save-rave //YOU UPGRADEmag// march 6  2001

The UPGRADEmag is a global edutainment round-up ‘broadcast’ weekly to =[9267]= Trance// New Age// Alternative// Activist folks who have been recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity/ Megatripolis Dance Dept as "showing signs of life".  Msince many choose to forward it to their own lists, we estimate 18,600+ recipients. And, because of its less 'specialist' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide, making a total ‘readership’ of, conservatively, 155,000+

QUESTION OF THE WEEK
These winds that the government (and farmers) tell us can carry Foot And Mouth for hundreds of miles, would they be the same winds that the government (and farmers) assure us can only carry GM pollen 300 metres?
Merrick xx

YOU 2332        EROS RULES - OK!  (First Zippy Principle from The WoManifesto For World ReCreation)

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
UPGRADE EDITOR'S CRACKDOWN INTERVIEW WITH SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN  (YOU 2235)
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

London
SUN MARCH 11            NUBIENT
Mixmaster Morris and top chill-out guests from around the world and of course Ninja Tune artists too - free food as well if you get there early.
Glow Rooms, 58 Camberwell Church Street, SE5.   6-12pm   FREE
morris@space.demon.co.uk

YOU 2233        FREEDOM'S OUR ONLY RIGHT - NOTHING ELSE CAN LEAD TO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY  (Second Zippy Principle)

London
FRI MARCH 9
             WOMEN AND ANARCHISM
A symposium on the relationship between anarchism and feminism and the role of women in political resistance and change.  (Dis)organised by London Anarchist Forum (LAF) (I nearly died!)
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn.  8pm  FREE/contribution.
www.trak.to/LAF

YOU 2334        NO REVOLUTION BEFORE PERSONAL EVOLUTION  (Third Zippy Principle)

DEN OF ENLIGHTENMENT UPDATES
(Pre-Launch party. SATURDAY, APRIL 7TH)
Jointly presented by
Parallel YOUniversity, Megatripolis and the Warp Experience as "the only regular intelligent, intimate shamanic little club in the planetary capital of Rave Culture
DANCEFLOOR DJs  MARK SINCLAIR (Pendragon),  JACE (Pendragon), ULTRA (Area 52, Phantom Zone) with live violin.
DEBATE PLAYSHOP  CLUB DIALOGUES with
Guru Dave.
PRIMORDIAL SOUKH
PokStar (Space Goats)
CLUB DESIGN -
TopsyTurvy in external ParaYOU//St Martins College of Art collaboration
Breakfast in club from 6-7am.
LAUNCH PARTY on SATURDAY MAY  5, then every 2
nd Saturday.

YOU 2334a

US RAVE CRACKDOWN GREAT NEWS (cont)
an interview with fraser in the
san francisco bay guardian last week (sorta the village voice of california)

Electric Habitat COLUMN

Save the rave?
LOOK DEEP INTO your soul and ask yourself, Am I truly a raver? Forget, for a minute, all the terrible TV news reporting, the evil cops, the war on drugs, the huge pants, and happy hardcore. Forget that raving, as you knew it, has become something ... scary. Recall the original idea  the earth goddess vibe, unity, and the free parties on full moon nights.
Someone out there (in London, specifically) believes that rave still exists, and his name is Fraser Clark, mad rave guru, Zippy originator, and author of The Book of RavElations.
Malachy O'Brien of the Come-Unity parties believes that Clark inspired much of the hippie ideology of the early San Francisco days. So if you're feeling pessimistic, read on, and then start scouting for a prime outdoor location immediately. (HINT: the next full moon falls on March 3.)
Here's what he had to say via e-mail from the U.K.

Bay Guardian: Because of the earlier crackdown on rave culture in the U.K., many British and Irish folks in S.F. seem opposed to the word "rave." And now that the same thing is happening here, the word sends shivers down my spine. Why do you still believe in the word?
Fraser Clark: This argument has been going on within rave culture since the old acid house parties had to be renamed (not that we ever called them that!). I've always been absolutely sure it will be the word that goes down in history. Hippies, for example, got called flower children, heads, and I don't know what else, but "hippie" is the historical word (whether we like it or not). What choices are there anyway? "Dance culture" or "club culture," right? "Club" is definitely too narrow for such a phenomenon, which actually belongs as much in the open air.
But, more than anything else, "rave" is a raw word. Like "pagan," "hippie." Sure it's now got a slightly dangerous edge. Nothing wrong with that  it should disturb the middle-class blandos who are stifling our whole culture in the first place.
BG: I feel that raves, as we know them, must end. I don't even understand what many of them have become  commercial, suburban enterprises with 5,000 DJs, 50 bucks at the door, bad E, O.D.s, and so on. They don't seem renegade at all. Shouldn't rave end and be resurrected into something new?
FC: And who would you blame for this sad state of affairs?
It's all about delivering (physically) the first stage of rave culture to almost the whole young-at-heart population. Look, the Muzik Bizness will not let go without a fight. Rock 'n' roll is dead but [they] just won't believe it, and they've been trying to kill off rave since it started. No stars you can invest in for a whole lifetime of financial return. No real record buying. Nobody most of the time even knows who's playing or even where he fookin' is!
There are five stages to rave culture and the first is where most of them are today, even here in the U.K. And that first stage is the "shake it all loose" stage, where the mind is emptied by identifying into the body and the heart. Thus the mind is freed from its previous puritan conditioning. The next stage should be supplying all the new information and lifestyles and spiritual paths available in alternative culture. What I'm saying is that it really doesn't matter on a certain level who's the promoter and who's the DJ as long as everyone is dancing to the same beat together; that's what works the magic (E helps just a little by reopening the heart, but is not obligatory).
Raving is spreading through the whole culture. You just can't expect or demand the level to stay as high and clean as when you or I got involved. Nor should it. I never agreed with the attitude of "let's keep it secret and to ourselves, let's not allow it to become 'common.' " Bullshit, this is to turn on the whole planet! And a lotta shit will get turned over and stirred up. We have to work through that, no way forward around it.
BG: You said that the police-state crackdown is the best thing to happen to U.S. rave culture ...
FC: The big money promoters will be driven off when a fast buck is no longer there for the grabbing. (That should answer half your worries at a stroke, right?) It then falls on those who believe in it. It's driven underground, people get radicalized, hipper to the faults in the government and the old corrupted corporate dinosaur culture we are being stifled by, underground raves bring young, middle-class urban ravers out into nature (how you gonna respect and value nature if you're never out in it?), and there they start to meet the alternative culture, the rainbow people, the ones who know the secret magical sites, the ones with beat-up old systems they don't mind losing, the ones with a cultural history of rejection of materialism, and experience and commitment to change things. How do I know all this? It's already happened. What's happening now with the flowering of rave and the consequent crackdown against it in America is as near a perfect fractal of what happened in the U.K. eight years ago as life ever offers.
BG: Can ravers save the world?
FC: Yes. You can argue, but I bet you can't point to any other movement or near-movement that could, and it needs a gigantic fookin' movement, right? So, given that, let's put our shoulders to the wheel that offers us the only chance we've got. It's already global and must exist in every single country in the world, making it the very first truly global uniculture, crossing all borders  physical, religious, and geographic. And its values are tolerance, peace, love of planet, democracy, antiauthoritarianism, and cooperation instead of competitiveness.
Contact Fraser Clark at the Parallel YOUniversity, P.O. Box 833, London NW6, U.K. or
fraser@parallel-youniversity.com. Also go to www.parallel-youniversity.com and easyweb.easynet.co.uk/fraserclark. The Den of Enlightenment launches April 7 in London. See Web site for details.

YOU 2235        HARMONISED HEMISPHERES ARE HEALTHIER.  ZIPPY = HIPPY + TECNOPERSON  (Fourth Zippy Principle)

San Francisco   PARA YOU RECOMMENDED
WED MARCH 7     COME-UNITY - TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!
Party founders Malachy O'Brien and DJs Simon and Cosmik Jason celebrate ten years of Come-Unity, the longest running house club in SF.  Based on the old school renegade rave principles of the anti-club experience, Come-Unity is a wildly optimistic house party that features deep, sometimes psychedelic tunes, and a sincere sentiment of "deep into the vibe of house" dance floor camaraderie.
DJs Simon, Jenö, Garth, Mark Farina, Cosmik Jason, Corey Black. Polywog, Kimmon, Gavan Duffy, and Bones.
550 Barneveld St. 10pm-5am.   (415) 550-8286  $10, 21+.  malachy@come-unity.com
www.come-unity.com

YOU 2236        WE ARE THE WORLD IS YOU  (Fifth Zippy Principle)

Hi Fraser,
My name is Jay and I read the interview you did with the
Bay Guardian on the rave scene.  I got turned to this culture 6 years ago at the age of 40 by a fellow Grateful Dead fan friend of mine who is from Bude, Cornwall.  We went to a party rave in Westward Ho and I loved it immediately as soon as I got in the place.  Since the Dead scene had broken up I didn't think there could be anything close to resemble that freedom, that oasis in a sea of turbulence.  Yes, I think ravers could do a lot to save the earth.
I went to Goa in 1999 and got to dance with the freedom of others by the beautiful Indian Ocean with people from all over to dance and be free. Anyway, I enjoyed the article and will always consider myself a raver at what ever age I become, because the best things in life ARE free.

P.L.U.R. Peace, Love, Unity, Respect,
Jay Whitmeyer

YOU 2237        PEACE, LOVE AND A FAIR PROPHET  ((Sixth Zippy Principle)
London
SUN MARCH 11            
RECLAIM THE BEACH
Some 'beachies' are politically motivated about public access to the Thames foreshore; some come because they want to party/ chill-out on the river with their mates, while others are just curious.  Possibilities - endless.  Situation - unpredictable.  Low tide - 9.45pm, so it's another very magical and sparkling evening.  Bring things to warm you inside and out.  And have a go at some torch-lit sandcastle construction!
Festival Pier (beach in front of the Royal Festival Hall - access by stairs either side of the Festival Pier)  FREE!   INFO - beach@swarming.org.uk.
www.swarming.org.uk

YOU 2238        SAY YES FOR A CHANGE  ((Seventh Zippy Principle)

Aloha Fraser....just read your interview randomly.  So good to hear a
message like that going out. Incredibly right-on....reminding the
old-school that the new is not something to fear...only inevitable
evolution. Thanks for the voice.  In peace and friendship,
ilana maxwell on the Big Island hawaii.net.

YOU 2239        S.M.I2.L.E.  (Eighth Zippy Principle)
London
SAT MARCH 10            
WHIRL-Y-GIG
Still the classic!  Ambient, world dance, and trance.  A club that's more like an 'indoor festival''.  "The Nursery for the Parallel YOUniversity"  fraser.
A PARENT OR GUARDIAN (PER 5 UNDER 18's) WILL BE REQUIRED AS ESCORT
Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, St. Pancras.  £10/£7    0208-864-6760   wow@whirl-y-gig.org.uk
http://www.whirl-y-gig.org.uk

YOU 2240        D.I.Y  (Ninth Zippy Principle from The WoManifesto For World Recreation)

COLLUSION BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT MEDIA
I saw the frontline documentary last night. It was amazing. I hope your collaboration with frontline continues.
For a media (MTV) and for products (Sprite) which are obsessed with tapping into the youth market, why is it that techno (electronic dance music, trance, house, etc) is completely and (seemingly) willfully ignored.
When I go to an all night "rave" here in upstate new york, the vast majority are teenagers, and most of the rest are in college. While I think there are many fans of techno who relish its outsider status (cf Insane Clown Posse), when I read techno-mailing lists there are a number of people who wonder why dance music isn't a part of the mainstream.
ignored?
- see the comments on the Muzik Biz above.  also know that eventually (as in england) techno (as u call it) will become standard.  capitalists, as marx predicted, will eventually ruthlessly compete to sell the rope to hang themselves with.   fraser.
That is, there is a belief that if dance music were included in the feedback loop that it wouldn't be subjected to repressive regulations and anti-rave ordinances which are popping up all around the country.
My girlfriend thinks that there is collusion between the government and the media to keep techno music, with its underground culture of drug tolerance and PLUR, away from public acceptance. I'm starting to think there may be something to her hypothesis.
What do you think?
Sean

I also think the possibility exists that the Government is cracking down on rave culture because they see another hippie movement on their hands.
I feel that the Govt is preparing for another War.
Really?  Which war?  Well, the U.S. President-derelict is sure sending mixed signals: PREPARE for another war by increasing defense spending, but don't expect to send our troops anywhere to fix any problem at all.
And if there is any large youth culture that would actively oppose a war, it would probably be the ravers (peace love unity respect). Or generally those who would be eligible for the draft, if there were one, no matter what music they listen to.  Something to celebrate when I turn 25 next month.
Jon Garfunkel

fraser replies:
all my adult life things seem to have been getting worse.  but they also seem to have been getting better! 
both turn out to be true. 
the old ruling dinosaur culture seems incapable of changing direction from the disaster course on which it is set.  simultaneously, in parallel (!), the new culture that is destined to replace it has been growing since, at least, the '60s (possibly disappearing from view for a while but continuing to spread and strengthen underground, till it burst out finally in the rave spirit that has now swept the globe.).
the ruling culture is hanging on like grim death and sometimes looks like it'd be willing to take us all down with it.  the number of major disasters is accelerating to some kind of (hopefully at least) critical mass.  I'm very much afraid that the 'ruling cultural network' has only more and bigger disasters ahead.  plagues, 'wars', disasters, famines, economic collapse, terrorism, apathy, alienation, it's fookin endless.
so the question is obvious.  with the underground growing all the time (globally, with rave culture as the primary 'carrier' and cultural glue that binds all the disparate protests into an alternative culture) when do the two seemingly parallel directions finally intersect? 
obviously (if you pause from your own particular protest) the Final Battle (if that's the right word) must be in america where the centre of the ruling culture is based.  you yanks correct me if I'm wrong, but i reckon the Big One (the 'War' that jon mentions) is going to come about when Bush starts to build the alaska pipeline through pristine nature.  (we nearly lost the fookin
galapagos last month!).  as this issue increases in intensity (it will last for years, with at least mini-disasters along the way) can you just imagine the massive cultural battle that is going to radicalise an entire generation of young (and not so young) americans?!  and not only them for this is an international issue (it's everybody's planet) so that raver/activists from all round the world will head for the Green Party Dance Camps which will spring up all along the planned route.  the sound systems, the tribes, the italian anarchists, talk about Burning Man!  whew. by the end of that Battle the whole centrifugal balance of our culture will have changed.

YOU 2241

M.A.D v F.U.K.D.
Maybe, as a response to the M.A.D (March Against Drugs) event featured in the last UP!, you should get chris morris on the line and organize a Free the United Kingdom from Drugs event.  F.U.K.D.
I would be down for helping out with the entertainment.  chris morris just put out a C.D of the
Blue Jamms on Warp records, so i bet he is up for it.
Fly Agaric23, Lower Haight, San Francisco
Back soon to spread Funkus.

YOU 2242

Fraser, I've been receiving the UP for what, nearly a year now, and to be honest, i'm still blown away by the rave community!  I live in England in a small town approx. 30 min drive from London, have lived there all my 27 (!) years, and due to a rather sheltered upbringing (my parents are from Mauritius & moved here during the late 60's - their 'cultural revolution' was to move here!) have only just started on the path.  In 1988 i was still at school, so i consider myself too young to have experienced the birth, but i know i was there in spirit.
That was 12 years ago. I didn't start raving until '97. That was because i got mugged at a World Dance in Skegness, circa 1992 (bummer, huh!). By '97 i'd thought f###k it, give it another go. By this time I was hanging around people who DJ'ed. These were my gurus/sensis. Still didn't take my 1st e 'till '98 (still wasn't confident enuff). My life changed & everything started to make more sense, but it still narcs me off that if I live in the county that pretty much started it all off & all those i mingle with in the 'real' world are still so narrow minded - is the struggle always this way??
One day i'll crack it, i know it's just a matter of time/timing, or maybe it's an attitude thing, I don't know.
This is going to sound silly, but the UPGRADE gives me hope, cheers me up & make my own struggles that much easier to deal with. I thank you.
Peace and Humptyness 4ever
Jai

YOU 2243

        STOP STAR WARS!
The CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) made its first appearance in Harrowgate on March 3rd to witness and protest at the Conservative Party Spring Conference, wielding the US flag with STOP STAR WARS written on it.  William Hague has publicly said that his party supports the American National Missile Defense system.
Engaging in conversation with CAAB, Ian Duncan Smith (Opposition Defence spokesman) said that the technology for the American National Missile Defense system does work, and that we "should not believe the propaganda that it does not". He also said that US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (a keen advocate of NMD) told him recently that the US would involve the UK in any decisions concerning NMD, that he favoured the 'boost-phase' system, and that he rejected the notion that NMD was in any way an 'offensive' system.
Michael Portillo (Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer) did a visible U turn when, thinking the presence of the US flag meant a statement FOR the NMD system, it was pointed out to him that actually the US flag said 'STOP STAR WARS.'  He was visibly confused.
RACIALLY AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
Lindis Percy, a CAAB activist, was charged with a 'racially aggravated' offence for 'trailing' the American flag on the ground.  Undeterred, CAAB activists continued to witness with the US STOP STAR WARS flag.
CONTACT: anniandlindis@caab.org.uk
http://www.caab.org.uk


YOU 2244

WHAT'S EATING YOU?  (YOU FEEDBACK)
GM ingredients may be gone from supermarkets' own brand foods, but customer-caring supermarkets still won't label their GM-fed goods as GM. I wonder why.
Besides 'why,' what can we (as a whole lot of people) do to demand labeling?  Email these three supermarkets? Here's a start: 
pat.buder@SAFEWAY.COM
www.sainsburys.co.uk,
www.safeway.com (http://www.safeway.com/community_caring.asp)


While on this subject, pay particular attention to the steady drip drip of positive GM stories planted in the press. It's spin at its worst, trying to make the whole thing seem an inevitable and wonderful paradise of the future.
We could research the badder stories.  I just put in 'GM foods scandal' and got quite a few hits.
We could find some PR sites and post some press releases.  The first site I accessed has some GREAT stories we can plague the MPs about, and call up Westminster about, and hassle the supermarkets managers themselves.
We could take printouts to the supermarket and distribute the 'leaflets' on the shelves
.
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/hots-cn.htm
Jackie Mackay

YOU 2245
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Its an epic slice of progressive trance (available for listening on the forthcoming Platipus 'Widescreen' Compilation album), it's been given deep tecky mixes by
'The Filterheadz' as well as an exclusive UK mix from the talented Rob Searle...Sasha and Digweed are giving it full support
All label enquiries contact : Alex.taniewski@roadrunnerrecords.co.uk
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The Way It Is
Working,
So that we can pay all the bills,
Working,
Wasted energy making me ill, now I’m
Hurting,
Got to keep going, always knowing that I’m
Hurting,
But this is the way it is.
 
Happiness,
Positivity, we can do this,
Happiness,
If we turn this around we can make this,
Never-the-less,
Unless we open minds, we could lose this,
This world’s a mess,
And this is the way it is.
 
One day,
People might listen to the ‘prophets’,
One day,
People might stop chasing the profits,
Someday,
We might learn to love instead of hate,
But ‘till that day,
This is the way it is.

jaithebard@yahoo.com

YOU 2246

WED MARCH 7     JAH WOBBLE @ ROCK GARDEN
This is Jah's only london show, accompanied by DEEP SPACE.
Doors open at 8pm, Jah Wobble on stage at 9.   £5. 
Rock Garde, The Piazza, Covent Garden, WC2E  : 0207 497 3154

YOU 2247

new world order | conspiracy theories | megatripolis