Production Meeting Memoires

We had a nice production meeting the other day. 
So certain things are "for real". 

Intergalactic Prophylactic Krewe
"Saving the Universe since Planck Time"

Will be piloting the Starship "(insert name)"  on an intergalactic journey of the mind. Come play. 


Ran Droid, Q, Dylalien and I spent some time working out the design for our starship. Q even took meeting minutes...just because we are all pro like that and all. 

What you see below is a markup of the design. The DJ table will be on the ground. Behind the DJ table we are constructing an elevated stage (with steps on either side...safety third or something...) 
We think that this sort of a stage layout design is fun and unique. 

   
We will also be constructing a Captains Chair and a work station complete with a view screen. The background of the stage will be painted sets. And of course, there are all the details that make it worth it, like railings, the right accessorizing, ect....Overall, we are pretty excited and eager to get to work. 

Our plan is to have two background pieces painted, and the dj table and captains chair constructed by the end of March. 

We are also looking for people to donate a few items: long pieces of red fabric, blue fabric, any white, blue, or red house paint, black stretchy fabric, spray paint in any colors especially gold and silver, LED lights (especially singles), old flat screen monitors (preferably barely working but broken is okay too). 

Anyone who wants to help with construction can email gilnessisgoodness at gmail dot com. 

Aaand anyone who wants to attend a painting party, held either March 9th or 10th can pretty much do the same thing...email me! 

Anyone who would like to kindly donate some monies to make our dreams come true for you, just PayPal it to travainholland at yahoo dot com. 

And speaking of money....
We are in the process of working out dates for Saturday or Sunday daytime fundraiser on treasure island. More on that in the next few days....

Stage Design

There are many different aspects of putting together a great stage. A stellar line up, a great sound system/engineer, reliable source of power and a smoothly flowing crew are essential. That is kind of like party throwing 101.

What about deco? 
In my mind....deco should serve a specific purpose.

But really.....overall....there are three main ways that deco can be used. 
1) to camouflage or conceal. example "wow, this warehouse is really ugly. There are bullet holes in the walls. Lets cover them up with some tapestries" Note that you can throw a party in a really ugly warehouse, and turn it into the inside of a magical palace with enough time and energy. Sometimes you dont want to do that though. Sometimes you just want to have a party, without dealing with a particular eye sore. 
A really good example of this is our SF semi-weekly get together at Il Pirata, which is a two room bar. The smaller room which contains the bar is left as is. The other, slightly larger room is where the DJ plays and people dance. It looks like a bar/restaurant in there. Buuut....generally we still put up some tapestries, cover as many of the advertisements as we can, just.....to make it a little less fug. Really, we arent transforming the space, or fooling anyone. It still feels like  bar.....albeit a slightly more trance-y one. 

2)  to enhance, inspire, and make beautiful:  Someone once told me that a good make up artist can alter a persons face so much it looks like they went out and got plastic surgery. A little shadow here, a little highlight there, and voila! A new face! This is how I think about deco....as something that can transform. I can rant about this for a long time, but I will save it for another post. 

3) to tell a story: This is deco that conveys a very particular idea, or thought. "theme deco" if you will. While #2 enhances a space for the purpose of beauty or enlightenment, #3 conveys a specific idea. Boom you are underwater. Boom you are in a Victorian saloon. 

Our Goa Gil deco usually focuses on #2. In a nutshell, we try to make it more pretty. We try to create moments with how the deco is arranged. We try to have an interactive aspect to it, at least in some minimal way. 

How Weird, for us, is all about telling a story. So far, we have had mixed results with our efforts. Our previous Star Trek stage was really fun, but we severely underestimated the time it would take to put it together. In the end, I felt like there was more that I wanted to do. The extreme highlight was a platform that we built, giving the stage two levels. People could dance on the second level and take great pictures with the stage.
Last year we did like a time machine type of a theme....our concept went something like this : create a box with a false back, so a dj could go into the time machine, sneak out the back, put on a period costume, and come back out the front like they time traveled during their set. 
The time machine came out really awesome, with a spinning clock, and lights, and electronics sticking out of it. That was awesome. 
However.....logistically.....we didnt have a great place to put it. so....it ended up kind of being background....and not all the DJs brought a second costume so...yeah. TOO COMPLICATED.

This year we are taking the best elements of both ideas and combining them. 
We are doing an intergalactic spaceship theme, heavily based off of Star Trek Enterprise (the original series) and Voyager. 

Please enjoy my sketch and some notes. 

So...on the ground we will have the DJ table (see bottom right of sketch), which will look like the Navigation station. In front of that will likely be an altar. The "ground stage area" will be framed by some triangle fabric pieces. 

Then we will rent some stage pieces (6, I am thinking). for the second level. The second level will have two painted 8x4 sheets of ply, that will have stations coming off of them. Probably.

Its either two stations facing the back of the stage, or two stations facing the front. Still deciding that one....

and of course, the captains chair will be in the middle. 

Think....

                                             (i stole this picture from the internet)

My last count on the wood it would take to construct this is (9) 8x4 sheets of ply, and (9) 12foot long 2x4's plus paint and fabric. 

As mentioned previously, we will do some sort of a fundraiser BUT in the meantime......
If you want to make our dream a reality please kindly and generously donate using paypal to travainholland@yahoo.com.

An of course....we will have stage crafting parties that will be more or less open to the public. I will blog the dates and anyone that wants an invite can message me! 

Til Then, 
in the words of a dear friend
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

How Weird Fundraising

Dylalien and I had a mini meeting for How Weird last night. The meeting went like this....

Me: "So.....can I have some of the How Weird money for the stage?"
Dylalien: "What How Weird money?"

Hmmmm.
...
...
...

Dont get me wrong. How Weird does provide a small amount of skrilla to each stage, but it is barely enough to cover the sound system and stage rental. The last couple of years, we sort of threw some cash together last minute, and build our stage design the day before. This year we actually have some time to put together something really special.
This year we are going back to a kind of inter-galactic spaceship of freaks inspired by Star Trek look. The concept is to built a "set", more like something you would see in a theater, with painted panels (8x4 ply sheets) as the background pieces. I also want to construct a Captains Chair, and some stations. I was sort of thinking of a two tier stage, with the DJ on the "lower deck" and a "upper deck" with star ship officers diligently working to plot our course. I also want to include interactive components that light up, beautiful costumes (the whole enchilada, if you will).

For this, we need to raise some money. I think that $500 will cover it.

But, alas, how to raise $500?

Some things that we are considering include: Il Pirata on a wed, happy camp, setting up an account that people can just donate to, going somewhere to sell something?

We still have a little time to decide.  So please, give me your input! I would love to hear it.

Oh....and as to the line up.....
we have something SO FUCKING INSANE in the works right now....I cant even think about it without wetting myself. Seriously. I am not just saying that. Once you hear the line up, you will scream. The orgasmic kind of scream.
For real yo.

Hello, Universe!

We are Party Babas. 
Dedicated to creating community dance floor coincidences of the highest caliber. 
Party Babas are currently involved in creative collaboration and creation of three events; The Northern California Goa Gil Gathering, in May and October, and a stage at How Weird Street Fair in San Francisco, CA. 
We have decided to collaboratively blog our adventures. 

On the horizon....working together with our friends and family as the Intergalactic Prophylactic Party Krewe, to create a stage at How Weird. The festival theme this year is Mardi Gras, complete with parades and marching bands that will interact with the independent stages. 

Also....pre-production has begun for the Memorial Day Goa Gil gathering. More on that later....