From: mpisano@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Michael A Pisano)
Subject: HOE RAVE: aka HOUSE OF THE PANOPTICON: aka HOUSE OF EUPHORIA in Cinnci
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 04:09:57 GMT

To all who attended the big "rave" last Friday night, and to those lucky ones
who stayed home, saved your money, and didn't witness the neutering of a
liberating cultural virus.

Note: I am going to try to stay as objective as I can in describing the trajic
events of last Friday in, without argument, the home of censorship, Cinncinati,
OH.


The Atmosphere:

Yes, there were 10 (I think) Intellebeams.
Yes, Moby was pretty good.
Yes, the Sega Video wall Featuring Sonic The Hedgehog was a nifty touch.
Yes, the music was great most of the time.
Yes, the single laser was a nice touch, as well as the neat glasses.

....BUT

There was at least one cop for every intellebeam stationed at 200 ft. intervals
around the hall/dance floor; sitting, atanding, all staring fixedly into the
crowd to spot any misbehaving.

I have my own ideas of what a rave should be that I will try not to go into too
much but I am absolutely sure, without a doubt, and I'll stay home and sell
give away all of my 12"s and Techno CDs to the person that can convince me
otherwise....

   COPS DO NOT BELONG AT RAVES !!!

My friends and I tried to come up with the most similar experience to describe
Thome Tomato's H.O.E. (perhaps the acronym lends a little insight, maybe it was
intended) last friday.  Two of the most prominent ones were:

1) Being at a high-school dance
2) The final scene of the BLUES BROTHERS movie (when everyone is partying in
the prison: aka JAILHOUSE ROCK)

But the most appropriate way to get the actual feeling would be to rent the
video THE SOUND OF MUSIC, watch only the Edleweiss scene where the  whole 
family is singing with the walls lined with Nazis. THAT'S IT.


There were pigs everyplace you looked, they were on rotation (and I know this 
because I spent a good half hour listening to the commander give orders) so 
that no section of the dance floor at any time was unwatched.

Now I didn't notice this at first, I spent the first two hours from about 11:00
to 1:00 dancing, getting tranced out pretty good with a few friends of mine, 
one of which had never been to a rave before (and still hasn't, I keep trying 
to convince her). Then, after we'd all lost a lot of fluids, we went in search 
of something to drink. THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE TO DRINK EXCEPT SMART DRINKS 
which there was at least a half hour wait for, no fruit mixed in, and tiny 
portions. Of course there were the water fountains with constant lines of 15 or
so people, and how can you replentish your fluids in a quick sip from a 
trickling faucet.

Anyway, the fun started about this time when some heavily masqueraded folks 
came in, one woman wearing nothing but full bodypaint and a bikini bottom. Well
 they were extrenely fun people able to contribute a lot of decadent energy to 
the crowd, and just seeing them almost made up for all the pigs, until they 
grabbed ger and escorted her to the bathroom. There they ordered her to wear
her heavy fun-fur coat or she would be thrown out and arrested.  This wasn't 
the end of it. The two pigs that were giving the orders followed her out to the
dancefloor with flashlights, telling all the other officers about this "naughty
girl" and to keep constant watch on her to make sure she kept her coat on.  
This was done by occassionally shining flashlights into the crowd to locate "ms
naughty." This was a little much for me, and I couldn't dance for BIG BROTHER 
anymore.  When they weren't patrolling the dancefloor, they would make sure the
little deliquents throughout the crowd were not sitting anywhere they weren't 
suppose to.

Another fun intervention with the pigs was when MOBY's sound cut out and the 
cops immediately came out and pushed people away from the stage as if a riot 
was about to break out. By the way, even though MOBY suggested it, the crowd 
was extremely peaceful, to the point of submission  actually. A riot might have
been interesting, actually, although un-Rave-like.

Apart from the cops, there was the building's own security that sat behind the
huge bar (not in operation) along one of the long walls. These guys helped the 
cops stare at all the freaks to make sure nothing got out of hand, and nobody 
hurt the pretty space.  Two of these guys walked up to the friend I was with 
and my girlfriend and asked them if they knew where to get any Acid.  It was a 
real obvious sting operation that even embarassed us for the lack of effort on 
their part.

A couple of times people started dancing on the stage, the second time it was
ms. Naughty and her crew at which about ten cops swarmed around the stage and
made sure she wasn't going to pull off her fun-fur bearing her bare bodypaint.
I thought it extremely iyronicthat Demi Moore is allowed to grace the cover of
Vanity Fair with a suit of bodypaint, but get a bit away from pretty and
conservative, and into the cooler. Anyway, everyone was proptly kicked off the
stage and there awas no more trouble with ms Naughty because the lights
abruptly came on then at 4:00 AM. This is about the time Raves really get
effective.

In response to someone who flamed another critique of the HOE Rave (as in the
Hip-Hop sense of the term HOE) "What did you want to do shoot up heroine or
something," NO, I didn't but if someone else wanted to, why not?, and if people
wanted to get naked, why not? If people wanted to have trbal trance sex on th
dancefloor, go for it: that's what raves are suppose to be about.

This is 21st century Voodoo, people, not a new way to stay out late and have 
fun at the same time. Acid House, Rave, Warehouse Parties have a history that 
made them a force to be reckoned with to the powers that be, not a way for them
to make more taxpayer money as hired security. There was a time when I was all 
for the proliferation of Rave into the mainstream because I felt that there was
such a strong force behind it that its entrance into the mainstream would 
beautifully infect the majority of zombies out there that are subconsciouslly 
crying out for even the slightest bit of enlightenment, a communal experience, 
or a dose of hopeful party energy. This cannot take place to any serious degree
within a circle of police who have you confined, very vocally, to a space in 
which you paid $12.50 to get in to.

I came home wanting to sell back all of my techno collection and take the loss,
but I think I may just slip back into the underground where there must be some 
pure Jes Grew happening that hasn't been yet appropriated by the Wallflower 
Order. Ishmael Reed would have puked at the number of "Talking Androids" 
dressed in Cincinati Blues last Friday, keeping a tight alchemical cicle of 
containment on everyone at HOE.

To all of you that thought it was a step in the right direction for the Rave 
phenomena, I hope you get rich and famous in the mainscene, but you'll probably
just OD on Techno Trivia and blow all your money on RaveGear and Corporate 
Dance Records. 

To all the police, you should be ashamed in the face of
all of your brothers and sisters, and oh yea, Fuck all y'all sell-out whack-ass
talkin' androids: you still have the man's chain tight 'round yo neck. Sure
we're all just a buncha white kids tryin' to ressurrect the Jes Grew. But we
all gotta serve in our own way. And by servin', I don't mean in uniform
motherfucker.

To Thome Tomato:  your official seal of quality don't mean shit to me anymore.
I'd like my stodgy-ass $12.50 back and all the gas money I wasted driving 2 and
1/2 hours to Cinci and back (about $17.00). You can mail it to me at PO BOX
141535, Columbus, OH 43214. And let people know if you'r gonna have anymore
pig-raves (i.e. SONIC ?)

To Everyone else:  PEACE, UNITY, ECSTASY (The feeling and the Drug), 
                   REVOLUTION, FIGHT THE POWER and FUCK THE POLICE.
                   SEE Y'ALL IN THE UNDERGROUND: The LOAS ARE WAITING!