cafe photo album #2003 01 июня 2003

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CAFe' 2002 Party Report

(c) 2003 Paracels of Placebo
(c) 2003 Euro Chart 46 by IRIS

      CAFe' 2002 Party Report

   Written by Paracels of Placebo

The   russian  scene..   For  real  or
just  a  blurry  hoax?  Huh, that is a
smart   question   really.    Being  a
Russian guy, I'd say we have something
meant to be a part of the Amiga scene,
but   alas,   it   is   too   dim  and
overestimated  by  the  great  many of
Russian  amigans.  Nay, I'm not saying
I am the only one so god damn smart in
here,  this  isn't  so, unfortunately.
But  I  hope  I  have a right to write
about  things   I'm  concerned  about.
Well,  anyway,  I'm not going to flame
about   it  now.   Let  us  better  be
starting   our  trip  to  the  Russian
suburbs,   where   the  very  best  of
ex-Soviet  scene  forces  fight  their
ultimate  combat  for  the right to be
called the overall scene number one.
Russian demoparties.  'What?  What did
you   just  say?   -   some   European
sceners  might say in surprise.   - Is
there   really  something  like  Mekka
Symposium  or  Assembly?   In the land
where  wild  bears  wander  along  the
streets  talking to the passers by and
drinking  vodka with every human being
able   to   move   in   that  dreadful
frost???!!!'  He-he,  yep,  we do have
demoparties  held  each  year and even
twice  a  year.   No bears, no killing
frost,  just  some friendly sceners...
and  of  course,  vodka.  Not for each
and everyone though, but for those who
love  it  (there  is  a number of such
people,  but  their  quantity  is much
less than of those respecting beer ;).

Chaos   Constructions  held  in  Saint
Petersburg,  the  most scenish Russian
city  ever, has faded away in darkness
and  uncertainty.   Pity, but there is
nothing we can do about it.  This year
all   the  inspired  demosceners  were
invited   to   the   capital   of  the
Tatarstan  republic,  the federal unit
of  Russia.   Kazan is the name of the
city   where   hundreds   of   coders,
graphicians   and  musicians  were  to
measure their skills not only in code,
graphics  and  music,  but in talking,
drinking and having fun.

CAFe'2002,     i.e.    Computer    Art
Festival  -  this  is how the greatest
Russian  scene  event  was called this
year.  About 200-250 people from quite
a  number  of  Russian,  Ukrainian and
Byelorussian  cities visited CAFe this
year.   There  were even two guys from
Helsinki,  Finland,  Thomas  and Kris,
who   became   real  friends  for  all
Russian  sceners in one single moment.
Dunno  whether  this was all about our
mental  similarity  or something else,
but  everybody  considered  them to be
the  very  great guys speaking all the
possible  languages,  except  Russian.
:8)  By  the way, Kris is an organizer
of Alternative Party, which is held in
Helsinki.

Why,   it   seems  I've  run  too  far
already.     Let's   make   one   step
backwards  to  know  how  our fabulous
trip  to  Kazan began.  It all started
about  one  month  before  the  party,
which  was to be held on August 24-25.
We  finally decided to make a demo for
the     ZX-Spectrum     demo    compo.
Unfortunately  our  Amiga  coder Senat
thinks  that  he  is  not  yet skilled
enough  to  make  something worthy.  I
doubt that, but he always says that in
his humble way.  So we decided to take
part in ZX-Spectrum demo and graphics,
Amiga/PC  graphics,  64k  web page and
Wild  compos.   Placebo  is  known  in
Russia  mostly  as  a Speccy demogroup
and  our  Amiga  activities  are  just
about  to grow into something serious.
At  least,  we  hope  so.  However, we
just  couldn't  miss the biggest scene
event  of the year 2002, neither could
we visit the party with no demo made.

So  then  the  idea to create the demo
called 'Inbetween' was born.  In about
one  month we finally succeeded as the
demo  was finished.  Luckily for us we
did  it in a couple of days before our
trip,  so  I  could  spend  some  time
finishing my Amiga picture.

At last the day has come.  At about 10
a.m.   we  were  to  meet at the train
station   and   so  we  did.   Besides
Placebo   members,  which  were  Dman,
Paracels,  Sairoos, Spy & Crazy, there
were   5  more  guys:   Demiurge  Ash,
Pyrodex  &  Kooll  of  Jeez  and Neo &
Flabber  of  Virtual  Masters.  So our
delegation  consisted of all in all 10
people.

Our  way  was  first  to  go to Nizhni
Novgorod.   This  is  the  Зrd biggest
city  in Russia after Moscow and Saint
Petersburg.  Then we would have almost
a  whole  day for wandering and seeing
sights.    So,   we   reached   Nizhni
Novgorod  at  about 2 p.m.  I must say
that  this was a pretty nice city, the
views   were   as   spectacular  as  I
expected,  the  Volga  river  was just
fantastic.   Our  excursion was mostly
done  in Kremlin and its surroundings.
Yes, here in Russia, we have more than
one  Kremlin in Moscow.  Having walked
much,  we  decided  to  find some cozy
place  and  found  one  right near the
Kremlin's   wall.    A  bench  we  had
occupied  was  rather  worn and dirty,
but   sitting   there  and  having  an
open-air  dinner  as  well as drinking
beer   and   such  made  us  all  feel
tremendously   good.    Afterwards  we
spent   our   time  just  walking  and
talking.   It  was  funny,  but stupid
really,  as  we  just didn't know what
else to do.  :)

At  last  the  time  has  come  for us
to  continue  our  trip  to Kazan.  We
rushed   to   the  train  station  and
happily  got  onto  the train in time.
We  were  all  oh so tired, that right
after  we  had  left  Nizhni Novgorod,
everybody  fell  asleep at once.  From
about  9 o'clock in the evening till 6
o'clock in the next morning we were to
spend   inside   the  hurrying  train.
Damn!   The  night was rather cold and
we  were stupid enough economizing our
money on the bed-clothes.  However, we
reached   Kazan   successfully.   But,
alas, the weather was frustrating.  An
ugly  tiny  rain  has  shitted  up our
glamour mood completely, so we stepped
out of the train with the sad grimaces
bumped upon our grim faces.

The  party-place  was about 15 minutes
of  walk from the train-station, so we
decided  to  reach it by foot in order
to  get warm and to have our first and
consequently the most vivid impression
of   Kazan.    What  can  I  say,  the
impression   was   rather   faded  and
gloomy.   We  all  expected  too see a
huge    and   prosperous   city   with
thousands  of  cars and people rushing
here  and  there, fascinating signs of
architecture, modern and well designed
super-markets  and  stores.   Blah, we
saw  none  of  these.  Just some empty
streets  and  rare  bunches  of people
selling   something   right  upon  the
tramway  road  was  all  we  saw  that
morning  in  Kazan.  However it didn't
stop  us from going to the party-place
and  in about 20 minutes we reached it
at last.

The  party took place on the 1st floor
of the Kazan Actor's House.  There was
a suitable hall with lots of removable
chairs   and  a  respectfully  looking
projector.   The  screen was a bit too
worn  though  and  even  cut  in  some
particular places, but that was 'Ok'.

Quite  a number of people were already
hanging  over the place.  Some of them
had  even come here the day before the
party.   We  walked  through  the main
entrance,  got  up  onto the 1st floor
and,  to  our  endless pleasure, met a
lot  of  our old good friends at once.
Still  we  were not at the party place
exactly,   but   in   the   so  called
chill-out,  the  place  where everyone
could take some rest.

Before entering the final door we took
off  our  skirts  and sweaters (it was
rather  cold,  remember?), so our firm
green  t-shirts  could be seen.  There
were   the  label  of  our  group  and
Placebo  logo on the front side of the
t-shirt,  and  again  the  big Placebo
logo  on  the  back.   (Watch  the  EC
gallery   to  see  it  yourself!)  So,
having  finished our last preparations
we  stepped  over  the  last  barrier,
dividing    us   from   the   glorious
demoscene spirit flowing everywhere at
CAFe'2002.

I must mention here, that the entrance
to  the  party  was  in no way free of
charge.   You may laugh, but I'll tell
you how much did it cost.  100 roubles
for            one            person's
two-days-party-shaking.   This is only
a  bit  more  than  $3!   3 god damned
American  bucks!!!   Can  you  imagine
that?   Nah,  this  is  not  a  bloody
exception  of  the  year,  not at all.
Frankly  speaking, such a fee is quite
usual    at    almost    all   Russian
demoparties.  There are even ones with
no entrance fee at all.

So,  every  person, intending to enter
the  party-hall  and  to  vote for the
compo  works were given a special '1st
day'   vote-sheet   and   a  pen  with
CAFe'2002  logotype.   There  were  no
tickets  or  such.   Everyone has just
got a blue print upon his or her hand,
which  meant  that  you  were  free to
enter  or leave the party-hall all day
long.

The  first  day  was  given  primarily
to  ZX-Spectrum,  though some Amiga/PC
compos    were    also    represented,
basically  the  music  ones.  The most
interesting  works  were  shown in, of
course,  ZX-Spectrum demo compo, where
our   demo   called   'Inbetween'  has
managed to get the 1st place.  The 2nd
place  winner,  a demo by Skrju called
'Summermilk'   was   something  really
stylish,  though there were absolutely
no breathtaking effects or full-screen
pictures, but this work has earned its
place fairly enough.

Despite the awaited UNREAL quantity of
visitors   their   number  was  rather
overestimated,   as  there  were  only
about  200  people  in the party-hall.
However,  everybody seemed to be quite
pleased with that.

In  between the copmos organizers were
showing    an    audience   the   most
outstanding  works  of  the  worldwide
demoscene.    This   time   Amiga  was
represented     by     the    smashing
Maturefurk's  demo  'Lapsuus'  and, of
course,  by  TBL's  marvelous  'Little
Nell'.     The   classics   were   not
forgotten   either.   It  seems,  that
'Relic'  by  Nerve  Axis  has  already
become a standalone example of overall
high-quality demomaking.

As  a compo machine organizers used an
Amiga  1200,  equipped  with  Blizzard
060/5OMHz    turboboard.     It    was
simultaneously    connected    to    a
projector and a usual TV-Set.

I'd like to mention all who deals with
beloved  the  Amiga  and  have visited
CAFe'2002  this year.  So, it was team
Power  Amiga,  KANO  &  BOS  of famous
Russian  crack-group  RAMPAGE,  MAYhEM
and  others,  whom  I unfortunately do
not  remember.   All in all there were
alot of amigans at the party.

The  day was slowly coming to its end.
Everybody  was  already a bit tired of
all   those   infinite  talks,  screen
flashes  and  chaotic sounds, breaking
through  the huge stereos, placed upon
the  scene  corners.   Even  the great
amount of (by the way !!!prohibited!!!
;))  beer  didn't help lots of sceners
to  stay tuned and fresh all the time.
It  was  clear,  that  the  1st day of
CAFe'2002 was almost over.  Organizers
told   everyone   that  if  there  was
somebody  wishing  to  go to the cheap
hostel  to  spend the night there, him
(or  she)  must  follow  the specially
prepared  man.   His  name  was called
then  and,  forming the small streams,
some  of  the  party visitors began to
trickle to that so-called guide.

By   that   time   all  the  '1st day'
vote-sheets  had  been  filled at last
and then given to the organizers.

Dunno  why  exactly we decided to stay
at  the party-hall.  Thank God, it was
allowed  to sleep right inside.  Well,
either we have already got used to it,
or  we  are  just  a  bunch  of  lousy
skinflints,  saving  our  money in all
possible  ways.   However,  we haven't
regretted that step!

The night was full of all the possible
entertainments  one  has  ever  dreamt
about.   There  were all kinds of food
and  drinks  bought  by lots of people
and  gathered on one huge table with a
number  of  sceners  sitting around it
and  chatting as friendly as only they
could.   The  Finnish  guys  were also
there.    Those   of   us  capable  of
speaking  English  (and  even the ones
who weren't!  :) talked to them almost
all   night,   asking   all  sorts  of
questions,   plenty   of   which  were
sometimes  stupid and sometimes pretty
funny,  like the answers were.  Here I
must  admit  that Kris and Thomas were
polite  and  very  communicative guys.
Each  of us have appreciated that very
much.

The  free  Internet access was also at
everyone's  disposal,  though  to  get
through   the   chat-freaks,  who  had
occupied  the  machines like mad dogs,
was rather a hard task to do.

However,  the compo machines were free
from  time  to  time,  so anyone could
come   and  watch  some  demos.   Most
amigans were using the chance and thus
watching  Lapsuus,  Little  Nell, Rain
and  others  running on 060 with great
pleasure,   as   well   as  some  nice
slideshows by Lazur and Fame.

But,  of  course,  the  main  process,
which  kept  flowing  and  flowing all
night    long   was   that   marvelous
party-jagging-talking-having-fun  one.
And   yet,   at  about  3  or  4  a.m.
everyone  felt  sleepy and started the
quest  for  the  suitable place to lie
down and began watching sweet & lovely
on-scene  dreams.   Nonetheless  there
were some wackos, who hadn't slept for
a  whole  night,  while all the others
were   sleeping   everywhere   around.
Those,  who  slept right on the scene,
have   later   on   been  called  true
SCENERS.   Huh,  so  that  is  how  to
become a real scener!

At about 9 a.m.  we were awaked by the
arriving    organizers,   who   looked
well-rested  and  quite happy with how
the  party  was  going.   Blaming  the
whole  world, we stood up and went for
a  morning  walk  in order to buy some
food.   We also had a few hours before
the second day of the party began.

Forming  a pretty numerous band, which
consisted   of   Placebo,   CyberPunks
Unity,   Constellation   I.A.,  Eey-Q,
Virtual Masters members and others, we
parted   the   party  place  and  went
towards  the  Kazan Kremlin, which was
seen  far away from the place where we
had been.

We  reached  it  in  about 40 minutes.
Heh,  it  was a tremendously difficult
road, as the weather was rainy with no
sun   shining  from  the  gloomy  sky.
However,  we  felt much better when we
saw Volga, the greatest Russian river,
flowing  like  a  giant stream of dark
water and showing us its gentle power.

The  sightseeing was finally finished.
We've  visited  Kremlin, made a lot of
photos there, had a really great time.
And then the time to go back had come.
It  was already about 11 a.m.  when we
again  saw  the  building of the Kazan
Actor's   House.   A  small  group  of
people    were   crowding   near   the
entrance.   We hailed them and entered
the  warm  and  cozy house, which held
true scene spirit for each of us.

The   2nd   day   was  meant  to be an
Amiga/PC  dedicated  one.  Well, so it
was.    Skipping   all   those   music
competitions,  I'll better have a more
precise  look on the Amiga/PC graphics
compo.   This  year  we  had  8 images
competing  in  this  nomination.   The
winning  image  'Cyborg  in  Love'  by
Demiurge  Ash  was  a very nice image,
featuring  a  man's face in the center
of  the screen (he seemed to look like
a  real  astronaut,  naturally)  and a
woman's face in the upper right corner
with a smoothed background, spread all
over  the  picture.   All in all, this
was quite good looking photoshop work,
a  bit  too  dim  maybe, but yet worth
seeing.  The 2nd place was given to an
Amiga   graphician;  L-Graph  of  team
Power   Amiga   and  this  is  a  very
pleasant  attitude.   His image called
'For   the  Homeland!'  had  something
similar  to  Neurodruid's  'Blood' and
was  perfectly  pixeled.  While it was
shown  during  the  compo, somebody in
the    party-hall   shouted:    'Lazur
rules!'.    Indeed,   L-Graph's  image
looked  so  good,  that it was easy to
consider  it  to  be  drawn  by Lazur.
Both   pictures   were  made  in  high
resolutions.

The   next   compo  I  remember  quite
vividly  was really Wild.  ;) Gosh, we
had  a  lot  of  laughing then.  There
were   only   2  (of  all  in  all  6)
impressive works at the compo.  One of
them  was  made  by  the Чth Dimension
group  (by  its one member, naturally,
named  G.D.)  during  the night before
the  2nd  day  of  the  party, and the
other  one  was  made  by us, Placebo.
The wild by 4D, called 'Tanechka', was
a    pure    flash-based    hand-drawn
animation.  To make it all clear, here
in Russia we have a so-called pop-star
Tatyana  Bulanova.   She  is  a rather
average singer, but it usually doesn't
matter  for  such 'stars' whether they
do really have a voice or not.  So she
thinks  she  is  just great, while all
her  songs  are complete shit (for the
common  comprehension,  so to say, for
despite the real state of things there
are  a  lot  of Tanya's fans somewhere
out there).

Next up, and the most interesting part
was,  of  course,  Amiga/PC democompo.
Yes,   it   was  a  joint  compo,  but
considering  that  there  were  only 5
demos  for  both PC and Amiga, I think
such   a   step   by  the  organizers'
shouldn't  be  treated too critically.
After  all,  we've got what we wanted.
The  Amiga  demo  'Propaganda' by team
Power  Amiga had won the compo without
any  difficulties,  though the PC demo
'WireWorld' by Critical Mass was quite
impressive whatsoever.

Unfortunately  (or maybe luckily?) all
other  demos  seemed  not to be of any
interest  for  me  that  time,  thus I
can't tell you a word about them now.

As  far  as  I  remember, the Amiga/PC
democompo  was  the  last compo of the
2nd  day.  After it has been finished,
organizers  asked everyone to fill the
votesheets completely and some moments
later  gathered them in order to count
the  votes  before  8  p.m.   So  they
succeeded  and  did that even earlier.
However  we had got quite an amount of
spare   time  before  the  moment  the
winners were announced.

It   was   a   sad   period   of time,
naturally,  as  we  already  knew that
soon  we  would  be  rushing along the
dark   Kazan   streets   to  the  city
train-station,   no  matter  what  the
results  would tell us.  And so, alas,
it  was.   Despite  that  we'd  got  a
bloody  hell of prize places, the mood
was  all the same far from being good,
none  of us felt happy.  Yes, it was a
pleasure  to  realize that 'Inbetween'
DID win the ZX-Spectrum demo compo, as
well  as  our  'Lenin 2003' wild compo
entry,  but  still,  leaving Kazan was
something  screwing  into  the  utmost
deep  of  our souls and hearts.  Gosh,
we  (at  least  I for sure!) felt that
not  the  first  time  at all, but yet
every time it wasn't easier to bear it
again and again.

Having  gotten  our  prizes and having
made  our  last  photos,  we  went off
running   towards  the  train-station.
Elph  of  Cyber Punks Unity decided to
accompany   us   for   a   while   and
simultaneously  take  some  interviews
for  the  new  issue  of  the fabulous
'Adventurer'  (one of the most popular
Russian disk magazines for Speccy).

It  was dark and wet on the streets as
we  went  through  Kazan,  talking and
discussing  the latest events.  It was
a   pity   to   leave   our   friends,
party-place  and  the  holy  spirit of
Scene behind our backs, but we had to,
otherwise   we  could  stay  in  Kazan
forever.    :)))  (Nay!   Not  because
we've  fallen  in love with that city,
'cause,   frankly,   we  haven't,  but
merely  because  we  might have missed
our  train  :)) Luckily we reached the
train-station    in    time,    bought
ourselves  some  food, beer, Coca-Cola
and  almost  immediately  got into the
train, which drove off after around 10
minutes after our arrival.

We were going back to Nizhni Novgorod.

During  our  comeback we were sleeping
as  if we were dead.  It seemed for us
that   the   night   was   too  short.
However,  we came to Nizhni again.  We
wanted to wander along its streets one
more time, but our train to Kovrov was
leaving after around 10 minutes or so,
thus  we  only  had  time  to  buy the
tickets,  drinks  and rush through the
underground  passages  to  the  train,
which,  passing  nearly 4.5 hours, has
finally brought us home...

Our trip to Kazan was over at last.