exhibit february 1996

I have been meaning to write about the parties I threw as Excellent (w/ a partnership w/Steve a/k/a Pandemonium Productions) for a long time but it is somewhat challenging because as magical as most of those parties were it is hard not to also be a little self-indulgent and egostical in re-counting them. Hey, for that period in my life I was a bit of a big-shot. But there was also something very transcendental and deep about the vibe we New England Ravers were able to create at those parties. Kris Clark was such an idol of mine and that Steve and I were able to pick-up to some extent where he left off and bring such magical parties back to Portland, Maine was such an exciting thing to be a part of.

Immediately after meeting Kris for the first time at Deep back in 1993 in my state of manic euphoria I proposed to him that I would love to hang my paintings in his nightclub Zoots. He responded that he sometimes did show artists in there but it wasn't always a good idea to hang art in a nightclub. Saturday night February 24, 1996 was a very good night to hang my paintings in a night club. That was the night of the party Exhibit which was basically a dream come true for me.

The party had three rooms: the main room was in the old Warehouse space which was once Kris' chem-free club next to Zoots, we also had Zootz featuring my good friend Adam, as well as Chuck and Shannon, and the local boys Laree Love, Pete D and Kay all had the decks in the Elvis Room. Three clubs side by side for our entertainment pleasure. As for the main room, that's where the exhibit was. I had an open call to all artists but it basically wound up being a two man show featuring my paintings and those of Aaron Burns. The room was however the complete culmination of the creative and technical talents of many and the fusion that took place in that room that night was completely mind-blowing. One of the reasons we had come up with the concept of the party was in fact the white walls of that room. At Extract, the previous party which had that room and Zoots David Jury of Jerkyspacebodyoptics and Steve had decided to put the Intellibeams in Zoots because of the challenges of lighting a room with white walls. This time our plan was use the artworks to temper the whiteness. David, who was somewhat of an intense, unbeleiveably talented, lighting genius, spent the whole day programming the lights. Not being a lighting genius I wasn't exactly sure what he was up to, but he was working pretty hard. Steve had gotten his buddy Greg from Strand Sound to bring in the most incredibly loud and clear sound-system you could imagine. Steve himself was playing a little bit of one-upmanship with me. I had put together a pretty damn good line-up for Ecstract but Steve did the line-up for Exhibit, although I wouldn't have done anything differently. The real deal was that the heart of the party consisted of turn-table gods 333, Mgee, Dale Charles and Pete Moss in the morning. Aaaaah, Pete Moss in the morning. We also had the Excellent Drinks Smart Bar set up in there with some combination of Chandra, Jess Webber, Nikki, Sarah, Lynn and Rachel on the blenders. I'm not going to mince words or use any code or double-speak to candy-coat the next ingredient: there was in fact a significant amount of very generous gel-caps of 100% pure MDMA from a trusted source in San Francisco (as promoters we were in no way responsible for it being there, but it certainly contributed to the success of the party). The final ingredient: about 700 of our closest friends from around New England.

Some parties take a little while to find their vibe or kick off but this one took off right out of the gates. As an artist, a raver, a promoter, and a drink maker it all really came together for me on that magical night. To have all those magical people, dancing under all those magical lights, to all that magical music underneath our paintings was truly something to behold. It clicked early and it clicked all night long. It was in fact, a dream line-up for me and on the Strand sound-system they couldn't have sounded better. David Jury's lights absolutely blew my mind. The rythyms and patterns as those Intellibeams danced around the paintings and the crowd were so intricit as to be beyond description. The booming bass rattled the paintings on the walls. Not a soul wasn't dancing or moving. The Earth Girl's Energy Elicksure blended up by the Girly Girls of Excellent Drinks gave the crowd the fuel they needed to make sure it stayed on all-night long. It was in fact, an intergration of all the elements of my life and a night of heights a person can only hope to attain to in this world. Ah, yes, and Pete Moss in the morning. Need I say more?