We’re on our way to Czechtek. Despite all media desinformation the party does take place, the police are letting both people and systems in, but the event was, and still is, boiling enough to cause a small revolution even among people who don’t listen to the typical teknival music (like me, usually), thanks to the unlawful approach the police have chosen. This thing will definitely get even more interesting.
events
Psyoneer Summer Camp 2006
Greetings from our little technological corner in the dining room of the summer camp in Pnetluky. We arrived yesterday in the evening, went to local pub to have a beer, and discovered that there’s a dance event. Music, old and new Czech hits and cover versions, was played and sung live by a young pair, performing under the name Music Dance. It was a very good evening and on the way back we enjoyed a storm with few lightnings and rain.
Today we had a relaxing day, with bikes, petanque and so on, and in a hour or so we’re starting to paint our first canvas here with fluorescent colors.
And guess what – I’ve got some videos. I found out I can shoot and upload them on YouTube directly from my phone (Nokia N70).
YouTube playlist with videos from the camp
Training with Aliacte
I took part in a two day training of my Dad’s company, just for fun. I only knew it’s going to be about positive approach, and I was quite curious what it will look like – I could always leave, right?
However, Masha, a very energic lady who did the training, is very, very good in what she’s doing. Not only I felt (and still feel) motivated, but I also learned what I hoped to learn – new ways of how to bring people’s attention to the really important things in life and how to explain these topics without resorting to anything that may sound somehow “spiritual” in any way.
I always find it interesting to watch people’s reaction to matters like general approach to life, taking responsibility for one’s actions or self-exploration. A surprising number of Dad’s employees already knew much of what Masha was telling us, and they enjoyed how well she could present thoughts which people usually find difficult to express. But it was also nice to watch reactions of older people, who most probably never got a chance to hear these matters explained so clearly. In a one on one talk, some of them would even object. However, seeing how their colleagues all agree that what Masha is saying is true made them stop their protests and actually listen. And at the end, it was possible to see that they were deeply moved and that the training made them reconsider how they think and how they live their lives. Damn, I’d like to be as good as Masha in this :)
I would definitely recommend this training to practically everyone – I don’t know about Aliacte in general, but Masha is really good.
Videos from past Boom Festivals
What about a few amateur vids from past Boom Festivals, just to tempt?
YouTube playlist with videos from Boom Festival
Also several vids at Google let you faintly get the feeling…
Bioles[t]
YouTube playlist with videos from Biolest
Bioles(t) is over. Again. For the second time, we’ve had this party in the Tisina valley near Rakovnik, in a spot that is actually a children’s summer camp. Since the place looks like it was made for happenings like this one, and the owner and his family are a group of incredibly nice and helpful people, Bio-whatever was again one of the best parties of the year (I’m saying that knowing that I don’t know what’s coming). It was a wonderful flow experience, and it was just enough to dissolve the sediments of daily life. As you can see from the number of videos, I’ve been running around recording them pointless with my camera and later with my phone (Panasonic Lumix FZ20 and Nokia N70 respectively, I’m telling you the exact models just so that you could consider the video quality, which particularly with the phone is fairly useful, also due to the fact that I could record continually for several hours). I’ve also written something like a report.On Friday night, the place was a lunatic asylum. Well, it happens on psytrance parties – it takes some time to shed the sediments of “ordinary life” and it is not always a pleasant view, in combination with all the acid and E and whatever else people take. Particularly people who haven’t had much experience with the deeper levels of themselves often don’t know what’s going on at all. However, musically, it was good. There was some unpleasant delay, but I liked it overall – there were enough things to do for the few whiles when the music wasn’t perfect. Also visually it was a feast, particularly MimoTV projections were great. They’ve picked up a lot of organizational stress, because they too were taking part it the preparation of the party, and they were putting all the harsh determination into their projections. The result was a mindbending mix of sound and visuals, exactly the way it should be done in psytrance. However, not all people took it well. It is always interesting too watch other people on a psychedelic trance party, since the way their nature is manifested in them is often unusually pure and open. However this time, a guy got cought in a slightly unusual way of behavior. His show included lots of archetypally obscene gestures and gradual laying off of his clothes. Well, why not let him jump around, it’s fun, right? It was, until he, completely naked, went to visit the DJ and started climbing on his table. Several guys took the initiative and drove him away under the threat of violence. You could see the guy next day, walking around the camp. He looked irresolute, like he didn’t know what to make of his behavior, and how to approach the people who have seen him the night before. He left before evening. You don’t really want to come to a psytrance party unless you’re ready to look at yourself and others in often very unusual ways. Everything that was building up in your life dissappears. It is relatively easy to accept it and flow with it, but it frequently happens particularly to people who either don’t know how or don’t want to deal with themselves, that instead of abandoning their possesiveness, letting go off their fears and concerns and enjoying their natural role they cling to their illusionary ego with all its illusionary features, and they surrender their control to it. If you believe you’re an exhibicionist, well, there you go. Encelophatycis, who came from Macedonia, provided us with incredibly massive sound and entertaining music. You could see from the way he was driving his music with his gestures that he really knows his music well. Ladic, whom I often praise here as one of the best psytrance DJs I know, provided us with his dawn music, although it was daylight already when Encelophatycis played, but it didn’t matter, the mood was right for it. Then Pangea and later Embryo from MimoTV went into the morning and day sound, and we enjoyed a day in the sun. I slept through the Saturday night to wake up just before dawn. I felt the mood was much lighter then the day before, and although DJ CyBird didn’t really amuse me, after him it got better with Pangea and Marty and the day was again filled with sun and dancing until late in the afternoon when the sound had to be packed. You can watch the videos to see what Embryo put up as last tunes. The week of creating decorations and preparing the party was of course much more private. It took me some time to get cought in the creative spirit, but it finally happened, and overall I think we did a pretty good job, considering that our budget for decos was basically zero, as usual. Unlike last time, when we tried to create a common feeling with all the wooden creatures, this time we focused more on separate “elusions”, often working with words and memes, and other exponates. Just check the pictures and videos. Pics, pics, pics, pics, pics, playlist of my videos on YouTube. Let me know what you think!
Sweat lodge at Skridla
It was a refreshing weekend in the Skridla estate. Indian sauna (sweat lodge) in icy mud and puddles of water was a one-of-a-kind experience, as well as following night with a drumming ritual.
As I went together with my friends, we have been able to enjoy the change of perspective which with taking part on a different kind of “psychedelic” session then the everlasting parties. Such thing as meeting other groups of people with already established relations is generally remarkable, but now try getting naked with all those people on the first evening, go outside into the snow, step around a fire in freezing mixture of mud and water for a while, and then sit around the stone pit for a few hours, chant mantras and shout and so on… yeah, isn’t it romantic? Bad luck I only was able to spend first two rounds in there, but I was at least able to help with the last portion of stones.
Drumming also was a “flow experience”, as was our following music session with Dosta.
Back to the underground
Yesterday’s night was quite interesting. I went to a psytrance party, which had basically no promo whatsoever, so earlier this week most people were still wondering whether it is real or fake.
We quickly learned that despite the fact that it is organized by someone basically unknown, in a mysterious place where no party has been done before (as far as we knew – which was wrong, there were at least several punk concerts, but nevermind), but otherwise featuring Iguana from Naked Tourist and Mubali, it is really going to happen – Iguana and Mubali personally said they were coming, and the guy who organized it got backed up by people with more reputation. And it was actually pretty good.
We arrived at midnight, when there were about 30 people, the sound was good, the place was an old building used for balls, as a theater or a gym, and the feeling there reminded me of the old days at Tetrahydroclub in Brno (RIP). It was nice to have enough space for dancing for once, both Iguana and Mubali played fine, although Iguana’s set could be longer and Mubali’s on the other hand seemed to me even too long for its own good. No big deal, however, it was good music, and it all had kind of underground atmosphere. So, thanks.
Alice in Ricany
I spent the Friday evening somewhat unexpectedly in Ricany cinema, where Embryo, 000333 and Perplex organised a visually focused event. Primarily it was about Alenka, the Alice in Wonderland themed movie from MB and 03, and there were also new fluorescent paintings of similar origin. Other films included a very interesting Czech comedy classic Happy End, which is actually shot backwards, and it was projected in the normal way (backwards) and backwards (in what should be the normal direction) in two instances next to each other. There was also Krakatit, remixed with some custom visuals from Embryo, which really got me good, and Perplex’s Russian hallucinations. Alenka is nice, and the fluoropaintings are amazing.
DIY Carnival 3.5
DIY Carnival 3.5 in Prague, partly a street rave, partly a protest against the prime minister Paroubek and minister Bublan, who still don’t want to give in after the messed up Czechtek party, was pretty good. Photos are here.
I have come to Vltavska metro station to take a tram up to Hradcanska and then go by foot to Strahov, where the carnival should start. Since there was a football match this evening on Letna, there were a few young guys who came out of the metro with me. Outside on the tram station, we heard a cry and about 200 bald fans of FC Banik Ostrava appeard running to the station around a corner. As they spotted the Prague fans, they went straight for them and started beating them up. You could hear sirens and police cars started to arrive in large numbers. What a start for the carnival. Since I wasn’t dressed like a football fan, the violence swept past me without anyone taking notice of me or any of the other people waiting for the tram, and so I went to Strossmayerovo Namesti and took a tram across Letna to Hradcanska. I was a bit afraid I might encounter more “fans” on the way, and I did, but without any incidents.
I went from Hradcanska to Strahov, and from a distance I could hear overlapping beats of the soundsystems. Masks were often very nice, as you can see in the pictures, some of them were really funny or original (like the snowsleigh, dragged behind a car, metal on which got so hot from the friction that smoke started coming from the wooden part of it). The parade was more then a kilometer long, and went from Strahov down to the river, through the city center and onto the Stvanice island, where it ended. It was quite a walk.
Police took control of traffic, sometimes diverting it and letting it mix with the parade on main crossings in the center. Most drivers were obviously having fun watching us go by, tourists in buses passing along cheered, people were coming out of shops and houses, sometimes joining the parade. Atmosphere was great and I believe whoever joined had a good time. You could see some drunk people, but there weren’t as many of them as we had feared before. At the Stvanice island the music went on for some time.
The atmosphere was similar to the atmosphere on the demonstrations during the summer (reason for them was police action against the Czechtek teknival, worth checking out), but it wasn’t some kind of rigid political protest – it was more like a show what this subculture is about, and although I don’t think it got to all the prejudiced people, who support the police actions, I thing it did have an effect. Despite the fact, that there was almost no media coverage whatsoever – which is unbelievable, for several thousand people marched loudly through the center of Prague, but true. Anyway. Hope to see you next time.
Demonstration after Czechtek videos and pictures
Reactions of the psytrance tribes, and my short videos and pictures from yesterday’s demonstration and “afterparty”.