Adventurer #15 31 июля 2004

Демопати

Scene - 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 3 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 2 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 experienсe 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