Death Defying
Death Defying
The Death Defying Warehouse Party Life
About an entire local music industry that's rarely heard from, briefly navigated by a remote being that coalesces, rarely, around music scenes and their absurd atrocities; originally written for "The Stranger" youth music and arts weekly newspaper of Seattle, WA.
Sonny Chelf is the orneriest house party producer I know who hails from Tacoma. In fact, he's the only such producer I know from Tacoma. Most of those kinds of guys hang about the Seattle area, drifting back and forth in their musical skeins and ongoing search for monetary angles.
Jason Alley's from Issaquah. They both operate forklifts in warehouses for their real livings. And I met them over coffee awhile ago at Starbucks on Broadway for a happy, peppy interview with two of the greater Seattle area's own warehouse party producers.
Sonny, casual, relaxed and vivacious, wore "Portuguese" golden earrings; Jason, soft-spoken and shy, wore a diamond-blue ball cap over his sweet blue eyes and blond hair. Sonny is fair and Black, but doesn't sound that way until you press him, and then a trickle of southern Blacklish begins to filter in, conversationally speaking.
How long have you been involved in the warehouse game, I suddenly ask.
Sonny: The first part of this took place in 1981. That was in Germany. Parties in Germany used more hype. Parties here seem to be more about money and competition.
Jason: I joined TUF Productions for the last party. I joined with another party than ours…some producers have a different agenda than others…(indicating Sonny, giggling.)
What is your agenda? I asked the cute black dude.
Sonny: First we sit there and have a headache. Nah, usually I like to find a space first. That's kind of a last minute thing you have to do.
Jason: There's been a lot of problems with the city. The city is pushing hard to shut the shows down.
Sonny: There was a battle over permits being in order.
Jason: The city would threaten to take the house over.
Sonny: Yeah.
Jason: The city would intimate that a party would be through. The owners of the building would refuse to rent to those who produced shows, for fear their properties would have police action taken against them.
These statements led to general murmurings amongst us.
So, whatever is your "agenda" now, I softly inquired.
Sonny: (About) the agenda? Line up the DJs!!! They come from everywhere, basically. When we produce a flyer, we try to promote it (the party) day in and day out. During that time, we finish producing the rest of the show. Lights, sound, security, permits, "etcetera." And then it's showtime! I like to get in a building at noon, but it never happens. Just to fine-tune the building! (He laughed, sliding slowly backwards in his seat.)
Jason: If we have decorations, some people put up fences. (I never found out what "fences" are.) It needs all completed. The sound system usually arrives in the middle of things.
We joked around about the house movement…."Yeah, the houses are moving!!!" as I'm not much of a raver m'self, yet. The joints do indeed jump.
What message to others, anyway, do you guys have to impart?
Jason: Positive energy.
Sonny: Peace, love, joining one another together. But after the party comes the teardown. I hate it, but it has to be done.
I asked Sonny if that's his real name. Yes, it is. He was wearing a hunting cap, Polynesian earrings, and he vaguely resembled a certain letter of the alphabet due to his glasses.
Jason's blue ball cap was fastidiously reversed. Two more either-bread and mayonnaise guys could not be found, but they were definitely having to skirt the law.
I finally found out what happened last spring, which had been the current House Party Mystery Scenario.
Sonny: A dividing of the whole scene here occurred. There were occurrences of two parties being thrown on the same night. Something had to stop. Seattle's not that big. It's not that good here, we need more party room. Evolution (back in October, and partially run by a close relative of mine named Joachim, incidentally) just had 1500 people. It was over 15, really.
Jason: We had over 1200. But Seattle is not really a good indicator. In LA (what doesn't begin, end, and stall out in LA?) they have BIG huge parties, with a couple hundred thousand people, easily.
A couple…what? I stupifiedly intoned, slurping my Starbucks. That couldn't be real, I thought, they'd need a football stadium…which they have, somewhere.
I dreamed to myself, the party interview vortex has been reentered. I've been being told that everyone and no one ever interviews these warehouse party guys. Now I see why. No one ever believes them when they talk about the party sizes.
Sonny then said he begged in on things with Jason through a mutual friend of theirs named Tim. On Tim, Sonny said, "we've talked to Tim. How're you?" This, referring to my earlier interview more on the Seattle end of things, with Joachim. Tim, there, is not a part of the company anymore. I guess that's the party vortex for you.
Sonny next managed to imitate the world's blandest, meekest expression, which was already on Jason's wan, pink face.
Jason: All I have to say is we hope people keep supporting the shows.
Sonny: I'm the quiet person of all this. I like to come in like the wind and leave…like…the wind….
Jason: I like to be around the people. I like to be around the friends. (I always got the impression this is a tightly-knit, hard-to-enter crowd. But I asked them about making a living at it.)
Sonny: I like to be around this for the money. If I didn't do this for the money, I wouldn't do it.
It feels like I've learned, after several interviews with Seattle/Tacoma's warehouse partying folks, that there's no money in this, really. Off the last shows, they don't seem to have made a dime.
PeaceFrog's Civilization party in November barely broke even, in fact losing at least $200. One of the PeaceFrog producers told me only about half the people coming in even paid. I don't think Joachim got his cut at all. But their group is still plugging away at making the lively, eventful, and appreciably loud parties continue to happen.
Sonny said, the way I feel…it might make the WRONG money…(I think he meant the probably drug revenues from hangers-on selling at the parties.) Me, I broke in with: But, what if you were, say, normal?
Jason: Good point.
Sonny: What if everybody else was like what's on the street, already there. (Recall that Sonny's Black, please.) You're gonna get ‘em "thowed in jay-al." I've done two (parties) in Tacoma (an infamously Black establishment, in some ways.) There's a problem with that. Seattle people don't travel. The Dome is too commercial. This isn't…a commercial event...that I do.
Go to shows, Sonny said. I have a real job. I work, in a warehouse, driving forklifts. I'm a laborer. Saturday nights are my date. That's the party date. (He pretty much implied this is his social life. I am forced to think both Sonny and Jason are house-devoted, maximally.)
After this pleasant, caring interview time was spent, one happy writer left those two fine, unrude, music-bestrewed dudes to hit their next appointment in town. The memory lingers, but the music is fortunately elsewhere, waiting for the next party to begin. From the sound of things, I would suggest checking out LA, if I were you.
About the Author
Executive Director and President of Rainbow Writing, Inc., Karen Cole writes. RWI at http://www.rainbowriting.com is a renowned inexpensive and affordable professional freelance writers, book authors, ghost writers, copy editors, proof readers, coauthors, manuscript rewriters, graphics and CAD, digital and other photographers, publishing assistance and screenplay writers, editors, developers and analysts service.
is dx back together and did u see Jeff's death-defying leap?
sorry guys im a bit behind
hey hbkgeneration i didnt ask for sarcasim and showtime if u dnt like wwe why did u answer my question
DX Was Back But For ONE NIGHT ONLY.
THEY DEFETED RANDY ORTON AND UMAGA.
JEFF TOOK HIS REVENGE ON RANDY (as randy kick matt's head at new years eve) BY GIVING HIM A SWANTON BOMB FROM 30 FEET!!!!!!
Death Defying
Hoodoo Gurus Death Defying
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Death Defying Acts - $44.99 My Brilliant Career and Oscar and Lucinda director Gillian Armstrong explores the final feat of the greatest illusionist ever to deceive a live audience in this docudrama concerning Harry Houdini's obsessive quest to find proof of an afterlife. The year is 1926, and Houdini (Guy Pearce) is an international superstar. Not only does the illusionist's otherworldly ability to bend reality hold audiences completely enthralled, but his easy charm finds him winning the hearts of his growing legion of fans as well. Yet behind Houdini's winning smile resides the restless heart of a tortured soul. Isolated by fame and drowning in regret over having not been present to hear his mother's last words, Houdini sets out in tour of Scotland and announces that he will pay 10,000 dollars to anyone who can prove spiritual contact with his deceased mother. But in his determination to prove that there is life after death, Houdini also becomes the target of countless charlatans, scam artists, and self-proclaimed spiritualists. Of course, stunning psychic Mary McGregor (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her daughter/sidekick, Benji (Saoirse Ronan), seem remarkably sincere in their supernatural talents, yet that doesn't mean that the pair doesn't have their own ulterior motives for making a connection with the world-famous magic man. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Death Defying Acts [Original Motion Picture Score] $17.43 Director Gillian Armstrong's film Death Defying Acts was made from an original screenplay by Tony Grisoni and Brian Ward that imagines an encounter between early-20th century escape artist Harry Houdini and a con artist posing as a medium in Scotland. Wit |
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Houdini's Death Defying Acts [WS] $9.83 My Brilliant Career and Oscar and Lucinda director Gillian Armstrong explores the final feat of the greatest illusionist ever to deceive a live audience in this docudrama concerning Harry Houdini's obsessive quest to find proof of an afterlife. The year is 1926, and Houdini (Guy Pearce) is an international superstar. Not only does the illusionist's otherworldly ability to bend reality hold audiences completely enthralled, but his easy charm finds him winning the hearts of his growing legion of fans as well. Yet behind Houdini's winning smile resides the restless heart of a tortured soul. Isolated by fame and drowning in regret over having not been present to hear his mother's last words, Houdini sets out in tour of Scotland and announces that he will pay 10,000 dollars to anyone who can prove spiritual contact with his deceased mother. But in his determination to prove that there is life after death, Houdini also becomes the target of countless charlatans, scam artists, and self-proclaimed spiritualists. Of course, stunning psychic Mary McGregor (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her daughter/sidekick, Benji (Saoirse Ronan), seem remarkably sincere in their supernatural talents, yet that doesn't mean that the pair doesn't have their own ulterior motives for making a connection with the world-famous magic man. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Death Defying Acts - Widescreen Subtitle $12.99 My Brilliant Career and Oscar and Lucinda director Gillian Armstrong explores the final feat of the greatest illusionist ever to deceive a live audience in this docudrama concerning Harry Houdini's obsessive quest to find proof of an afterlife. The year is 1926, and Houdini (Guy Pearce) is an international superstar. Not only does the illusionist's otherworldly ability to bend reality hold audiences completely enthralled, but his easy charm finds him winning the hearts of his growing legion of fans as well. Yet behind Houdini's winning smile resides the restless heart of a tortured soul. Isolated by fame and drowning in regret over having not been present to hear his mother's last words, Houdini sets out in tour of Scotland and announces that he will pay 10,000 dollars to anyone who can prove spiritual contact with his deceased mother. But in his determination to prove that there is life after death, Houdini also becomes the target of countless charlatans, scam artists, and self-proclaimed spiritualists. Of course, stunning psychic Mary McGregor (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her daughter/sidekick, Benji (Saoirse Ronan), seem remarkably sincere in their supernatural talents, yet that doesn't mean that the pair doesn't have their own ulterior motives for making a connection with the world-famous magic man. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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The Death Defying Pepper Roux By McCaughrean, Geraldine $31.47 Approaching his 14th birthday, a day on which he is scheduled to die, Pepper Roux embarks on a rollicking journey to escape his fate and meets a series of outrageous new friends and enemies. By the Printz Medalwinning author of White Darkness. 20,000 first printing. Author: McCaughrean, Geraldine Publication Date: 2010/01/19 Number of Pages: 328 Binding Type: Library Grade Level: 46 Language: English Depth: 1.25 Width: 6.00 Height: 8.50 |
Death defying electrickery
Using a wire cage and giant Tesla coil, Bunbury's "Dr Electric" Peter Terren will illuminate the Perth Town Hall tonight in a lightening display using 200,000 volts of electricity.
Death Defying
