The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

The end of the Millennium and the demarcation line into the future, or something. New Year’s Eve is one of my favorite holidays and I was looking to make this one the best ever. My plan: dancing the night away at the Rawhide.

I figured it was going to take me a long time to get from Mountain View, where I live, to San Francisco, particularly given the fact that the festivities in the bay area for New Year’s Eve are invariably centered in the city. I resolved to clean my room in preparations for actually putting my studio up after innumerable aborted attempts, but I didn’t make much progress in that department. I got dressed up and hit the road toward dinner at 5:30.

Dinner at Chef Wang’s of Los Altos, right on El Camino Real. The waitress there, Lucy, always remembers what I want. She didn’t wait on me tonight, though, so I inadvertently had something different. Not bad, but not as good as Kung Pao Tofu. I headed north on the highway about 6:15.

Hitting the 101, I was astonished by the fact that traffic was flowing as normal. I leaned on the accelerator more than normal, just in case the slowdown was farther ahead. The traffic kept flowing, though Palo Alto, and then Menlo Park and Redwood City and San Carlos and San Mateo and Burlingame. Damn, traffic is certainly bound to slow down as we get closer to the city. San Bruno, South San Francisco, Brisbane, San Francisco. I exited the 101 at 65 miles per hour, found a place to park and arrived at the rawhide 45 minutes before they open.

Managed to find some way to assist the decor crew, thus getting in for helping out. It was great to be able to wander around and help the crew ready for what promised to be the biggest night of the year.

The music started out deep in house territory and wandered into ambient trance and then into progressive house. It was sweet. Patrick and Gigi showed up, with Dan, Zoe, and their mac-programming friend, Alex. And, of course, no New Year’s celebration would be complete without Kai (complete with his better half, Marina).

I started stepping in earnest a little before 11. The crowd increased and increased and at 11:59:55, there was a countdown and a balloon drop. It got out of control. I hugged so many people around me. They were just grabbing and giving love to complete strangers.

There were so many delicious people in attendance, many of them sporting that orgasmic Irish brogue. I mean, shit, nothing’s a bigger bonus than chatting up a pretty redhead to have her say, “<brogue>So, are you having a good time, then?</brogue>.” Yum.

Some fucking dimwit starting setting off smoke bombs about 2:45, so they turned the lights on at 3 and kicked everyone out. It was still an amazing night and one of the best New Year’s celebrations I’ve had. Bring on 2001!

Yes, I’ll be posting my resolutions soon, along with a refit of the snippets section so that next week isn’t “Week 54.” Happy New Year!

Infinity at the Rawhide tonight, which was fifteen bucks to get in and had a sparse crowd, although there were definitely some pretty people in attendance. The music kicked ass and I’ll look forward to some gigs by this crew again. We’ll see if it’s a weekly or a monthly.

Tomorrow is my favorite holiday, New Year’s Eve—so full of possibility. The end of today and the brink of tomorrow. Hopefully, there’s an official count. I don’t think I could stand dealing with another fiasco like last year.

I looked on SFStation to decide how to begin my New Year’s weekend, and I called Patrick, who was planning on checking out our default club, the Rawhide. I offered to pick him and Gigi up, with Dan and Zoe riding along for good measure.

A new crew whose flier I didn’t snag and whose name I cannot remember were there. I’ll correct this next week, if I find out who it was. The music was great, ranging from very deep house to progressive house. It was a hoot. It was five bucks to get in—not bad, eh? A nice crowd and some nice music. Even saw Booty’s listen.com coworker, Kelly, there. Woo!

Another crew is playing a shindig here tomorrow night. It seems like something to check out.

Last day in Idaho started out alright, although I woke up about 10:30. My kids were ready to go home and sleep in their own beds again for the first time since Sunday, but my flight wasn’t to leave until 9:20. I hung out with them until four, when my ex-wife came to take them home. What an excellent visit.

I called Jay, who agreed to take me to the airport, and we were soon heading down I-84, listening to a CD of his music, toward Boise. He knew of a decent Chinese place, called Yen Ching (or something similar). The food wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t bad. It’s probably my Californian tastes that dimmed it for me.

Jay zipped me to the airport about 90 minutes early. My flight was, of course, delayed by half an hour, but not so much as to cause me to miss my Caltrain. A superb visit overall. I didn’t even miss my computers.

The last couple of days at Grandma’s house have been great. We’ve watched Chicken Run (2000) and Titan A.E., ate the worst pizza (Klondike of Ontario, Oregon), and played some chess. My son is a superb chess player for a seven-year-old who doesn’t own a complete chess set (he used to, but kids lose pawns quickly). I think the games I beat him are the last games I’ll ever prevail in against my son for the rest of my life. The way he learns and grows astonishes me.

My daughter is an imp. She charms with her extreme cuteness while deviously pulling off stunts that would get her into trouble if she wasn’t so adorable. She’ll break some hearts someday.

I tried to call my friend, Jay (AKA Hypocalypse) in boise yesterday, to find out that the number I had belongs to someone else. I called his parents, to see if I could get his new number and they informed me that he had moved back to Payette. So, I managed to get ahold of him this afternoon and we hung out into the small hours of the morning, talking about music, the future, computers, career, and all manner of other things. It was like old times. I hadn’t seen him in three years.

Tomorrow, I jump in his car and go back home to California. Then, I shall have to begin my research for New Year’s Eve. Woo.

At Grandma’s house, we unwrap everything on X-mas eve, so all of the various people can spend the holiday at places where they unwrap all the gifts on that day. Most everyone had another house to go to today. My brother had his in-laws in Willow Creek, 40 miles away. My sister’s in-laws live in Payette somewhere. Everyone has other core family to whom they go.

I stayed all day at Grandma’s, talking with Brent, Walter, and Grandma. Walter’s parents, my uncle and aunt came over, eventually, and ate some food with us.

After a while, my ex-wife brought my kids back over to Grandma’s, so we could hang out. It was fun. I love spending time with them. They get to stay with me until Thursday, when I get on a plane and go back to California.

Frankie hooked me up with a ride to the airport this morning at a smudge after four o’clock. My flight to Boise, scheduled to depart at half past six, was on time and the flight went without incident. Boise had some residual snow when I arrived, but nothing significant. The roads were all dry.

I was greeted at the airport by my ex-wife and my daughter, who took me to Grandma’s house. Her Christmas Eve get-together, traditional for her now that all of her kids and grandkids have grown up, was great fun. I got to see my brother, his wife, and their son for the first time since I left Moscow some 18 months ago. Shortly into my visit, my ex-wife headed for Vale and grabbed my son and brought him over.

My cousin finished his stint as an Army ranger and is deciding on a school and a major (*coughcoughcough Idaho coughcoughcough Computer Science coughcoughcough*).

My sister seems to be doing well, too. She brought two of her exceedingly rambunctious daughters over. They’re very cute, but also extremely high-strung. Imagine a four-year-old on speed. That’s pretty much what my nieces are like.

It was very cool to see my family all together in one place again, which hasn’t happened in a very long time. We should all get together more often. It was fun.

I spent last night at home, watching a couple of flicks, having farted around long enough that heading to the city would have been pretty lame.

In additional preparation for my upcoming trip to Idaho, which happens tomorrow, and my own sanity, I purchased a digital camera—the Olympus D-460 Zoom—which will alleviate my need to buy 800 rolls of film in order that I can have something to take to the developers in 2013. It’s pretty nifty. Now, to read the instructions enough to figure the bastard out so my photos don’t suck.

Frankie—a coworker and fellow musician—agreed to take me to the airport tomorrow morning, but since tomorrow’s flight leaves at 06:20 (am), I decided against going out. Instead, I figured it would be an excellent time to pack. Frankie had to take some X-mas presents over to children of a friend undergoing some serious hardship. Afterward, he drove from Antioch to Mountain View (75 miles) to hang out for a couple of hours and take my piddly ass to SFO and drive back to his place in San Leandro. Thanks, Frankie. I owe you bigtime.

In preparation for my trip to Idaho, and my probably inability to go out on Saturday night, I finally got around to wandering down to Wave’s Smokehouse Saloon again for Velvet Shop. On the decks was Marshall Jefferson—the Godfather of House—who blistered the speakers with a sweet mix of very funky shit, wandering a bit into tech-house, but staying quite deep and soulful and groove-laden through most of the night.

The co-attendees of this event were attractive, although a little less funky-down-to-earth-laid-back than their San Franciscan counterparts. There were some very very sigh-inducing femmes up in the place, though, and the vibe was sweet. After, I scored a CD by resident Mark Johns, which turned out to be a spectacular mix of deep deep house. Nice.

Velvet Shop is a definite win, and I’ll look forward to going back in January.

Kate hunted me down, desirous to go out on the town. My initial plan was to check out the Rawhide, but we decided to have Ethiopian food on the Haight at a very nice place called Axum and wandered over to An Bodhran after. An Bodhran is a little Irish bar with very pretty patrons and a DJ. The first DJ that played spun some funky house music, but kept it tolerable. The second guy that came on started with some very commercial stuff (including that fucking “bring on the bass, bring on the bass” sample). Time to go.

We went over to the Rawhide, which was closed, peeked into the Cat Club, and decided to just zip over to Six. There was very sweet house music playing downstairs. After all this running around, I wasn’t much in the mood to dance, feeling my energy drop like a rock, but I kicked back and listened to the DJ tear shit up. Someone from the crew came around giving away CDs and vinyl. I ended up with a CD and Kate snagged a 12″ and before too long it was time to go.

I took Kate back to her place and sort of dozed off on her couch. Hopefully, she and I hook up my gear tomorrow…at long last.

I had seen Wicked’s X-Mas party billed on SFStation. After conversing with patrick about it, I made my big plans to go. Unfortunately, The Bone Collector (1999) ran a little longer than I thought it would, so I arrived around Townsend and Second at 10:45, parking in a tow-away zone initially, until I got in line and conversed with some others. I didn’t figure the man would tow all twenty of the cars parked there away, but others in line related stories of coming out of the club to find their cars missing. I hurried and moved my car into the alley nearby, waited another hour to get in, paid, and moved my car yet again over into South Park, a few blocks away.

I wandered around inside, listening to Markie spin some very sweet uptempo house. The music wandered into trance territory (I have no idea who was spinning at that point) and back into tech house. I ran into Patrick and Dan and Zoe. Whee.

Club Townsend is fucking huge and it was full tonight. I got on the dancefloor, started to step and, of course, everybody and their dog had to walk through. Relax, Apollo, must…not…beat…trudgers… Heh. The music was astonishing and there were many many pretty people there, including Beth, an employee of an art site. It was fun, but the vibe started to grate on me about four, so I split.

For the record and your after-club munching knowledge, there is a Denny’s at 4th and Mission in San Francisco, and the service is great, especially on the night I went. Mel’s was, of course, closed, but you can always count on Denny’s for emergency grubbing.

Myplay’s holiday party happened tonight at a very swank Noe Valley house. I was working on a new playlist for the event (and by request of john’s girl, Yen) but didn’t finish putting the tracks in order, so I reposted Veni Vidi Saltavi (”I came, I saw, I danced”) in case the network difficulties were worked out. I also had the foresight to stuff the Imperial Dub Recordings in my pocket, just in case.

The marketing girls were dressed up in their best approximation of 70s wear. I slinked into the bar room and, with the permission of the house’s owner, commandeered the stereo. I danced by myself in this little corner through both CDs, occasionally having someone dancing nearby or commenting on the complete bad-assedness of Dubtribe Sound System. Told you guys.

After the party, we all rode in a limo to Polly Esther’s. What a fucking pit. Good thing it was only five bucks. Emmett (who rode with me) and I stuck around with the other myplayers until 2am, caught a cab to my car, and ventured southward. A much better holiday party than the one we had last year, when everyone gave speechlets at a Chinese restaurant.

I can hardly wait for this weekend. Wicked X-Mas tomorrow night at 177 Townsend. See you there.

John Howard at the Rawhide, debuting a new monthly called Elsewhere. There was no possible way I could miss this. I arrived at the Rawhide at 10:10. I hung out upstairs, talking with a few people, until it was time to go cook the dancefloor. Nobody I know was there, but that’s nothing terribly unusual.

John Howard took over the decks at 12:15. His set was beautiful, morphing from deep, almost ambient house to tech house to deep funky dub. It was sweet. The other dancefloor residents were pretty, too—particularly Anna and Tina. Sweet. Can’t wait for the next Elsewhere.

I decided to head up to the city, not quite certain as to what to do, until Ernie called me to let me know about the Imperial Dub party at Club Six. sounded like a good idea, especially with Dubtribe Sound System playing a live set.

I delayed heading out until I finished watching Contact. Oops. Arrived at Six around 11:30, went downstairs, fought my way into a reasonably decent place to get my groove on, sing my ass off and carry on as I usually do. Then, Dubtribe Sound System took over at about 12:30. It was incredible. Damn. Go to the next one, seriously.

Today, I entered the world of digital movies and purchased a DVD player (the Phillips DVD707). I also picked up some movies (yes, I know some of these are terrible): City Hall, Contact, Outbreak, The Princess Bride, Pump up the Volume, The Shawshank Redemption, Soldier, Thunderheart, and With Honors.

The first thing I noticed is that you don’t have to rewind DVDs. Of course, I knew this, but I’m so used to thumbing that rewind key that it didn’t register until the player got confused. Now, to figure out how to keep the DVD player and the PlayStation plugged into everything all at the same time.

My favorite brunette in the entire 925 area code, Melissa, and I decided to go and have Ethiopian food in Berkeley and watch some flicks, so I headed over in the late afternoon. We went to the Blue Nile and Amoeba Records, had a good meal, bought some nifty music (I picked up a pair of Imperial Dub’s recordings), and headed back over to her place to watch movies.

We watched The Sixth Sense (1999) and Cherry 2000 (1987)—the former showing me why it was nominated for so many Academy Awards in 1999 and the latter proving to be an unexpectedly fun movie.

It’s always fun hanging with Melissa. She rocks.

I went shopping today and picked up Mastering Regular Expressions (O’reilly & Associates), and a bunch of music, including Talvin Singh’s Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground. Woo.

I knew I was supposed to do something tonight, but I couldn’t remember what. I looked on the web and found that last week’s Mission Rock shindig was a once-in-a-while event. Then, I remembered 1200 Lounge at An Sibin. One of my coworkers, Kendall, was involved in said monthly event.

Many of my other coworkers, particularly Davalo7 (and his girl, Yen), Joe, Scott, Ivan, and Deirdre were there.

The music was good, going from ambient and downtempo to deep house to some soul/funk to breakbeats. Kendall’s roommate (Josh?), insisted that I shall have to go check out the house studio some time. I shall look forward to it.

A fun time. Next time, I shall have to bring a horn or two.

I decided to try something different tonight, so Kate and Booty opted to head out to 26 Mix, where John Howard and M3 were scheduled to spin in a tag team event.

The music was incredibly good and I had a great time dancing, even before John called me a pimp. Later, I blew my hands, blowing the minds of the guest DJs, and danced with a very beautiful brunette named Anna, whom Kate insists was craving me. Pft, sucks to be her.

It was so fun hanging with the icon of the church of Booty, and Kate, who will borrow my soprano saxophone from me, in return for helping me hook up my studio (finally). Right, kate?

I woke up at noon, and took Lakshmana out for some food, visiting a couple of stores on the way to pick up a surge protector (so I can eventually put my studio together) and various other items. After a bit, he headed back to Santa Cruz. It was a cool visit, Lakshmana.

On the recommendation of Ernie and Fe Ann, I opted to check out Mission Rock in China Basin. I noticed on the flyer that the guy at Full Circle gave me on Thursday that there is no cover before 10, so I headed out early and got to the venue ten minutes before the deadline.

The first thing I noticed was Mission Rock’s proximity to the Bay. One could flop over the upper rail and land in the bay. The second thing I noticed was the narrowness of the main dancefloor. It was very long, but the DJ tables were right in the middle of the long side of the room. The music was superb, though.

I ran into Patrick and Gigi, then Ernie and Fe Ann, who brought Michelle (who wasn’t terribly crazy about my existence), Nicole (very pretty blonde), and their respective gentlemen. All the DJs upstairs were playing great music. I had worked up a sweat early, but had no voice (due to my battle against the common cold) to speak of, so I blew my hands alot, to the delight of people around me.

Jenö took the decks at just before 3 and unleashed a set that left everyone surprised when the lights came on at 5. I ended up smushed against the congaleros, dancing with a number of pretties and singing with Thora and her friend.

Mission Rock was a blast and I will definitely come back again. Probably next saturday.

Lakshmana came up, so I could take him to San Francisco and bounce around on dancefloors. We grabbed indian food at Amber in Mountain View and headed up to the city.

The original plan was to go to Le Freak at Space 550, but we opted to see what was playing at the Rawhide instead. A new crew is about to start there, and I think they played tonight, but I’m still not quite sure. Next week, the new crew is featuring John Howard.

Ran into Patrick, Gigi, and Nicholas upstairs. Wandered downstairs and jumped onto the dancefloor. The DJs were spinning some very sweet deep house and tech-house. It was fun. Pretty people were abundant, particularly two delightful girls in capes. Whee!

Lakshmana even danced to a few tracks, but this was obviously nothing he was used to. We headed back to my house afterwards (Lakshmana crashed on my couch). Fun night. Can’t wait for John Howard next weekend.