May 12th, 2001

Bridge Party?

three different parties under a bridge!?

New York Frickin City
Text: aaron

I am writing this under a bridge at a party. This is the third trance party today in this spot. The picture above is the one guy having it at the first of the three. I hear there were more;)

About 100 meters away there was another party that more or less absorbed it. Miko from California sunshine played a really nice set at this one....Outdoors in the sunshine in the city! believe it or not.

This second party had excellent sound and served as an after party to both the Sun Project party and the Fletcher Mundson Syndrome/ Eargear party. It lasted until approximately 2pm when it started raining. The sound guys packed up and a third sound system moved into a new spot about 20 meters away from the second. The party continues to this minute and is likely to last all night. I might not, however. I've been inquiring about vacancies on the decks all day...

This third setup/party/soundsystem/crew is rather underground and Russian i understand...;) Props and hats off to Sergei!
(He let me play for an hour or two as well...thanks Sergei!)

The final party of the evening has a tragic twisted side note- i wasn't there, so i attach the following clipping from the New York Daily News- bear in mind the media bias against things they don't understand...it can be quite humorous sometimes...

Teenager Stabbed,
Beaten at UFO Rave

By BILL EGBERT and MICHELE McPHEE
Daily News Staff Writers

A Connecticut teenager was clinging to life after he was stabbed and beaten
early yesterday at a UFO-inspired rave in Highbridge Park in Washington
Heights.

William Jouannes, 18, of Trumbull, Conn., was partying with up to 100 youths
at the bash under the bridge along Harlem River Drive South and 181st St. at
about 4a.m. when he noticed his backpack was open and his wallet was gone,
police said.

He approached three party crashers who were walking away from his bag and
demanded his wallet back, cops said.

The suspects -- men dressed head-to-toe in black with black hooded
sweatshirts -- denied stealing the wallet and walked deeper into the woods.

Jouannes followed them, his roommate said.

The trio then attacked Jouannes, stabbing him several times in the chest and
back and severely beating him, police said.

"He came back, and he was all bloody," said the roommate, who requested
anonymity. "My best friend almost died in my arms. I'm still crying now. He
is practically a brother to me."

Jouannes was taken to Harlem Hospital, where emergency room doctors kept him
alive, despite the teenager's collapsed lungs and internal bleeding, the
roommate said.

He was in critical condition last night in the hospital's intensive care
unit, police said.

The UFO rave in Highbridge Park is a weekly event held by suburban youths,
said Jouannes' roommate and people in Washington Heights. Partiers unfurl
banners decorated with alien-like faces, as disk jockeys spin driving,
far-out music -- some of it from the science fiction movie "Close Encounters
of the Third Kind."In addition to wild music, all-night raves are notorious
for drug use.

"It's like a yuppie party for all these rich white kids. It has nothing to
do with the Dominican community in the area," said one police source. "These
kids come in and hold their own event, illegally."

Nelson Corona, 33, of Washington Heights said the ravers bring mattresses,
which they set up on the trampled grass.

"It's like a sex party," Corona said. "They play weird music, flying saucer
music, and I saw them unfold two big banners. One was of an alien face, and
the other was, like, an alien skull but very devilish looking.

"They look crazy," he said of the partiers. "Red hair. Blue hair. Green
hair."