It’s a fine line to walk writing about a city like the 505. You want to write about something different, but you also want to focus on those contributing. And it isn’t that there aren’t a bunch of interesting people or events, it’s just, most of the time, you gotta go out there and find them.
But let me tell you, when you get the chance, and you find something special, whether it’s hidden or right there in front of you, I don’t feel it’s fair to deny it.
That is why my focus this week is not just on a show or the DJ playing but also on what this specific DJ does during the day. I’m talking about their day job and how it may mean as much to me as any dancefloor I’ve ever experienced.
Astro-Zombies, a shop in the middle of Nob Hill, is in an area of the city that will always represent a wonderful time in my life. Ever since I was a teenage raver, it has always been a custom and even tradition to cruise Nob Hill.
No doubt the years have caused things to change, but there was once a time when it was popping. Just popping, and all we wanted to do was keep bopping.
Buffalo Exchange, Angel Alley, The Loft, Masks Y Mas, Birdland, and Astro-Zombies. All represented something different and yet all experienced in just one stroll, which is also a great way of describing the 505 as well when you think about it.
I remember we used to go to Pregnant Park just off Indian school, and we’d smash like 6 or 7 of us in my friend’s car, and we’d get mega-baked. Then we’d ride to Nob Hill and enjoy the culture all centered on that one strip of Central.
The world all around us was so alive, and so were we. It was a beautiful moment for me and for those I shared it with, and my only wish is that we could bring that back. Thankfully, there is somebody there who understands that balance.
Just last year, Chris Losack became the owner and runner of Astro-Zombies, and it makes me happy to know that he will keep it to what it’s always been to us here, who have grown up along the way.
Chris isn’t just the owner and resident comic book guy either; he is also a very talented DJ who is playing this weekend at the El Rey Mezz alongside House Proud founders the Rev and Vettaluv, and house and techno powerhouse, Xkota, for this month’s version of House Proud.
The show itself, which is only five bucks at the door, promises a night of wonderful and proper house music with a vendor market showcasing local talent.
I love what House Proud is doing for this city, and I want nothing more than for you to go and show your love on the dancefloor.
But if you have the chance, I also want you to go to Astro-Zombies and show some love for a local business that many of us have valued for decades, voted the best comic book store in the 505 for 23 years straight. With Chris, I know it will continue, and that’s enough for me to share some words.
So please go to the shop and the show. Appreciate the culture we have all around us and the people that keep it going. We owe them that.
See you at Astro Zombies and maybe on the dancefloor for what I like to call Astro House.
There are very few cities on this rave planet that can match what I seem to always experience here in the 505, and it’s almost impossible to explain. A feeling more than anything.
An understanding that there will be cities that go on for blocks that seem to never end, and then some have everything happening in one spot, all at once. Giving the people the chance to be a part of it together.
That’s exactly what’s happening tomorrow January 26th downtown as multiple clubs will be playing music from different parts of this culture we love so much. A culture constantly growing that wants only for us to grow with it.
To start, over at the El Rey Mezz we have the 505 Junglists crew doing more than just playing music and having fun; they are also developing a community of their own.
Through the combination of art, music, and creation they return with Rewind: A drum and bass experience with a lineup from their roster of versatile selectors that includes Matt Sensi, DNDY, Guy-L and Jayzo G MC.
This time is a bit special, though, as they have a very rare DnB set taking place by the maestro of New Mexico, the Rev, which is reason enough to go by.
Also included will be vendors like the NM Rave Cave, a cool spot committed to supplying the 505 with the best rave gear, and if you bring a blanket you will get $5 off entry, a great way of showing the charitable and generous side of what is a very wonderful gathering of the jungle crew every month.
If your style is more house another option just down the road at Effex nightclub is part three of a four-part series Mr. Afterhours Presents is currently right in the middle of, as they have turned the Effex lounge into a 360-degree House Sessions experience that continues to showcase the best DJs the 505 has to offer.
This edition will include a DJ just back from the Ship, also known as the Friendship, with Aaron Bliss playing alongside perhaps the most versatile DJ in New Mexico, Xblyssid.
The combination of the two is sure to create a one-of-a-kind night that will keep you warm as we slowly move away from these winter months and closer to the heat of the summer we love so much.
The commitment by all involved towards growing and building house music in New Mexico must not be overlooked as they are only gaining steam with every show. I know this one will be next level.
And finally, the show of the night, for me at least, takes place at Sister Bar just across the street from the other two as Adobe Disco celebrates five years of the best disco and house you will find here in the 505.
To celebrate they bring Chicago house mega legend Derrick Carter out for what we lovingly call Derrick does Disco, where he plays that beautiful Chicago disco sound that changed the world and saved so many of us foolish fools looking for something to believe in.
Derrick doesn’t just play house music, he also is it. A living, walking, representation of everything house is, when he plays it’s more like a musical lecture from a Ph.D. professor than anything.
He is teaching us house music, and as one of the people who will be on the dance floor this weekend, I can’t tell you how excited I am for this one. It is truly an honor to welcome Derrick back to NM, where Sister Bar will be jumping with music, laughter, and love all night long.
So please, go early, stay late, and whatever dancefloor you choose to bop on this Jan 26th, just promise me it’s exactly where your heart wants to be, and that’s enough for me.
See you on the dancefloor, dear friends.
Let’s see where it takes us this year.
I’d also like to add a special note acknowledging that the NM community lost a great person in Nicole/Nico Candeleria aka DJ Nicolatron, who was loved by many and will be missed dearly both this weekend and many more after. Please dance in honor of those we lost, as we have to cherish every moment we have together since we never know when it will be our last. RIP DJ Nicolatron. The dancefloor will not be the same without you.
I haven’t always been the biggest fan of living here in the 505. I won’t ever deny that one. Born in San Diego, the son of a sailor, I viewed this desert wasteland as exactly that, a wasteland.
How could I find beauty in something I could never be? Such a foolish question for a young man to ask. Such an easy answer for an old man to give.
What I ultimately always come back to is the fact that if I don’t like it here, why have I stayed so long? Why did I marry a girl from here? Why am I raising my children here? Why have I committed so completely? And I suppose the answer is simple. Pride.
Pride in one’s surroundings. Pride in one’s people. Pride in one’s beginnings. Which is what I have learned to have for this, my city. Pride in the 505. Pride that can best be expressed through my connection with house.
It’s everywhere I turn. Out in the streets, in the clubs and bars, even some warehouses here and there. The music just carries on with the city. Interweaving itself into the parts of this place we seem to love so much.
But that’s the thing about house music. Just like the 505 and also like I, it has grown over the years. Changed. Evolved. Expanded. Which is why we have to do our part to keep it alive.
And how do we do that? By going to the show, of course.
House lovers have the chance to do that again on the dance floor this weekend as some of my favorite DJs in New Mexico are gathering for what they so affectionately call House Proud.
Started by House music masters Vettaluv and the Rev, House Proud welcomes local favorites to share their sound and style, and this time they have Davy jones and At_One joining them for a take over of the el Rey Mez to keep things bumping in the night.
Each one has proven themselves as true representatives of where house music lives and their pride shows in every track they play. I have no doubt they will carry that sound again the way only the 505 can do.
House music all night long for only $5. I don’t think there’s much more needed to be said than that.
Good people playing good sounds in a good vibe. It’s exactly what the 505 does to keep that spirit alive.
So go early, stay all night long, and remember to show your pride, for house and also for my dear love, the 505.
I feel it fair and honest to admit to you now that the DJs I favor are not the ones whose sound or even genre I like the most. In fact, I don’t even think it’s about style or songs played either. It’s something else, I suppose. A trait I see in them. A change. Can they evolve, and have they evolved since the last time I heard them?
Isn’t that the point of all of this? Can this change you? Will you let it? Do you have the power to change it as well? Not everybody can do that. But when you do find people who can evolve, it’s suddenly so inspiring.
Which is exactly why I feel the need to write something about a DJ here in New Mexico who I feel is evolving more and more with every song, every trip, and every chance she gets to play her techno. Xkota. The current techno queen of New Mexico.
Ever since her trip to Chicago I can sense the change in her. The drive is stronger. The passion is more obvious. The doubt is gone. Xkota knows her talent, and although that was never in question, I do feel those around her can see what’s happening right now, and how for this specific DJ, there appears to be no limit.
Fresh of her high energy performance playing at the electric playhouse alongside the one they call Sara Landry, Xkota is ready to take the reins on where techno in New Mexico goes next.
This weekend she will be bringing her own New Mexico techno sound to the el Rey mezzanine for a very intimate and exclusive night of music and magic as part of Mr Afterhours Presents commitment to the local scene here in New Mexico, and the djs who keep this culture going so well.
There’s really no comparison to what djs who are a part of any local scene actually contribute, since they are the ones out there the most. Supporting each other, playing the sound that constantly evolves, keeping the beat and the spirit alive.
All you can do is respect how much Mr Afterhours Presents is supporting the djs here in New Mexico with giving them a stage, and I’m very happy to see Xkota given a chance to show where she is with both her sound and evolution at this moment and this place.
Opening for her will be Atmoze, who’s playing a rare techno set, setting the stage for what will be yet another night of that vibe we love so much.
Tickets are only 13 bucks right now, and as always the sound system will be bumping, the visuals will be proper, and the el Rey will be hot and sweaty, a respectable environment for some techno on a cold winter night surrounded by friends on the dancefloor.
So please, go early, and you better stay late to hear every single moment of what we call Xkota 2.0.
Over the course of your life as a raver there will come to be certain names or phrases that will give you the power to time travel. I know this sounds a little outrageous, but before you call me loco I can assure you it is a real occurrence.
Granted it will all be in your mind and you’ll have no actual way of proving it, but make no doubt about the fact that it is real, and I can show that by saying this one name: Derrick Carter. Here are the places I go when I think of Derrick Carter.
The first memory I have of Derrick Carter is when I must have been around sixteen years old, and the year was 2000, just before Halloween. It was for a rave called the Freaks Come Out, and it took place at the old NY Stock Exchange building over on 3rd and Central here in the 505.
It’s been a long time since that corner of the city was named just that, yet it will always represent that moment house music took over my life. At the time I had little context to understand Derrick’s contribution to house music, as I only knew he was playing at the rave, and the rave was bumping, but that was enough for me, I suppose.
I can still remember the music and the people so well, all dressed in their own version of what the rave was meant to be, spilling out of the warehouse into the city that night and onto the street. You could feel the electricity.
From there my love for the music just grew. I learned about Chicago, and Frankie Knuckles, the DJ who helped create house music in a club known as the Warehouse. It all felt so connected, and I was just one small part. Somebody lost on the dancefloor.
I saw Derrick again late in my twenties when I moved back to the 505 after finishing college. He was playing at this club downtown called Effex, and if I’m remembering it right, this would be my first time going to this specific club.
It’s so wild saying that now since I’ve spent so many nights listening to music I love so much at that place, and yet all of it started for me with going to see Derrick Carter.
That was also right around the time I learned about the Paradise Garage, which was in New York City in the 70s and was the home of Larry Laven.
I read around that time that the founder of the warehouse originally asked Larry to be the DJ in Chicago, but Larry didn’t want to leave NY, so he recommended Frankie Knuckles, and from there it was always music history.
All of it is so connected. The line appeared to be longer and deeper than I ever could have imagined as a teenage raver but was barely starting to understand in my twenties as a clubber.
After that, I didn’t see Derrick again until in my thirties at Meow Wolf. What a place that is, and yet although I know there are Meow Wolfs just about everywhere now, they’ll never compare to that one up in Santa Fe for me.
We were at this one for a friend’s birthday, and I can remember this night so clearly as one of the last I’d spend at Meow Wolf and with this specific group of friends. Shortly after this one, the quarantine would start and I guess we just lost each other in the pandemic.
They’re still out there I’m sure, but doing it separate from us, and yet that’s always been the idea with both friendship and music, hasn’t it? We just keep going. We keep dancing and learning, and following the sounds and the vibe we love so much, and then suddenly, there we are again, at the moment we thought would never happen.
That’s exactly how I felt just a little over a year ago when I finally went to see Derrick Carter play in Chicago at his home club known to all the world as Smart Bar.
It was a magical feeling taking that taxi to the club that night with the city just outside my window. It’s a feeling I relieve as often as possible. I suppose Smart Bar was always the dream, even before I knew it was there.
For over 30 years Derrick’s club night, Queen has hosted the sounds of House that have inspired the world and have helped make Chicago an epicenter of this culture we have all grown to love so much.
Many of us discovered house music as teenage fools wandering the night, and now we are adults aware of how much it has saved us over all these years. Having the chance to go see Derrick at Smart Bar was an opportunity to go directly to the source.
It’s very hard to convey exactly how it went as it happened in such a whirlwind that all I can remember are snapshots of how it felt, and sounded, and looked.
The event was all building since it was Labor Day with the main room Metro, Smart Bar being in the basement, and just about everybody in town to party in Chicago.
I would get into Metro to see concert posters of the past from artists like LCD Soundsystem all the way to Bob Dylan. The entire building was steeped in music history and with every stair I climbed I could feel how vibrant the place was.
Designed like an old theater there were multiple stories to explore and hear, but we were lucky enough to find the middle stairwell, which took us directly to the center of Metro and the perfect spot to hear Derrick playing to a packed crowd.
There are many things I can say about the instant I heard Derrick playing that night, yet all I could think of both then and now, is always the same fact. For all the years I loved house music, and studied it, and followed it, it seemed I knew nothing before that moment.
I could list facts I had read in a book or second-hand accounts from other people, and sure I could collect all the memories that led me there, but none of it would educate me any more than that moment right there on the dancefloor.
It was magic. Pure, funky, beautiful magic, and in that joy I’ll admit to you now, I couldn’t help but feel grateful. Grateful for that moment, grateful for the music, grateful to the DJ, and grateful to the person I became getting to that dancefloor.
We have very few moments where we can say, I made it, and for me, that will always be one of them. We danced for hours, wandered the hallways, discovering anything new we could about such a place.
I can even remember those stairs that lead to smart bar, and exactly what the security said to me as people were rushing up and we wanted to go down, ‘If you’re gonna go, you better go now,” he smiled, and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit too. How epic to say that at just that moment to me.
We finally made it down and danced just a little bit more. I’ll never forget how hot it was down there. We couldn’t find anywhere except right there in front of that fan, but the music was so good, we couldn’t help but stay. We were still so high from the moment. And man, the music. I can’t believe the music.
For at least twenty years I had been a house music lover, and never did I hear it quite like that. It felt like that first time, but better, because I knew how long it took to get there. The image stays in my mind as if it was always meant to be; people dancing everywhere; wonderful music everywhere. I’ll always want to get back to that one.
We stayed dancing until they kicked us out onto the street and into the Chicago night which was hotter than we expected, but still cooler than the club. Wrigley Field stood over us, and we slowly strolled under the street lights until we found the subway that took us home; with the Chicago skyline still right there outside my window.
Maybe I was a little too high, and a bit drunk from the weekend, but then again, I suppose that’s what it’s all about. That’s disco for you. A disco that’s about to happen again on January 26th, at Sister Bar here in the 505. Derrick does disco is coming to New Mexico.
Hosting Derrick for the night will be the four-headed disco Voltron called Adobe Disco as they are celebrating five years of keeping that disco vibe alive and strong out here in the desert, and I can’t think of anybody better to help make this night go off for all of us.
A Huge congratulations should be said to all four DJs involved and I wish to say thank you in advance from someone on the dancefloor. I never thought this moment would happen, and yet just like the rest, I know it’s just a part of this big giant traveling disco we all belong to now.
So please, go early, stay late, and enjoy the journey you took getting to this one. I know I did.
It isn’t always easy admitting when your heart is broken, but looking back, I know that’s exactly what was happening to me two years ago around this same time, when I decided to start Our Dancefloor.
And I suppose I shouldn’t say broken, as much as it was shattered. Just destroyed. Damaged in a way I don’t feel it had ever been before.
I wish I could say that was the end of my heartbreak, but as I’ve learned in the two years since that moment; when a heart is broken, I mean truly broken, it doesn’t ever heal, does it?
Even if you fix up that entire heart of yours, and glue it together, and do it just right, you know deep down, there’s always gonna be that one little broken part that can just ruin it all over again.
A hit in the perfect spot, and boom, shattered just like before.
But this story isn’t about my broken heart, but rather what I did with it.
And what I did with it, is I used it to drive me and my writing in a way I had never done before; which can always be viewed in the pages that consume this website.
To you, they are words on a culture and the people who make it. To me they are an attempt to run from the sleepless nights spent alone wondering how it all went wrong.
Every moment where I felt broken and alone, I guess I just kept writing, and this time it was to share how I felt about the people I met in this life. At least the ones who made a mark.
That’s why I’m writing these words today. I wanna talk to you about a moment that made a mark. A big fucking mark.
It was right before the quarantine, and the world shutting down. Which for those of us here in the 505, will always be a period associated with a magical place known only as Meow Wolf.
These days, Meow Wolf is considered an amazing multidimensional wonderland that the whole world wants to see. But back then it was different. Especially when it first opened.
Even we didn’t know what we had at first, at least before we all went and saw it for ourselves.
And then we did. Each of us one by one, and then after that, everything changed. Everything.
And I’m not even sure how to describe it. I’m not even sure if I should.
Some things are better left in the unknown mysteries and memories of the past.
My first show at Meow Wolf was for Mark Farina’s 25th Anniversary of Mushroom Jazz and it is a night I will never forget.
We wandered that place, discovering it for the first time. Laughing, and running around like children, and dancing with our eyes closed, and loving every single minute of it.
For those few years before things changed we had something more than special, we had a moment people spend their entire lives dreaming about.
We had the music, and the magical place, and the strong drinks, and the good drugs, and hotel rooms filled with laughter, but most of all, what we had that made it special, is that we had each other.
Which is how I come around to talking about Justin Martin, the DJ that to me, will always be connected to that moment and that time the most.
And not just because he’s a good dj, but it’s also something more than that. Something much harder to explain.
It hit its peak, I suppose, with his announcement that he’d do a four part residency over the course of a year at Meow wolf, playing all night long, every time.
Looking back, I don’t even think it was about one night or even one song, but rather a bunch of them.
Even as I close my eyes now, I can see so many of them flash before me again.
Being on the dancefloor as he dropped my favorite song, and then singing that song with my friends as we all walked back to our hotel after the show was over.
Standing up in the house, overlooking the small crowd, and how it always overlapped behind, and sometimes right up and around the DJ and the stage.
There wasn’t any barrier at Meow Wolf.
I’ve stood on the dancefloor next to world famous DJ’s who marveled at what we experienced every week.
We had a secret, and even if the entire world never found out about that place, we knew we had it.
There was even that one in December, when he brought his brother, and we even met his parents.
I can still remember greeting them out in the lobby, and shaking their hands while we welcomed them to New Mexico. Although, looking back, I’m sure they had been here before.
I can also remember both brothers wore funny Christmas Sweaters and they played this insanely good Drum and Bass that everybody just went mad for, just like everybody did at my first rave, which was almost twenty years ago, nearly to the day, from that night at Meow Wolf.
And where was my first rave all those years ago?
Why it was in Santa Fe, of course. And they played Drum n Bass all night long. I was fifteen back then. I’m much older now, but some things never change.
I can even remember the third one, and how we didn’t go because we agreed to be with a friend in California, but when we got there it was just drama and nonsense we never should have experienced. With my partner and I both saying the same thing.
We shoulda stayed home. We shoulda went to Meow Wolf. We shoulda saw Justin Martin.
Sometimes you regret the ones you didn’t go to as much as you cherish the ones you did.
So, with that in mind, I’d like to tell you, that this Friday, March 24th, Justin Martin is returning to the 505, but this time to the Electric Playhouse.
And I know it won’t be the same, but then again it doesn’t have to be.
What I love so much about looking back at that period in my life, is that it was my moment, with my friends, and my love.
And it didn’t have to be perfect, it just had to be ours. Which is what I hope for you now wherever you may be.
I hope you have a moment of love, and friendship, and music, and life that you wish you will always have back. A moment that seems impossible to believe if it wasn’t so real.
But, if you do ever get there, to that moment in your dreams, my best advice, is that no matter where you are, or what you like, just for a moment; whether it be on the dancefloor, or in the DJ booth, or even just some place somewhere in between.
Stop, and look around you. Look at the people you are with. The people you value. The people you love. They are what you’re going to miss when this moment is over.
The music always comes back, and the DJ will always be on the road.
But the people we find through this culture along the path that is our life, they are the ones we want to one day say to us the words every person wants to hear at least once in their lives.
The words I hope my friends will say if I ever see them again. The words I sang on that dancefloor, and walking through that parking lot, and even as I laid in bed of some random hotel room as the party continued around me.
The only words that will always remind me of that moment and this life.
The words that remind me that it’s time for Justin Martin again.
So if you find yourself with nothing to do, and nowhere to go on Friday, go on down to the playhouse. Pay for a ticket, strap on your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride.
And as we all like to say from time to time.
Go early, stay late, support the fucking culture.
Come find me on the dancefloor sometime. I’ll be the one waiting for you to say,
It has been argued that when given the option between luck and skill, it is best to choose luck, since that is something given to you by the gods; whereas skill is something you gain and strengthen over time with work.
Serendipity or Substance? Which would you pick?
In my experiences traveling this crazy planet, I have learned it is best to have a little bit of both, and this weekend coming up for the 505, is a perfect example of that.
In nearly every corner of this city electronic music will be blasting into the desert night sky, and I’m so happy to report that it’s not just one place or sound that’s doing it, but rather all of them, everywhere.
Something I never thought possible, but again, that’s where luck and skill come in.
In fact, I find this weekend so stacked that I struggle with just picking one or two to write about and instead have decided to talk about all of them. At least the one’s I have the space and words for.
Each one seems to represent the balance of luck and skill so important in this life, while still striving to represent what this culture truly stands for, whether it’s St. Patrick’s Day or not.
First, I’d like to start by mentioning the Drum and Bass crew known as The 505 Junglists and their show at the Moonlight Lounge on Friday, March 17th.
For this one comes DJ Nightstalker, joining local members of the crew Markhyphen, Philos, and Moadmoune.
Recently, the 505 Junglists had to do what many of us have had to do from time to time over the course of our lives.
They started over, which isn’t always easy, but absolutely something we here in New Mexico have learned to use as a skill.
They are trying again, giving it another shot, and they’re doing that by working as hard as anybody in this local scene to do so, while still trying to stay true to the roots of where they came from.
Honoring where they’ve been while still remaining focused on where they’re going. I commend that and can only wish them the best, as I believe this is their first headliner, and the price of $10 all night long cannot be beat.
The enthusiasm of the jungle crew can never be matched, but I’d also love to give credit to Unity Sound Co., as this will be their last show doing sound for a bit.
I have been an admirer of Pax, the man behind Unity Sound, and his professionalism while still providing quality sound ever since I got to witness it first hand, and I know this isn’t the end for his sound system, but rather just a new beginning, and I encourage everybody to go and praise him for his help.
The job of a sound guy is often overlooked and tedious, and yet their contribution can never be ignored. This night is as much a celebration of this sound system, as it is this crew.
Enjoy it one more time as it connects to the power the 505 Junglists always bring to their parties.
Another show happening on Friday, is a birthday party for non-other than one of the best in this city, DJ Ana M.
At Effex, Ana will be playing alongside DJ Codes, who is making his New Mexico debut, I believe, and of course, another one of New Mexico’s best, DJ Thumper.
From the minute I heard DJ Thumper play I’ve loved her sound, spontaneity, and taste in music, which is something I know you can say about Ana M as well.
I am very happy to see that Rave Cenit, perhaps my favorite group in this entire state, has slowly been connecting with Mr. Afterhours Presents, who continues the string of great shows one after the other for the night we all now will always know as WE HOUSE FRIDAYS.
I can’t say enough how special it is that these two DJ’s will be sharing a stage under the spring skies this weekend, as I believe the only way the New Mexico rave scene survives is by sticking together.
We have Peace, we have Love, we are working on Respect, but now we need Unity.
With the drive and commitment of people like Mr. Afterhours presents and the creativity and unity that Rave Cenit shows, I know this is only the beginning of something wonderful.
Plus, if you don’t get enough from either show that night, don’t worry, cause at the Hall, from 1am-4am, we have a very special edition of Ana M’s Mixxd series, with an afterparty showcasing Xkota, Chiddy, femme.antics, and the one and only The Rev keeping the party going.
What I like so much about this one is not just that it’s at one of my favorite spots in the city, or even that it’s my favorite kind of party – an afterparty- but also because I know the DJ’s playing represent more than just the sounds coming out of the speakers.
Every single one of these artists have given more to this culture than just their music, and I’m so happy that in this moment and at this time they all have found each other.
What this night becomes is not just a chance to dance into the cold dark night under the cool mountain moonlight, but it’s also something so much more. The sounds coming out of the hall will be the sounds of people who have earned this moment, with drive, devotion, and support for our culture.
If there were one show I’d want you to go to this weekend, it would be this one. As each DJ belongs in this moment and this time. You have no idea how long an artist must go in order to say that, and still here we are.
Be happy for them. I know I am.
Both shows require you to pay at the door, so please, don’t miss out on these ones.
If Friday isn’t enough fun for you, don’t worry, there’s still one more show I’d like to squeeze in, that will end the weekend right for you, as Sister bar is getting taken over again by the group simply and proudly known as Adobe Disco.
Hot off of what I’m told was an outrageously amazing anniversary party with New York Legend Eli Escobar, the Adobe Disco crew return to the hot, funky, sweaty, and drunken filled mess that can only be called Sister bar.
In the heart of Downtown here in the 505, Sister bar will not only be serving some bomb as hell tacos, but they will also be providing the setting for the never ending b2b that is Adobe Disco.
Each DJ represents their own sound and background, and yet each also has found a way to their story through house. When merging that with the skills of the others in the group what you have now is a bit of a Voltron of Disco Music.
They play funky, they play real, they play solid all night long, and they are only growing both in their community, and also in their ability.
Combine that with the décor and lighting of the very creative and very original On-Syt and you get a one of a kind, unique experience every time you’re on the dancefloor at an Adobe Disco show.
Price at the door is only $5 but I caution you to please plan to arrive early, as I’ve experienced myself once, that this is the kind of party you might be left out in the cold from if you don’t make it in time.
In closing, I know these aren’t the only shows this weekend, and I also know St. Patrick’s day isn’t the only reason to go party either, but that is what’s so special about life sometimes, and I suppose about people.
We will work and work and work and work, and then just like that, we’ll look for any reason to just stop and enjoy ourselves.
That’s what this weekend really is, a chance to stop, and enjoy where our community is right now.
We’ve been through so much, both together, and alone in our own struggles, and as we carry forward all I can say is simply to keep going. If you’ve made it this far, and you’ve read my words, I wish to use them to tell you there’s still more to do.
Still more to see, still more to experience. New friends to make. New loves to be made. New Music to be heard. Now moments to have.
So, no matter what show you pick, just make sure it’s where your heart belongs.
And as they say around here from time to time, go early, stay late, support the fuckin culture.
Luck and skill may have gotten us here, but so did something else. Love.
We’re here because of love. So, please, get out on that dancefloor, and show it this weekend.
Released in the year 2000, when I was sixteen years old and already a raver for at least a year and a half, Groove follows the story of multiple people attending the same underground warehouse rave in San Francisco.
All of them there for different reasons, and all of them having different experiences in that one same night.
From the opening credits the constant influx of sounds, images, and vibrations are a wonderful introduction into the true life of a raver at the time.
Consumed by the dancefloor by night and the message boards by day, we’d scour every inch for hints of the next rave in both the real and cyber world, all ending up and also starting with what we used to lovingly call, the map point.
At the map point is where the main characters are introduced, and although there are many stories going on, I’d like to mainly focus on one, the journey of the educated introvert, David, as he attends a rave for the first time, a storyline I suppose we can all relate too in one way or the other. And what a night for him it would truly end up being.
Tagging along with his brother, he is as wide eyed as they come even though he is obviously already a full grown man. What this does is it instils the idea, that when entering this world, we are all completely naïve and unaware at the beginning, no matter where or when we started.
I can remember this feeling so well. The unknown of the warehouse that awaited my entrance. The look on the eyes of the people who have already been. Their commitment to the point of devotion.
All strangers in the sunlight but something so much more in the darkness of night.
This is what the rave asked of us. I don’t feel much has changed.
As they finally arrive at the rave, the storyline begins to correlate with the DJ’s playing, and how they change and progress as the night goes on. Which I love since it represents a DJ set itself.
Starting at one place and ending with something completely different, and if done properly, a representation of not just the person playing, but the entire night.
First is a small time local DJ named Snaz, just happy to be there, just happy to be a part of the crew, even if its only to have music when the doors are opened.
Such importance to that roll, though. Such responsibility in starting the night and creating the first vibe. For many people the opener’s music is going to be the first music they hear that night, and for David it’s the first sound he hears as he walks in the door.
Which is also right around the time he takes his first hit of ecstasy, an equally life changing experience as the first time at a rave, so when experienced together it becomes a legendary opportunity, for David at least.
But were any of us so different? As time goes on we pretend to be the jaded know it all, but deep down, we know the reason why we still go every night is because we want that feeling again.
That explosion in our brain that changed everything. That high we still chase to this day.
I know it. You know it.
After the opener comes Polywog, a character all on her own, and yet just as equal a part of the experience.
There are two moments that stand out about Polywog’s place in this story, and the first is the moment she lays her track over the opener’s.
The minute it drops the power goes up and so does the energy and I can tell you without thinking this moment happens at nearly every stop I make. The moment the gathering becomes a party, and people don’t just dance, they also let go.
The second moment involving Polywog, is when David has somehow wandered the Rave long enough to find Leyla, a bit of a rave angel, who doesn’t just save him from having a bad trip, but she also leads him onto the dancefloor just as Polywog is in the middle of mixing two records.
This moment shows the power a DJ who is skilled at their craft can have over not just the sounds, but also our own feelings. They can control the vibrations and frequencies in such a way that either madness or pleasure can happen. Sometimes both. But not most times.
What David is experiencing is again, a rite of passage we all must pass through in order to let it change you, and yet as he is experiencing this, we must also acknowledge, there are others at the Rave that this epiphany just doesn’t happen to. And we can try and show them the way, and offer them peace, but still it may fall on deaf ears.
That is the way of the Raver. We can share our joy with the entire world and still they may never even stop to notice us dancing in the darkness they created. I don’t feel that detail will ever change.
From here comes a moment that truly represented the time and state of mind of the Rave during the turn of the century, with first a Techno DJ, and then after that, Drum and Bass taking over the sound system. Such contrasting sounds from Polywog before them and even Snaz before that, but that was the point.
Nowadays we all have our own cliques, and our own shows to promote, and our friends to rally behind, but back then we didn’t have that luxury, and I suppose we didn’t need it. All sounds and styles were represented on the dancefloor and everybody was treated equally.
The Trance kids danced with the Jungle Crew, just like the Techno fam bounced with the House heads, and there was always, I mean always, a break dance circle at some point throughout the night.
There was no separation of sounds, and because of that, no separation of our culture. What is now considered a gimmick with one stage, we once knew as the standard and only way. What it did is it broke down those barriers we made around ourselves and between each other. The barriers I can feel that are going up again, especially here in the 505.
With all its dramatics, and cheesy lines, and goofiness, Groove is an attempt to represent a moment in our lives we knew so well. The moment where the impossible seemed real and when magic stopped being something we just saw in the movies. It was now something we were a part of.
From there comes another moment we all experienced just like all the rest. The moment the Rave gets busted.
As David is falling in love, with both a woman, and the rave itself, a police officer is wandering the warehouse looking for an excuse to shut it down.
Played by Nick Offerman, who would later go on to play one of my favorite characters of all time, Ron Swanson from the show Parks and Rec, the officer agrees to let them keep going as long as they kept it down and safe.
A moment that happened often back then.
At any moment a cop may be standing there ready to arrest you if you gave him a reason, and the fact that most of us were underage and on drugs wasn’t helping our cause. It’s so funny to think how dangerous it actually was, but lets be honest, that was part of the fun, right?
But with great fun comes the constant counter. Often times the cop wasn’t so nice and he’d come back to shut the whole thing down, which is exactly what this officer does later in the night as people from another rave crowd around the outside.
What was once a small gathering was now a busted event, with the headliner never even having the chance to show up.
For everyone involved it’s a disaster and major letdown, with David himself losing Leyla in the crowd, and eventually finding his brother again as he wandered the street in the night. Typical way a broken up rave usually ends.
But this is where a bit of Hollywood comes in with even a movie like Groove. Just as the people filed out and the warehouse is quiet again, the headliner shows up ready to play his set, and who is the headliner for this one?
None other, than legendary DJ John Digweed, who at the time was already a massively respected and admired DJ by all corners of the Rave World, and not much has changed to this day.
With Digweed’s presence and enthusiasm now included, the four people throwing the rave decide to find a generator, invite everybody back, and finish the rave in the proper way, with Digweed spinning the last track.
As we see Raver’s slam red bulls or even dose back up, we cut right into a wonderful return to the dancefloor as Digweed is already well into it and playing an absolutely epic song that I’d find years later, called Virtua Trancer.
Even the head of the crew decides to relinquish his authority to spend the rest of the night dancing, enjoying it with the rest of the people brave and devoted enough to come back.
And it’s at this moment, that the magic truly happens not just for everybody on the dancefloor, but also for myself as well, and I’d like to finally tell you why.
Right around the time Groove came out, I had gone to my first outdoor rave, a two day one called Rumors that they had somewhere out near three sided hole in Rio Rancho or something.
Rumors was a part of a wonderful moment for the New Mexico rave scene, and for myself as well. So much of my past connects to that weekend, and in this case, the music is the perfect example.
Somewhere during the weekend, I heard a song, and I loved it without question as soon as I heard it. And not only that, but the crowd loved it as well. Everybody everywhere on that dancefloor was just getting down, and going crazy, and enjoying every moment.
That song lit up the dancefloor unlike any song I have heard since, and I wondered for a long time what that song was. Would I ever hear it again? Did it even have a name?
For the longest time we’d just call it ‘The Rumors song’. I mean, it’s not like we could go on the internet and search it out. Spotify, Apple Music, all that stuff were at least a decade away, and unless we stood over the DJ as they played their track, we had no way of knowing what it really was.
It took me a long time to hear that song again, and I didn’t actually hear it anywhere. That is, until Digweed mixed in his final track.
I remember that day so well, we were at Sonya and Serge’s house over on Broadway, and there must have been at least 10 of us that day. All young with nothing better to do.
So we’d just hang and smoke and watch vhs tapes until the people with cars showed back up.
So I’m sitting there and sure enough, he mixes, and boom, it’s the Rumors song, and not all of us were at Rumors, so not all of us noticed. I suppose they think of it as the Groove song, but I suppose that’s part of the point.
Any song at any moment can mean anything to anybody, and yet sometimes a song doesn’t just do that, but it finds a way to unite us all. To bring forth from our memories that moment and feeling where we knew this movement would change the world.
But Rumors, just like the rave in Groove, eventually came to an end, and with that came the sunrise and the realization that life goes on and so does the beat. For that wonderful moment I felt out there in the desert, I now knew I had something to come back to as a way of remembering what it meant to me, which I suppose was the point of the movie as well.
The actors weren’t the best, the storyline had some holes and obvious stereotypes. The plotlines were simple, but then again they just didn’t have to be so complicated. Wasn’t that what we loved about the rave in the first place?
In closing, there is one thing I’d like to reference before I say my last words about groove, and although there are many parts and storylines In this one night that deserve mention, I feel the final one is perhaps the cheesiest.
The nod.
It’s mentioned before Digweed goes on, and it’s shown at the end of the night as David thanks Ernie for the show.
“I really needed this.” And he nods.
I understand how foolish and over the top this really is, but I can also assure you it is a very real thing, whether we want to admit it or not.
The people on the dancefloor need this. We need it to get through, we need it to help us stop and enjoy or lives, but most of all, we need it to find each other.
Where would we be if the music didn’t lead us into each other’s lives? Who would we be?
The music may be the excuse for being there, but never the reason. Groove knows that and so do I.
So, as the movie comes to an end, and everybody goes their separate ways, ready to return to their normal lives for just a little bit more, at least until the next one; the idea and message is clear.
If we don’t stop every now and then, and notice the beauty that surrounds us, both in the Rave and in each other, it may very well one day just pass us by.
Say thank you for the moment, and for the music, and even those awkward moments we won’t have back. Even if you don’t realize it, the promoter may need that thanks the same way you needed the dancefloor.
I know how cheesy that sounds. But so does a movie based on a rave. Which is why we love it. And all I hope for you, if you’re reading these words, is that one day, you’ll have a Rumors moment of your own, and that while you’re having it, you’re surrounded by the people you love.
Come find me on the dancefloor some time. I’ll be trying to find my Groove.
I’ve spoken many times about the Loft, and at other subtle moments, I’ve even tried to include it in my writing, but never before today, have I chosen to write on it so directly, and I wish I had a reason why.
I suppose it’s like many things and even people in our culture, rave culture, these days. If we don’t make a point to stop and remember them we may forget what it meant to that moment and that time.
Although, as the winds pick up, and the Icey chill of the New Mexico Desert winter is upon us again, I can’t help but recall the time when such a place, and such a moment could exist. And how it all changed my life.
The first time I went to the Loft I must have been around fifteen years old, and a sophomore at West Mesa High School. It wasn’t much of a place, still isn’t.
Designed like a prison, the school revolved around one center courtyard where all the students had to be shoved in one area together during our break times in the yard. It was strange being so young and yet seeing so many different types of people.
That’s actually the place I saw Ravers for the first time. The same people who would eventually take me in and adopt me as one of their own, taking me to my first rave, where I took my first hit of acid, and I heard electronic music in a warehouse for the first time. It was, not to repeat myself, life changing.
But after that first rave, something happened that I did not expect at first. I wanted to go again. And not just go to the rave and get fucked up, but rather it was more than that. I wanted to be a part of it.
I wanted to commit to it like I never committed to school, or baseball, or even the two and a half girlfriends I had up to that point.
That’s what led me to the Loft. Not drugs, or partying, or even the music yet. It was just simply wanting to find where I belong.
If you have not heard of the Loft before, it was this little record shop on Nob Hill that was open for I just don’t know how long, and it’s entrance was a single glass door that sat right next to the Buffalo Exchange, a place I had gone too quite a few times before ever realizing there was a record shop right above it.
You could hear the music floating down sometimes, though, it’s just you wouldn’t think much of it when you were young. Just another secret of being a grown up that I’ll learn in due time, eventually. But what happens when eventually arrives?
I can remember the first day my friends took me to the Loft. It was a tradition and process we’d do many many times after that and it always seemed to have the same repetition.
Start by meeting up at somebody’s house, go to a park to smoke some weed, maybe Pregnant Park or even Roosevelt, depending on which was closer, then head down to nob hill to just cruise and enjoy everything.
It was a cool time in our lives. Birdland, Angel Alley, Astrozombies, Buffalo Exchange, and of course the Loft; which I don’t think had a sign outside, although I’m not sure If I’m remembering it right on this one. Do you?
As soon as you opened the door it’s like the beat would drop just for you. All you saw were stairs at first, but you could just sense that up around that corner was something amazing, and with each step you climbed closer to whatever that magic was.
I can still remember exactly how it felt all these years later, and I’ll even admit it makes the hair stand up on my arms just a little bit. Still, it means so much to me.
When you finally got to the top and turned the corner, it’s as if you just couldn’t believe what you saw next.
It was like discovering a new Universe.
Shelves and shelves of records, just sitting there, in order and organized, waiting to be searched through, and analyzed, and most of all, played.
There were windows all over the studio that overlooked Central below from the second floor it fit into so comfortably.
At the end of the shelves towards the back were some turntables with headphones for you to give a simple listen to all of the records now sitting in front of and around you.
I get deep
I think there were also some couches too, but I can’t seem to remember that part. Then across from that, spanning across the back wall was a counter where the employees always stood, shuffling through records and discussing so much.
The employees were probably the biggest part of what made the Loft the Loft, though, because of the simple fact that every single of them seemed to be a local DJ from the city.
All ones we knew and recognized very well. So we’d literally go to the rave every weekend and dance to them DJ’ing, and then we’d go and buy records from them all throughout the week.
We can make Sandwiches
It was a strange occurrence in the moment, but not completely one I realized until years later now that it’s gone.
What the Loft eventually became was a CenterPoint for what was slowly and quietly becoming its own culture.
And I’m not saying the Loft was the only spot, or even the first, or the last, I’m just saying, when I became a raver, that’s the place I’d go to find out about the next one, and the next one, and the one after that.
Or maybe if I heard a dope track at the rave this weekend, I’d probably find it at The Loft, cause like I said, that’s where the DJ’s were.
So after a while it just became something more than just a record store. It became a place we could go in the sunlight, just like the rave was somewhere to go in the night.
In fact one of my favorite memories from that era involves the Loft.
It was after a night at the Lobo, which was just a couple doors down, and it was during a time when they had a little stretch of raves there for a bit.
And there was this DJ that ended one of the nights playing a great remix of ‘All I Do’ by the Cleptomaniacs, which was originally a Stevie Wonder song, I believe.
Such a wonderful melody to be played as the lights came on and we danced in that old Movie theatre as young foolish teenagers unaware of the adults we’d eventually become.
All we had was that, and I suppose it was enough to get us through, because it did.
But anyways, what I found so wonderful about this moment was the very fact that the very next time I went to the Loft they had that record available for sale to anybody willing to pick it.
I can remember I sat there and listened to that track over and over until the sun started to fall, and I finally had to admit I didn’t have the money to buy it yet. But I knew I’d be back.
White label remix of Electric Avenue
Although, when I finally did return, it was gone, never to be seen again. And I guess I coulda ordered it online, or found it on the road sometime, but that wouldn’t have been the same as buying it at the Loft, the way I wanted.
I eventually did start buying records, although, never that one. Even before I had a turntable, I bought records from those DJ’s at the Loft. Records still to this day, I have in my case by my bed.
With my first two purchases being tracks by Derrick Carter and Eddie Amador. Two DJ’s I’d eventually see blocks away from that very spot one day real soon.
The start of my record collection
I didn’t know that then, though. I don’t even think I knew who those DJ’s were. I was so young and naive. I just knew I had to have those tracks. And I knew my record collection had to start sooner or later.
There are many tracks I got from the Loft, and many I never had the chance to buy, but the point isn’t even about the music, in the end. Maybe it’s about something more than that.
Maybe it’s about having a place where we know we can always find each other. Where we can buy the next ticket to the next experience that’ll bring us closer to who we really want to be.
I guess we can’t have that anymore, with the new digital world we now belong to.
The record shops and ticket hubs are now online and in person interaction has become obsolete. What else can we do but adapt?
Although, the reason why I started writing about the Loft today was because of a conversation I had with my wife, who at the time we first went to the Loft together was only my girlfriend.
She brought it up maybe a week ago and I can’t remember why, but I can remember so clearly what she said.
“I remember you taking me to the Loft. You’d ride the bus to my house and then we’d smoke and ride it to nob hill together. Then we’d listen to records and chill.”
She made it sound so cool and natural. Like our lives were so much hipper than perhaps we knew at the time.
Our first love song on vinyl
While the rest of the world obsessed over money, and power and one day even fame. Our commitment, even then was towards something I still struggle to explain.
The moment we knew we were a part of so much more, and whatever that was, we knew it was enough to save us. An idea and movement I know we all still belong to now.
So with that I wish to say thank you to the Loft, for the music, and that presale I bought from you for my first outdoor rave that would, again, change my life.
Presale purchased at the Loft
Thank you for helping me dream that dream that teens often need to help them get through the sorrows of this life.
I had somewhere to go. If only for a bit, and I think that’s all we need sometimes. Most times.
Come find me in the record shop one day. But not at the Loft. Although, I know it’s still there. Don’t you?
In order to fully explain to you what the words of J.Cole meant to me in the year 2022, I feel I must admit to you now a huge detail about the two years that preceded it, 2020 and 2021.
First, for the entire year of 2021 I spent nearly all of my time on the road.
Granted, I have always been a road dog, I can’t deny that one. A self-labeled Gypsy of the American highway, I’ve always felt more at home out in the unknown, than I ever will here back in Albuquerque, and I suppose nothing will ever change that.
But looking back, 2021 was so much different than before the quarantine. I was traveling and seeing things at a quickened pace. Like I was running out of time. But I know now, it was something more than that.
Which can be explained by how I handled the year 2020.
I came out of the quarantine in 2020 for various reasons in a complete and absolute depression. Not the first time in my life, but still one of the darkest moments I’ve ever experienced.
I was hopeless, afraid, sad, consumed by pressure and responsibility, and completely unwilling to even face my own feelings. I was a mess.
I suppose I still am. I don’t think we grow out of that one. And every time it happens I am eventually aware of the severity of it, but only years later, as I try to recover. Which is what I’m at the start of doing now.
The traveling helped, and I did finally pull myself out of it, but so did something else. Lost out on the highway, consumed by my own sorrow and failure, I found the words of J.Cole.
And with those words I found my way forward. But only after a while.
I can still remember the first time I actually stopped and heard him, and it wasn’t like with Kendrick, where I’ve been a fan since the jump, or even say with Mac Miller, where a friend stopped and showed me his music, but rather the opposite.
I’ve known about J. Cole, and I’ve been aware of his reputation as a rhymer, but I was also never in a rush. I told myself, I’ll get to him when I’m ready to get to him.
In 2022 I was finally ready.
It started with a feature on another rapper’s song, ‘A lot’, by 21 Savage. His different perspective on life was immediate from his very first words. He is different.
Whereas most rapper’s are here for clout, or fame or even money, he is clearly here for the substance, and the knowledge expressed through his art.
Very much in the same style as say Erik B and Rakim, KRS-ONE, or even A Tribe Called Quest, he is an intellectual as much as he is a representation of the street he came from.
There is a higher purpose and goal at hand, though, and yet, not from a confrontational or erratic perspective.
He wants success for others even if he does not agree with the process they take to get there.
‘I never said anything Everybody has their own thing.’
The song itself is an expression on how a man can have both A Lot of success and A Lot of failure and some day he may come to a point where there is no telling the difference between one or the other.
A life is lived whether for good or bad, and as it carries forward all we can do is carry forward with it. J Cole is as aware of that fact as anybody, and I suppose I am now too.
From there I heard the next song, ‘Middle Child’, and this, on the surface, appears to be an upbeat track meant to bop when you’re out getting fucked up in the club, but that’s part of what J.Cole is playing off of.
I suppose most rappers would just be satisfied with making the club go crazy, but he uses this to speak on things you don’t hear most poets speaking of these days. Especially when it comes to money.
“I hope that you scrape every dollar you can I hope you know that money won’t erase the pain.”
Similar to the previous song he wants success for others, but he also understands the price that comes with it.
And not every price you pay is in gold.
We all achieve things in this life, and yet often times, once we get there we can only think of the things and even people we had to lose along the way.
It’s a heartbreaking truth we all learn as we get older, both with success, friendship, and even love.
Would we all want to go back and cherish what we had just a little bit more, or can we accept that we left it in the past for a reason? I still have no answer for that one.
From there comes perhaps his strongest track, ‘No Role Modelz’, which by all standards is a musical masterpiece. The way it starts.
“First things first, Rest in Peace Uncle Phil, For real. You’re the only father figure that I ever knew, Get my bitch pregnant so I could be a better you.”
When I was about a 13 or 14, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was huge, and Uncle Phil was a major part of that. He was big and strong, but also smart and kind. A proud head of the family, and true representation of a Role Model.
At the time I didn’t have the father figure that Uncle Phil was. I mean, I had a father, but he was too consumed by his alcoholism and insanity to ever notice the son he left to grow up alone.
By the time I was sixteen I was homeless, and he was remarried with a new family. Now, over twenty years later very few words have been spoken between him and I, and I don’t feel I may ever see him again.
He failed me at a point when I was not yet a man, and he was so completely aware of that failure, that all he can do now is cower in a way Uncle Phil never would.
I did not think about it until now, but I spent many years wondering the same thing. What would I have been If I had a role model? If I had somebody to believe in, and maybe if I was lucky, to believe in me too?
So long I spent on the run. Chasing the success and acceptance my father would never give me, and now I find myself a father of my own, to a son who is reaching the same age I was when Uncle Phil was in my life.
How can I live with that pain and still be strong enough to power forward? How can I want success for others while struggling so much for my own? Do any of us have that answer?
At least I’m glad J. Cole is asking those questions too.
And finally, I come to this song called ‘Apparently’, perhaps my favorite J.Cole song to date. The hope in his words, and yet still so aware of that struggle and sacrifice made to get here.
If 2020 was my year of depression, and 2021 was the year I ran from it, then 2022 was finally the year it caught up to me, after all this time always being one step ahead.
And those who live with depression know, you don’t just get cured one day. You can’t wake up and say it’s gone, because even if you think it’s gone, it may come back without you knowing, and you may not be ready this next time.
We have seen too many of those we love fail at this never-ending struggle, one J.Cole helped me understand.
“There is no right or wrong Only a Song I like to write alone Be in my zone Think back to Forrest Hills, No perfect Home.”
I spent a long time trying to come to terms with my own rights and wrongs. The people I’ve let down, the people who have let me down in return. Circles and circles of madness of what could have been, and yet always back to where I am now.
Still trying to hang on, and learn, and be something better. Trying to make some sense and even a bit of success as well, to show it was all for something. And even if I fall again, I have come to understand that losing doesn’t always mean you failed. It just means you have to keep trying.
In 2022, J.Cole, and life forced me to face more than I wanted, and yet, as I sit so squarely In 2023 all I can say is thank you for the lesson.
Ourdancefloor.net 