Subject: Front Page of Canada's National Newspaper (longish rave article) COVER STORY - GLOBE and MAIL - Sat, Oct. 9 1993 (Canada) They only come out at night - Rave on the rise: Is the underground selling its soul? article by Charlotte Parsons (Globe and Mail Montreal) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Between the bank and the hair salon, Alice gyrates in a cloud of glowing violet. A bearded man spins past her through the mist. He is wearing a purple tie-dyed dress; strands of pearls swing from his neck. Alice remains unfazed. She knows what to expect after stepping through the looking glass into rave country. The moment she walked into Place Newman, an otherwise ordinary Montreal shopping mall, she entered a dreamscape of shifting colours, throbbing music and outlandish attire. Laser-lit and music-powered, the underground dance culture known as rave has escaped the grey backdrop of its industrial British birthplace. Now, young people from Hong Kong to Moscow are flocking to secretive surrealistic parties known for their creativity and their size. One in London drew an ardent crowd estimated at 30,000. To the true believer, rave is more than just a label for an all-night dance marathon held in some unlikely location, such as an airport hangar, library or flea market. It is an alternative Lifestyle that allows its adherents to shed the bonds of daily existence for a Saturday-night extravaganza cloaked in fantasy and anonymity. Rave 'has its own music, its own dress code, its own ethos. And has a dark side. Next to Alice, a young woman with ribbons in her ponytails and Tweetybird on her skirt suddenly stops dancing, unzips her plastic Care Bears backpack and extricates a jar of Vick's VapoRub. She smears a dot below each nostril, zips the bag back up and resumes her frenetic dance. She is less likely to have a cold than to be in the throes of ecstasy the street name for the drug that has come to be associated with rave culture. Its effects are reputedly heightened by the aromatic cold remedy. Much confusion surrounds ecstasy, which is known to science as methylenedioxymethamphetamine. The drug is often described by its initials, MDMA. No one is really sure whether to call it an amphetamine, a designer drug or a psychedelic. But it is surely illegal, which is why, in addition to high energy and great joy, most raves now feature a police presence. The rave adventure begins with a phone call. The location is always kept secret until about 12 hours in advance, that's when a message appears on the organizers' phone line telling those who are mobile where to go? which could be any place large and rentable?and those who are not where to find the fleet of chartered buses that will take them there. A crowd has already formed around a row of yellow school buses as Alice arrives at the preordained downtown street corner. In her checkerboard sunglasses, neon rubber earrings and plastic orange necklace, she blends in perfectly,. Hats straight from the pages of Dr. Seuss bob above the crowd. A teen-aged girl sporting braids and a flower-covered velvet bonnet swaps jokes with a young oriental man in a striped top hat. In regular life, Alice is a student of anthropology, and she now finds herself standing between two interesting subjects: a man with blue hair and a teen-aged boy wearing a propeller-topped ball cap. Unable to resist she spins the prop, whose owner turns and smiles. Then the doors of the first bus open and she is swept aboard . Bizarre costume is central to the rave lifestyle, and the rising demand for the elements of a bold visual statement has spawned a network of suppliers. Among them is XStatic, a shop just off Toronto's hip Queen Street West strip where a videotape of a recent rave flickers across a TV screen over the cash register. The merchandise on offer ranges from ravewear (such as striped, floppy hats and form-fitting bodices) to cassettes featuring techno, the new, largely computerized music that drives the dancers. Lining the back wall and free for the taking are an array of underground publications on the latest in music and party trends. One of the papers is called Tribe, and Mychol Holtman who writes its "Wazup" column, offers this theory to explain why rave has become such a magnet for restless youth since emerging from Liverpool and Manchester. "It can be summed up in one word: unity," he says, arguing that ravers "are reacting to the 'me, me, me: forget everyone else' attitude of the seventies and eighties. " Mr. Holtman feels that young people are increasingly depressed by their lot in life, by the fact that so many of them are heading straight from high school to the unemployment line. The rave "vibe" provides an antidote, he says. "They reassure each other that there is hope and love out there. " This analysis strikes a chord with Dave, a Toronto rave producer who agrees to speak only if his last name is withheld. (Secrecy is a rave watchword.) "There's no work. Kids are depressed. With the rave scene, they can go out and have a good time and forget about their problems," he says, adding that the experience can also benefit young people from unstable homes. "That sense of family is there for people who lack it. I think they get a lot of love and affection in the rave scene.". Such sentiments, especially combined with psychedelic lights and wild costumes, not to mention drugs, may sound familiar to those who remember the hippie era. "It's a total peace movement," confirms Dave. "It's the same thing as the sixties. " Canadian rave got its start two years ago with four techno-starved British expatriates. Over coffee at a Toronto cafe, disc jockey and rave producer Sean L recalls that they "were basically just looking for a place to go ourselves, because there was nothing here. " Given their common background and affection for the music of Bob Marley, the four adopted the name Exodus, planned their first rave and distributed several hundred flyers in downtown bars to advertise it. To their amazement, about 400 people showed up for the debut. It was an embryonic outing, far less elaborate than those to follow, but the novices responded to a mood and music unknown even in the avantgarde clubs many of them frequented. "I don't suppose there was one person there who didn't go home thinking, 'Wow, that was something else,' " Sean says. Thus encouraged, Exodus began to arrange weekly raves, and soon other production groups emerged. As it grew in popularity, rave began to spread, popping up from Halifax to Vancouver. To its devotees, Saturday nights would never be the same. The doors of Place Newman open just as the bus pulls up to unload its youthful cargo. On the way in, Alice is frisked for weapons and drugs by a woman wearing a puffy pseudo-fur I coat, orange bandanna and the special sneakers favored by Montreal ravers. (They've been elevated several inches by a stack of extra no less .) She surrenders her $15 ticket and sprints toward the heart of the mall, pausing where the rave merchants have set up shop. One table is labeled "Toys" and covered with glowing whistles and plastic troll dolls. The other overflows with lollipops and chewing gum. She selects two miniature boxes of gum (50 cents), tips their cargo into her mouth and heads down the corridor as colored spotlights sway back and forth overhead, dragging circular puddles of purple across the floor. Then the music takes hold of her. The music of rave comes in several forms, with "techno" and "house" the best known. Asked to describe them, Sean says that house is " mellower, slower?a bit more rhythmatic," while techno is harder and faster, "more abrasive, I guess." It has an extra 50 or 60 beats a minute, features a very heavy bass line and sparse vocals, and "it's always very loud?the louder the better. " RAVE may be a British export but its music was born in the U.S.A. House appeared first, taking shape in Chicago dance clubs in the early eighties and mutating into techno after it hit Detroit. Not that the mutation has stopped. The sound changes so rapidly that disc jockeys, dedicated to staying abreast of the latest trends, are often bigger stars than the performers they play. They cultivate a personal style captured on cassettes sold with their names on the label. A rave is a 'one off' occasion," explains Dave Crook, a Toronto disc jockey originally from Manchester, "and the only way they can describe what kind of music there's going to be is by putting the deejay's name on it?it's like putting the band names on a concert flyer. The beat buffets Alice's body as green light scribbles across her face and glowing bars of neon criss-cross in time to the music. Fog rolls outward from the speaker laden stage in front of the Brico hardware store, and multicoloured ceiling lights stain the mist green, red, yellow and blue. Suddenly, the colour vanishes as blinding sheets of white light stutter across the smoke, cutting Alice's dance movements to photo stills. Then she is plunged back into colour-slashed dark. Rave electrician Neil Robertson says that many of these cosmic laser effects are done with mirrors. "They can project light onto mirrors, which create a 3-D image in the room. The mirrors are really small, maybe five inches, and can be used to make the image of maybe a pyramid. " "Laser animation" is another rave specialty. A moving image of laser light is projected against the wall, and that's something you don't see in the clubs, " he says. At Place Newman, lasers are being used to create illusory tunnels and surfaces. A ceiling of luminous green bars shoots out from the stage, just above the heads of the dancers. Then the flat surface appears to contract, transforming itself into a green-spoked spinning wheel. According to Alice, there is method to this laser madness. "I think that, visually, raves are setup to enhance the experience of being on psychedelics she explains "although I do know a lot of people who don't use drugs who go just for the experience of being around people who are free and happy. " Of those who have chosen to indulge, many are on ecstasy, which is a variant of the sixties a love drug" MDA and the intoxicant of choice for ravers from London to San Francisco. However, the growing attention being paid to ecstasy angers rave organizer Dave. "There are a million kids out there who come to these things who don't even do drugs, " he contends. "They come for the music." His brows knit in frustration. "If I could extricate drugs from the scene, I would. But can the Grateful Dead get the drugs out of their concerts? So why don't we disallow the Dead?" "When I see a 17-year-old kid who's wrecked, I get upset. I really do. But I take care of these kids. And that's a lot more than I can say for those [rock] concerts." ALICE is not on drugs, but after an hour of dancing she is certainly thirsty. She escapes the laser kaleidoscope and weaves through the crowd toward a heavy black curtain. As she slips past it, black lighting turns the white stripes of her dress electric mauve, and she arrives at the "smart bar. " A woman in a black bodice is tending three blenders housing "smart drinks"?liquids in cheery shades of red, orange and green. "They're made with amino acids, fruit and caffeine," she explains while pouring Alice's selection, raspberry, into a plastic cup. "They give you an energy boost. " Across from the bar, an empty shop has been converted into the "chill-out lounge." Young people sit cross-legged in the light of a single candle, as a stereo set next to a tangled heap of pink and blue neon tubing emits music totally unlike the pounding techno on the other side of the curtain. Called "ambient", it features a soft beat and keyboard washes that create an oasis for the bass-weary The smell of clove cigaettes and hashish is in the air. By 4 a.m. Alice has spent whatever energy her smart drink had provided. Exhausted, she manoeuvres through the crowd and out the door. She is struck by the sudden quiet as she steps back into the grey-black reality of the parking lot. A police cruiser sits idling, as its occupants gaze at the mall with apparent boredom. The two policemen have a long wait ahead. They've been assigned to watch over the party until it wraps up in another four hours. Bidding the officers good night, Alice boards the bus that will take her back downtown. Across the parking lot, a second bus pulls up with a fresh crop of costumed youth. For them, the night is just beginning. Lately, the police have taken a passive approach to rave control. "When we find out about a rave party, then we'll monitor them says Detective Sergeant Craig Hilborn of the Metro Toronto force's drug unit. "The main concern we have is the age of the participants and the possible use of illicit drugs." He says there is little of the violence that would cause a policing problem. In fact, a rave in May did end in serious violence, but not at the instigation of its participants. Video footage of the Montreal force shutting down festivities at the Palais du Commerce show police in riot gear beating party-goers with nightsticks. Yet, the future of rave may be in doubt. If anything, the phenomenon may fall victim to its own success. In recent months, rave has left its underground birthplace and percolated into the mainstream. Fully aware of what happened to disco, punk and all the other subterranean movements that made this journey, hardcore ravers are growing disillusioned. Popularity breeds commercialism, and the purists have become skeptical as second-generation competitors appear in the marketplace. "The sole purpose of a lot of these people is just simply to make a killing, " complains Sean L. "I think what happened is, people saw what was going on?four or five hundred people dancing?and thought, 'Hey, I could do that!' But to throw a rave you have to understand what it is; what the vibe is. " At a recent event staged by Atlantis, one of the newcomers in Toronto, representatives of Chemistry, an early arrival, handed patrons their resignations?laminated cards that read: "The scene has gone commercial been bastardized and generally gotten f----d up. That's why we've reluctantly decided to pack it all in.... " As the parties move away from their underground dance roots, Sean says, there is less emphasis on the music, and more on a carnival atmosphere with games and toys. For example, the Atlantis production featured a maze, a game of ring toss and a giant blow-up castle with a bouncy floor. This is rave packaged by businessmen in their 30s, he says, and their target market is no longer the inner-city crowd who started it all. "They're appealing mostly to high-school kids from the suburbs. The pioneers fear that in losing its clandestine nature, rave may lose the key ingredient to its continued good health. They may not have to wait long to find out whether they're right. This month's schedule in Toronto demonstrates just how quickly rave is losing its low profile. Atlantis is planning to hold one at the CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From ne-raves-owner@techno.Stanford.EDU Thu Oct 21 10:51:03 1993 Received: from techno.Stanford.EDU by soda.berkeley.edu (5.65/KAOS-1) id AA18560; Thu, 21 Oct 93 10:50:59 -0700 Received: by techno.Stanford.EDU (4.1/1.34) id AA09477; Thu, 21 Oct 93 10:44:33 PDT Received: from condor.CC.UMontreal.CA by techno.Stanford.EDU (4.1/1.34) id AA09470; Thu, 21 Oct 93 10:44:26 PDT Received: from eole.ERE.UMontreal.CA by condor.CC.UMontreal.CA with SMTP id AA0 9107 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ne-raves@techno.stanford.edu); Thu, 21 Oct 1993 13:42:16 -0400 Received: from brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA by eole.ERE.UMontreal.CA (920330.SGI/5.17 ) id AA00071; Thu, 21 Oct 93 13:42:13 -0400 Received: by brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA (920330.SGI/5.17) id AA14980; Thu, 21 Oct 93 13:42:12 -0400 From: dionf@ere.umontreal.ca (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9310211742.AA14980@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Re: Front Page of Canada's National Newspaper (longish rave article) To: PLUI@iossvr.gm.hac.com Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 13:42:12 -0400 (EDT) Cc: sfraves@techno.Stanford.EDU, ne-raves@techno.Stanford.EDU In-Reply-To: <9310211548.AA15421@hac2arpa.hac.com> from "PLUI@iossvr.gm.hac.com " at Oct 21, 93 08:48:53 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 14990 Sender: ne-raves-owner@techno.Stanford.EDU Status: OR Beyond the ultraworld of PLUI@iossvr.gm.hac.com: > > hullo, I finally got to use a scanner! here's the goods: Dont believe the hype. Here's the real story. > COVER STORY - GLOBE and MAIL - > Sat, Oct. 9 1993 (Canada) > article by Charlotte Parsons (Globe and Mail Montreal) > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >She knows what to expect after stepping through the looking glass into rave >country. The moment she walked into Place Newman, an otherwise ordinary >Montreal shopping mall, she entered a dreamscape of shifting colours,throbbing >music and outlandish attire. That's an old rave... and it was a very lame one too. [lots of cliches deleted - you will find that in any rave article] >Rave 'has its own music, its own dress code, its own ethos. Dress code? True grungewear seems to be pretty much there (20% of the people) but is not rave related at all. I see much more grungewear at pearl jam concerts... In many case most people dont give a damn and wear what they want to wear. BTW, grungewear is another media creation... > And has a dark side. yep. darkness breakbeat! :P >Next to Alice, a young woman with ribbons in her ponytails and Tweetybird on >her skirt suddenly stops dancing, unzips her plastic Care Bears backpack and >extricates a jar of Vick's VapoRub. She smears a dot below each nostril, zips >the bag back up and resumes her frenetic dance. People who take x knows what to do not do. That is take lots of water and do not dance too much. Do you really think she was on x? If she is, somebody please tell her the facts... It's that time once again for MDMA facts flyers. >She is less likely to have a cold than to be in the throes of ecstasy the >street name for the drug that has come to be associated with rave culture. She is more likely to not be on ecstasy. There is just so little that makes its way in Montreal. Xers are far less than 10% of the crowd. I'd even say less than 5%. >The drug is often described by its initials, MDMA. No one is really sure >whether to call it an amphetamine, a designer drug or a psychedelic. But it is >surely illegal, which is why, in addition to high energy and great joy, most >raves now feature a police presence. Bullshit. Most cops dont even know what X is. They still think there is acid in smart drinks, that alcohol is served illegally in raves, that people dance buck naked and mostly they bust events because of the club protection by the mafia who still influences greatly the cops. Small events are no threat to the clubs, so they go on unbusted (except for Bug and jam events - they sure dont have their shit together). If it had anything to do with a real concern about drugs, they'd bust the smaller ones too (which are quite easy to find too). >The rave adventure begins with a phone call.The location is always kept secret >until about 12 hours in advance, That's 24 hours of course, and secondly up to 1 week before the rumor has made it's way in the streets. Also, it's not like it's difficult to get, some promoters have publicities in newspapers, stickers everywhere, flyers in every record shops, grungewear shops etc... >that's when a message appears on the >organizers' phone line telling those who are mobile where to go(which could be >any place large and rentable) precisely. Big raves are just money making skeems these days, which is a shame. >Bizarre costume is central to the rave lifestyle,and the rising demand for the >elements of a bold visual statement has spawned a network of suppliers. Among >them is XStatic, a shop just off Toronto's hip Queen Street West strip where a I dont get it. Are they covering Montreal's or Toronto's rave scene? You cant cover both in one article if you are not clearly drawing the line, because these are 2 totally different scenes. > One of the papers is called Tribe, and Mychol Holtman who writes its "Wazup" > column, offers this theory to explain why rave has become such a magnet for > restless youth since emerging from Liverpool and Manchester. > "It can be summed up in one word: unity," he says, arguing that ravers "are > reacting to the 'me, me, me: forget everyone else' attitude of the seventies > and eighties. " Not. Raves are precisely me, me, me, forget what everybody else thinks. The eighties were me, me, me, do like everybody else. >Mr. Holtman feels that young people are increasingly depressed by their lot in >life,by the fact that so many of them are heading straight from high school to >the unemployment line. The rave "vibe" provides an antidote, he says. "They >reassure each other that there is hope and love out there. " These are some sick puppies :) This is again media hawgwash. It is proven regularly by the flame wars on the rave lists (and particularly on alt.rave) that the peace, love, unity concept is not really what it's all about. What is it about? well it is what it means to each of you. It's for the fun of it? fine. It's for the enjoyment of music? fine. It's whatever you think it is for you. But it is not ONE thing. >not to mention drugs, may sound familiar to those who remember the hippie era. >"It's a total peace movement," confirms Dave. "It's the same thing as the >sixties. " That's what a deal of people would want, but (un)fortunately it's not. >Canadian rave got its start two years ago with four techno-starved British >expatriates. That's news to the Montreal rave scene. My show is advanced in it's third year and when i started it, i had been going to raves for a year. In fact, i've been to acid parties which were then named warehouse parties and the music was detroit techno, house and acid house. Now, that was in 88. What are we listening in raves now? techno, house, acid (add ambient). Same difference. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocents. >Over coffee at a Toronto cafe, disc jockey and rave producer Sean >L recalls that they "were basically just looking for a place to go ourselves, >because there was nothing here. " >Given their common background and affection for the music of Bob Marley, the >four adopted the name Exodus, planned their first rave and distributed several >hundred flyers in downtown bars to advertise it. > >To their amazement, about 400 people showed up for the debut. It was an >embryonic outing, far less elaborate than those to follow, but the novices >responded to a mood and music unknown even in the avantgarde clubs many of the m >frequented. Say what? clearly Toronto clubs must have been a sad place to be in the late 80s. > RAVE may be a British export but its music was born in the U.S.A. House > appeared first, taking shape in Chicago dance clubs in the early eighties and > mutating into techno after it hit Detroit. Not that the mutation has stopped. At least they got that bit correctly. Except not everybody agrees on the house->techno, but still. > The sound changes so rapidly that disc jockeys, > dedicated to staying abreast of the latest trends, are often > bigger stars than the performers they play. Ain't that a shame. That's mostly because techno bands release only one album (when it's not simply one 12"), but the DJs play gigs upon gigs and so their names appear more frequently. >They cultivate a personal style captured on cassettes sold with their names on >the label. A rave is a 'one off' occasion," explains Dave Crook, a Toronto dis c predestined name? :) > The beat buffets Alice's body as green light scribbles across her face and Which reminds me: Metropolis in Montreal is doing something very illegal: their laser scans the whole dancefloor. I was very surprised (but no damage) to receive a laser blast in one eye when i went there one friday night... (it is a quite powerfull laser, like in big raves) >"Laser animation" is another rave specialty. A moving image of laser light is >projected against the wall, and that's something you don't see in the clubs, " >he says. Check out L'esprit, Le Metropolis etc... They have had laser animations on walls and screens for several years... >At Place Newman, lasers are being used to create illusory tunnels and surfaces . >A ceiling of luminous green bars shoots out from the stage, just above the >heads of the dancers. Then the flat surface appears to contract, transforming >itself into a green-spoked spinning wheel. >According to Alice, there is method to this laser madness. "I think that, >visually, raves are setup to enhance the experience of being on psychedelics >she explains "although I do know a lot of people who don't use drugs who go >just for the experience of being around people >who are free and happy. " As i said, a very small percentage take drugs. And raves are NOT the place to experience psychedelics. If you want to try them, do it with friends so that they can control the environment to prevent a bad trip. >Of those who have chosen to indulge, many are on ecstasy, which is a variant o f >the sixties a love drug" MDA It's not. >and the intoxicant of choice for ravers from >London to San Francisco. Nope. In commercial raves it's surely alcohol. Even if it's not sold at the site. [stuff about a dj saying the scene is not as bad as the grateful dead shows] >ALICE is not on drugs, but after an hour of dancing she is certainly thirsty. >She escapes the laser kaleidoscope and weaves through the crowd toward a heavy >black curtain. As she slips past it, black lighting turns the white stripes of >her dress electric mauve, and she arrives at the "smart bar. " > >A woman in a black bodice is tending three blenders housing "smart >drinks"?liquids in cheery shades of red, orange and green. "They're made with >amino acids, fruit and caffeine," she explains while pouring Alice's selection , >raspberry, into a plastic cup. "They give you an energy boost. " Ha. DNA smartbar. You gotta take 6 of these for anything to happen. Saturn 6 nights at DAX used to have real smartdrinks. Just one and you felt like you were thinking clearer. > Called "ambient", it features a soft beat and keyboard > washes that create an oasis for the bass-weary The smell > of clove cigaettes and hashish is in the air. > >By 4 a.m. Alice has spent whatever energy her smart drink had provided. Ya right. The drink didn't do anything. Usually the last club type crowd finish to leave at 4... And a bunch of drunk clubbers get at the raves at that time too. >A police cruiser sits idling, as its occupants gaze at the mall with apparent >boredom. The two policemen have a long wait ahead. They've been assigned to >watch over the party until it wraps up?in another four hours. Bidding the >officers good night, Alice boards the bus that will take her back downtown. >Across the parking lot, a second bus pulls up with a fresh crop of costumed >youth. For them, the night is just beginning. I think they simply dont want another H2O on their hand (another bug and jam fiasco) with the riot squad. But when this event is far in the past, watch them jump in with their baton and shield and beat up kids. >Lately, the police have taken a passive approach to rave control."When we find >out about a rave party, then we'll monitor them says Detective >Sergeant Craig Hilborn of the Metro Toronto force's drug unit. "The main >concern we have is the age of the participants and the possible use of illicit >drugs." Hmm. We are talking about Place Newman in Montreal, MUC cops and we get a quote from a Toronto detective? I dont get it. >He says there is little of the violence that would cause a policing problem. I n >fact, a rave in May did end in serious violence, but not at the instigation of >its participants. Video footage of the Montreal force shutting down festivitie s >at the Palais du Commerce show police in riot gear beating party-goers with >nightsticks. Yep. Hey they got that right too! On the other hand, rap nights are extremely violent. Stabbing, guns etc... but in raves, i've yet to witness violence instigated by a raver. > Yet, the future of rave may be in doubt. If anything, the phenomenon may fall > victim to its own success. It will return to the form it should never have left. >In recent months, rave has left its underground birthplace and percolated into >the mainstream. Fully aware of what happened to disco, punk and all the other >subterranean movements that made this journey, hardcore ravers are growing >disillusioned. True. We've gone back to the underground after the H2O event, knowing things will never be the same. And you know what? i like that better. keep it underground. But the comparison is not correct. Techno music is here to stay, while disco and punk are not anymore. Raves and techno is not the same thing. >Popularity breeds commercialism, and the purists have become skeptical as >second-generation competitors appear in the marketplace. I've yet to see a great commercial rave here. >"The sole purpose of a lot of these people is just simply to make a killing, " >complains Sean L. "I think what happened is, people saw what was going on?four >or five hundred people dancing?and thought, 'Hey, I could do that!' But to >throw a rave you have to understand what it is; what the vibe is. " You have to have logistic skills and that's all. Get the right people to DJ, to do the lights etc... Small raves are less logistic, but require the organiser to be much more in the movement and be multi disciplinary too. >At a recent event staged by Atlantis, one of the newcomers in Toronto, >representatives of Chemistry, an early arrival, handed patrons their >resignations?laminated cards that read: "The scene has gone commercial been >bastardized and generally gotten f----d up. That's why we've reluctantly >decided to pack it all in.... " I've heard that T.O is particularly bad in that way. >This is rave packaged by businessmen in their 30s, he says, and their target >market is no longer the inner-city crowd who started it all. "They're appealin g > mostly to high-school kids from the suburbs. True. >The pioneers fear that in losing its clandestine nature, rave may lose the key >ingredient to its continued good health. They may not have to wait long to fin d >out whether they're right. The underground is fine if you ask me. >This month's schedule in Toronto demonstrates just how quickly rave is losing >its low profile. Atlantis is planning to hold one at the CN Tower, the tallest >free-standing structure in the world. I think it's a bad place to hold a rave if you ask me. Well, enough for now, let me know what you think. Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... From SFRaves-owner@techno.Stanford.EDU Thu Oct 21 12:43:16 1993 Received: from techno.Stanford.EDU by soda.berkeley.edu (5.65/KAOS-1) id AA29183; Thu, 21 Oct 93 12:43:09 -0700 Received: by techno.Stanford.EDU (4.1/1.34) id AA10435; Thu, 21 Oct 93 12:29:23 PDT Received: by techno.Stanford.EDU (4.1/1.34) id AA10429; Thu, 21 Oct 93 12:29:22 PDT Received: from hac2arpa.hac.com by techno.Stanford.EDU (4.1/1.34) id AA10422; Thu, 21 Oct 93 12:29:18 PDT Received: by hac2arpa.hac.com (4.1/SMI-DDN) id AA18138; Thu, 21 Oct 93 12:29:14 PDT Date: Thu, 21 Oct 93 12:29:14 PDT From: PLUI@iossvr.gm.hac.com Message-Id: <9310211929.AA18138@hac2arpa.hac.com> Received: by DniMail (v1.0); Thu Oct 21 12:29:02 1993 PDT To: hac2gm..arpa.."sfraves@techno.stanford.edu"@hac2arpa.hac.com Subject: re: Front Page of Canada's National Newspaper (longish rave article) Sender: sfraves-owner@techno.Stanford.EDU Status: OR Well, I must say that I was a bit surprised to see this article in the Globe. It was on the front page, and it was bannered across the top, with a page-wide picture of a raver (clenching her head, lasers in the background), and a caption: "Rave's chemistry: pulsating lights, throbbing music, and for some, an outlawed drug. " We are less than 1 week away from a federal election in Canada, I wonder if the article is an attempt to make raves a political issue? The whole article seems to be written for an older audience: >"They only come out at night" ^^^^ Those crazy kids! I tells ya! Now, in my day...!!!! (feh!) It goes on: >Mr. Holtman feels that young people are increasingly depressed by their lot >in life, by the fact that so many of them are heading straight from high >school to the unemployment line. The rave "vibe" provides an antidote, he >says. "They reassure each other that there is hope and love out there. " Unemployment is one of the most critical issues in this election. I wonder if this article was intended to be some kind of warning flag to the nation (Canada) that if we kiddies dont get some lovin... then there'll be a massive upheaval of kids on E, orchestrated by Dr.Seuss and Alice in Wonderland... with glowstick-armed troops stroming into the lap of Canada's cities and 'burbs. It's like a message to all the "I-wonder-what-my-kids-are-doing-right-now" voters. Almost like a guilt trip: "Your kids are depressed! They need reassurance that there is hope and love out there! Give them that hope for a new and better life, a new and better Canada: Vote for __________ . !" *gawd! *puke* The timliness of this article is sick :) pat. hmmm, mebeee i watch too many oliver stone movies?! :) btw, there was a little blurb on E in the same article. Its called: Fact vs Fiction: The agony over ecstasy i'lll post it right away.