October 2006

24-Oct-2006 - In Kazakhstan...

Most people know Borat. He's the Kazakhstani reporter played by Sasha Baron Cohen.

I like to shoot the dog and then have party

Recently he has been in a lot of diplomatic trouble from the Kazakhstani government who do not like him making Kazakhstan look like a backward nation.

He has had his .kz domain name removed by the government, and there has been a campaign by the government to show Kazakhstan as a forward looking, free and prosperous nation to combat the negative publicity Borat has been creating.

However a news story this week makes you wonder... the Kazakhstan central bank has misspelled the word 'Bank' on its new banknotes. Very funny.

23-Oct-2006 - The lazy blogger

Thats me. I havent updated this site in a while so its about time I do!

A few weeks ago I went to Prophecy Chaos Theory. This was a rave put on by Powerhouse Productions out at Acer Arena (the superdome). I've been to the 2 previous prophecy parties, but I dont think this one was as good.

Prophecy - Chaos Theory

One of the most insteresting additions was the DJ booth in the main arena. Instead of being at one end of the room it was in the centre. It was decked out with speakers, lighting, lasers, and large flatscreen displays. And the entire thing, scaffolding and all, rotated!

Main arena DJ booth

Main room - lighting everywhere

It was a very creating and cool idea, and awesome to look at, but in reality it was very impracticle. Its not as much fun "facing the DJ" for about 1/10 of the time you are dancing (where the remainder of the time the DJ is spinning around facing other directions). Dont know why, but just doesnt feel right. It sort of took away from the atmosphere in my opinion because there was no "unity" feeling amongst the crowd with everyone facing different directions.

Centre of the dancefloor. Everyone faces inwards

Main room - it was packed!

There was another room upstairs where I had a good dance to good old Nik Fish with some hard house. Man he has been DJing for longer than I've been going to raves. He must be getting old by now! ;-). Still a great DJ though - but he must be completely over it by now hahaha.

There was a downstairs room as well on the same level as the main arena. Some guy played a great old skool set with some of the older classics which was fun to dance to.

The downstairs room

The outdoor area had a huge slippery dip and some other bits and pieces, with a lot of people taking a rest on the ground.

Chillout area

Now I've been going to raves for a long damn time now. I would have been to something like 60-100 raves by now. And in all the time i've been going i've never seen any violence. Its pretty amazing. Probably due to the lack of alcohol at most raves, but it still amazes me. But for the first time this rave was different.

I went with Julian to the party and when we were standing in line outside there was a bit of a scuffle right next to us. Suddenly it turned into a violent rough fight between 4 guys. Lots of fists in faces and someone was thrown against one of Acer Arenas external windows. I thought it was going to smash. It all happened very quickly and right next to me and jules. We took a few steps back and when it was all over I realised that out of everyone me and julian had moved away from the fight the furthest by far. I think its all the millions of fights we have seen on the nightstrips over the years - some that get way out of control very very quickly.

As we moved further down in line there were more scuffles but we couldnt see what was happening. And I heard later on that there were a number of fights inside - on the dancefloor and at the bar. I guess the rave scene is starting to attract a new breed of people.

And I have never seen a more prepared police presence either. The police had set up two large tents! They had at least 2 sniffer dogs and lots of vehicles and everything set up. Apparently they arrested a number of people for drug offences, and some women outside for some violent incident. According to the news sites anyway.

I cant end a rave entry without a pic with some lasers!!!...

DJ booth - lasers oh yeah baby!

Hopefully the next one will be much more peaceful! :-)
Byeeee!