Scene - pyromaniac CAF'e 2003 report.

<b>Scene</b> - pyromaniac CAF'e 2003 report.

Cafe 2003 from an American's view brought to you by Pyromaniac.

After over a month on the road through remote Siberia and
Mongolia we jump on our train departing Ekateringburg for
Kazan. Every city on our path west from Vladivostok shows more
and more glimpses of the common comforts from home.

We arrive in the morning and await to meet with my main Russian
contact and host for this excursion Pasha (Xpasha). He is to
escort us to what is currently the most popular demo party in
Russia, Cafe'03. We have however planned to arrive a day early
so we can tour the city and get settled in before the
activities begin.

After some mixups we are able to meet and things are on their
way. First things first, and we learned this very quickly in
our first stops along the Trans-Siberian railway, get your
tickets to the next city early. Unfortunately, even planning 3
days ahead we have been informed that all tickets on Sunday to
Moscow are sold out!!! However, Pasha being the man around town
that he is, was able to get us three ongoing tickets with some
smooth talking and connections of his. Now we're ready to roll.

First stop, the official organizers pad. Seems half the people
are still passed out from organizational / drinking duties from
the last night. First person we meet is MMA, the main organizer
behind the party. We present him with a few beers we aquired in
a kiosk near the apartment and now the true scene spirit has
begun. :) We discuss some of the dificulties in acquiring a
party place and whats in store for the weekend. As more people
wake up we make our introductions all around. A few of the guys
speak english quite well and the rest are able to get some
communication across, and for this I have major respect! Ja
niet gavarit ruski. One of the guys is the ever entertaining
Kpa3! We are informed that he will be hosting us at his
apartment in the evenings and that we will head on over there
later in the day. He also happened to be our very excellent
Russian teacher. He taught us all 'important' phrases to say
when people piss us off. :) Armitage was especially quick at
picking up these and soon became a Russian swearing master
under Crazy's tutelage. I will remember forever the famous
words 'posulj na huj pideras'

Now its time to watch some good old Russian scene classics at
the apartment. It makes me realize how many talented people and
productions we simply aren't introduced to because of the
language barrier. Thats exactly why I'm here, I want to meet
these guys and bring our scenes closer together and maybe have
some future cooperation on commercial projects. On a seperate
note, they are quite familiar with many of the productions of
the groups I'm currently a member in. I was quite happy to know
that I wasn't coming in as a complete unknown.

Later in the day we drop of our stuff at Kra3's place and go on
a tour of the city with Pasha and Kra3. The city is quite nice
and we spend a great day around the town. Even happened to have
some girls ask to take photos with our ever sexy tourist
selves. :) Talk about an ego boost!

In the evening we get our first taste of the party and arrive
at the party place. After some searching for the only open
entrance we are able to get in. Here we meet up with some of
the earlycomers including a few very enthusiastic guys from
Brainwave, CPU (Cyber Punks United), and the organizational
team. We shared a few beers with them and enjoyed their
company. However, the organizers inform us that the party place
is to be shut down for the evening and that we should retire to
our respective sleeping areas.

I must say that this was probably the biggest difference
between the European parties I have attended in the past. It
unfortunately limits the amount of time you have at the party
place, plus you also meet some of the most interesting people
when you are nice and drunk and about to pass out in the
evening. :)

So we arrive the next day and the party is in full swing! Its
time to make as many friends as possible. First stop after we
have dropped off our stuff, the corner kiosk! People are slowly
coming in and the buzz at the beginning of any party has begun.
We meet up with MMA again as well as some of the organizational
staff. We've been informed that quite a lot of local and
regional press will be at the partyplace throughout the day and
that they would like an interview with us. We're definately
down with the idea, anything for self promotion.

I must say that the girls that interviewed us for the tv
stations were quite nice, and even offered to show us around in
the evening. Unfortunately we didn't have time to take them up
on their offer. In general we were quite suprised as to how
many nice girls were at the party compared to demo parties in
Western Europe. I guess sceners in Russia are better at picking
up girls or are able to explain the demo scene better to their
girlfriends where they don't think its 'weird'.

During the middle of the day the party is in full swing. The
party is split up into two sections like it is at any good 
party. The activity going inside with all the competitions and

preparation and the party outside filled with people putting
themselves into a good mood. We're definately guilty of this as
well.

One major difference you will notice at Eastern European parties
(Poland, Russia, etc) is that there are very few computers.
Basically computers that are necessary to run the competitions
and a few brought by a limited amount of attendees. I have met
people that say that they don't like this setup. I have to
disagree, why would you want to come to a party / gathering to
just sit behind your computer. The point is to meet the people
you have come to know via the computer face to face. So to
those of you that believe bringing a computer to a party is
necessary, rethink your strategy. Finish you production before
the party and come to the party to enjoy and kick back with
friends!

I must say that the rest of the day starts to blend in with the
2nd day when it comes to the competitions that we viewed and
the people we met. All 3 of us were quite please as to how nice
of a reception we received from everyone. People came up to us
all the time and introduced themselves. This made our jobs of
meeting people much easier.

That evening we were invited to participate in what I hear is a
russian tradition, the 'party inside the party'. This was quite
a nice event, basically all the organizers and a select few
people were invited to sit down and have dinner together. Not
to mention a good amount of drinks. Its here that I got to know
a bunch of people quite well and I keep contact with them till
today and will continue to do so. I can definately say we had a
good time and this was one of the highlights of the party.

On a sidenote, there was a beer chugging competition held as
well. I happen to have come out as the Champion. So while they
say Russians can drink alot, they can't mess with a veteran
like myself! Muahahahaha. ;) I look forward to a rematch!

The next day was definately a bit on the chill side since a lot
of people were recovering from the previous night. Just like
the previous days, people eventually got in the mood and were
ready to have a good time. Today brought on some of the major
compos so people were held captive for longer periods of times.
Many of the productions were pretty good quality. I definately
think the coolest compos for me to experiense throughout the
party were the ZX Spectrum ones. This machine is quite foreign
to us but is as integral to the Russian scene as the C64 was in
Europe. You have to respect when people can make a 20 year old
machine do kick ass tricks.

After the wild demo compo unfortunately we had to leave to
catch our train to Moscow. This happened to be the case with
quite a few Moscow sceners. Unfortunately we missed the prize
compo, but we still were able to say goodbye to all of our new
friends and exchange appropriate contacts. We also were able to
have another party via our train! I guess you can't leave the
party behind that easily. :)

Overall the party atmosphere was great. While the downside was
that it wasn't a 24hr party in the true sense, we still were
able to meet quite a good amount of the people in attendance. I
can't say enough about how cool it is to show up at a demo
party and know almost no one. Its just the pure rush you felt
when you made it to your first demo party and met 20 new people
instantly. Truly a great feeling. Hopefully I'll be able to
attend another Russian demo party in the future.

I also hope to see many more Russian sceners at the Symphony
demo parties in Poland. It really is important to have the
European and Russian demo scenes have as much contact with each
other as possible.



Greets go out to: xPasha, Kpa3, Elf, Igor, Roman, L-Graph, Ray
Noa, Djinn, Megus, Tigrr, MMA, Mitchell, Justinas, Vinnny,
Tagir, Alff, Chasm, Moonshine, Mr. Joke, Diver, Lasoft, Wlodek
Black, Kano, Vivid, Lena, Crazy, Fyrex, Grad, Adam Bazaroff,
Miguel.

team Power Amiga, Brainwave, CPU, 3UMF, 4D 'the Cafe 
Organizational Team. 

If we met you at the party and we haven't exchanged emails or
we have lost touch please contact us!!!

Paul (Pyromaniac) - paul@paragon5.com Russ (Armitage) -
symstym@mac.com Dan (Fruktose) - danbragiel@yahoo.com

On a seperate note, I'm always looking to work with talented
people on commercial oriented projects. If you or your friends
are interested, please have them email me.

pyromaniac - calodox, mfx, 'madwizards