During the course of the undercover investigation, ABC contacted Trinka D. Porrata, one of the nation's leading experts on ecstasy and rave events, who visited the Circus. Porrata identified the club as a "rave" event due to the lack of drug or weapon searches at the front door, extensive security, numerous patrons under the influence of designer drugs, the type of music, laser lighting, glow sticks, sales of water bottles and so-called power drinks with a high concentration of caffeine such as Red Bull, an outside cooling off area, and other factors.

Read that again. Read it until you're angry, confused, or frightened. If you're none of the above after a couple readings, then you need to get your head checked, because it's straight-up wrong. The investigation at 1015 has resulted in the club's ban on glow sticks. So, what do electronic music, laser lighting, glow sticks, water, and oxygen have in common? "Drugs," you say? Not necessarily.

The commonality is dance, and the culture established upon the music that inspires and encourages it. People that go out to dance need to stay hydrated, whether they're on drugs or not (by drinking water, not alcoholic beverages). It is their right to cool off outside the hot, sweaty confines of the dancefloor, and in California, to smoke. Caffeinated drinks such as Red Bull aid sober dancers in staying awake and alert, much like the coffee society expects us to drink so we can stay productive in the workplace. The depressive qualities of alcohol are not conducive to late-night dancing, much to the chagrin of the ABC, I'm sure. Laser lights and glow sticks, though they may enhance the psychedelic properties of some drugs, help get people in the mood to dance. The use of such equipment to create an atmosphere is an artistic form of expression protected by the first amendment. The DEA has already been smacked down after attempting to ban "rave-related paraphenalia" from electronic music venues in Louisiana. How does the government continue to justify such restrictions?

Don't go to nightclubs? It doesn't matter. Don't listen to electronic music? The government cares not. If drug use can be linked to any activity that you take part in, both federal and local authorities have every intention of either stopping it, or making it so unpleasant to organize and carry it out that (or so they hope) people will eventually give up. They've convinced a majority of Americans that ecstasy is bad, pointing to the deaths of tens of teens across the nation in recent years, despite the (inconclusive) findings of internationally sponsored, impartial tests that have continually refuted the drug's reported risks and side effects. Yet the only tests the American public hears about involve monkeys suffering brain damage after repeated subcutaneous injections. No attention was paid to statements such as MAPS' excellent reply to the findings of this DEA-sponsored experiment. Interestingly enough, one impartial test I came across was only accessible through the google cache. Another study equates the risk of death as a result of ecstasy use to that of "snow sports, DIY, food poisoning, air travel, passive smoking and homocide."

Even worse, these activities will be forced underground (this has already happened to "rave" culture), where its participants will no longer have access to such amenities as water, ventilation, or on-hand EMT's. The conservative regime, in cahoots with "legitimate" drug manufacturers, the Puritanistic religious right, and power-hungry law enforcement agencies, has come one step closer to taking away your right to dance. Remember the Salem Witch Trials?

This isn't too say that I regret having gone (for free nonetheless, much thanks to Brian Alvey). But it didn't do much to tame my disillusionment with the web's current state, or my skepticism towards the solutions that continue to sell despite the overall economic downturn. What particularly bothered me was the prevelance of clunky, over-complicated, and oftentimes platform-specific technologies, and the continued existence of the so-called "prevailing market forces" that drive their adoption. I'm no marketing whiz, and admittedly, my eutopian view of the internet is flawed and unrealistic, but I do know better than to build (for instance) a CMS that's too bloated with client-side interactivity to work with anything other than IE on Windows.

It's kinda funny that, in between when I started this project (the date for this entry indicates the first time I saved it, not when it was published) and finished documenting it (approx. 2002-10-14 19:41), two completely separate implementations have been released. It's a strange coincidence, and by no means is the technique shared by all three revolutionary or ground-breaking. Regardless, check them all out and let me know which one you think is better. And remember: competition breeds innovation. ;)

As pointed out several times on this list, and articles on various blogs and resource sites, there is no "perfect" unit for the web. This is by no means a thorough description of the problems you'll run into, or a recommendation of which ones to use, but here are some of the things I've learned in my time spent with CSS font styling...

• Nathan Drew Larsen - Give Chase [Mise En Place Remix] (Airtight)
• The Logic Box - Lezard Voice (Adult Only)
• Chill (?) - Do It (Blueprint Music)
• Jess Mindt - Urban Tap (Combustible)
• Robin Porter & Mike Carr - Mental Stealth EP (Immigrant)
• Omni A.M. & Casey Hogan - In Time of Flying (Euphoria)
• George T - If Deepness Is Your Weakness (Funky Piranha)
• Maetrik - The Fall Out EP (Intrinsic Design)
• Terry Francis - Hello, Acid Dathera (Technical House)
• Chad Mitchell & Jay Tripwire - Over It (Republica)

Stay tuned for more charts, I'm going to try making this a recurring deal. I would also like to make the announcement that my friend George's record is being considered for licensing on a new mix CD by Hipp-E and Halo on Fabric's new imprint. Good luck, George!

border-style: dotted
Is the rule for trendy blogs.
Let's see something new.

Well-formed documents
reward with validity
given proper DOCTYPE's.

Teach vim to children
lest they be stuck with other,
shoddy editors.

People tell me that the good life is in the East Bay, and that's why Melissa and I are packing up and moving to Oakland. For less than the price of our cramped, third floor apartment, we're getting a freshly-painted, well-maintained house, with amenities unheard of to long-time city-dwellers: a back yard, a garage, and an attic. Finally, I'll be able to move all those boxes into a storage space! Melissa will be able to grow those crazy plants she's been talking about! My car will no longer be shat upon by birds, rammed into and side-swiped by wreckless, drug-addled drivers!

I'm going to start a campaign amongst my friends to get all of them out of the city. No longer will we be driven into bankruptcy by DPT! No longer will we pay 3/4 or our salaray in rent! Down with San Francisco! Death to greedy, cold-hearted, irresponsible landlords and the independently wealthy and/or overpaid scum that blindly accept their tyrannical stranglehold on housing! East Bay, REPRUHZENT!

I (obviously, if you know me) support the decriminalization of marijuana. Far too many law enforcement resources are directed toward the pointless pursuit of detaining harmless pot smokers. This has all been said before, as noted by many comments to a recent kuro5hin article that rehashes (heh) the problem of the States' overblown criminalization of soft drugs. Please, read the article, even if you are blindly (heck, even purposefully) opposed to drug use or legalization. I found one comment regarding heroin addiction and the "tradition" of overdose reports by coroners very informative.

UPDATE: San Francisco Supervisor Mark Leno wants to supplement the city's revenue by growing marijuana in empty city lots. Rob Morse makes a great point about the security measures they'd have to implement to protect those costly crops, though...