My Love Parade Trip

[happykandy]

Love Parade San Francisco 2004

O.k. Sorry it took so long to post this, but I have been feeling extremely lazy. Yes, I know its long, but I tried to summarize the whole trip as best as I could. Oh and excuse the bad grammer and spelling, please. Hmmm Where should I start. Oh, how about from the begining?!

THE PLANE RIDE.

What can I say? It SUCKED! Flying coast to coast in economy is not my cup of tea. There is no leg room. You can't move back. You always get seated next to some coughing granny or some weird creep. I was fortunate enough to have my row all to myself, until this total stranger sat in my row in mid flight. I was rather annoyed that he was in my personal space, especially since there were other almost empty rows to choose from. Just my luck. Oh well. I did manage to sleep some what comfortably, so I took advantage of the ZzzZZzzz's that I had missed during the week.

I had a connecting flight in Chicago and I had 3 hours to kill. For those of you who can afford it, pay the extra $25 when purchasing your ticket to have a non-stop flight. My departure gate changed 4 times while I was waiting. Somehow I managed to get a little lost when looking for my gate, but I fianlly found it and managed to kill some time. Sweet.

Ugh, Only 4 more hours to go until I reach Cali. Let's read the "SkyMall" magazine in the mean time....

THE ARRIVAL

I finally arrive at San Fransico Airport and I get a text message from Karloz saying he got on his flight on time. Cool. I thought he would miss his flight.

As soon as I walk outside, the bitter cold nips and my sensitive Floridian skin (As much as I hate to admit, I have lived in Florida long enough to call myself that.) My cousin picks me up and takes me to our Tia Jenny's house. There were plenty of hugs and kisses and food waiting for me as I arrived and I was glad to be able to change out of my travel clothes.

I was totally jet lagged, but I had to stay awake to pick up Karloz when he arrived. "Hmm Let's see. Its 10:04 p.m. Karloz gets here at 1:39 a.m. Fuck. I'm tired."

Around 1 a.m. Karloz calls me and says, "I'm in Las Vegas. I missed my connecting flight and they can't put me on the next plane until 6 a.m. I am going to the strip to look for an Elvis impersonator and mingle with the crazies. BYE." What?!? Oh shit. This sucks. Looks like Karloz isn't sleeping tonight.

"Well, I can squeeze in 5 hours of sleep before I have to go get him." I try my best to fall asleep, but then my Uncle Raffa comes in the room to wake me up and tell me I have to pick up Karloz.............I want to die! I need SLEEP! I wash up, get dressed and take a breathe of courage as I am about to conquer the San Francisco roadways. Rember now, San Fran has hills....unlike our Florida geography, those hille can be scary! They also have really stupid drivers too.

I get to the airport and sip on my hot chocolate as I wait for Karloz. I wait. And I wait. And I wait some more. "WTF?" Karloz's flight came in half an hour ago. I go about the terminal to look for his Columbian ass, but I don't see him. I go down to the carousel to see if he is there. Nope. No Karloz. I looked at the "ARRIVAL/Departure" tv moniters to look for his flight. I only see one flight coming in from Vegas and to my horror, I also see the words "Plane still in Vegas" right next to it. "OH FUCK!" I start to think. I am getting frustrated because we had shit we had to do in the morning before the parade. We also need to squeeze in some sleep. I am about to go to information to ask what happend to that flight when my phone rings and its Karloz on the other line.

"Are you still in Vegas?!?" I ask frantically?

"What? No. I am in the terminal. Where the hell are you? I've been walking around like an idiot. Come and get me." He replies in his cool, calm and collected voice.

Finally, we meet up in baggage claim and greet each other with a huge hug. "WE MADE IT. WE'RE IN SAN FRAN, BABY!!!!"

Quickly, we load up his crap in the car and drive back to my aunt's house.

NO SLEEP

"Hey Karloz, lets squeeze in some sleep before the parade. You must be so tired since you stayed up all night." With this being said, I am changing back into my P.J.s and about to get back into bed when he replies, "What? Sleep? No. I'm wired. I'm in San Fransico for the first time and I am not missing a moment of it on sleep." Karloz, you crazy fuck! You have got to be kidding me! You and I have gotten less than 20 hrs of sleep for the entire week and you want to go out and explore the city? My jaw drops as I am left speachless. I think I am going to cry. The images of me drooling on my pillow are sliping away further and further. "Fine! Fuck you, Karloz. Lets get dressed and get some food."

After taking forever to shower, greeting my aunt and uncle, eating a delicious breakfast and becoming distracted by a cartoon on the t.v., we are finally ready to set out into the city. I get a call from my friend Valentina (from myspace.com) and she tells me she is already in the Haight Ashbury with her boyfriend, Craig. Sweet! We'll meet you there! We'll grab lunch and go back to her hotel to change and go to the parade.

Now this seemed like a full proof plan until I got us lost in the city for like an hour. I haven't been in the city for ages and I only know my way around by walking and the MUNI (equivilent to our beloved MetroRail in Miami). Driving in the city is a different story. Its Scary! Some how we ended up in the barrio part of "The Mission" which reminds me a lot of Hialeah and certain parts of downtown Miami.

"Just ask for directions, Missa", Karloz keeps telling me.

"Wait, I think I remember this street. Let me just turn up this way and find out."

"Ugh, you are so lost! Just stop and ask for directions! Stop and ask that guy over there."

"I can't. That's the bus loading zone. Besides, I don't think he speaks English."

So around and around we drive until Karloz finally says that I'd better pull over and ask for directions....NOW!

We ask a trendy Asian girl where the hell we are going and she points us in the right direction. I knew we were headed in the right direction, Karloz. In the meantime, Valentina is calling me telling me she is going to leave soon to go back to the hotel. "No, don't leave yet!" or else I will have no clue how to get back to your hotel.

"There you are!" I scream on the phone when I spot her car parked by a meter.

As closely as I can, I follow behind her car with a vengance and I'll be damned if anyone cuts me off! I am not about to get lost again.

When we reach the beautiful "Argent Hotel", we are all greeted by a very noisy group of protesters that worked for the hotel. They had pots and pans, whistles, drums. Any annoying and loud object you could think of to blow out your eardrums.

LETS GET READY!

Karloz and I are led to Valentina's hotel room on the 6th floor and it is such a lovely room! Craig is kind enough to fix us a drink as we laugh at all of our traveling misfortunes we have experienced so far. As Valentina is applying her make-up, I am adding the finishing touches to Karloz's "Eskimo" costume I made him. 45 minutes later, we are all transformed into Party Monsters and strut our stuff all the way down towards the loby. You can imagine all the stares we got from the guests staying in this 4 star hotel. "Going to the Love Parade?", the doorman asks while he holds the door open for us. We smile as our response.

"ahsdhfieiuae!! BOOOm, BOOM BOOM,(whistle) Unfair...blahblahbalhbla..lfahlkjhelkajkdjf" Is what we hear outside from the protestors.

MEETING MORE CRAZIES

We approached a stop light on 3rd when I heard from behind me, "Awwww look, she has the words "Love" across her butt!" I turn around to find 3 "crazies" dressed up in lace stalkings, garter belts, and pink feather boas.

"Are you guys going to Love Parade?" I asked.

"Hell yeah, baby!" all 3 chimed in.

Our group of 4 grew to 7 as our new friends accompanied us to the MUNI. Since they were natives, we trusted their judgement and followed them to catch the "N-Judah" train.

The "N's" Doors opened wide and we were greeted by many confused stares from the passangers. I begin scanning the crowd to spot any more crazies like ourselves. Oh, there they are. I spot 3 chicks with humongous sunflowers in their hair and we immediatley catch sight of each other. As we all face our fellow crazies, in total unison we all cry out, "LOVE PARDE!!!!" Everyone began to laugh with excitment and we sat to join our sunflower girls.

A couple of pictures shots and conversations later, the conductor announces, "This will be our last stop due to road block" The passangers quickly shuffled out and the rest of the crazies emerged out of the train. A clear blue sky was in the forecast instead of San Frans usually gloomy fog. Walking a block over, we caught sight of the last float in the parade and an ocean of crazies and party goers. What a gloriuos site!

Karloz and I are as giddy as two Japanese school girls and take in all the sights and sounds that have engulfed us. We are amongst our fellow party monsters and we are in heaven.

Zipping here and there, Karloz and I start talking to everyone we didn't know, taking pictures of idividuals dressed up in crazy costumes and dancing along side the floats to some funky house music.

The colorful rainbow of people were lead to the Port of San Francisco, where the floats would reside for the rest of the day and the party would get started. There were not many objections made when asked to spare a mere $5 as a donation at the entrance.

WE'RE IN

I can hardly contain myself as I hear music all around me. My body immediately begins to recognize that familiar pulse that dates as far back as our primitve beginings. My kness bend, my hips bounce and I have a look of total diva attitude. We stop to enjoy the sexy house beats at the "House of Lotus" float. The melody completely takes over my body and Karloz and I start groovin. We catch the audiences attention and they soon join in on our dance. Nothing but happiness was written across each spectators face. Photographers were having a feild day capturing each raw emotion and tangible colors of delight. I have to admit, We looked damn good in our "Snow bunny"ensambles and the cameras were our lovers.

Total synchapation is the way that Karloz and I groove off of one anothers energy and our dance becomes a moving art. Efforlessly and beautifully our bodies react to every 4 and 8 beat count.

We checked out the goods up for sale by the vendors and I began to laugh when I saw that MySpace.com had a booth set up. They were giving away buttons and stickers. I also got to meet the regional manager of Co*****kie.com and we spoke briefly.

Our bodies demanded a break to rest and we wanted to partake with other floats activities. The "Thumpin Pussy" Float was armed with all pink dancing party monsters. The "Spundae" float serviced all the major headliners for the evening, with dj's such as D:fuse, Sandra Collins, Donald Glaude, Charles Feel Good, and Hybrid. My heart, however, belonged to the "SKILLZ" float.

Having worked with her at a previous function, I searched beyond the dancing cloud of people for DJ Denise. As I was about to give up my search for one of my favorite California locals, when I saw Denise's thin body make her way up to the decks, preparing to annahilate the crowd. I jump up and scream "DENISE!!!" and she looks up at that moment and instantly recognizes me out of the crowd. I made my way behind the float, climed up and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. A by stander was kind enough to take a picture of us, but I have a feeling that I am making a really funny face. We'll see when I get my pictures back.

I stand in the backround as Denise gets the crowd going and then she switches off with another SKILLZ member. A few "crowd shots" later, I tuck away my camera and make my way to the front of the float. It was so packed, you could barely breathe! Being the total attention whores that we are, Karloz and I decided to climb up on the speakers and start shaking it for the crowd. Again, the beats are so hard and sharp it takes total control of my body. Before you know it, the speakers and the front of the float are packed with a bunch of party monsters, dancing.

Whew! I need a break and some water. I walked over to a vendor booth and I looked back to see Karloz still on the speakers, but he pulled out two LED "globe" wands and began dancing into the California sunset. The crowd loved it and as nightfall approached he looked totally bad ass!!!!

That is the moment I ran into Jason from TranceAddict. He said to me, "ARe you Melissa from Florida?" I nodded slowly and a huge smile came across his face. "OH shit! It's me, Jason from TranceAddict." Holy crap! "Whats up dude!!!!!" I scream and we jump up and give each other a huge hug. He introduces me to his cousin and we decide to kick it for a little bit. His cousin gets lost in the crowd, so Jason and I walk over to to the "Spundae" Float.

Damn! I just missed D:fuse's set, but based on the exciment of the crowd, he threw down a wicked set. Next up was Sandra Collins. I managed to get on the float and get a couple of shots of D:fuse as he was packing up a couple of his records and a couple of Sandra getting warmed up. Just as I was about to step down from the float, I heard a familiar melody that made me stop dead in my tracks. Although I don't know the name of the track, I do know its sound and I get up and stand, hypnotized. It is track 10 off of of Paul Oakenfold's "Creamsfield" double cd set. I stood there stiff in amazment and I slowly tilted my head back and closed my eyes. The haunting beauty of its melody electrified through every nerve in my body. When I opened my eyes, the vision before me was breathe taking. There, before me lay thousands of happy, joyous youths jumping up and down, cheering. That image was so surreal. I just stood there in awe, thinking to myself, "Wow, I made it. I made it to Love Parade and I am here, at this moment, taking it all in" Like the scene in "Groove" when Digweed plays "Heaven Scent" and the crowd moves in slow motion, that same image was in front of me, Live, jumping up and down in slow motion like a collasoul wave of people. Overcome with a flood of emotion, I cupped my hands around my mouth and howled and a long howl. My voice blended in with the thousand other howls and cheers and I joined the crowds wavelike movement.

At that moment, nothing else mattered. Every negative worry and experience that ever happened was completely erased. I was happy. I was Beautiful. I was Euphoric. I was innocent... I was in Heaven. Those are the moments when you realize that you are ALIVE.

I stepped off the float and continued to dance next to the many faces I could silently say were "friends". We were all here, despite our differnt backrounds and upbringings. We were all here and we were all feeling the same love that we felt the first time we were introduced into the scene.

........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Beautiful.....................

I managed to lose Jason in the crowd and I began to worry as it grew late and people were leaving. I couldn't find Karloz anywhere! About an hour went by when I bumped back into Jason and he helped me look for Karloz.

"Missa, where have you been!?!" Karloz yells from across the way.

"Where have I been? Where have you been? I've been looking all over the place for you!"

We are very happy to be reunited and we exchange the days experience with each other as we follow the crowd back into the city. We are very hungry and cold, so we stop by the first doughnut shop we see to grab a bite and something to warm us up.

It was amussing to see our fellow party monsters sitting calmly, chatting away. And even though some had blue hair, big funky glasses, or crazy multi-colored boas, its as if they settled back into their normal everyday state and they were so tranquil and calm. Just happy and satisfied. I smiled to myself at this though and Karloz returned with our food and my much anticipated cup of hot coacoa.

I called Craig and Valentina to see if they made it back to their hotel room. He laughed and said they had been back for some time now. Valentina almost froze to death! I told him Karloz and I were on our way to pick up our stuff.

Both Karloz and I managed to drag our cold, exhausted bodies back to their hotel room, where the group of angry protestors we had encountered earlier was now down to a single man quitley chanting his war cry, and we welcomed the warmth of the hotel's heators.

I took my time changing as Karloz and Craig made conversation. Valentina was resting , curled up in her inviting, fluffy all down comforter.

"Are you ready to go, Karloz?" I ask. I look over and he is dead asleep in the chair he was sitting in. I slowly wake him and tell him its time to go. We say good-bye to Craig and a sleepy Valenita and make our way to the lobby.

Valet drops off the shitty car we were driving and they don't realize that we never paid for the days parking. Fuck it. Let me save myself some money! We quickly drive off and make our way back to my aunt's house.

I had to wake up Karloz more than once because he kept falling asleep all over the place. Finally we fix ourselves up cozily in bed and give our sleep deprived bodies what they have craving for a good week....SLEEP.

I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANSICO

Morning came and we got ready to go to the airport. I said good-bye and thank you to my family memebers for their hospitality, then Uncle Raffa drove us to the airport. I give Karloz a big kiss and hug good-bye as he gets dropped off at his terminal and Raffa continues on to mine. I check in and board the plane, totally loathing the trip back, but to my surprise, it was not that bad. No layovers (yay!) but I did almost miss my connecting flight.

The plane began to pick up speed down the runway and I smiled as I relived the experience in my memory. It was totally worth it...

Here are a couple of Song I.D.s and links that I have gathered, thanks to the TA's. Enjoy.

Mel

http://www.djwoody.com/albums/love_parade/love_parade.html

http://www.*********.com/sf/clubs/loveparade/pictures/100204/

http://mvgals.net/gallery/loveparadesf-100204?page=1

http://www.printroom.com/pictureSearch.asp?userlike=&albumname=Love Paradeℑ=&eventDate=

http://www.geocities.com/gitanegitane/index.htm

http://lomoportfolio.fotki.com/public_events/sf_love_parade_2004/page6.html

1.- The Bucketheads - The Bomb! (these sounds fall into my mind)

2.- Modjo- Lady (Hear Me Tonight)

3.- Salt N Pepa - Push It

4.- Tiesto - Traffic

5.- ATB - You're Not Alone

6.- Tomcraft - Zombie Nation

7.- Green Velvet - La La Land

8.- Marco V - Loops N Things

9.- Newcleus - Jam On It

10.- It's Time

Chiapet - Westworld (nic fanciulli's skylark dub) <-like 3 times

Deepsky - Talk Like a Stranger (Skylark Dub)

Scanners - Alone (Mike Monday remix)

PQM - You Are Sleeping

D:Fuse - Living the Dream

Dido - Don't Leave Home (G&D Remix)

Nikola Gala - Blue Impulse

Get up Stand up - Stellar Project

Chris & Kai vs Leven pres. Naboombu - Gone to Heaven

BT - Dreaming <- some float i walked by was playing it at like 125 bpm

Guy Gerber - Stoppage Time

Sarah McLachlan - Fallen (G&D remix) <-if not fallen some other sarah song

Terry Grant - I'll Kill You (instrumental)

[b-side]

Now you have to go to Berlin's Parade and do a review

Airline Tip: Always Request the second Emergency Row on flights over 6hrs..

usually seat 13/19 on 747/737... just ask when you book the ticket... it will definately save your arse

[happykandy]

Ha, you don't have to tell me twice! If not this coming year I am going to try and go to Berlin the year after.

Thanks for the tip.

[beatfriek]

I can't believe we missed this...

We were ready to hit up Berlin or Leeds love parade last year, but didnt make it becaue not enough time to plan...

Then its across town and we still miss it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe it will be in NYC, or in San Fran again next year... WISHFULL THINKING!!!!!

Oh well, at least were hitting up Amsterdam and Paris to compensate!!!!!

Still doesnt compare to all that madness!!!

[Bling]

awesome review........... def a once in a lifetime experience u wont soon forget.

[mdamon7278]

Happykandy is a female bling, god help us all!!!