...where are we going...and where are we taking our scene with us?...i've been partying in North Carolina for abour 2 years...and i must say...i've enjoyed every single moment of it...now of course...it's had it's downsides...every scene does...but must we always pinpoint and glorify everything bad that occurs...and yes, i'm talking to both the media and opposition just as well as the kids...i've always wondered...and pondered...everytime i'm at a party...where is our scene ending up at?...1999 is right around the corner...and the year 2000 isn't far off...i beleive it's time we all pull ourselves out of this rut we place ourselves and our scene in...i think it's time we stop blaming the media and authorities for it's problems...the new school kids aren't the scapegoats either...i beleive we all need to come together...and truly want the best for us, the best for our scene...North Carolina is a bomb...and it's wanting to explode...to blow up...so why don't we ignite the fuse...i'm sick of the tension between everyone...we're all equal...no one of us is any better than another...no matter how much money you spend on flashy clothes or drugs...we all go to raves for a reason...and that's to escape from the world...to release our minds...and to enjoy who we are...i want some responses...where do we want our scene to go?...do we want it to wither and die?...or to grow and flourish?...what can we do to help it?...let's open our eyes and minds...ann always...peace, love, unity, respect...

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1998

Answers

WORD! I have wondered myself from time to time about the direction we are going with all of this. More and more parties are becoming "clickish" and every once in a while I wish they would just go back underground. Then I stop and remember all the parties I've gone to that WEREN'T clickish and had they been underground I would have never known about them. I don't point fingers or push blame. Though I feel the media does have an affect on us. Where else can you get 500+ people in one building and there never be a fight? Because of drugs in the scene, people have a totally wrong idea of why kids go to the parties. Basically what is important is to remember why you started going to begin with, and show the love you have to every person that crosses your path. I have never known such mass love like I do at parties. Hundreds of souls melt into one in the blast of a jungle explosion or a pure break beat. If you meet someone who doesn't know the love....teach it. How else are we going to make it? The love is what brings us together. The love for the music and for the others just like us. If you lose or misdirect that love, we don't have much else left.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 1999

This scene is like life to me. Always changing, lessons to be learned from it. I'm in the NYC area and the love here is semi- tense. Not that I don't enjoy myself, but... maybe its me? Don't know, we have BTS messin with people out here, violence is a shame to see at parties. But then again life is tough sometimes, sometimes you have to fight. Don't like to though. My vision of the future of the rave is to make people more able to share their ideas. There is much open-mindedness going on at raves and its just too loud to share deep thoughts and feeling sometimes, i see a bonfire surrounded by rolls of paper people are drawing on, creating an exciting artwork. Drums circles, i see us getting closer to nature as we advance technology, forest raves, desert raves, oceanside. A lot of people are tripping or e-face and id love to see them create, dancing is great but...if we got something on paper from those people, maybe the world could see, maybe we could change some minds in a positive way. This scene is about evolution, there will always be an underground, there is one now, it comes from love and effort, work and risk. The rave is becoming more popular and I'm going to make a difference for the positive side of the force. plur.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 1999