[Dynagroove] House Discourse 101

[A-ron]

So, I had to opportunity to go through a time warp from friday night to saturday night.  Friday night, I worked at monster massive.  It was cold; it was raining.  The Groove Tickets booth was outdoors and my costume included a pair of green tights.  Yeah, brrrr.

I hadnt been to a "rave" in a long time.  While there, it seemed to me like everyone was about fourteen.  "Oh my god, all these kids are so fucked up," I said to myself as the guy with hologram glasses and four multicolored glowsticks hanging from his neck stumbled by, grabbing at the air in front of him.  And I was in the house room!

Saturday I found myself at Giant for Deep Dish.  I came inside about 1 am.  Everyone's pills had kicked in by then.  "oh my god, all these people are so fucked up," I said again to myself as the guy on my right started massaging his girlfriend in the middle of the floor and the girl on my left started licking her lollipop like it was the last one on earth.  Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. I saw white.

It was then that I realized that both nights I was in the same environment, with mean age as the only variable.  The kids at the rave were dancing around and getting fucked up, but so were the kids at Giant.  Now I know that comparing Monster Massive is not exactly parallel to Giant, but I feel it is a good example for explaining my point: We all go out to listen to music, dance around, and have fun, no matter how old we are.

When I first moved to LA about 4 years ago, I had a musical boner for about 6 months.  Every DJ I had ever wanted to see was playing somewhere in LA soon.  Coming from TX, where things are not as developed and segregated as they are here (in terms of the "party" scene), I wasn't used to having such a huge selection of parties and music.  In El Paso, there was a party maybe once a month.  The weekly was in Juarez, Mexico and you had to risk your life crossing the US-border to get there.  After about a year in LA, I started to (and still do at times) take the fruits of living in this city for granted.  I think that we have maybe too much selection here.  We take a lot for granted; think about it.  This is why we are snobs.  Steve Raver in Podunk, Kentucky would take the Greyhound 2 hours to have the chance to see Doc Martin.  But, you were on the sublevel guestlist, right?

To touch on another issue raised in this whole discussion, chances are that YOU probably do drugs.  While different drugs have different physical effects, the point is that you are putting a substance in your body to alter the way you feel.  THAT is doing drugs, any way you slice it, eat it, drink it, or snort it.

Lastly, I must argue against the idea that technology is doing our scene a disservice.

from Jason>>>
<<<Aside from the social issues we face, there are also technological conflicts 
taking place. 
Digital music threatens to overtake vinyl in the clubs, to redefine our 
medium and rob us of 20 years of 12" legacy. And the ever-shrinking 10 second 
attention span of our plugged in, media-saturated culture is making it harder to 
hold people's interest. 
<<<<<<<<

While I see how it could be interpreted that digital music is threatening vinyl, I have much praise for the CDR and the Pioneer CDJ 800.  I am not a dj, but I know that a professional cd player enables a dj to do really cool things that can't be done on vinyl, like running an exact 4 bars of a track on a loop.  And honestly, can you hear a difference in the club between a cd and a record? Probably not.  

This is not to discredit the importance of the 1s and 2s, but technology allows musicians and djs to do more creative and innovative things in the mix, more easily.  There is nothing wrong with that.  
I think the problem is that there is a shortage of house djs that are turntablists.  Everyone is a dj, but not many play their tables like instruments.

FUNKY, FRESH, NEW, HYPE, DOPE, more more more!  Digital music also allows a producer/dj to cook up a track at home and have it out in the club that same night.  They dont have to wait to get it pressed to test its effects on the floor.  I love CDRs.  If I weren't for the CDR, I wouldnt have had The Freaks cd 8 months before it came out.  Uhh, yeah, I AM a snob, too.

I hope everyone had a nice Howliday weekend.

excited to hear what's being done to "hook the hookers,"


A-ron

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Aaron Ike Joseph Monty
aaron at groovetickets.com
monty at usc.edu
AIM: Ne0nlike
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*things in bars that people do*
*when no one wants to talk to you*
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