Greetings loved ones < 3
I am finally taking the leap of faith into my veritable destiny, writing a Sex-in-the-City-esque blog about my own adventures, exploits, highs and lows, fantasy dream life... writing in a journal just isn't doing it for me. I crave the free-association of mashing my laptop keyboard while drinking a bottled Blue Moon on my back porch. Instagram has become far too passé, and journaling is too introspective and serious for me to write about the real juicy gossip -- all the amazing and epic things I get up to in the ins and outs of my every day life.
Currently, as a cool evening breeze blows in from the river down south, I am pondering (but not actualizing just yet!) my pack of Marlboro Reds, sitting inside in a kitty-printed carpet bag on my unmade bed. Judge me not. I woke up this morning at 8:30 AM, drove my cat to the vet, drove home, only to receive a call that my cat was ready to be picked up, at which point I immediately drove back to the vet, picked him up, came home, read manga for an hour, and fell back asleep around 11:30AM, not to be re-awoken until some three hours later. Did I mention that the entire time I was driving to and from the vet, I was top down in my bright red convertible, wearing a Yuri On Ice! t-shirt and a pair of ancient, thrifted One Direction pajama pants?
Well I was. And everyone noticed.
Hold on. In the clarity granted to me by this cigarette, I realize that I have jumped headfirst into gushing my thoughts onto the page, and have wholly skipped over the most important part of this post: introducing myself! Well, better late than never, so here goes nothing.
ABOUT ME!!! :3
My name is Sasha, I'm 23 years old, I'm a Pisces, and I am currently an unemployed musician living in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. So glamorous and cool already, right? I'm the singer of a punk band from Seattle (where I went to college) called Masculinity Crisis, and I'm a techno producer and DJ under the name of AKAFAË. I studied art history but as of right now I haven't worked in that field since graduating from university (oops!), hopefully I'll be able to come back around to that but I'm in the process of letting life guide me right now...
My life has been hectic this summer. I flew to Los Angeles in the middle of June to play a rave with friends in a massive cave in Tarzana, California, outside of Santa Monica. Los Angeles is awesome and fun because everyone there loves trance music!! I heard Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl at two separate raves in one weekend (even though technically I played it at the first one ;3) and that was absolutely euphoric for me. There was a brief moment of self-doubt at the second rave because two girlies younger than I am looked at me funny when I was singing along, and I heard one of them say to the other "I don't know what this song is," but I've decided that I am NOT an old head, I just love good music, and they'll figure it out soon enough.
CAVE RAVE
The rave in the cave was crazy. We had all this trouble at the beginning, because someone forgot one of the cables for the CDJs, and between some 10+ DJs only four of us were using gear other than the CDJs to perform. So Dominic and I ended up going on first, after our friends played an epic experimental guitar set where they had tuned their instruments to raga-like tunings and they riffed off of each other for 30 minutes or so. I was sweating sooo much right before I went on, because I had never DJ'd a live set before -- I had only made mixes in my room!!!
The music fades, the mixer is plugged in, and the lights go down. I swallow all my spit, and I step up to the decks, the sand dust from the cave floor already thickening the air all around me. I queue up my first three songs, and I press play on the opening sample...
... and the cave goes crazy.
LISTEN TO THE DJ SET HERE!
When I dropped Castles in the Sky, the whole crowd was singing and dancing, and I couldn't even see to the entrance of the cave from how many people were packed in right in front of the decks!! I was so worried I was going to mess up, and in the end it felt like having the best sex I've ever had in my life -- I didn't feel like I messed up at all, and everyone was vibing with the tracks I chose, and after the whole 8 hour rave ended (at 4AM!) people were messaging me about uploading the mix, wanting to hear specific tracks as I had dropped them again. What more can you ask for as a DJ?! To play a set so good that people who saw it live want to hear it again?
NIGHT #2: SANTA ANA
The next night I took a $22.22 Uber (angel number Uber!) to meet my new friend Amir in west LA. We drove an hour to Santa Ana to see a gabber show his friend was playing, but in a lapse of good fortune we arrived right after he had already played. The DJs were all spinning vinyl, and I swear I didn't even know you could buy songs at 220+ BPM on vinyl, so that was cool, even if it's not my thing... (I like speedcore! But I don't necessarily want to dance to it for over an hour...)
The nos balloons started to make me feel sick, so I stepped outside and talked to friends for a good hour of the night. My friend Flapjack was supposed to spin vinyl that night, and they're a true Kandi raver legend, so I was euphoric when it was finally time for their set -- but then less than 3 songs in, the lights came up and the show got shut down. Huge respect to everyone who put on the show, but honestly, if you have over 4 DJs and your venue is closing at 2AM, why is anyone playing an hour long set?? every DJ was good, but my biggest complaint with that show was that I didn't get to see the two people I wanted to see most because of late night limitations. LAME, Santa Ana. (All love though.)
NIGHT #3 (FINAL NIGHT): VERTEXX
The cave holds the number one place in my heart, because it's where I met all of my new Los Angeles friends and played the epic first live DJ set, but Vertexx was lichrally a movie.
My beautiful and handsome friend Franz (who also lovingly hosted me the entire time I was in the city of angels) and I went with their friend Freddy, who was an absolute VIP and drove us all the way to the club. It was right above (or next?) to the Rec Center, iconic teen punk hangout in the city. But -- call me a baby club kid -- I have never been to a spot like Vertexx!! I'm sure there are many like it that are equally cool in the world, but I felt like Chaka in that one episode of MTV's Downtown in this spot. You had to go up some stairs and then there was a black leather couch and a bar, and then down a small set of stairs into a fog-laden dragon's den was the dance floor.
The show was put on by i8i, amazing LA noise-esque collective (you should follow them if you don't already!). Pretty soon after I got to the spot is when I heard Castles in the Sky for the second time that weekend, which put me in the best of moods. Ironically, this is the night in LA that I took the least drugs and had the best time (god, is that you?)... I danced so much, took smoke breaks on the roof, hung out with all of my friends who had showed up, and even had a dreamy encounter with a crush... very Skins of me. (Think making out in the bathroom and then leaving to a whole line of people waiting who know exactly why you were taking so long... because that's what happened.) My friends and I ended up going home close to five in the morning, and we stopped to get Krispy Kreme donuts on the way. They weren't freshly made (pain), but they were absolutely delicious and restorative nonetheless.
The next day Franz and I both slept in super late and I lazed around reading manga and packing to go back home to Richmond. An hour before I had to leave for the airport (thanks again Freddy for driving!!!) I gave Franz a tattoo of a little biblical angel-type guy around a birthmark they had on their hip. It had been a couple of months since I tattooed someone, and it felt really good to get back into the groove again with someone I feel so close to.
That being said I did almost miss my flight, but that wasn't really the fault of the tattoo. JetBlue messed up my boarding pass and the TSA agent was convinced I had a forged ticket (can you imagine!!!) and almost didn't let me through security, even though the plane was scheduled to finish boarding in some 20 minutes. Against all odds I made my flight, only to receive the terrible news when I landed for my connection in Boston that they hadn't checked me in for both flights and I had to deal with an 8 hour layover in the worst airport in the world, Boston Logan. They don't even have a McDonalds where I could get a BTS meal!! (I don't even listen to BTS, but the cajun sauce u get for the nuggets is so good....)
Finally I made it back to Richmond, and thus ends this specific tale. But don't worry! More to come soon, as I am playing two RVA raves this weekend and going to NYC to play with Prolaps in the coming two weeks. I will try to retrieve my old point and shoot digital camera ASAP so that I can start taking more photos for these blogs -- I usually take film photos, but the turnaround is super slow on that.
Much love, talk soon!
< 3 Sasha
P.S. SORRY FOR IPHONE PHOTOS!!!!! Los Angeles was completely devoid of real photos.... at least taken by me.... I will post the film photo dump later... trying to take more in the future. Lost the battery to my PowerShot....
