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BOO! @ BGC
#1
10/30/15

After taking 2nd in the Tiger Claw Halloween office party, I hightailed it up to Civic Center for this Insomniac produced EMD show. Beat the traffic. Yay! Ran into an old Kung Fu brother on Market who was just returning from his honeymoon. He was wearing lederhosen and headed to a beer bar, and it was very tempting to follow him, but RM was understaffed as usual. The UCS marching band took the plaza in a pre-game rally, and I found myself drawn to it because it was live music, plus I love rudimentary drumming. That was a delightful surprise.

The stage was awesome. A giant skull with round monitor eyes on which images were projected. The mandible moved and we later discovered it was inflatable. Banks of video screens, fog cannons, strobes and lazers. I posted a lot on my instagram. It was really all about the stage because the first acts were unimpressive. boots&pants&boots&pants&boots&pants&boots&pants&boots&pants. Of the 7 Djs, I didn't really tune into until the Magician and then Nightmare who only dropped one rhythm - Oliver Heldens was good and Flostradamus, who I recognize, were the closers and they were enjoyable. Rm was mostly nooBs and I was introduced as 'the psych guy'. Now EDM has been trying to escape the Rave drug stigma, so their security has been confiscating drugs at the door aggressively. Those are turned over to RM. We have been working with Cochella, Bonaroo, Burning Man, and some other events on what we initially dubbed 'the Molly project'. We have access to a lab for full analysis, and we're looking at what's actually being pawned off as X and Molly, trends, etc.

So one of the nooBs gets handed a baggy of 2 dozen+ powder-filled baggies by security and freaks out (although a small quantity, it's a major felony to be holding that much). "What do I do with this?' he asked his nooB team. "Give it to the psych guy?" they reply unsure. I say "Sure, I'll take it." They hand it over. Then I say "I'm not going to take all of this right now though," and dash off into the crowd with it, leaving them with classic nooB 'wth?' expressions.

Now our director likes to show off confiscated drugs to nooBs. They are impressed because they are nooBs and have never seen such stuff for realz. As I walk in, our director is holding court, sitting in a wheelchair, surrounded by nooBs as he points out the different contents of a baggy with maybe a dozen+ random pills. "That's a ton!" exclaims a wide-eyed nooB, as I think to myself, "Nah, not even, only a few grams." The nooBs are impressed, like their really learning something, and just as our director is concluding, I cut in and say "Well, you beat me in diversity, but I think I got more quantity" and drop that baggy in his lap to a huge gasp. "Woah! Where'd you get this?!" he says, and I return my best "srsly? Did you forget who I am?" look. He laughs and I feel my work is done for the night.

It was a night of bad molly - red premiums to be exact - and a lot of etoh. By the evening's end, RM was filled with that reek of vomit, alcohol and sweat. We found Waldo - two in fact - a Waldo and a Waldette. Waldo is easy to find at EDMs because he drinks too much. I was blessed by Jesus. I helped another Jesus who had poked his eye out on his crown of thorns (btw, just a word of advice - when making a crown of thorns for your edm jesus costume, don't use real thorns).
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#2
Halloween 2015

Now I wasn't going to go to this, but the list was so light, that Rm cajoled me. I said I'd do it if I could get a ride, and they tried to hook me up with someone from San Jose, but I said 'no, gotta be from my bungalow doorstep and back.' But I tapped one of my Cruz partners in crime who was game.

Word got out about the bad red molly and things were relatively quiet for Rm. Mostly sleepy drunks, a k-hole (but that was short and containable), not nearly the vomitorium of the previous night. I was really disappointed that there wasn't costuming at Rm. I wore my yoda cap and glow-in-the-dark Twilight Zone T. Another murse friend busted out his crazy century-old suede lederhosen-like shorts and giraffe socks. No one else broke uniform, even though it was totally allowed. We were distributing these condoms that had little cardboard mustaches that you could punch out from the box that a few people started wearing until I asked "you sure those are supposed to be mustaches?' I regret discouraging them because I just wanted to mess with them.

I was disappointed with the edm costumes too. There is always a lot of cosplay at edms; halloween brought just a little more. But all the costumes were store-bought, or perhaps web-bought is better for this generation (the mean age was between 1/3 and 1/2 of mine). They had pre-fab costumes with little depth. No political commentary, which I've always felt was an important element of masking. No soul. Lots of scantily-clad youngens. Beaded masks, odd t-shirts, no creativity. Lots of really stupid shallow costumes. edm is so shallow though - I'm not sure why I hoped for more.

Fortunately, an old friend who works for the venue took me and my accomplice to some very secret hiding spots in bgc. Been working there for nearly 3 decades and one of which was the first time I ever even knew this sacred nook existed. Very cool. Also spent a fair amount of time backstage and on level 3, which is restricted for BGC staff.

Again, of the 8 djs, it was mostly boots&pants&boots&pants&boots&pants. There was an early one that was dropping a lot of odd vintage rhythms - Eurythmics, Queen - but I don't know who that was. Will Sparks was the first one to catch my attention, mostly because he went for halloween imagery, like scenes from Nosferatu and the boat scene speech from Willy Wonka (original version: Gene Wilder at his manic best). Nicky Romero was recommended to me, but he was just cheezy pop. 7 Lions closed, and that was my fav of both nights as it was the most dub step.

Now I'm spent for Dia de los Muertos - got in after 3AM both nights. S is working all day and T is struggling with her heap o' homework as she and her friends did Seabright trick o' treatin, then watched the first episode of Star Wars because one of their classmates had never seen the prequel series and T and another classmate are huge Star Wars nerds. The other classmate has several saberforge lightsabers and wanted to duel me, but I said I was too spent and retold him the tale of how our SJSU team liked to competed when hungover because it made us cranky and quick to end the bouts. I'm also afraid of breaking one of those because I've broken so many lightsabers in my life.
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#3
I imagine at this time tomorrow I'll be heading home after this show. It's raining now and I'm dreading the commute in a few hours. I pulled my back on Tuesday picking persimmons at my mom's. Her tree is massively fruitful this year. I look forward to wielding the fruit picker pole because I can use my spear and staff techniques, but I haven't practiced either for over a year, and as the sun set, I over-reached. I skipped Kung Fu last night because Stacy set me up with a tub at the well. That helped a lot but it's still really ropey under my left shoulder, and exacerbating my cervical arthritis. The rain doesn't help. Maybe pounding it with some heavy EDM bass will loosen things up...
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#4
Well that was fun. A successful double-hitter. I always luv Halloween shows. 

More to come.
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#5
Nudity.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

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#6
Oh bother. That's a big bruise. Multicolored even. Medial side of my right knee cap, on the bottom of the femur. Wasn't there prior to the double BOO! Where the heck did that come from?
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#7
Only one person at Tiger Claw recognized my costume.  I guess you need to know martial arts.  It's not like we're a martial arts company or something... Rolleyes

BOO! Night 1: No one in Rock Med wore a costume.  I had acquired a Katana (ala the flower vase in Suicide Squad) mask for under $5, picked up some red sashes and a rising sun armband from work.  I had a plastic katana too (actually it was high-impact polypropylene) but I didn't carry it as they weren't allowing any such props into the venue and it just wouldn't have been fair.  I was imagining taking selfies with a lot of Harley Quinn's but I only saw one near the end of the evening, and she was rather spent so I didn't bother.  Few people picked up that I was a male Katana (I'm told gender swapping is 'in' with comics nowadays) but the mask was effective on its own and I got a fair amount of thumbs up and compliments, considering what a mediocre store-bought costume it was. The audience costumes, like with previous EDM, were mediocre too, so I fit right in, I suppose.  

I cooked up a lammy, knowing that RM wouldn't have it together given the end of the season.  We used to do lammies for any show that was more than two, but now, it's rare to get them for anything but major events.  My lammy was very well received so I'll keep making them, when I have the time and inclination.

Insomniac had a helluva time getting the stage ready.  They delayed letting the audience in because they just weren't together yet.  Even when the doors opened, it wasn't quite finished (as we would discover the following night).  I wasn't impressed by anyone I heard - Tough Love, Joyride, Valentino Khan - they all sounded the same to me.  

It was busy in RM - a lot of ETOH, another vomitorium.  

Then I got a call - a major candy flipper (L+M...those crazy kids).  He was young, big and strong and came in restrained to a gurney.  We left him there because I didn't want to wrestle, given my messed up back, and there was no one to back me up wrestling.  Chemical restraint was added, and he was raging, but would respond, so I was optimistic.  The ambulance crew, security and much of RM was skeptical, but I earned my keep and rode it out with him, aided mainly by an old friend from Security, Rick.  Rick and I go back to the very beginning, nearly three decades ago.  We got him down and he left with a friend.  It was a good save - one worthy enough to keep my rep up as the main psych guy.  The talkdown went from around 9 to 12:30, after which I left promptly.  It was a long lonely road home and i wanted to save some for the next day.
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#8
So at one point on Friday, one of our nurses has some lingerie-wearing gal by the scruff of her neck and is handily tossing her out.  It was a bit shocking and she was in full bouncer mode, and that nurse is a big gal, easily 4x the size of the patron.  Turns out she snuck in a rear entrance to RM and decided to pee in our storage room.  WTH!?  The goddam bathrooms are right outside, across the hall.  

Saturday went better.  I had Tara (dressed as Harley Quinn - the original cartoon version, not the recent Robbie sexpot thankfully) and a trusty Cruz JNK partner-in-crime, the ever invisible Rich.  We grabbed dinner at Ananda Fuara, which is always a vegetarian treat, and was amusing as Rich has this ritual of grabbing In-and-out in Daly City when we head to SF.  He enjoyed Ananda saying it opened some doors for him, and we missed the RM meeting, which was just as well.  RM was having a lot of fun with the box of Funny Mushrooms I brought the night before.  It was this wacky chocolate candy I found at the Euro market, just down the street.  I'm bringing that to every show from now on.

The crowd was much more costumed and the stage was finished.  Tara counted nearly two dozen Harleys.  RM had one gal vol come in a dinosaur onesie (cute) and several vols got their face painted.  There was still a huge spread of food.  Director Gordon was being generous.  Our Doc, Judy, was there at the beginning, took a few hours break to go to the Opera next door, and then came back.  Impressive.  There were a lot of scanty bikini bottoms, but this is a clothes on show, and most of the costumes are relatively tasteful.  There was only one gal who wore only caution tape and pasties (her date was dressed as a cop).  That was generally thought of as a costume fail because she didn't wear it well and it didn't hold up for the evening.  

The stage was outrageous. They added a 30' inflatable spider but it didn't come out in any pix (that we weren't supposed to take) because it was dwarfed by the lights and lasers.  One of the biggest brightest laser displays so far, including a spectacular new color, a cool white that is tinged violet.  Maybe it was the stage or the company, but I had a much better time and enjoyed the music a lot more.  Dr. Fresch was good traditional EDM.  Ghastly, Zomboy and KSMHR were all solid.  Only the closer Showtek was disappointing.  

We manned the table service, which was very busy all night.  Ran a few calls, including a barfy chick that was just Tara and I (I sent Tara for back up and she did well on that - she felt she actually worked). I ran a few other small calls, but mostly refilled cups as we went through a crate of cups and then some that night.  

Two guys hit on Tara.  I only saw one - she told me about the other later.  The one was totally mollied, so much so it was funny.  Tara was very amused, especially when he turned to me and I said "that's my daughter" in full Katana mask and Halloween scariness.  He quickly wilted, much to everyone's amusement, and did everything he could to apologize.  There's this tradition of exchanging beaded bracelets at EDM - a cheap swap done with a handshake 'peace love unity' ritual.  The beads spell out something.  I got two: DRUGS (of course) and HENNY (which I had to look up to confirm my assumption - it's slang for Hennessy).  We also got cool official BOO! pins as schwag.
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#9
10/28/17

assigned to a team. We are staged in the hall, which is out of the way and dull, so we're all looking at our phones... Dodgy
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#10
Go find bags of Molly to impress the Noobs.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

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#11
Got pulled away for a major ipr. Been stuck in the space station for the last 2 hours. I got one vet -'between us we have more years combined in RM then the rest of the staff combined. The staff is making a lot of mistakes and don't seem to interested in learning - the art of psych is truly dying at RM.
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#12
had to roll him. Thought I had him but no. Tonight the Force wasnt with me. 

But it broke me free of that lame team. Now I'm enjoying Zeds Dead from table service, sort of hip hop meets dub step. Lotza bass drops. I approve.

The costuming is much better this year. Seen a lot of creative and evocative stuff, and many thonged  butts

My yard sale mask is killin it. It didn't work at first - pressed my eyes too much, but a 4x4 forehead roll bar saved it. Costume repair is a fundamental rm Halloween skill.
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#13
And we're home safely, in bed, sipping Dalwhinnie 15 to chill out. Today (Sunday) is a chill day - just a few errands, none mandatory. Stacy works all day so I can be a post-2-show zombie.

Then back at it Monday for a screener. Yay!
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#14
(10-28-2017, 07:44 PM)Greg Wrote: Go find bags of Molly to impress the Noobs.

The confiscated take was small for BOO!2017 - pales by comparison to Odesza the night before, like a 4th or less. I didn't see it because I was with my lost tripper, but another cop showed me a pic.

It's so quiet in the Cruz today. After 2 nights of EDM in a row, my tinnitus sounds like a dentist's drill through a broken Marshall amp. But I just had a yummy bowl of clam chowdah and it is vetoing my chores for a nap.
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#15
You had me at Dalwhinnie.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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