NOFX and why they kick ass... dark punkrock gear.

NOFX and why they kick ass...

It all went down at the World Beat Center (or was it Soma?) in San Diego...HOW I got into this show is... another story.

Once the show was in full swing people started climbing these two huge speaker stacks/towers that were a good 10 feet high and diving off into the solid mass of people packed super tight on either side of the pit which was now thick with people throwing elbows and bodies in all directions.

People were climbing the stacks like monkeys... At one point there was a pile of people (who failed to land on someone who could catch them) next to one of the speaker stacks and a guy who was about to dive off paused, flailed, and lost his balance...

...he tipped backwards then forward windmilling his arms and started to fall...

...as he plummeted forward his hand tipped one of the 3 foot long fluorescent lightbulb/tube and knocked it loose! He fell, then it fell - in slow motion I swear - and the long white glass tube landed with a loud crunching, bursting *POP* right onto the lead singers microphone sending glass flying and wicked feedback through the speakers. ALL the madness STOPPED. You could hear a pin drop. All heads looked to the lead singer as he stumbled back for a second, paused, and said "can you guys hear that?" as he munched and ground his jaws together... "thats glass!" he says and without another second, as if this was something he had been hoping for, starts belting out the rest of song with the whole band zealously playing with even more fury behind him. The place just went absolutely mental, every person there just went nuts, for hours, giant grins on everyones sweaty faces.
-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!

Burningman tips! Get crazy clothes and costumes!

My survival tips for burning-man first timers! (A.K.A. virgins!)

First off, don't try to know too much!! Just go there and experience it without expectations and preconceived notions. Would you go to a movie and ask how it ends before ya got there would you?

Stuff your gonna need (just trust me :-D):


* goggles (snowboard goggles are my fav)

* Face mask or bandana (something to filter air/breath through)

* CRAZY BYCICLE!!!!!!!!!!!the wilder and more colorful and crazier the better, get fat tires, no 10 speeds :P

* A big drinking cup with a tether (to tie to your bike or .. self) to hold your booze and/or whatever else generous strangers give you to drink (dont bring disposable crap!)

* lots of cool little things to give away and trade with other cool people that have cool little things to give you.

* An adventurous and friendly attitude as well as lots of curiosity, generosity, and the courage to contribute to all the absolutely mind blowing things you'll encounter.

* LOTS of stuff to drink, water, juice, spicy v8s, and whatever other liquid libation suits you.

* crazy clothes. No I mean REALLY crazy... like a mirrored elvis costume with pom poms and a rainbow afro wig while on stilts and sparklers stuck... well you get the picture. wear all the stuff you've always wanted too but normal society wont let you.


more to come!
-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!

Pure glowing magic and lights in the coolest place on earth... ibiza...

Pure magic in the coolest place on earth... ibiza...

I'll never forget it, this was the place, this was the moment when it all come together when all life made sense.

I can hear the song in my head, see the lights and the lasers flashing across my hands and arms as I stretched them out as high as I could, feeling the bass saturating my body with energy and ...
-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!

San Antonio's got all kinds of vomit! Hide in sunglasses >.<

San Antonio's got all kinds of vomit!

Liquor and vomit are the foundation of San Antonio and believe it or not I mean that in a good way. Where else can you find a replica of (in street layout anyway) of London packed solid with beaches, drunken madness, clubs, souvenir shops, and get your ass sling-shot into the sky and then your intestines scrambled on "The Vominator" AFTER you've spend the night (and mornin) at Es Paradise, and Eden?

Its 95% sunburned and friendly English hellraisers passed out on the beaches and streets of this affordable town.

TWO things ya cant miss are the sunsets and the SUNSETS. World class DJs spinning for free on the rocky beaches as yachts and boats bob in the water expectantly...Fire juggles and poi pro's do their thing to help the sun set in a blaze of fire and heat while everyone explodes in applause as the sun dissapears... pure beautiful magic... every day... for 3 months straight...
-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!

mini-raves parties and parades in old ibiza town

old ibiza town for the nice stuff...

In old ibiza town you'll find great food, quality artisans selling all kinds of cool things and Bar Alley... Bar alley has 160 bars in a single alley that weaves its way about a mile through the town. The old stones are worn and have seen over a thousand years of artists and travelers pass by them.

Oh yea and the clubs have "parades" of scantily and scarily and decadently dressed performers and club dancers that wander the streets trying to entice people to come to whatever night/club/party they are trying to promote!

Everything costs more here then say San Antonio but its a lot nicer too... plus theres a Ducati dealership and believe it or not a custom Harley shop.

You'll find more diversity and more Spanish people here too.

-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!

old article:WAREHOUSE PARTY LIFE

About an entire local music industry that's rarely heard from, briefly navigated by a remote being that coalesces, rarely, around music scenes and their absurd atrocities; published by "The Stranger" weekly newspaper of Seattle, WA.

Sonny Chelf is the orneriest house party producer I know who hails from Tacoma. In fact, he's the only such producer I know from Tacoma. Most of those kind of guys hang about the Seattle area, drifting back and forth in their musical skeins and ongoing search for monetary angles.

Jason Alley's from Issaquah. They both operate forklifts in warehouses for their real livings. And I met them over coffee awhile ago at Starbucks on Broadway for a happy, peppy interview with two of the greater Seattle area's own warehouse party producers.

Sonny, casual, relaxed and vivacious, wore "Portuguese" golden earrings; Jason, soft-spoken and shy, wore a diamond-blue ball cap over his sweet blue eyes and blond hair. Sonny is fair and Black, but doesn't sound that way until you press him, and then a trickle of southern Blacklish begins to filter in, conversationally speaking.

How long have you been involved in the warehouse game, I suddenly ask.

Sonny: The first part of this took place in 1981. That was in Germany. Parties in Germany used more hype. Parties here seem to be more about money and competition.

Jason: I joined TUF Productions for the last party. I joined with another party than ours…some producers have a different agenda than others…(indicating Sonny, giggling.)

What is your agenda? I asked the cute black dude.

Sonny: First we sit there and have a headache. Nah, usually I like to find a space first. That's kind of a last minute thing you have to do.

Jason: There's been a lot of problems with the city. The city is pushing hard to shut the shows down.

Sonny: There was a battle over permits being in order.

Jason: The city would threaten to take the house over.

Sonny: Yeah.

Jason: The city would intimate that a party would be through. The owners of the building would refuse to rent to those who produced shows, for fear their properties would have police action taken against them.

These statements led to general murmurings amongst us.

So, whatever is your "agenda" now, I softly inquired.

Sonny: (About) the agenda? Line up the DJs!!! They come from everywhere, basically. When we produce a flyer, we try to promote it (the party) day in and day out. During that time, we finish producing the rest of the show. Lights, sound, security, permits, "etcetera." And then it's showtime! I like to get in a building at noon, but it never happens. Just to fine-tune the building! (He laughed, sliding slowly backwards in his seat.)

Jason: If we have decorations, some people put up fences. (I never found out what "fences" are.) It needs all completed. The sound system usually arrives in the middle of things.

We joked around about the house movement…."Yeah, the houses are moving!!!" as I'm not much of a raver m'self, yet. The joints do indeed jump.

What message to others, anyway, do you guys have to impart?

Jason: Positive energy.

Sonny: Peace, love, joining one another together. But after the party comes the teardown. I hate it, but it has to be done.

I asked Sonny if that's his real name. Yes, it is. He was wearing a hunting cap, Polynesian earrings, and he vaguely resembled a certain letter of the alphabet due to his glasses.

Jason's blue ball cap was fastidiously reversed. Two more either-bread and mayonnaise guys could not be found, but they were definitely having to skirt the law.

I finally found out what happened last spring, which had been the current House Party Mystery Scenario.

Sonny: A dividing of the whole scene here occurred. There were occurrences of two parties being thrown on the same night. Something had to stop. Seattle's not that big. It's not that good here, we need more party room. Evolution (back in October, and partially run by a close relative of mine named Joachim, incidentally) just had 1500 people. It was over 15, really.

Jason: We had over 1200. But Seattle is not really a good indicator. In LA (what doesn't begin, end, and stall out in LA?) they have BIG huge parties, with a couple hundred thousand people, easily.

A couple…what? I stupifiedly intoned, slurping my Starbucks. That couldn't be real, I thought, they'd need a football stadium…which they have, somewhere.

I dreamed to myself, the party interview vortex has been reentered. I've been being told that everyone and no one ever interviews these warehouse party guys. Now I see why. No one ever believes them when they talk about the party sizes.

Sonny then said he begged in on things with Jason through a mutual friend of theirs named Tim. On Tim, Sonny said, "we've talked to Tim. How're you?" This, referring to my earlier interview more on the Seattle end of things, with Joachim. Tim, there, is not a part of the company anymore. I guess that's the party vortex for you.

Sonny next managed to imitate the world's blandest, meekest expression, which was already on Jason's wan, pink face.

Jason: All I have to say is we hope people keep supporting the shows.

Sonny: I'm the quiet person of all this. I like to come in like the wind and leave…like…the wind….

Jason: I like to be around the people. I like to be around the friends. (I always got the impression this is a tightly-knit, hard-to-enter crowd. But I asked them about making a living at it.)

Sonny: I like to be around this for the money. If I didn't do this for the money, I wouldn't do it.

It feels like I've learned, after several interviews with Seattle/Tacoma's warehouse partying folks, that there's no money in this, really. Off the last shows, they don't seem to have made a dime.

PeaceFrog's Civilization party in November barely broke even, in fact losing at least $200. One of the PeaceFrog producers told me only about half the people coming in even paid. I don't think Joachim got his cut at all. But their group is still plugging away at making the lively, eventful, and appreciably loud parties continue to happen.

Sonny said, the way I feel…it might make the WRONG money…(I think he meant the probably drug revenues from hangers-on selling at the parties.) Me, I broke in with: But, what if you were, say, normal?

Jason: Good point.

Sonny: What if everybody else was like what's on the street, already there. (Recall that Sonny's Black, please.) You're gonna get 'em "thowed in jay-al." I've done two (parties) in Tacoma (an infamously Black establishment, in some ways.) There's a problem with that. Seattle people don't travel. The Dome is too commercial. This isn't…a commercial event...that I do.

Go to shows, Sonny said. I have a real job. I work, in a warehouse, driving forklifts. I'm a laborer. Saturday nights are my date. That's the party date. (He pretty much implied this is his social life. I am forced to think both Sonny and Jason are house-devoted, maximally.)

After this pleasant, caring interview time was spent, one happy writer left those two fine, unrude, music-bestrewed dudes to hit their next appointment in town. The memory lingers, but the music is fortunately elsewhere, waiting for the next party to begin. From the sound of things, I would suggest checking out LA, if I were you.

This old article was written by Executive Director and President of Rainbow Writing, Inc., Karen Cole-Peralta writes. RWI at http://www.rainbowriting.com/ is a world renowned freelance writing, copyediting, ghostwriting, graphics and CAD, search engine optimization, publishing helpers, internet marketing, free professional services, and supercheap dedicated web host and website development corporation.

-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!

rave clothes MUST be comfortable

Preferably something that breaths like cotton, silk, or some other natural fiber but those cost money. Look for something loose, comfortable and sylish. But comfort is all that really matters or will matter to you, at the end of the night.

-Pjo
rave clothes and toys plus a new community!