|
01 июня 2003 |
|
(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.
Other articles:
|
|
Similar articles:
В этот день... 3 December