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Okay...now that THAT's out of my system, let me tell you about Tiësto...

I went with my brothers in arms from GS.C and a friend who has never attended an event before but loved the music (a wildcard as I should call them from here on out ).  We were all so anxious and eager to get out of my apartment so we ended up getting in the area about FOUR HOURS before everything started.  After spending some quality conversation / practice time at the UV and an impromptu parkour session at USC we made our way into the Sports Arena...

Approaching the arena almost an hour early, we saw the line already wrap around the arena!  This already defines how this night was to play out.  When there are so many people this early, you can sense the eagerness among everybody to want to feel the good vibe...and when you have so many people wanting that vibe just as many people are going to be giving it back.  I wanted to fall over before I even got inside!  We had a small difficulty in trying to enter in that one of our friends was carrying a SMALL (which was said by the loudspeaker to be okay) backpack with scores of glowsticks.  Sadly, he was only able to get inside after giving away about fifty of them which were originally intended for the groups he was with.  However, upon his return to us....we could hear the music once again...and RAN inside from the doors to the upper tiers to see...




...a sea of raised arms before us all rising and dropping to the beat in unison, as if not only our arms but our bodies were fields of stalks made of wheat and grass uniformally bending itself to the wind of the beat and vibe.  This was life...the primordial soup of energy in which our consciousness will fuse and be reborn as one new being.  I knew once again that I have returned home.

We RAN down the stairs to synergize ourselves to the collective below.  But first, we had to find a vendor to properly equip ourselves only to find that THERE WERE NO GLOWSTICKS TO BE FOUND FOR SALE ANYWHERE!!!  See the few people above with lights of their own?  They only had them because they were equipped by our friend earlier!  And the only ones I brought in were my pair of Ultras to save for my special song.  We were already dancing so hard losing ourselves when we had not noticed for a while that Tiësto wasn't even spinning yet!!!  The vibe was just that powerful amongst all of us.  But when the lights darkened and we saw the animatic of him appearing on the screen "playing" with us...we knew that the door to the next dimension had been opened...that the roller coaster we were on has left the station and is now beginning its climb.  The crawling images of semi-clothed dancers spinning and twirling on the screen paired with spilt images of fallen grains of sand welcomed our ascent. 

Enter assimilation. 

It was a journey and that took forever but we pushed ourselves all the way to the front.  We lost ourselves completely...




witnessing the fireworks...




the geysers...




covering myself in confetti (It looked like I was tarred and feathered )... 






Watching the man before us spin, we swayed and jumped in unison with our mouths ajar.  There was something about Tiësto in that he looked like he was having the most fun out of all of us.  That is what I believe makes his performances above most.  You felt his passion and energy not only in the music itself but in actually watching how he physically approaches his art.  You could see in aura surrounding him that made the Sports Arena seem so small.  Even taking in a small part of it seemed so overwhelming...as a collective we were still all floored...such a nurtured strength enveloping all of us...embraced by us...taken in and ready to be reciprocated...

I had to retreat to the back where there was space and dance...I felt so free...liberated from my worries, my insecurites and my thoughts...  The only thing that mattered was the music, my family, the vibe...  The moment is now...living it...breathing it...being it.  I met a few great dancers in this time to share the energy with...I've always had this fascination with liquiding and popping and was happy to be able to exchange that passion with others.  All of this exchange without ego, without intent...just letting things flow through us...nurturing the chi as it gets transferred from person to person spinning it to something bigger with each transfer.  It was great to see in our group one person popping and spread that energy to another of us that in the end each one of us became a limb a some greater being.  I was a little worried though that "outsiders" who did not have a clue would think we were battling which was not the case.  I think that's why I like it so much.  With popping you actually get to see that energy get transfered to each body part as everything else is isolated.  You can see that person's mental focus...like a manifestation of thought...the slowing down of energy into a materialization of something tangible. 

Near 3:30am came a moment...it was the rushing beat of something familiar...the beat getting heavier and heavier than the other songs...:::thump, thump, thump, thump:::  HOLY SHIT...he's playing Bulldozer!!!!  This has been THE song to get me through the hardest of times lately.  This is my song of determination...a song of finding the passion within you and running with it...I knew....this is the song that will define my night.  I pulled out the Ultras and waited to be carried away.  This is my chance to give the energy and love I have been feeling back to the ones around me.  I've listened to the music all night losing myself into it...retreating into worlds of my own...finding myself.  Now, is the time to share my revelations...to give to this world the energy I have in my heart...

:::thump, thump, thump, crack::: 

I could hear everybody around me cheering...giving their energy for me to give back...  The music had always taken me on journeys emotionally...then recently it had begun to taken me away again spiritually...and now finally I was able to be swept away again visually...For the first time in years...I was able to see things again in my head...to able to dream once more.  It was like flying...gaining altitude and skimming above the clouds...I once again saw the wormholes in my head that had faded away in recent times...my mind washed again in color...such illuminousity...the ether becoming focused, pulling itself to a point and guiding my arms...every trace felt like it was chasing the spirits surrounding me...pushing me...lifting me...every pop and glide I did felt like I was possessed.  Everything just kept swelling and swelling up.  But then...

...I opened my eyes...

Right in front of me stood this kid...surrounded by lights of his own he was unfortunately a wolf in sheep's clothing.  Wearing a scornful (read: Sizing me up, wanting to battle) look on his face I lost my flow...he put the ego back into myself taking me out of the collective...as if that one look took me out of the dream and tried to divert it to a nightmare...I dropped my sticks...everything this stopped.  WTF just happened??  Well, this was a person who does not need to be here...fuck it...I'm not giving it more thought.  My friend just picked up my sticks and I just started dancing and popping like crazy.  Everybody around me was waking up...feeling the music..feeling what it was doing to each one of us...taking it into themselves so that they could share it.  I felt at peace...the bonds between all of us strangers have tightened.

I do not think that these words could ever describe such an experience that Tiësto was.  This was just one of those events where you just have to tell people, "Well...ummm...you had to be there."  A large part of it just had to do with the energy that can never be transfered to any infomative medium.  This is why you never know what a rave is like unless you go. 

So, with the bliss of everything that has happened...Jaimison and I are considering that for his rite of passage before going to the Marines...we are considering paying Tiësto another visit at the September in Vegas!!!  Anybody want to go?