encounter a single person who was negative. unlike chicago, it did not feel like a dance contest, and furry pants took the place of label whores. i couldnt wipe the silly grin off my face all night and i didnt want to try.
and the music. oh gosh! for one thig, ppl were clearly there for the music, being as how most of the place was grooooooovin all nite long. and the music was so incredible. i was a little worried, being a junglist at heart, to be in the midst of such mad amounts of happy hardkore. but i must admit after a little bit i gave it a chance (how could i not with matt positive freaking the fuk out next to me every few minutes?) and i got infected. ill admit it: I LIKE HAPPY HARDKORE :) :) once i gave it a chance i realized it contibuted to the thick vybe and attitude of the place. i just couldnt help feeling uplifted; maybe that had somfin to do with the stoopid grin. then ruffneck went on with his 92-94 jungle set and i had to brock tha fuk out. oh gosh! they dont make em like they used to. anthem after anthem he laid down.....and when he dropped fire....well lets just say the place was on fire. then spock came on with some hard stuff from the netherlands....i kinda wish hed been a little harder, since a fat gabber set woulda been a nice kontrast, but he kinda swayed in between hh and partykore (scuse me if i dont have my terms perfectly refined) but whatever.....i dug it all! and thennnnnn grimace skooled us all, beginning with old skool breaks and basically took us thru the history of jungle.......wow. every set i heard that night was amazing. i felt like a part of something beautiful, a collective coccoon of wonder and contentment, not to mention consciousness. am i being too esoteric?
[...]
hullabaloo was an awesome experience. i opened my mind to new music, encountered a vybe i never imagined possible, and in the process i lost a lot of the jadedness ive colloected from bad experinces over the years. wow. i cant wait to go back. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
shouts out to greta and her friend luis (?) the only (knowing) net peepz i met that night, as well as all the incredible sweet folkz that helped make my night everything it eventually became. and thank you sooooo much for bringing me, matt. ill never tease you about root beer again!
ahhhhhhhhhh. see yall at the next one!
<3
mw-raves
internet rave archive (Matt and co.)
hyperreal
dropbass
we left chicago at 4am friday morning after cleaning up after a super fun positive thursdaze, drove straight thru to arrive in toronto sometime friday afternoon. yeah, it was a bit tirring but it was nice to rest up and have a chance to see the sites of the city and all.....
along the way we talked a lot about raving, the philosophy of it, history, what it means to be a "raver" etc.....matt was especially endorsing of the term rave as a gathering of ewnlightened souls come together to collectively celebrate life thru ecstatic dance and unity......ive always been rather shy of the word and all the negative connotations it brings, but after this weekend, i love it. i love rave.
i met some kid at hullaballoo who said it was his first rave. even tho ive been doing this for two and a half years, i had to reply that this was my first rave too. it made me wonder what ive been doing all this time.
the vybe there was unbelievable. we'd been a little discouraged saturday day when on the streets no party kids so much as returned a single smile, not to mention eric got *stuck* (of his pager and cash by a gun) at the check point. shit happens. but once inside it was a whole other world, a cocoon of good vybes. i hate to make massive generalizations, but *everyone* there was super friendly, smiling, ready with a hug to share, stickers, toys, pompons, glowstikx.....it was candy raver heaven, and it was beautiful. i did not encounter a single person who was negative. unlike chicago, it did not feel like a dance contest, and furry pants took the place of label whores. i couldnt wipe the silly grin off my face all night and i didnt want to try.
and the music. oh gosh! for one thig, ppl were clearly there for the music, being as how most of the place was grooooooovin all nite long. and the music was so incredible. i was a little worried, being a junglist at heart, to be in the midst of such mad amounts of happy hardkore. but i must admit after a little bit i gave it a chance (how could i not with matt positive freaking the fuk out next to me every few minutes?) and i got infected. ill admit it: I LIKE HAPPY HARDKORE :) :) once i gave it a chance i realized it contibuted to the thick vybe and attitude of the place. i just couldnt help feeling uplifted; maybe that had somfin to do with the stoopid grin. then ruffneck went on with his 92-94 jungle set and i had to brock tha fuk out. oh gosh! they dont make em like they used to. anthem after anthem he laid down.....and when he dropped fire....well lets just say the place was on fire. then spock came on with some hard stuff from the netherlands....i kinda wish hed been a little harder, since a fat gabber set woulda been a nice kontrast, but he kinda swayed in between hh and partykore (scuse me if i dont have my terms perfectly refined) but whatever.....i dug it all! and thennnnnn grimace skooled us all, beginning with old skool breaks and basically took us thru the history of jungle.......wow. every set i heard that night was amazing. i felt like a part of something beautiful, a collective coccoon of wonder and contentment, not to mention consciousness. am i being too esoteric?
[...]
hullabaloo was an awesome experience. i opened my mind to new music, encountered a vybe i never imagined possible, and in the process i lost a lot of the jadedness ive colloected from bad experinces over the years. wow. i cant wait to go back. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
shouts out to greta and her friend luis (?) the only (knowing) net peepz i met that night, as well as all the incredible sweet folkz that helped make my night everything it eventually became. and thank you sooooo much for bringing me, matt. ill never tease you about root beer again!
ahhhhhhhhhh. see yall at the next one!
<3
mw-raves
internet rave archive (Matt and co.)
hyperreal
dropbass
