From: pashdown@javelin.sim.es.com (Pete Ashdown)
Subject: Heffalump Hunt Rave review
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 21:54:44 GMT


Rather than bore you with incidentals like not being able to find a mixer half
an hour before the rave, I'll try to give you more of the gist this time.

When our last rave, Levitation had to be moved at the last minute, we talked
to a friend who owns a photo studio in the industrial section of town.  It is
a converted building that has a great space in the back.  He said he couldn't
do it that weekend, but was more than willing to do something in the future.

Looking through the University's film catalog, we stumbled upon "Winnie The
Pooh and Tigger Too" as one of the 16 mm films available for rent.  Suddenly
we had a theme for our next rave.  As far as I know, nobody anywhere had done
a Winnie The Pooh theme and it fit rather well.  The rave would be called
"Heffalump Hunt".  I designed a rather nice flyer (they keep getting better
and better) with Pooh in rave gear holding a tablet of unknown chemical
content.  As with Levitation, I only made 150 flyers and sent the majority to
our mailing list, which is around 100 people now.

The location was absolutely superb.  By putting the DJ booth on the roof
(there were stairs to the top) with the floor in back, we were able to add an
ambient room, smart bar, and a mind machine on the inside.  John had sheets of
black plastic that I painted different designs on with fluorescent paints.  We
rented seven 4' black lights and filled the inside walls with that.  The main
studio was completely white with a cloud background painted on one wall.  We
bounced a color wheel off the clouds and ran the 16 mm film on another wall
and threw old couches around the room.  I did have a six disc CD player
repeating ambient music, but it turned out that the music from the outside
completely drowned out this effort on the inside.

The smart bar was done by my older sister.  She researched what goes into the
drinks and we crushed the pills ourselves and measured out "blender" size
doses into fruit and juices.  We found that we could make about 120 servings
for $85.  The smart bar was not extremely popular though.  A local club's
smart bar is always swamped and their drinks taste really bad.  Our drinks
were a dollar cheaper and tasted great, but weren't very popular.  We did make
back the initial investment, and for the most part all that is left over can
be used later.  Glow products sold well as did the diffraction glasses.  The
mind machine, however, bombed big time.  Nobody was willing to use it at all
for $5 for 15 minutes.  We're going to try $2 for 10 minutes next time and see
if that works any better.  People were curious, but not adventurous.  Luckily
though, profits from everything else was enough to cover the $200 mind machine
cost.

Our friend who rents us our sound system loaned me a Denon 2000 CD deck for
the night.  UNBELIEVABLE, I felt like I'd finally been liberated and was doing
the real stuff for the first time.  What was fantastic is that I wasn't the
only person who felt this way.  Just short of bowing down and kissing my feet,
people were going nuts over the music.  The floor was constantly filled and
dozens of people would come over to the booth, not to complain, not to
request, but to gush over the mixing.  I felt like saying, "Uhh, this isn't me
mixing, it's someone else."  Embarassing as hell, but it felt GREAT.  What was
especially nice is the fact that Orbital has never gone over well before, but
if you just push the speed up a bit, people went crazy.  I didn't do any Orb
or ambience all night, allowing the inside to take care of that, but I did
some great acid and deep house.  The reaction was always the same, they went
nuts over it.  Needless to say, I just invested in a new mixer and the same CD
player.  I also met a few DJs that night.  Only two I knew already (we let
them in for free), but the rest just came over and looked at the equipment and
crowd with really long faces and slobbering lips.

A few bits of weirdness.  Two girls went topless in the middle of the dance.
I didn't see it, but about dozen of my male friends told me about it.  Another
set of girls did the lambada against the steel corrugation where we were
projecting fractals.  Someone showed up and asked if he could leave and bring
a video camera back.  He returned and shot most of the night.  I haven't seen
the tape yet, but he offered us a copy.  We blew the power breakers four times
during the night, two of the times happened when I was away from the booth for
a minute.  Finally after switching off the useless fog machine (don't bother
if it is outdoors) and pulling some strobes, then putting the sound on a
different circuit we were stable.  I was expecting people to start booing and
getting pissed over the power going out, but people were actually laughing at
the fact that we were using so much of it.  And the police!  They drove by
quite a few times.  It isn't a great part of town, the shelter is less than a
block away, but the police DID NOT CARE.  Here we are at 3:30 AM blasting a
sound system to the sky, fifty or so people milling around the front, and we
weren't bothered at all by the police.  I'm starting to think that the only
way we'll ever have any problems with the police is if we put out a neon sign
with "Free Doughnuts" on it.

The owner of the studio loved it.  He stated that the crowd was the best he'd
had for a party and we were welcome to use the place again.  Things turned bad
though at about 3:30 when someone took mascara and wrote "bitch" and "fuck"
all over the bathroom walls.  Even after scrubbing them, they needed to be
painted.  I could have easily taken things to the mythical 6:00 AM, but the
owner wanted us to stop at 4:00 after the bathroom incident.

I only wish I would have known things would have gone so good.  All you people
who have been waiting to come to Utah for a rave would have really enjoyed
this one.  A recent influx of people from the coast makes me wonder if the
word is getting out about what is happening here.  We had a bunch of hardcore
ravers (a girl had a great Winnie The Pooh shirt) from San Diego show up.  I'm
not sure if they came up for the summer or if they moved here, but it was a
little bit weird to have them there.  I thought I was the only person silly
enough to go to California for a rave, but WHY are people coming here?  We're
almost having a rave experience unlike any other here, simply because I've
seen the problems of the LA raves and I've got complete creative control over
everything.  It has stopped being a venture for profit, but more of a venture
for fun.  When you consider the time, the money spent, and the work that goes
into it, I'd be better off flipping burgers, but there is no way that it is
near as fun.  I'm even starting to ENJOY DJing for six to seven hours
straight.

Still planning the waterpark for August.  I found out today that we can rent a
sound system that is twice as powerful for only $25 more.  As for the Orb in
the desert, stay tuned.
-- 
	   "What state is Salt Lake City in?" - Ticketmaster Agent

DISCLAIMER: My writings have NOTHING to do with my employer.  Keep it that way.
Pete Ashdown    pashdown@slack.sim.es.com    ...uunet!slack.sim.es.com!pashdown
Newsgroups: alt.rave