Andrew Groves AW99: The Diaspora

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there will come a day, hopefully years from now, when you will ask me if i remember the moment i fell in love with you. i will smile because it will have been impossible for me to forget. then, i will readily recall and say, “yes” and tell you it was the very moment we met, where i first laid eyes on you and, the second before you said, “hello”.

012012 journal entry.

remember that time when, your friend handed you a flyer and, when you looked at it, it had some crazy art on it like you have never seen before? like, some wild design or robot or 3D graf art from the future? and then you flipped the flyer over and there was this list of all these wild names and colorful pictures and you couldn’t make sense of all the details. you have never been to the city that it’s in so, it seemed so foreign to you too. then your friend says emphatically, “we are going to this.” you look up and into their eyes to see that they mean business, party business, and they are pretty fired up about it. “we are going,” they say, “and we are going to drop the bomb.” your ears ring, your gut clenches up and you are suddenly filled with both fear and a new found sense of adventure. 

the night of the party, you are anxious as you make your way through the city. someone says, “we are almost there!” you look out the car window to see buildings and streets that seem so far away from home right now. you take a left and right and another left and, with every ticking sound of the turn signal, you feel the excitement building inside the car. the car stops and… you’re there.

you and your friends start making your way down the street together. you’re surrounded by non-descript mill buildings or factories and all you can hear are you’re crew’s footsteps echoing off the buildings. then, you start to hear a faint rumble. you can’t make sense of it yet but, it becomes more and more defined as you walk. you turn a corner and you find the source of that rumble and now, it is clear. a subsonic thumping, deliberate, repetitive, relentless, bass. like a heartbeat on fire, it’s vibrating everything around you. the building, the street lights the cars and, as you move closer, you feel it getting inside of you, more so, with every step. all those butterflies in your stomach go off in your gut like fireworks. 

under a light you see a crowd gathered at a door and you join the line. you realize, you are not dressed like anyone else. they are talking about things and you can understand them but they are using words you have never heard before. everyone is excited and smiling and your friends are making sure you are ready for this. you do a gut check and… you are. 

you hand the door man your cash and you and your friends make your way down a hall way. they push you forward and are yelling and hooting and hollering and jumping with excitement. at the end of the hall you begin to see a silhouette of a crowd and above them a blue tint of light and an occasional white flash of a strobe. you move in and the room reveals itself in all it’s glory. there must be a thousand people there. you see their figures moving and writhing in and out of shadow and color like, they are one living being or thing. the sky is filled with electric light and laser and it all comes hard into focus… in your gut. the bass. the relentless bass. boom… boom… boom… boom. it’s almost to much for you to take but you give in. you let yourself go. you let the music in to the point where you are the music. you dance. you sweat. you laugh and you know that everyone around you has a heartbeat in perfect rhythm with yours. all of you are, as one. 

this is your house. 

i hope that your first time was like mine. it changed my life forever. this is your house music. this is a culture. this culture is underground. this is not homogenized and meant to sell you a new car or katy perry’s new perfume. the commercialization of our music robs kids of this underground experience. it gives them a false perception of what our culture is like. they see it in commercials and tell you it is us but, IT IS NOT US. if i have to explain this to you, then you are not house.