It had been a week of solid work so by the time the weekend came around we were both more than ready for a break. Friday night was 80s night at The Atrium … the champagne flowed freely and the hits just kept on coming, everything from Head over Heels to Two of Hearts (!), the Bangles to ABC.  The lighting made everybody look great, and there were cupcakes! What’s not to like?
Sunny days and warm nights
Appreciating good friends
The moon smiling down
Saturday DJ Anomaly kicked off Interim with One World One Sky, of all things, but after that it turned into some serious psytrance and another great night.   The name struck a chord: we were both in something of an interim mood, enjoying a brief respite as the summer wraps up before heading into what’s looking like a packed fall.  And with 9/11 and Constitution Day coming up, my thoughts were as usual on social networks and civil liberties.
A lot’s happened in 10 years. Fifty years from now, how will people look back on this decade?  The economy’s in the toilet here in the US, as the discrimination and greed of “rich get richer” corporate capitalism continues to ratchet up inequality. And on the civil liberties side, Shahid Buttar’s The America We Knew and the ACLU’s A Call to Courage tally up what we’ve lost.  Psychologically the paranoia switch is still thrown, with fear and negativity saturating media coverage, hate and ignorance opposing marriage equality, ENDA, and evolution, and the stress of so many people living on the edge financially.
But it’s not all bad …
today, hierarchical organizations (consolidating corporations) and totalitarian states are even more powerful and hegemonic than they were. what can stand against them? belief in something else that translates to a different set of rules, so not only the ability to overcome fear to resist but also the non-linearity to avoid getting crushed by the power….
there’s power in unleashing fantasy. there’s power in connecting people and finding shared fantasies…Â is it possible to construct fantasies that are liberating instead of repressive?
— Can fantasy stand against hegemony? from Rationality’s not looking too good these days, 2003
When I’m right, I’m right. Ten years later there’s still an emergency powers law is still in place in the US — but not in Tunisia or Egypt where it has been swept away by Arab Spring.  So yes, it most assuredly is possible for people to create new rules and share liberating fantasies. And the non-linearity of radically decentralized communications (yay, mobile phones and social networks) can change the dynamics of power. So while rationality still isn’t looking in remarkably good shape these days, on the whole I’m optimistic.
Do I know how to have a good time at a psytrance party or what?
After a while though my mind turned off and I got into the music. We danced almost non-stop from 11 until 2:30 and there were once again cupcakes — so tasty at 3 a.m.!
Lights dancing above
Jupiter high in the sky
The moon through the trees
I slept until 11, and the weather remains beautiful so I went for a long walk in the park.   I heart psytrance.
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