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Love/Fuck parade Review
I am and have been feeling a little post humanist of
late, nothing personal toward anyone in particular.
But that should be noted before reading this review.
late, nothing personal toward anyone in particular.
But that should be noted before reading this review.
The Love Parade was eh all right. The street
procession going down the Embarcadero was pretty cool.
it is always good to see partying in the streets.
Some of the floats were great, particularly the Sicko
Clowns and the Thump, Thumpin Pussy float. The other
floats were alright, some had weird plastic las vegas
style people on them, almost all the floats had some
sort of corporate/commercial sponsorship. But even
with those detractors, the party in the streets is always great.
It was no Reclaim the Streets!, but it was better than
stepping in dog shit.
The after party or party or whatever at the end was
pretty bad. It felt like the worst apsects of
rave/dance/club/BM inc. culture on parade in the
daytime. Fake fur gallour, clashing sound systems,
ODing teenagers, voyears, gratuitous straight people,
and more white people than you can shake a stick at.
There was a lack of funkand soul. Some of these things
could have been minimized if the festival was in a bigger space
and there was more seperatiion of the individual sound systems. But things were just nice too, just having a festival based on
dancing, even if there wasn’t so much of that going
on. But whether or not there is a dance music
community is still up for debate after being there.
I was with someone, who remembered all the things
that used to be there in the 3rd Street china basin
area. All the railroad workers that lived there, all
the poor and working class people that used to live in
that area. All that is there now, is giant parking
lofs and industry and all those new biotech campus
buildings. It is a thow away culture, out with the
old in with the new, emptiness and consumption. This
is what allienation looks like.
There is just no connection to the past, to history,
to community. Community is both a physical place and
a constructed relationship. That is something that felt tangibly
missing at the parade, a connection to something.
The Fuck parade was off a couple of blocks away in a
construction site. It was interesting and surreal.
But with it’s own texture of allienation and
emptiness. .. when you play music to no one are you
still playing music?
With the bone chilling wind, the day felt more
melancholy than boundlessly loving, but that is fall
for you. Perhaps the festival should be in the spring
and perhaps it should be in a neighborhood, like South
of Market where there is a connection to a history of
dance music culture in this city. Except all the yuppies
in their new lofts might not like the noise, or the disruption of "their neighborhood".
What does history or community mean in a city where everything is new?
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this is a call out to anyone who documented the fuk parade itself- there was actually one and a half fuck parades with one float doing a separate one like three hours late.....
> I was with someone, who remembered all the things
that used to be there in the 3rd Street china basin
area. All the railroad workers that lived there, all
the poor and working class people that used to live in
that area. All that is there now, is giant parking
lofs and industry and all those new biotech campus
buildings.
Among other things, this serves to physically isolate the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood from downtown.
that used to be there in the 3rd Street china basin
area. All the railroad workers that lived there, all
the poor and working class people that used to live in
that area. All that is there now, is giant parking
lofs and industry and all those new biotech campus
buildings.
Among other things, this serves to physically isolate the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood from downtown.
For more information:
http://eserver.org/art/spatial-deconcentra...
I’ve got mixed feelings about the love parade, but I was glad to see it happen, and hope it continues to happen and grow over the years. however, I think it may only get better if San Francisco's musical taste gets better. I only got into the music for about 10 minutes total, and I was there for a while. maybe I'm just picky (yes), but...what can I say? I did hear some good techno on the DEFSF float, but it was one of the smallest and worst sounding sound systems there. And I heard KJ play some decent acid as he went by on the Thump system, and a bit of decent house from a woman on I think the Sunset system. I didn't have high expectations, but I guess I expected to wander among the systems at the end the parade, and get turned on to some new electronic music. Oh well.
Another problem was the fact that all the systems were jammed in so close together at the end. Sound clash hell. I know there's always sound clash at events like this, but it was overwhelming and ridiculous. Also, nowhere to sit down, hardly any curb areas.
On the plus side, I did enjoy being out and about, smiling at people, and all the dancing in the streets. It was no Reclaim the Streets, but still, it was fun. And I appreciated people’s creativity in dressing up (particularly the clowns.) Well, some people I wanted to photograph for "Don’ts" for a Disco Do’s and Don’ts spread, but luckily I didn’t have my camera. There was some of cheesiness, like I would look at some floats and ask myself, "Are they from Vegas?" but overall it was ok. I wasn’t too happy about the corporate sponsorship, and the high price for getting a float in, but I was willing to overlook it and have some fun.
But I began to get a bit melancholy while there. Partly it was the onset of autumn (along with the frigid, frigid wind), and partly because I got nostalgic for my time in Barcelona earlier this year, when I went to a free, 3-day long techno party in the city, outside SONAR, an international techno festival. SONAR was great, and the "alterni-SONAR" outdoors was amazing as well. It was overwhelmingly hard acid techno, not my favorite genre, but with about 10 systems there, there was some diversity, and some really good music. And thousands of people dancing, all free, unsanctioned, renegade-style. Fucking amazing. I thought of it Saturday because it was in a similar kind of outdoor space as the SF Love Parade, an industrial district near the docks, with corporate office parks, in the east of the city with the hills rising to the west. I remember standing at the festival in Barcelona, looking west, and thinking of how much this mini-"teknival" was like what my friends do here at home, and appreciating them and their efforts. But there were thousands of people dancing at this renegade thing in Barcelona, and here, well, renegade things, if they happen at all, are a lot smaller, and it seems like not as many people dance. And I can't imagine anything like the above happening in the u.s., without severe police repression. I know, I shouldn’t compare – the Catalan (Catalunyan?) people seem to love their techno, whereas in the U.S., I just don’t think that many people understand dancing yet.
Anyway, on to the fuck parade. No police repression that I witnessed (though maybe they were diverted from an original location, I don’t know), but hardly any people either. The fuck parade was the renegade, non-commercial, "hardcore" alternative to the love parade, and I was looking forward to it. Not my favorite genres of music (I expected mainly hardcore and drum and bass, based on the flyers), but I appreciate the spirit. Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to find the location, and by the time I got there the wind was blasting and I was ready to get inside. And it was tiny. When I was there, there were maybe 30 people and four sound systems. Granted, I did go a little late.
So, I do hope the Love Parade continues, and brings more events and afterparties to SF that week. (I was glad to see Stewart Walker in town on Friday night, though I left when I saw the "No Patron Dancing" signs at Rx Gallery. WTF? Should have stayed, though.) And cheesy as it was, I feel kind of proud that the first Love Parade in the U.S. was in San Francisco. I also hope the Fuck Parade continues as well, though hopefully with a few more people.
Another problem was the fact that all the systems were jammed in so close together at the end. Sound clash hell. I know there's always sound clash at events like this, but it was overwhelming and ridiculous. Also, nowhere to sit down, hardly any curb areas.
On the plus side, I did enjoy being out and about, smiling at people, and all the dancing in the streets. It was no Reclaim the Streets, but still, it was fun. And I appreciated people’s creativity in dressing up (particularly the clowns.) Well, some people I wanted to photograph for "Don’ts" for a Disco Do’s and Don’ts spread, but luckily I didn’t have my camera. There was some of cheesiness, like I would look at some floats and ask myself, "Are they from Vegas?" but overall it was ok. I wasn’t too happy about the corporate sponsorship, and the high price for getting a float in, but I was willing to overlook it and have some fun.
But I began to get a bit melancholy while there. Partly it was the onset of autumn (along with the frigid, frigid wind), and partly because I got nostalgic for my time in Barcelona earlier this year, when I went to a free, 3-day long techno party in the city, outside SONAR, an international techno festival. SONAR was great, and the "alterni-SONAR" outdoors was amazing as well. It was overwhelmingly hard acid techno, not my favorite genre, but with about 10 systems there, there was some diversity, and some really good music. And thousands of people dancing, all free, unsanctioned, renegade-style. Fucking amazing. I thought of it Saturday because it was in a similar kind of outdoor space as the SF Love Parade, an industrial district near the docks, with corporate office parks, in the east of the city with the hills rising to the west. I remember standing at the festival in Barcelona, looking west, and thinking of how much this mini-"teknival" was like what my friends do here at home, and appreciating them and their efforts. But there were thousands of people dancing at this renegade thing in Barcelona, and here, well, renegade things, if they happen at all, are a lot smaller, and it seems like not as many people dance. And I can't imagine anything like the above happening in the u.s., without severe police repression. I know, I shouldn’t compare – the Catalan (Catalunyan?) people seem to love their techno, whereas in the U.S., I just don’t think that many people understand dancing yet.
Anyway, on to the fuck parade. No police repression that I witnessed (though maybe they were diverted from an original location, I don’t know), but hardly any people either. The fuck parade was the renegade, non-commercial, "hardcore" alternative to the love parade, and I was looking forward to it. Not my favorite genres of music (I expected mainly hardcore and drum and bass, based on the flyers), but I appreciate the spirit. Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to find the location, and by the time I got there the wind was blasting and I was ready to get inside. And it was tiny. When I was there, there were maybe 30 people and four sound systems. Granted, I did go a little late.
So, I do hope the Love Parade continues, and brings more events and afterparties to SF that week. (I was glad to see Stewart Walker in town on Friday night, though I left when I saw the "No Patron Dancing" signs at Rx Gallery. WTF? Should have stayed, though.) And cheesy as it was, I feel kind of proud that the first Love Parade in the U.S. was in San Francisco. I also hope the Fuck Parade continues as well, though hopefully with a few more people.
cheer up, emo kid!
sounds like you came out just to knock it. it was a verifiably great experience for most people there and really felt like community, even if it's not the 'acceptable' melting-pot community you seem to long for. despite what you think about "corporate sponsorship", many of the floats were collectives of people that had no interest in financial gain and the LPSF folks themselves (PRIDE organizers) didn't expect anything to come out of this.
the "fuck parade" was a response to something different in Berlin. the parade on the 2nd WAS about love, and you can choose to pan it, but you know deep down it was a beautiful thing.
sounds like you came out just to knock it. it was a verifiably great experience for most people there and really felt like community, even if it's not the 'acceptable' melting-pot community you seem to long for. despite what you think about "corporate sponsorship", many of the floats were collectives of people that had no interest in financial gain and the LPSF folks themselves (PRIDE organizers) didn't expect anything to come out of this.
the "fuck parade" was a response to something different in Berlin. the parade on the 2nd WAS about love, and you can choose to pan it, but you know deep down it was a beautiful thing.
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