[Dynagroove] The great park party + the fiasco...

[benjamin at bodyrockdjs.com]

thanks for the kind words......  i'm gonna write more later about this
situation.*  they lied.  they setup traps.  they bullied.  they
discriminated against our party.  they wrote tickets when warnings were
the only thing necessary.  they harassed us and you.  not that held
somebody over night in jail who was UNDER the blood alcohol content for a
dui.  they were more than ridiculous....  in case you guys don't know, but
i'm a pretty chill dude.. but when they start abusing their entrusted
authority it's sets me into a rage.

I'm hoping to organize something to let the city council know how unfairly
we were treated.  if anyone on this list got a ticket harrassed or has
pics of the rangers please send me an email (benjamin at bodyrockdjs.com). 
we lost over $1000 so i can't help you financially but who knows what can
happen if we get enough people to raise their voices about this.  It's a
huge bureaucracy so i don't know if anything can ever come of it but i
wanna give it a try.

And my hats off to to the djs that simply laid it out and handled the
business.  we did have some late arrivals and switching of time slots but
all you guys handled it very gracefully the way an underground dj would. 
Madam did call me by the way i just wasn't able to relay that back
everybody on time since i was standing in the parking lot letting people
know that our permit was verbally revoked that morning.  also she wasn't
gonna start the party so she wasn't THAT late. we had issues all around.

i'm pissed.
i'm sorry for all you that got caught up in this ticketing scheme they had
going.  My estimeate is aobut 10 tickets thorugout the day... (fuck you!
$250 fine for cigarette that can be extinguished in one second. no harm no
foul. i'm trying to find out how many of these tickets were given that day
in griffith park to determine how much bias they had against our party.)

any lawyers out there?   besides imad. ;P

thanks to everyone that came though.  we knew griffith park would be much
better location... but we didn't expect the nazi's to be working the day
shift.  By the way his name is Albert Torres and he's gonna hear from me
soon enough.

and in case it wasn't clear we did have the permit in print stating
ALCOHOL IS PERMITTED 2PM-9PM.


thanks though to all of you who helped get the word out regarding the
gestapo.

and a major thanks to all of you that were kind enough to still donate a
little bit.  But most important for being tolerant of the unfortunate
situation these faux cops put us in.  seriuosly.



PEACE,

benjamin
*that was until i started writing.  more will be said but covered most of
it here.


> The first thing I would like to do is that Ben and Marcus for dedicating
> all
> there time and hard work to make this party happen.  I know it was very
> hard
> for them to get the permits and then very stressful for them to deal with
> the park rangers.
>
>>From what I understand when Ben and Marcus applied for the permit to have
> amplified sound the rangers asked them "Do you want to have beer and
> wine?"
> and of course they said yes.   The permit for was around 200 people with
> beer and wine.  I saw the permit I read it was all there in plain english.
> However the morning of the party the rangers announced no alcohol.  Ben
> and
> marcus showed them the permit that had payed for (this was not cheap) and
> they just did not care and said no.  What were the boys to do?   So cups
> were scrambled and warning were given by all of when people arrived.  I
> myself have over 30 beers to give away in my cooler lol (I don't even
> drink).
>
> The show must go on.   Again I have to commend the boys for keeping there
> cool when talent got demanding, came late, and even tried to encroach on
> their own time slot. lol Me I would have lost it and bitched some people
> out
> lol what can I say other then Ben and Marcus are a lot nicer then me.
> These poor guys I could see their stress on there faces.  They felt
> responsible for any problems that people were having with the rangers.
>
> When I arrived around 3. I was surprised that there was already about 20
> people there set up in shade and just kicking back.  Marcus was letting
> some
> CDs play since Marty was not playing and Madam Modesty had not shown up.
> I
> knew Marcus had plenty other things to do so I asked if he wanted me to
> throw on some mellow tracks until Madam Modesty showed up.  He said that
> it
> would be great.  SO i jumped up and played some of my more mellow stuff.
> Just had some fun and watched as people started to trickle in.  ABout and
> hour later Madam Modesty showed up.  Now I hate to be a dick but she was
> an
> hour and a half late.  I find that this is just unprofessional and rude.
> I
> understand it is a free party and your not getting payed.  But have some
> respect for the promoters and other DJs.  Least you can do is give the
> promoter a ring and tell them your going to be late.  They could then tell
> you if they want you n the line up or not.  After hooking up her Serato
> Madam Modesty went on and played some cool tech minimal stuff.  It was
> good
> and the people kept trickling in bobbing their head.   I think she played
> about 45 minutes or so and then it was decided that Marty was going to go
> on.  Another thing to note is after Madam Modesty played she just packed
> her
> stuff up and left.  She showed up late played and then left.  No support
> of
> the event whatsoever.  Maybe she had to be somewhere I don't know.  I
> certainly hope that was the situation.  Nothing is more insulting to a
> promoter then talent that does not support their event.  EVEN IF IT IS
> FREE.
>
> Marty went on next.  It reminded me of the soundtrack of blackhawk down
> lol.  IT was interesting and marty has a distinct voice.  It was mellow
> and
> people all sat down and just listened.  A lot of people asked me "what
> would
> you call this?"  I didn't know.  there was elements of some elctronica,
> Armenian chants, and herby handcock-ish..
>
> Mine a joesh's set was up next.  DJ Mes had shown up and and was squeezed
> in
> with us.  We decided to go 3 records each in a rotation.  Joesh went first
> then me and Mes rock paper scissored for who went after.  I won.. I went
> after.  Joesh immediately started dropping the funk and people started to
> get up and dance.  We rotated out for a while and the grass in front of
> the
> DJ booth started to get thick with dancers.  Hooting and hollaring.  But
> most importantly really cute girls shaking it for this old pervert to look
> at lol  We switched out for about an hour then we gave Mes the last 20
> minutes to play of our alloted time slot.
>
> Some things to note..  There was a time when 3 Frisbees, a giant
> badmitten,
> rockets, & a soccerball were flying around like it was a war zone.  people
> were ducking and jumping and grabbing and hurling it back.  It was pretty
> funny and everyone was laughing their asses off.  Also Justin cooked the
> baddest most bestest tri-tip I have had in a long time.  It was DAMN good.
> Thank you mr justin.
>
> The Bodyrockdjs went on next and played some good stuff.  I was making fun
> of Marcus for playing a greenskeepers mix but he smiles and said "It is my
> re-edit" so I couldn't make fun of him anymore. Not that I don't love
> Greenskeepers I just never thought I would hear Marcus play them lol.  BRs
> got the crowd really going and played superb.  They even went into some
> breaks.  It got dark and the music finally stopped around 9.
>
> The park Rangers were very aggressive.  Watching us with Binoculars and
> swooping in to give people tickets for smoking and drinking.  Smoking I
> understand we don't want any brush fires.  However the drinking there was
> a
> permit for.  It seems to me the Rangers really wanted to write as many
> tickets as possible.  They were not compassionate nor friendly.  I talked
> to
> one and he was nothing but attitude towards me.  He asked me what was in
> my
> can I told him sunkist (it was a sunkist can) and he said "Poor some out
> right here."  I did and it was obviously orange he just walked away.  No
> "sorry, pardon me, thanks." nothing just walked away.   I think in the end
> I
> saw 4 tickets given out. I heard of more.  But it was really frustrating.
> I
> think if the BRDJs had hair it would be grey.  They were so stressed out.
>
> BUT I must say.  The spot is much better then woodley park,  the dance
> vibe
> is better, and I honestly think it was a fun event.  I had a great time
> despite the man watching over us.  I would not mind looking into doing
> something again at Griffith park.  However we would need to have some
> things
> ironed out with the rangers first.   Of course there are a few other parks
> we should look at as well.   But there is no reason LA can not have a go
> to
> party in the summer.  I know the BRDJs are working hard to build it and I
> am
> hopping to help them.
>
> Ben and Marcus I know you busted your ass on this one more so then any
> other.  I think for the circumstances you did very good.  I thank you for
> your hard work.
>
> Cade
> _________________________________________
>
> View the Archives:
> http://mailman.newdream.net/pipermail/dynagroove/