I <3 TECHNO

Craziest night of my life, I swear. I have never been to such wildly big event, with 40,000 people swarming around a giant building made up of one huge room and 5 other rooms off of it (the Orange Room, Yellow Room, Blue Room and so on), each with its own giant stage and blasting music, filled to the brim with a jumping crowd...and the craziest thing is that this was just "kid's play", as some guy at the concert put it. Many "techno" concerts in Belgium last for 3 or 4 days straight, where you sleep in tents in a field for a few hours, and then wake up again to party all over again. And these kinds of events have over 180,000 people attending and over 15 stages with DJs from all over the world performing. It is just amazing to me that for such a small country, Belgium hosts some of the most famous music festivals in the world, including Tomorrowland, which, this past year, sold out in 2 hours and had 2,000,000 people on the waiting list. 

Anyway, I <3 TECHNO was a plenty good start for my exploration of Belgian music festivals. Here is what Wiki says about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Techno

Let me tell you the game rules of these kinds of things. First of all, if you want to have a really good time, you should dress for it. Dress crazy, dress in a combination of clothes you never thought you would let the public see you in. Dress in bright colors, wear a mask, wear sunglasses (yes, I know it’s dark in there, but you cannot imagine how many people were wearing sunglasses), wear a banana suit (a couple guys did), wear a backpack with a baby-dolls head stuck on it (saw that too) where a giant cow mask....

wear crazy looking contacts... 

...wear a giant hat, wear a sparkly hat…JUST WEAR SOMETHING WILD AND ABSURD! You can’t be shy at these kinds of events. People will appreciate your craziness and willingness to party. (You can tell these kinds of festivals are all about the shared love for the music, and you can see by the giant signs everywhere with “Love and Be Loved” and “Love and Dance”). And it definitely pays off. When my friends Cynthia and Felix and I walked into the giant building, a man working for the festival stopped us and handed us three black tickets. “What are these for?,” I asked. “VIP tickets,” he answered. No other explanation. “Why are you giving them to us?,” we asked. “Cos you guys are dressed to party!!!,” he replied without hesitation. YES!!!! We couldn’t believe out luck. We were jumping up and down and going insane.

Another rule: drink red bull before you go (or if you want to be more healthy, eat some kola nuts (Pablo told me about those...they are actually what is in Red Bull to give it the caffeine, as well as, whatdya know, Coke). I know caffeine is not very healthy, but for this one night, you will need it, believe me. 

The infamous (at least at techno concerts...) Kola Nut

Next: Bring or find ear plugs. Thankfully, this festival was so well organized (surprisingly, since nothing is ever organized in Belgium) that they had a table giving out free ear plugs (as well as I <3 Techno labeled condoms and info packets about dangers of drugs). The music is loud enough that you can still enjoy it with ear buds in. And surprisingly, I saw many, many people using them. Probably because they go to so many of these concerts that if they didn’t start using them at some point, they would be deaf by the age of 40. It is common here (as one of my Belgian friends told me) to spent the summer driving around in a car with a big group of friends around Belgian, just going from on techno festival, night club, or concert to another. They would take Mondays nights for resting, and the rest of the week nights they would be out, and then drive to the next place during the day, sleeping once and while in between. I think this is totally insane and I could definitely not survive living like that for more than a week, let alone an entire 3 months.

A couple goodies I picked up from the "health table"...

Finally: and probably most importantly, where comfortable shoes! Preferably sneakers. You do not want your feet to be hurting. You want to DANCE. ALL NIGHT LONG! SO WEAR GOOD SHOES!

We were instructed to hand our VIP tickets in at the exclusive VIP Lounge in the Orange Room, where we could get our wrist band. The VIP Lounge was way up high, so we could get a perfect view of the giant stage and the huge crowd gathering in front of it. It was such an amazing feeling to be above everyone, looking down at all the people in a kind of crazy trace from the music.

Us on the VIP balcony :)

Our view...

Those next 10 hours (we arrived at 8pm and left at 6am) feel like a total blur now. A blur of dancing, jumping, screaming, running around like a crazy person, yelling at random people, taking pictures with random people who stole my hat, guys and girls crowed surfing, confetti flying, flashing lights of all shapes and colors and a half-naked man inside a giant plastic ball being pushed across the top of the crowd. I remember being lifted up onto Felix’s shoulders just a few feet away from the edge of the stage where the famous German DJ Boys Noize was performing, and people staring at me and cheering. I suddenly got a huge rush from all the people just screaming and cheering, so I threw my arms in the air and started dancing to the music, the crowd going crazy. A girl next to me also got on a guy’s shoulders and we high fived.

 I also remember getting a photo shoot from some photographer while I was standing at the VIP bar and him instructing me to stick my tongue out and then laughing and telling me that I am “Fucking crazy!”. Well, I think he liked the pictures because I found them on the website a few days after the festival:

Other wild happenings included getting up on stage with the famous DJ Major Lazer, when he called for a few girls to come up. Thankfully, Cynthia and I were right near the front (as usual) and pushed through some people, climbed over the metal fence and onto the stage. We were so excited we just started dancing like mad. I was not even nervous…and I was in full view of probably 15,000 people. We danced and danced, some guys tried to get on stage, but were immediately pulled off by security (the security officer pulled him off the stage by his pants, and they started to slip down, so he basically showed his butt crack to the entire room), and another guy threw is shoe on the stage, and then started pushing through the crowd and looking for it on the ground..

Even though there were probably 8 other girls on stage with us, Major Lazer always stood right next to me and Cynthia. He even danced with us at one point! And we were the only ones he gave kisses to at the end. We were OVERJOYED!

Here is a video of the whole scene that someone posted on youtube! The guy who filmed this was standing almost directly next to me and Cynthia in the crowd, so you can see our pink and purple hats as we push through the crowed to get on stage. Check it out: (video on youtube, take a look!) link->>Me and Cynthia Dancing With MAJOR LAZER!!

Some other not-so-great memories, but still worth mentioning because they were just as much a part of what made this the crazy techno concert it was:

As we were leaving one room, I felt drops of what I thought was water on me. Then Pablo piped up, “Do you guys feel that? It’s sweat that evaporated and is now raining down from the ceiling.” Ew. Sweat from the 15,000 people that we just crowding this room. Wonderful.

As we walked behind a big poster to get to our secret VIP entry way into the Orange room, Pablo yelled out to me, “Don’t step I on the puke!” I looked over next to the well, and splatters of puke were all over the ground.

Every few hours I saw people being rolled away on stretchers... Pablo piping up again, “Oh don’t worry, they were just enjoying the music too much and forgot to hydrate.” Pablo really does know everything about this kind of stuff. It was good to have him around; otherwise I would have been lost in the insanity of this whole festival. He knew which DJs were the best and which were not worth seeing. Here is the program from the night:

Pablo taught me how to dance to dubstep. (If you don’t know what dupstep is, because I know some of you reading this blog are old and not into the current music trends, it is a type of electronic music. Listen to this. It is a classic dubstep song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaqTtDpf0UU&feature=g-hist

I was having a bit of trouble because I am more used to dancing to hip hop, which is always a down beat, and you are always moving your body down. (I can thank good ‘ole New York for that, where hip hop is all anybody plays at dances there) So, he had to show me how I lift my entire body up. “Up, up, up, up. Just keep repeating it!”, he instructed me. I kept trying and trying, (we were dancing at the VIP lounge, and people were starting to stare. We had no cares about what anybody thought at this point though). Finally, I could feel the beat lifting me, pulling me upwards…and then I had it! “Yes, yes you got it!” Pablo yelled. We danced together, me following his moves. He showed me this classic dubstep move where you stand still and then take your hand out flat and bring it around and over your head, keeping the hand and arm flat the whole time. It looks like you have a double-jointed shoulder or something, but actually anyone can do it! He did some Judo moves (cos you can do that to slow dubstep, that’s the great thing about it. Anything strange or out-of-this world works with dupstep) I looked over and the bartender girl was laughing at him. I couldn’t help but laugh too and join in.

When I got home and tried to fall asleep, all I wanted to do was keep dancing. The pounding beat was still going through my head, the bright lights and the jumping up and down…I had the craziest dreams for a couple nights afterward.

My entire body was sore for three days straight after that night, I swear. I texted Cynthia, “Are you sore?” he reply, “Holy crap, YES!” 

Gangnam Style to the U.S. Elections

U.S. Election Night, Brussels Expats Party

Tues, Nov. 6^th, 2012

I have never gone out on a Tuesday evening here, but this time I had to because of course it was US Election Night, and I had been feeling pretty guilty about not paying much attention to the candidates and their debates and so on. I had been meaning for the past month to go on YouTube and watch one of the debates, but I never got around to it. It’s not like it doesn’t interest me. I actually really enjoy learning about politics and discussing the different perspectives. Public Affairs 101 was actually one of my favorite classes I took in high school.  It’s just, I have more important (I feel, anyway) things to do while I’m in Brussels, then to pay attention to American politics. I won’t even me an American resident during the next 4 years, so why does it even matter to me? Yes, I know that the US is a powerful country and of course the president will still do things that affect the whole world, but still. I’m living in Europe, I should care about European politics. That’s why when I read the Economist (which I get every week in the mail, a present from Gramps, who became worried when he first read a blog entry about one of my crazy club nights…he felt I didn’t some politic reading to clear up my head), I skip the “US News” section and go right to Europe and read about all its financial problems and struggles with Greece and the EU. What fun…

Anyway, wow I can get off topic so easily. So, Tuesday night, right… Well, it was another pretty exciting night here in Brussels. The party was organized by a Facebook group I am apart of called “Brussels Expats.” They have after-work drinks organized at bars every week, but I never went because I figured it was going to be all “old” people (like 30-50) who work for the parliament or something. But, I heard about this party and thought to myself, “Well, maybe I’ll meet some fellow Americans or something” Well, my guess about the age range was right about on the spot…I’d say most were early 30s, maybe a few younger and a few older. Vero and I were definitely the youngest though. Well, when we got there the first thing we noticed was how out of place the blasting, house/electro/radio commercial music was. There were a couple big TVs with the BBC news showing the status of the elections, but of course you could not hear it over the crowded room of yelling people and blaring music. There was a dance floor, but no one dancing. Everyone seemed a little up tight, still in their suits or black skirts from work. Vero and I gave each other our look…we had to show these people how to party! First, we waited at the bar to get out drinks (both got white wine, our usual first drink because it’s the cheapest). While we were waiting at the bar, two brave souls started dancing on the side of the dance floor. They were two ladies in their early 30s, but they really could not dance to save their lives. They were trying to find the rhythm of the Taio Cruz blaring, but instead they were just kind of jogging to the music… Vero and I looked at each other again… Oh God, now we really have to do something!  We pushed through the crowd of people and then into the middle of the dance floor…and started our special crazy dancing duo. People turned their heads to look…I could feel eyes staring at us. Just keep dancing. Swedish House Mafia came on, and I just knew the beat so well…I couldn’t help but go crazy into my techno dance mode. People started laughing and smiling, and then suddenly, the dance floor started to fill! More and more people came onto the floor, surrounding me and Vero, some dancing surprisingly well, other just trying, but not really getting into the rhythm. But it didn’t matter, it just felt so good to teach these people how to party!!

We danced and danced, and soon I forgot why I was even at this party….oh right, to watch the elections.

An Asian man came over and saw Vero and I trying to do our best techno dance moves. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, he started dancing like a maniac! Doing some crazy foot moves, and jumping. We couldn’t believe it! We started cheering for him, and he danced harder. Then we tried to copy his moves (obviously failing though) and so he came over and tried teaching us. He tried explaining a basic foot step with heel and toe, and it looked so easy when he did it, but when I tried I was just failing! Then, the song Gangnam Style came on, and he just had to start doing that stupid dance that goes with it…but it was hilarious! If you don’t know this, check out this video: (It’s a Korean pop song by the way, just warning you in advance)

Gangnam Style! (<--link)

At some point I turned around and saw a younger looking man with big, nerdy but stylish glasses and a checkered shirt staring at me. He smiled when I turned around, and I gave him a look like “What do you think you’re doing” and then turned back around. A few minutes later, I saw him again, and he was laughing at me! I was doing some kind of crazy dance move with Vero and he thought it was so funny. I laughed back. I noticed he was with a shorter, kind of Hispanic looking, clean-shaven guy. Then some song came on with the lyrics “tell me your name” and suddenly they were standing next to us and the Hispanic guy leaned over and said “Tell me your name!” Ha. Ha.

They were very friendly. The Spanish looking guy was from Spain (I forgot where) and the guy in the glasses was German but had a perfect Australian accent.. Very strange. He told me he spent a lot of time travelling in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand with a group of Austrian guys.

A few minutes later, me and Vero and the two guys were dancing when on older, dark-haired African looked man in a suit came over to us. He ignored the guys and immediately gave me and Vero a big smile and asked us where we were from. We told him, and of course I got the usually reaction after saying I am from New York. Oh, Wow, an American! I love New York!” Then I have to explain I am not from the city…blah blah blah. When I say I am from the capital, Albany, some people get really confused because they thing NYC is the capital…or sometimes they don’t even know New York is a state, they just know the city (those are the really out-of-touch with the world European people..)  But his guy seemed very well-informed and worldly, and knew exactly what I was talking about. He then introduced himself, telling us he was from Kenya but has been living in Brussels for a while. And then, out of the blue he admitted he was the organized of Brussels Expats and the party! He was the host! The host of this party randomly came up to us… I feel like this kind of thing happens to me a lot here. 

Anyway, he asked us why we came, if we wanted to watch the election or just party, and what we were doing in Brussels. Then, he invited us to this party he was hosting no Thursday (called Fake Friday, ha. ha.) and told us he would buy us drinks if we came (cool?!). We told him we would try, but I was doubtful I would make it because that night was the screening of a friend of mine’s movie he helped write (Pablo, a very awesome guy I met with Antonia, who I am pretty sure I blogged about before, in my entry about Nuit Blanche. He was the one who speaks 5 languages fluently and gave me a kind of personal tour of techno music while at the concert). He helped research and write the movie, “The Sound of Belgium” which is about the history of techno music in this small country where it all started J Anyway, I was really looking forward to seeing his movie, and this was going to be my only chance because it was technically going to be an illegal screening because they didn’t pay for their rights to show it yet. So, he had no idea when it would be screened again. A few days later, I found out that the movie won “The Special Vanguard Award” from Electropedia. Here is what they said about it: "The creators of The Sound of Belgium were awarded a Red Bull Elektropedia Special Vanguard Award for their perseverance and truly remarkable skills in documenting decades of nightlife and electronic music in Belgium. Their excellent documentary explores the rich and largely untold story of the Belgian dance scene.

From the dance halls with Decap organs to the golden days of Popcorn. From EBM and New Beat to Belgian House and Techno. A chronicle of electronic music, The Sound of Belgium - directed by Jozef Devillé for visualantics production - goes in search of the spirit of a nation and the people that danced to it.The movie had its world premiere at the Ghent Film Festival in October 2012 and will be released in May 2013."

 It also has a high chance of being shown at the Amsterdam Music Festival, which is one of the biggest in the world! It’s so crazy how many talented people I’ve met in Brussels already… this city must just be filled with them, or I’ve just always been in the right place at the right time...who knows?

Later, we talked to the Asian guy again, and learned that his name was Hieu (pronounced like “You”, OMG I’ve always wanted to meet someone named that!!) When he told us his name, he pointed to us and said “My name is Hieu, like “YOU”. We laughed together, just couldn’t help it. He laughed along with us too, so it was okay J He then told us he actually is the one who built the dance club/bar that we were in at the moment and that he is now an event organizer for events all over Belgium…even the I <3 Techno festival I was going to that weekend! I just couldn’t believe we were meeting all the coolest people in the room! He then gave us his card, and told us to friend him on Facebook and he would invited us to all his events he organizes. YAY!!

Oh, and I didn’t meet a single American. Some guy told me he believed I was the only actually, true blood American in the place… how funny. One real American in a US Election Party filled with 100 people. Who would have guessed?

And that was just my Tuesday night.. More to come, including probably the craziest night of my life, with 10 hours of dancing, 34,000 people, and insane music. Can you guess what I’m talking about? It’s I <3 TECHNO!!!!

My 3 Favorite "S" Words: Sun, Sand and Sea (Part 3 of 3)

Mallorca! (Part 3)

Day 3:

On the third day we did a Safari tour with the boys. They loved looking at all the animals, but personally it made me kind of sad. The place was kind of fun down and barren, and the animals didn’t seem happy to me…but what do I know? I have no idea what a happy hippo or a content wildebeest looks like.

Well, here are some pictures I took for you to enjoy :)

Ostrich! (Der Strauss!!)

Uh oh...I can already see how this is gunna turn out

Felix is starting young..it's never too early to start practicing!

Vero and Mr. Rhino

Oh hey!

ZEBRA!!!!

He loves driving!

A real serious Safari guide right here.

They warned us to close our windows when the monkeys came around...

now I understand why.

Monkeys ATTACK!!!

Baby goat meets baby human :)

Niki is elephant caca:)

KANGAROO!!! (inside joke, sorry)

Niki was so funny. We passed a cactus and he said, “Kuck mal! Ein Cacakuss!” (which basically, is not a word for cactus, it is the word for poop in German (caca) and kiss (kuss).. I don’t think he realized that he was pronouncing it wrong though.

Later we had lunch in Porto Cristo. The restaurant was right on the port, which lots of big sailboats at the docks. While walking along the boardwalk, we came across a little, maybe 5 year-old, Spanish boy fishing with his dad. He pulled his rod out of the water, pulled the small silver fish off the hook an threw it on the dock. He carefully put down the rod, picked up the fish again, looked at it a bit, then threw it back in the water. He was like a pro fisher, and he was 5. I’m sorry, but Niki is 5 and he is still scared of cats and goats. We have to work on him.

Nothing like fresh fish in Mallorca.

My favorite Austrian trying to eat like a fat ass American..

That evening, Vero and I went Spazerien with the boys (a walk). We walked along the rocky cliffs, picked palm fruit (these small yellow fruits/nut looking things that grow on the palm trees. These are what palm oil is made from). Jonas filled his pants pockets with them, convinced that we could make the oil at home. I had a feeling the oil making process is pretty difficult, but I didn’t want to discourage him so I let him go ahead and pick them :)

Niki :)

Path along ocean

We came across a big fence dividing the resort we had wandered onto from the street. We wanted to get over, and the fence was pretty easy to climb. However, Niki was too scared. As we were standing there, trying to figure out a way to get Niki over (or under) the fence, a group of Spanish back-packers came along, trying to do the same thing—hop the fence. When they heard that we were speaking German, one of the men immediately started speaking German to us. It was actually very good German, but with a strong Spanish accent. It was so strange to hear a Spanish person speak German so well… Finally, Niki found a hole to climb through, and we all made it to the other side. We walked to another beach. By then it was getting very dark. I could see a lighthouse in the distance, and Jonas taught me the word for it in German—Lichtturm.

We slowly made out way over the rocky cliffs back home in the dark. Thank god the rocks were white, or otherwise I would have fell flat on my face. Niki held my hand to help guide me, he was so proud that he could see well in the dark and help me out.

Later, me and Vero were talking about how we wanted to go to Ibiza for the foam parties there. The boys heard us and yelled in unison: PHONE PARTY!!! Oh jeez…

Day 4: 

The 4^th day we had beautiful sunny weather. Oli allowed Vero and I to have the morning to ourselves, so we went to the beach and I finally got myself into the very cold water. It felt so nice to float in the salty ocean. There were little silver fish swimming around me, the water was so clear I could see everything. We did cartwheels and splits on the beach, and met some German girls who took these pictures:

Later, the boys came to the beach and we watched them while Oli went for a run. Little Felix looked so cute with his beach hat, and I think he liked the sand, even though it kept getting all over his face.

So cute in his little blue and white striped beach hat :)

I played a nice game of tag with Niki. I would catch him and twirl him around and “throw” him on the sand. It was actually the first time I really enjoyed myself when playing with him. Honestly, he is usually pretty snotty with me and doesn’t like to play.  He acted so much more innocent and childish, laughing and screaming when I caught him. Why can’t he always be like that?

Well, as Vero sang on our last day: “It’s getting hot in here, so let’s go back to Belgium!”

A beautiful sunrise the morning we left...  GOODBYE MALLORCA!! UNTIL NEXT TIME!!