Freedom Festival.

Well, back from the Freedom Festival. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Old-school rave literally in the middle of nowhere, the backwoods of Ohio. Real America. It was cool, though, lots of green space, fresh air. I love getting out of the city.

Stayed a place called The Castle. Literally a hotel that was like a castle in the middle of the woods. The people who worked there dressed like medieval serving wenches. The dining room looked like something out of Henry VIII. No TV or phones in the rooms, but plenty of old books to read. Crazy.

The night turned out to be beautiful, the party was open air. The laser show looked like something out of "Close Encounters." You could see it for miles. The gig was a little disappointing in that the promoter needed 3000 people to break even and only 1000 showed up. He couldn't pay me my balance but I played anyway 'cause the kids came to see a show. I'm past being an asshole about it. I'm in a state of acceptance. It's America, 2006, what do you expect. Look at it this way, there were 1000 paid people there, an achievement in itself these days.

The crowd was relatively small but very enthusiastic. Pretty girls were right upfront screaming and shaking their asses. It's very rare I get to actually play real techno in the States anymore in front of a real crowd so it was a good opportunity to get back out there and do it. I got three encores as the DJ after me didn't have headphones and it took almost an hour to find a pair.

(Still trying to get around the whole pro-DJ-with-no-headphones thing.)

After the party this girl came up to us. She hadn't seen me play since this party I played in Ohio called Generator, back in '95, with Dave Clarke and Woody McBride (yes it was a label night). She was beaming and happy. That was nice. Also got to meet Jonah Sharp, a.k.a. Spacetime Continuum. I have heard of him since the old days, but never met him.

The next day was wild. People were walking around looking to kill the promoter, he took such a bath on this party. His poor girlfriend was destroyed and barely functioning. Give the man his props, though, he stayed to face the music. Other guys would have skipped out.

I tracked him down first thing in the morning and, thankfully, was able to get a ride back to Columbus, which was almost a two hour drive from The Castle. That was my main thing, not getting stuck out there in corn country. A lot of other DJs got stuck out there due to lack of transportation. All the promoters friends who were supposed to give rides bailed on him. Poor guy. He and his girlfriend were good people, we felt sorry for them.

Me and Giaxia checked into a hotel near the airport. It was cool. Took a swim, got some sun, had some room service, watched some HBO, caught up on sleep. I even got miles for staying there.

Now I'm back at the crib. These crazy Puerto Ricans outside my window are going insane with the firecrackers at 1:30 am. It sounds like Baghdad out there.