modemgirl

you’ve likely heard me mention seaballing before, but for those of you who haven’t, it’s actually the best thing ever. a combination bike ride and mobile dance party with awesome people and beautiful scenery, it’s pretty much my religion. and then there’s Velopalooza – a 10 days of bike themed fun that takes place annually in vancouver in early june. over 70 events in under two weeks, it’s a celebration of bikes, bike culture, and everything else that goes along with the awesomeness that is being a cyclist! with events such as 80s bike ride,  super hero ride and this friday’s Bike Rave – what’s not to love? so when a good friend / avid seaballer / organizer of velopalooza (pictured below, at the superhero ride with his frankenbike bike aptly named ‘your face’) asked if i’d record a mix for the friday night BIKE RAVE, obviously i said yes!

it’s always challenging for me to organize a mix for a unknown audience – i’m pretty self conscious when it comes to my taste in music in relation to “normal” people. (obviously i use the term normal loosely here) - i know that most people didn’t grow up on a diet of tidy trax, neophyte and scott brown, so i’m well aware that my taste is pretty niche and definitely leans toward oldschool techno rave rave rather than the current wonky mashup bass housey dubstep stuff that’s usually found on the dancefloor these days. this is why i love late night college radio and don’t have much interest in playing clubs.

anyhoo! the point is, i worked pretty hard to make this mix awesome, and hopefully it will be enjoyable for consumption by bike nerds of all types, so you should come out tomorrow night and listen. vengaboys, squarepusher, flosstradamus, the horrorist, prozzak and madonna….. next to the ocean with a bunch of weirdos with glowsticks stuck to their bikes!? maybe i should bring some candy bracelets to hand out? anyone know where can i get UV bike shaped beads?

i’ll post the mix here on saturday for those of you who live out of vancouver and can’t make it!

Hey next month I am participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer! The ride goes from Vancouver to Seattle and is a fund raiser, with all proceeds going to fund cancer research by the  BC Cancer society. This is something that I’ve been interested in doing for a while now, being both a cyclist and someone who’s been profoundly impacted by this disease, so when another girl from my work put out the word that she was looking to put together a PEER 1 team I knew this was the year.

So my Surly Long Haul Trucker is going to finally get a chance to do what it was built to do. 227 km in two days, south across the 49th parallel. Me along side thousands of others riding in memory of those we’ve lost and in hope and support of those still fighting the battle. I imagine it’s going to be quite a challenging ride, both physically and emotionally – as I’m assuming the majority of us are not full time long distance cyclists such as the owner of my bike’s brother, IT guru turned renegade tekno cycling nomad. I think most of us are in for a real challenge – Fingers crossed for sunny skies on June 19 and 20th!

I’m sure everyone involved in the ride has their story. Personally, I’ll be riding in honour of my mom, who we lost to pancreatic cancer in January of 1992, when I was 7, as well as her sister who died of lung cancer in 2007, in support of my uncle who is still fighting, and in celebration of a family friend and a loved mentor who have both emerged triumphant from the disease. I’m sure there are countless others in my life who have been affected by this disease, and I’ll be sending love and light to everyone as I peddle down to Seattle next month.

Hey remember back in 2008 when I raised nearly $1000 for chopping all my hair off with a group of girls from my old job? (That’s me in the yellow in case you can’t recognize me in all my business casual glory!) I was overwhelmed by the support from my family and friends that year, and I’m hoping all you wonderful people are still as amazing and generous, because  I have to raise at least $2500 in order to participate in the ride! I still have a long way to go, and I’m counting on support from viewers like you!  Operators are standing by now to take your call…. or you could click on over to my personal fund raising page. Every little bit helps, and there’s an option that allows you to make multiple smaller donations over time which makes donating even easier.

I hope that you’ll all consider sharing this incredible adventure with me by supporting my fund raising efforts.

In advance, I Thank You all SO much for your generosity.

Love and Light,
Serra

this past weekend i had the good fortune of being invited to bikes inside! a “bicycle themed dance party” put on by the nice people at thisisplanb.net and jimfamous. with the promise of bike porn visuals (bikesmut.com), gastown sprints (stationary bike races), bike art, and cheap beer set to dubstep, electro and disco, i was intrigued to say the least!

the event was held at the w2 culture and media house, which is a new venue in the heart of vancouver’s notorius downtown east side, across from the newly revamped woodwards building. the venue first caught my eye a few weeks ago when i was biking down hastings to work one night, and i noticed the entire building engulfed in flame. after doing a double take and almost being run over by a motorist who was as distracted as i was, i realized i was looking at a video loop of fire being projected onto three floors worth of full sized windows.

i arrived fashionably late to the party, after helping a disenchanted unicorn recover from an unexpected rendevous with gravity, her bike, and a parked car’s side view mirror, followed by an exciting two adventure through olympimania land. i attempted to convince the nice folks working the door that i should get bonus points for having my hands covered in chain grease. they wouldn’t give me a discount, but i did get a high five. good enough for me.

the crowd was…. weird. a mishmash of hipsters, artsy weirdos and bike nerds. perhaps a bit intimidating for those who haven’t spent significant portions of their adult lives in weird little lofty after hours spaces, but not me. i took one look around and said -if everyone has another drink and a half and the dj starts playing something really fun, this party is gonna go OFF. and it did!

i arrived upstairs to catch the very tail end of the gastown sprints, which apparently is an ongoing experience featuring hipsters et al racing indoors on stationary bikes. pretty sure there’s beer involved. and lots of laughing. and dance music. i unfortunately didn’t get a chance to race due to my being  distracted by bike porn, and more beer. soon i ended up wandering back down to the first floor to check out the rest of the bike art and ran into some guy wearing a full body disco ball.

at this point everyone drank that additional beer and a half, and the racetrack on the top floor errupted into super fun time dance party as autacoid took the stage -  two dudes, a guitar, some mikes, a pedal and a roland 505! and then we danced the night away on the inside of the crazy flame projections. all in all a great success!

one! night! only! on december 19th a couple of crazies from the gorf beat soundsytem took over the airwaves at sleizure radio to explore their love/hate for 24 hour wal-mart by attempting to find peace between PC and MAC users. the result was a three hour onslaught of breakcore, freetekno, house, hiphop, gang signs, hat spins, baconators, OS debates, error messages, IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and a complete lack of xmassive carols.

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gorf beat xmassif special – live on sleizure radio!

i’m going to mutek this year! wow, i’m quite excited at this completely spontaneous decision! i noticed an old, dear friend of mine was going and the next thing i know, thanks to the lovely folks at westjet and their “hey we know you’re all broke so we’ll tantalize you with cheap flights so you’ll spend money you still don’t have” sale, i booked a flight to montreal in time for this year’s installation!

for the past 10 years, mutek has taken place every summer in montreal (with parallel events in mexico, argentina, and chile). the primary focus is on exploration of innovative electronic music and expression / dissemination of new forms of digital art and media, not unlike vancouver’s own new forms festival. featured artists are a diverse representation of renowned international artists such as pheek, alex smoke, deadbeat, sutekh, stephen beaupre, thomas fehlmann, alva nota, apparat, modeselektor, adam marshall, the mole and of course one of my all time favorite producers AKUFEN, to name a few!

mmmmm….. minimal. so much minimal.

bonus: thanks to the rapidfire viral enthusiasm of the internet, mutek 2010 has quickly morphed into what i anticipate will be an awesome reunion as well as a complete and total shitshow. at least 10, but likely closer to 20, of my now grown up old school raver friends will be there! wonderful peeps all the way from vancouver, edmonton, winnipeg and ottawa will be making the journey from our respective lives to reunite for a weekend of dancing,  techno, art, parties, exploring and adventures yet to be conceived!! i can’t wait.

and now for your enjoyment, akufen live from mutek 2001

august 2009
bear bouncin booty house

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a live set from bear bounce, an annual party thrown by a good friend of mine (bcbud) – all in the the name of big furry fun on the vancouver pride weekend! 2009 was the second year i played the show and every time it’s a total blast.  it’s a bunch of filth mixed in with the most epic-ly bad club trance we all secretly love. if i can’t bust out anthony rother’s ‘i am not ashamed’ on pride weekend, where can i?????

live @ spirited nrg

october 2006
minimal acid tekno hardcore

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a live set from the last party by the now defunct defkidsonacid. a tribute to winnipeg : one great city! now will someone please abduct me and get me the hell out of here?