Ilyia Kaushansky

Unbelievable, Absolutely Unbelievable !

This year's Love Parade was even bigger, more fun than last year, and the weather could not have been any better! Tens of thousands of people dancing and going absolutely nuts to the variety of musical styles(all electronic), anything from House to Trance to Drum'n'Bass.

The parade started at 1PM at 2nd and Market St, and then proceeded to the Civic Center. As last year, during the parade I was following the Psy Trance float with an Indian DJ. That was the float to be at - crazy beats and people did not hold back when it came to dancing, jumping, smiling and just enjoying themselves to the fullest. Great energy !

The parade concluded at the Civic Center around 3PM, and turned into a giant party. So huge, in fact, that I don't even think we ever covered the entire ground. (lesson learnt: never try to meet-up with people during such big parties. It's nearly impossible, especially considering the fact that cell phones practically stopped working.)

The party was over promptly at 9PM. We took a short break, and at 11PM headed to the official afterparty at Bill Graham Auditorium. There were actually quite a few afterparties, but we chose that particular one because it featured a lot of famous Trance DJs(Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond, Blank & Jones, etc), and was supposed to be the biggest one(10,000 people). Turned out we made the right choice. The venue was very spacious, it wasn't very packed, and the sound quality was really good. All DJs that we heard played really well, but I think Ferry Corsten played the set of the night. Blank & Jones delivered their best as well, but unfortunately their set was plagued by technical difficulties.

Overall, Love Parade 2005 was a huge success, and surpassed my already high expectations !

Pictures will be coming shortly.

YES. YES. YES !

If Love Parade 2004 was any indication, this year's one should be off the hook ! With DJs such as Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk, Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten and many many others the DJ line-up is absolutely phenomenal by North American standards. I recommend everyone to attend this. Fun times are guaranteed !

I recently bought Joel's Spolsky's latest book Best Software Writing, which is a collection of software related essays written by various authors over the past few years. It is a pretty good read, though not as good as Joel's earlier book.

One essay that has I especially liked is called Closing the Gap, Part 1, by Eric Sink. It is available online free of charge, and I highly recommend reading it. It is an easy read, very humorous, and highly educational.