----
![]()
![]()
Before Spin Magazine asked me to write a big article for them on rave culture in the mid-90s, there were few people less interested in -- and more doubtful about -- that scene than me. An indie rock aficionado and lifelong non-dancer for whom the words dance and music in combination immediately brought back memories of the dreaded disco era, I thought I was a strange choice for such an article. In fact, Spin probably assigned the gig to me thinking they'd get a snarky dressing down of rave, a culture they had shown little interest in covering at that point. I accepted the assignment on the condition that I could write the piece in collaboration with my future best friend Joel Westendorf, whom I'd recently met and who was heavily involved in the ![]()
scene at the time. This article was eventually published in a heavily chopped and edited form under the handed down title of 'A Raver Runs Through It.' Together Joel and I set off to investigate raves in the US, where rave culture was peaking, and in England where rave had developed much earlier and was already on the wane. I quickly realized my preconceptions about rave had been way off. Not only were the raves I attended among the most physically ambitious, artistically rich, new, and complex music related events I'd attended in ages, but the interest among the people organizing these events in experimental aesthetics, radical politics and philosophy was really impressive. The techno, which I'd found so monotonous and without soul, became industrious and imaginative the rave context. Discarding my prejudices, I could see that in its own way, electronic dance music was as key to the imaginative nature of raves as psychedelic music and punk rock had been to their respective ![]()
contexts. The simultaneous structuring and destructuring effect it had on the actions and mindsets of the attendees was far more fluid and fascinating than I could have imagined. Plus, in their own innocent, uptopian fashions, most of the people I met who were throwing raves and organizing their lives inside the scene that raves had spawned were very serious about trying to revise society's faults through a form of positive if critical thinking, as serious in their quest to alter the future as punks had been via their more nihilistic leanings and actions. Instead of Emma Goldman and the Situationists, the rave aficionados looked to drug and technology fixated thinkers like Terrence McKenna and Timothy Leary for the wisdom to move the world forward. At the time, the drugs were clean and pleasureable enough to make the huge ambitions of the whole rave cultural enterprise feel realistic, and the ![]()
secretive and illegal nature of the rave experience helped make it very attractive to people looking for a new way to change culture and tell it to fuck off in the same gesture. Of course, worsening drugs, increasing media coverage, and growing police attention caused this early, pure version of rave to rather quickly stall out and devolve into what it basically is today: a prosaic, superficial, club-oriented form of time killing entertainment that's no better or worse than any other way that people choose to spend their nights out. But I miss all that beauty and promise, and want to try to memorialize the mark it left on me today with a basic history for those who need it and some souvenirs.
![]()
----
![]()
![]()
'From the Acid House scene of the late 80s, the scene transformed from predominantly a London- based phenomenon to a UK-wide mainstream underground youth movement. Organizations such as Fantazia, Universe, Raindance & Amnesia House were by 1991/92 holding massive legal raves in fields and warehouses around the country. The height was achieved in 1992 with Fantazia party called One Step Beyond, which was an all-nighter attracting 25,000 people. Other notable events included Obsession and Universe's Tribal Gathering in 1993.'
![]()
----
![]()
'The early rave scene flourished underground in some Canadian and U.S. cities such as Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and as word of the budding scene spread, raves quickly caught on in other cities such as San Diego and New York City. Mainstream America, upon learning of the rave phenomenon through relentless and relentless negative media attention in the late 1990s, responded with hostility. Politicians spoke out against raves and began to fine anyone who held an illegal party as well as administer punishments of up to six months in prison. This, along with ecstasy becoming scarce and polluted when it was available, ended the early US raves.
![]()
'In the UK, the rave scene was slowly changing by the early 90s, with local councils waking up to how to prevent organisations gaining licenses by massively increasing the fees, so the days of legal one-off parties were numbered. The scene was also beginning to fragment into many different styles of dance music making large parties more expensive to set up and more difficult to promote. The happy old skool style was replaced by the darker jungle (later renamed drum n bass) and the faster happy hardcore. The illegal free party scene also reached its zenith for that time when, after a particularly large festival, when many individual sound systems such as Bedlam, Circus Warp, DIY, and Spiral Tribe set up near Castlemorton Common, in May 1992 the government acted.
![]()
'Under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the definition of music played at a rave was given as:"music" includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats." Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted electronic dance music played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered police to stop a rave in the open air when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a five-mile radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; noncompliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1 000).
'The Act was ostensibly introduced because of the noise and disruption caused by all night parties to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. It has also been claimed that it was introduced to kill a popular youth movement that was taking many drinkers out of town centres drinking on taxable alcohol and into fields to take untaxed drugs and drink free water.'
----
'In the early 2000s, illegal parties still existed, albeit on smaller scales, and the number of sanctioned events seemed to be on the rise. The few constants in the scene include amplified electronic dance music, a vibrant social network built on the ethos of the acronym PLUR, "Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect", percussive music and freeform dancing often accompanied by the use of "club drugs" such as ecstasy, methamphetamine, speed and ketamine, also known as "special K." However, increased cocaine usage, preponderance of adulterated ecstasy tablets and organized criminal activity has been detrimental to UK-based rave culture, although free parties are now on the rise again. Still, according to some long-time observers, rave music and its subculture began to stagnate by the end of the 1990s. The period of grassroots innovation and explosive growth and evolution was over; the flurry of passionate activity and the sense of international community were fading.
![]()
'By the early 2000s, the terms "rave" and "raver" had fallen out of favor among many people in the electronic dance music community, particularly in Europe. Many Europeans returned to identifying themselves as "clubbers" rather than ravers. It became unfashionable among many electronic dance music aficionados to describe a party as a "rave," perhaps because the term had become overused and corrupted. Some communities preferred the term "festival," while others simply referred to "parties." True raves, such as "Mayday," continued to occur for a time in Central Europe, with less constrictive laws allowing raves to continue in some countries long after the death of rave in the United Kingdom. Moreover, traditional rave paraphernalia, such as facemasks, pacifiers, and glowsticks ceased to be popular. Underground sound systems started organising large free parties and called them teknivals.
'In the northeastern United States, during the mid-2000s, the popularity of Goa (or psy-trance) increased tremendously. With the warehouse party scene, the trend is also restarting; cities such as San Francisco have seen a resurgence of warehouse parties since 2003, due in part to Burning Man theme camp fundraiser parties. This contrary belief in the early 2000s was that 2002 would mark the end of the rave (known as party scene at the time), and the scene was over. Raves still continue in hot spots around the U.S. even today, although they might be called "parties" to avoid the negative spin. Examples of this hot spot phenomenon are New Orleans, LA, and the west coast of the United States. The mid-late 2000s is being marked as the renaissance of the underground electronic culture.'
----
*
p.s. Hey. ** Jamie McMorrow, Hi and howdy-do, Jamie. That patisserie is insane. Everything they make is kind of sublime. Yeah, we'll stock up when you come. Awesome, glad the miniature golf holes eventually won you over. Ugh, actually, I just found out last night that my overwork period is not over as scheduled today and will continue through the week, and let's just just say that I am very unhappy about that. At least everything to do with Zac's and my next film got finished and the stuff is off today to visit potential funders. Well, the way it stands, I'll basically just head off to San Francisco when the work hell ends. I've been desperately hoping to work on my long-suffering, forcibly ignored novel this week, but it doesn't look like thats going to happen. Anyway, I'll stop complaining because complaining is too addictive. 'Eagle', yeah, that's a good one. I really like their less hits-filled last couple of albums the best. They're really weird and dark and paranoid, especially if you actually pay attention to the lyrics. Waltzer? I don't know that name. Hold on while I google. Oh, sure, that kind of ride is a staple of traveling carnivals and small amusement parks in the States. I never ride them because I can't do rides that turn in circles due to motion sickness, but they're really pretty like cakes, those rides. What's your latest? Is that song polished? Oh, I heard or read something about that movie condensing thing. I so love the idea, and I'll read that great looking piece about it, and no doubt put together a corresponding post, asap. Thank you, Jamie. Love, me. ** David Ehrenstein. Hi, David. Ha ha. Did you notice that mini-golf park that used to be at the corner of Wilshire & La Cienega? Imagining it there was really beautiful. ** Zach, Hey, Zach! This is an awfully cool thing to get to see you! Limiting your internet time sounds kind of heavenly to me, ha ha, but I'm glad you reentered for my and this place's sake. Cal Graves! Cool, I haven't seen Cal here in a while either, but it's great to hear that he's doing excellent work. I'm excited to check out your lit journal, and I will read and see as much as I can of it today. Everyone, longtime d.l. and splendid writer/person Zach is one of the editors of a great looking and highly acclaimed journal called American Chordata, and right here you can check out both the current issue and the archives, which includes work by poet and d.l. Cal Graves, and you really should for the sake of your enlightenment, so please do. Oh, wow, I remember that Simpsons episode. How weird, cool. Hey, man, I'm glad that things are going so well for you, and, please, anytime you feel like joining the fray here again, it will be serious boon. Take care! ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. Yep, the DVD is happening. Well, the demonic monster in the tent turns out to be not so demonic, I fear. Well, accidentally demonic, let's say. Ha ha, there is an instance or two of rimming in the film, yes. I hope your semester winds up well, and, obviously, it would be great if that ending occasions your presence here more often. I have played one miniature golf course that was set in a haunted house but it wasn't very haunted. Maybe Zac and I will make a film set in a haunted mini-golf house. I'll bring it up to him today. It might just fly. Be good, buddy. ** Bear, Thanks, Bear! Mm, I can't remember if that burners one is still extant. Glad the 'Kindertotenlieder' clip affected you. It's kind of trance-y, so that makes it easier to sit through than it might seem, assuming you embrace the trance, I guess. That's one of our only two pieces, along with 'Jerk', to have played New York City so far. A year or so ago at Live Arts. But 'The Venriloquists Convention' will play NYC beginning of next year. I'm sorry you guys didn't sell anything, but I bet the attention the attention her stuff got will ... what do they say ... pay off in dividends? No, I hadn't seen that silo amplifier, whoa! That's fascinating. I'm amazed I didn't come across it in my searching. I'll go read up on that pronto. Thanks a lot for that, man. Cool! Have a great Tuesday whatever that entails! ** Steevee, Hi. Yes, I just saw about Other Music closing yesterday. That is such terrible news. Somehow that seems like some kind of final nail in something's coffin. Really, really sucks. One of the great music stores of the world. Really grim news. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi Dóra! Oh my god, I am so incredibly going to need the repair shop since my work hell just got extended for more days ahead. Tokyo is kind of an absolute must, I think. Problem is it's far away, although that's just a boring flight, and expensive, which it really is. But if the opportunity arises, do not hesitate. Oh, yes, let's figure out at some point when you can go to LA when I'm there. I'll show you all the best stuff. I grew up there, so I know most of its secrets. I don't think I'd ever seen that term monodrama before. I like it. I hope you ace your exam today. How did it go? My fingers will be crossed for you re: that all day, or least when I'm not typing. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Did you have your Art101 meeting last night? Am I remembering right? If I am, how did it go? David Shirley mini-golf signs ... yes! ** Misanthrope, Churning, cool. That's good. Oh, I don't know, I just thought based own my daily observations that the 15% thing seems pretty low, but I don't know. You have to pick a mini-golf course with a really, really cool design and decor such that the golfing is just the way you move through it. Like going for a hike. ** Armando, Hey! The cool thing about mini-golf is that I think sucking at doesn't matter at all, and actually makes it more fun even. Your question about George would require a very complicated answer. In a word, sometimes, yes, very difficult, and other times not. Depending on where he was in his almost always wildly swinging moods. I don't know if I understood him best. Probably his doctors and psychiatrists did. But I knew him very, very well. It's impossible for me to know if your mood swings resemble George's, but every person with bipolar disorder has it to a different degree, and it manifests itself differently in every body. I do miss LA, for sure. It's always possible that I could move back there, but right now I'm very happy in Paris. No, I haven't had a minute to work on my novel due to the heavy other work I'm stuck with, and I'm dying to and wondering when the hell I can. Take care, love, etc.! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Yeah, miniature golf, the term I grew up with, is just one of many. I like it mostly because I like that it describes it as a miniature version of golf. Smaller is definitely better in that case, I think. Yeah, the dioramic aspect, and being able to circumvent that, is one of the big appeals. I really think the actual golfing/playing part is secondary, the excuse or requirement that allows you to traverse the places. I don't know. I need more coffee too. A lot more. ** Okay. Today you get a long dead and rather strange and a little dated post that's been restored to life because my current workload has made post-making incredibly difficult. I hope there's still something in this 9 year-old thing that works and intrigues or something. See you tomorrow.
Before Spin Magazine asked me to write a big article for them on rave culture in the mid-90s, there were few people less interested in -- and more doubtful about -- that scene than me. An indie rock aficionado and lifelong non-dancer for whom the words dance and music in combination immediately brought back memories of the dreaded disco era, I thought I was a strange choice for such an article. In fact, Spin probably assigned the gig to me thinking they'd get a snarky dressing down of rave, a culture they had shown little interest in covering at that point. I accepted the assignment on the condition that I could write the piece in collaboration with my future best friend Joel Westendorf, whom I'd recently met and who was heavily involved in the 
scene at the time. This article was eventually published in a heavily chopped and edited form under the handed down title of 'A Raver Runs Through It.' Together Joel and I set off to investigate raves in the US, where rave culture was peaking, and in England where rave had developed much earlier and was already on the wane. I quickly realized my preconceptions about rave had been way off. Not only were the raves I attended among the most physically ambitious, artistically rich, new, and complex music related events I'd attended in ages, but the interest among the people organizing these events in experimental aesthetics, radical politics and philosophy was really impressive. The techno, which I'd found so monotonous and without soul, became industrious and imaginative the rave context. Discarding my prejudices, I could see that in its own way, electronic dance music was as key to the imaginative nature of raves as psychedelic music and punk rock had been to their respective 
contexts. The simultaneous structuring and destructuring effect it had on the actions and mindsets of the attendees was far more fluid and fascinating than I could have imagined. Plus, in their own innocent, uptopian fashions, most of the people I met who were throwing raves and organizing their lives inside the scene that raves had spawned were very serious about trying to revise society's faults through a form of positive if critical thinking, as serious in their quest to alter the future as punks had been via their more nihilistic leanings and actions. Instead of Emma Goldman and the Situationists, the rave aficionados looked to drug and technology fixated thinkers like Terrence McKenna and Timothy Leary for the wisdom to move the world forward. At the time, the drugs were clean and pleasureable enough to make the huge ambitions of the whole rave cultural enterprise feel realistic, and the 
secretive and illegal nature of the rave experience helped make it very attractive to people looking for a new way to change culture and tell it to fuck off in the same gesture. Of course, worsening drugs, increasing media coverage, and growing police attention caused this early, pure version of rave to rather quickly stall out and devolve into what it basically is today: a prosaic, superficial, club-oriented form of time killing entertainment that's no better or worse than any other way that people choose to spend their nights out. But I miss all that beauty and promise, and want to try to memorialize the mark it left on me today with a basic history for those who need it and some souvenirs.
----
Rave: A Quickie History by Michael Pisano
'What could arguably be called raves existed in the early 1980s in the Ecstasy-fueled club scene in clubs like NRG, in Houston, and in the drug-free, all-ages scene in Detroit at venues like The Music Institute. However, it was not until the mid to late 1980s that a wave of psychedelic and other electronic dance music, most notably acid house and techno, emerged and caught on in the clubs, warehouses and free-parties around London and later Manchester. These early raves were called the Acid House Summers. They were mainstream events that attracted thousands of people (up to 25,000 instead of the 4,000 that came to earlier warehouse parties) to come, dance and take ecstasy.
'From the Acid House scene of the late 80s, the scene transformed from predominantly a London- based phenomenon to a UK-wide mainstream underground youth movement. Organizations such as Fantazia, Universe, Raindance & Amnesia House were by 1991/92 holding massive legal raves in fields and warehouses around the country. The height was achieved in 1992 with Fantazia party called One Step Beyond, which was an all-nighter attracting 25,000 people. Other notable events included Obsession and Universe's Tribal Gathering in 1993.'
----
'The early rave scene flourished underground in some Canadian and U.S. cities such as Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and as word of the budding scene spread, raves quickly caught on in other cities such as San Diego and New York City. Mainstream America, upon learning of the rave phenomenon through relentless and relentless negative media attention in the late 1990s, responded with hostility. Politicians spoke out against raves and began to fine anyone who held an illegal party as well as administer punishments of up to six months in prison. This, along with ecstasy becoming scarce and polluted when it was available, ended the early US raves.
'In the UK, the rave scene was slowly changing by the early 90s, with local councils waking up to how to prevent organisations gaining licenses by massively increasing the fees, so the days of legal one-off parties were numbered. The scene was also beginning to fragment into many different styles of dance music making large parties more expensive to set up and more difficult to promote. The happy old skool style was replaced by the darker jungle (later renamed drum n bass) and the faster happy hardcore. The illegal free party scene also reached its zenith for that time when, after a particularly large festival, when many individual sound systems such as Bedlam, Circus Warp, DIY, and Spiral Tribe set up near Castlemorton Common, in May 1992 the government acted.
'Under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the definition of music played at a rave was given as:"music" includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats." Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted electronic dance music played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered police to stop a rave in the open air when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a five-mile radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; noncompliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1 000).
'The Act was ostensibly introduced because of the noise and disruption caused by all night parties to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. It has also been claimed that it was introduced to kill a popular youth movement that was taking many drinkers out of town centres drinking on taxable alcohol and into fields to take untaxed drugs and drink free water.'
----
'In the early 2000s, illegal parties still existed, albeit on smaller scales, and the number of sanctioned events seemed to be on the rise. The few constants in the scene include amplified electronic dance music, a vibrant social network built on the ethos of the acronym PLUR, "Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect", percussive music and freeform dancing often accompanied by the use of "club drugs" such as ecstasy, methamphetamine, speed and ketamine, also known as "special K." However, increased cocaine usage, preponderance of adulterated ecstasy tablets and organized criminal activity has been detrimental to UK-based rave culture, although free parties are now on the rise again. Still, according to some long-time observers, rave music and its subculture began to stagnate by the end of the 1990s. The period of grassroots innovation and explosive growth and evolution was over; the flurry of passionate activity and the sense of international community were fading.
'By the early 2000s, the terms "rave" and "raver" had fallen out of favor among many people in the electronic dance music community, particularly in Europe. Many Europeans returned to identifying themselves as "clubbers" rather than ravers. It became unfashionable among many electronic dance music aficionados to describe a party as a "rave," perhaps because the term had become overused and corrupted. Some communities preferred the term "festival," while others simply referred to "parties." True raves, such as "Mayday," continued to occur for a time in Central Europe, with less constrictive laws allowing raves to continue in some countries long after the death of rave in the United Kingdom. Moreover, traditional rave paraphernalia, such as facemasks, pacifiers, and glowsticks ceased to be popular. Underground sound systems started organising large free parties and called them teknivals.
'In the northeastern United States, during the mid-2000s, the popularity of Goa (or psy-trance) increased tremendously. With the warehouse party scene, the trend is also restarting; cities such as San Francisco have seen a resurgence of warehouse parties since 2003, due in part to Burning Man theme camp fundraiser parties. This contrary belief in the early 2000s was that 2002 would mark the end of the rave (known as party scene at the time), and the scene was over. Raves still continue in hot spots around the U.S. even today, although they might be called "parties" to avoid the negative spin. Examples of this hot spot phenomenon are New Orleans, LA, and the west coast of the United States. The mid-late 2000s is being marked as the renaissance of the underground electronic culture.'
----
*
p.s. Hey. ** Jamie McMorrow, Hi and howdy-do, Jamie. That patisserie is insane. Everything they make is kind of sublime. Yeah, we'll stock up when you come. Awesome, glad the miniature golf holes eventually won you over. Ugh, actually, I just found out last night that my overwork period is not over as scheduled today and will continue through the week, and let's just just say that I am very unhappy about that. At least everything to do with Zac's and my next film got finished and the stuff is off today to visit potential funders. Well, the way it stands, I'll basically just head off to San Francisco when the work hell ends. I've been desperately hoping to work on my long-suffering, forcibly ignored novel this week, but it doesn't look like thats going to happen. Anyway, I'll stop complaining because complaining is too addictive. 'Eagle', yeah, that's a good one. I really like their less hits-filled last couple of albums the best. They're really weird and dark and paranoid, especially if you actually pay attention to the lyrics. Waltzer? I don't know that name. Hold on while I google. Oh, sure, that kind of ride is a staple of traveling carnivals and small amusement parks in the States. I never ride them because I can't do rides that turn in circles due to motion sickness, but they're really pretty like cakes, those rides. What's your latest? Is that song polished? Oh, I heard or read something about that movie condensing thing. I so love the idea, and I'll read that great looking piece about it, and no doubt put together a corresponding post, asap. Thank you, Jamie. Love, me. ** David Ehrenstein. Hi, David. Ha ha. Did you notice that mini-golf park that used to be at the corner of Wilshire & La Cienega? Imagining it there was really beautiful. ** Zach, Hey, Zach! This is an awfully cool thing to get to see you! Limiting your internet time sounds kind of heavenly to me, ha ha, but I'm glad you reentered for my and this place's sake. Cal Graves! Cool, I haven't seen Cal here in a while either, but it's great to hear that he's doing excellent work. I'm excited to check out your lit journal, and I will read and see as much as I can of it today. Everyone, longtime d.l. and splendid writer/person Zach is one of the editors of a great looking and highly acclaimed journal called American Chordata, and right here you can check out both the current issue and the archives, which includes work by poet and d.l. Cal Graves, and you really should for the sake of your enlightenment, so please do. Oh, wow, I remember that Simpsons episode. How weird, cool. Hey, man, I'm glad that things are going so well for you, and, please, anytime you feel like joining the fray here again, it will be serious boon. Take care! ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. Yep, the DVD is happening. Well, the demonic monster in the tent turns out to be not so demonic, I fear. Well, accidentally demonic, let's say. Ha ha, there is an instance or two of rimming in the film, yes. I hope your semester winds up well, and, obviously, it would be great if that ending occasions your presence here more often. I have played one miniature golf course that was set in a haunted house but it wasn't very haunted. Maybe Zac and I will make a film set in a haunted mini-golf house. I'll bring it up to him today. It might just fly. Be good, buddy. ** Bear, Thanks, Bear! Mm, I can't remember if that burners one is still extant. Glad the 'Kindertotenlieder' clip affected you. It's kind of trance-y, so that makes it easier to sit through than it might seem, assuming you embrace the trance, I guess. That's one of our only two pieces, along with 'Jerk', to have played New York City so far. A year or so ago at Live Arts. But 'The Venriloquists Convention' will play NYC beginning of next year. I'm sorry you guys didn't sell anything, but I bet the attention the attention her stuff got will ... what do they say ... pay off in dividends? No, I hadn't seen that silo amplifier, whoa! That's fascinating. I'm amazed I didn't come across it in my searching. I'll go read up on that pronto. Thanks a lot for that, man. Cool! Have a great Tuesday whatever that entails! ** Steevee, Hi. Yes, I just saw about Other Music closing yesterday. That is such terrible news. Somehow that seems like some kind of final nail in something's coffin. Really, really sucks. One of the great music stores of the world. Really grim news. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi Dóra! Oh my god, I am so incredibly going to need the repair shop since my work hell just got extended for more days ahead. Tokyo is kind of an absolute must, I think. Problem is it's far away, although that's just a boring flight, and expensive, which it really is. But if the opportunity arises, do not hesitate. Oh, yes, let's figure out at some point when you can go to LA when I'm there. I'll show you all the best stuff. I grew up there, so I know most of its secrets. I don't think I'd ever seen that term monodrama before. I like it. I hope you ace your exam today. How did it go? My fingers will be crossed for you re: that all day, or least when I'm not typing. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Did you have your Art101 meeting last night? Am I remembering right? If I am, how did it go? David Shirley mini-golf signs ... yes! ** Misanthrope, Churning, cool. That's good. Oh, I don't know, I just thought based own my daily observations that the 15% thing seems pretty low, but I don't know. You have to pick a mini-golf course with a really, really cool design and decor such that the golfing is just the way you move through it. Like going for a hike. ** Armando, Hey! The cool thing about mini-golf is that I think sucking at doesn't matter at all, and actually makes it more fun even. Your question about George would require a very complicated answer. In a word, sometimes, yes, very difficult, and other times not. Depending on where he was in his almost always wildly swinging moods. I don't know if I understood him best. Probably his doctors and psychiatrists did. But I knew him very, very well. It's impossible for me to know if your mood swings resemble George's, but every person with bipolar disorder has it to a different degree, and it manifests itself differently in every body. I do miss LA, for sure. It's always possible that I could move back there, but right now I'm very happy in Paris. No, I haven't had a minute to work on my novel due to the heavy other work I'm stuck with, and I'm dying to and wondering when the hell I can. Take care, love, etc.! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Yeah, miniature golf, the term I grew up with, is just one of many. I like it mostly because I like that it describes it as a miniature version of golf. Smaller is definitely better in that case, I think. Yeah, the dioramic aspect, and being able to circumvent that, is one of the big appeals. I really think the actual golfing/playing part is secondary, the excuse or requirement that allows you to traverse the places. I don't know. I need more coffee too. A lot more. ** Okay. Today you get a long dead and rather strange and a little dated post that's been restored to life because my current workload has made post-making incredibly difficult. I hope there's still something in this 9 year-old thing that works and intrigues or something. See you tomorrow.