h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

While the majority of Ravers may indeed look like Fairies, not all fairies are ravers. In fact, there are quite a few of them who would have nothing to do with raving and electronic music all together. Instead, they prefer to sit at home reading well worn copies of "Home and Garden", "People" and "Manhole". Of course, these fairies are infinately boring and usually die lonely and bitter, eternally cursing their decision not to trapse about having a little fun.

I've never been traipsing... does it hurt?

Only if done incorrectly, or without stretching beforehand.

This seems to explain why fairy wings were the de rigueur accessory at Glastonbury this year...all the little ravers disguising themselves as fairies to fool the police. I've heard that fluorescent wellies will be next year's Glasto fashion sensation, very sensible I'd say.

I'm interested to hear that the "rave" "scene" is still thriving among the bright young things. When you get to a certain age (ie my age) it always seems preferable to dance and partake pharmaceutically in a nice warm nightclub, preferably one with comfy armchairs and a garden for when it all gets a bit too hot and sweaty on the dancefloor.

What the heck is a wellie? If it comes with the Tommy Hilfiger logo on it then it is sure to be a smash hit over here in the states. What is it about those clothes that ravers like so much?

I wish I knew more about the scene here in Texas. Then I could make fun of it with much more authority. However, I have dropped out and tuned into other areas of exploration. Am I becomming an adult?

I think 'wellie' is short for 'Wellington', aka those big plastic boots that go with the big plastic raincoats. (Am I right, JZ?) Personally, I'm sick of the baggy pants craze. I want to see the 50's James Dean look come back into style - narrow-leg jeans, white t-shirt, packet of cigs rolled up in the sleeve, leather jacket... Or else gorilla costumes.

I haven't been to a rave here in Ohio lately either, since I got this night job. I quite agree, though, that a nice club is much preferable. Pity there aren't any around here that I've found. Outland is too cramped, and too goth. Traffic Jam closed after about three weeks. I've heard ads for an 'Austin Powers'-ish themed sixties club, but I haven't had a chance to check it out.

Screw it, I have better music at home, my own strobe lights and disco balls, and I can pop in an anime video to match.

What people like about Tommy Hilfiger: The fact that lots of other people like it. How this started, I haven't a clue, because other than the logo they're identical to any other t-shirts and jeans.

Me, I buy clothes because *I* like them.

Oooh, hello, Americans.

Wellie is indeed a Wellington boot. You need them at our summer festivals because it rains so much here. Usually they are black (or green, if you're rich and had a private education). However fluorescent ones would be fine and dandy for festivals because everyone would wear them and they would glow in the UV light.

Baggy trousers were in fashion here in the early 90s, when our rave scene got off the ground. There is no discernible current fashion for blokes, but the girlies here in London are all wearing gypsy-style stuff and cowboy hats when they're out clubbing. Very fetching!

We don't have outdoor raves any more (apart from big corporate branded and sponsored ones) because it's too cold. Or am I just too old to know about them??

Riff, you and your hair grease. I swear. Next thing you know you'll be wishing handlebar moustashes and barber shop quartet hats would come back in style. I think all the taco bell you've been eating is starting to go to your head.

PS...There are LOTS of fun clubs down here...

Amen to THAT brothah!

That didn't come out right. Anyway, I think those boots actually sound pretty cool if they were all neon and such. However, I have begun to wittle my wardrobe down to mostly black white and purple material. It is so much easier to match.

I must say, even though all the little raver girls are stating to look the same, I STILL think they look quite yummie and would give Riffs left testicle for a chance to squeeze into bed with one of them while they were all toked up on X.

Am I sick?

(So /that's/ what happened to my left testicle! Give that back! I might need it someday!)

Sure, most raver chicks look alike... that's because they conform to a particular group/style. They all wear the same fashions, they all want to Belong to The Group. Thus, they all look like each other. Internal wishes affect physical reality - that's the nature of magick. It's just like frat boys - belonging to the group is very important to them, and you'd be hard pressed to tell one from another as a result. Or suits. Or professional models.

If you run into a raver chick who doesn't look like all the rest, and talk to her, you'll find someone whose not just an individual on the outside. After all, that's how you met (the girl you said got pregnant recently, can't think of her name), right?

Who? Maria? She is the only friend I can think of who is pregnant, but I don't remember telling you...odd. Well, the only thing with that is she wasn't a raver when I met her. But really, she was just fitting into another group. She was a goth kid. I introduced her to raving and she has blossomed into a sparkly little fairy.

So, do you really think that is how majic works? What you think on the indise manifests itself on the outside? My mom once gave me a book called "As You Think You Are" that kind of approached spirituality that way. In a philosophy similar to Buddhism, it says that the first step to changing who you are is to make yourself think the way you want to be. Are you sad? Do you want to be happy? Then THINK that you are happy, and BELIEVE that you are happy, and before you know it, you will be!

Maria? mm, no... I mean whatsername, the crazy one. With the chinese jump-rope. We crashed at her house once, I think. Unless that was someone else. I read her copy of Farenheit 451? She was working as a clown, or something.

That's a fun story, tho. You converted a goth! tee-hee.

re: magick, yep, it's all about belief. Remember the big craze a while ago about visualization? You spend some time practicing shooting baskets, or your golf stroke, or whatever, and you spend some time concentrating on -seeing- youself get the hole-in-one, and thus you're more likely to get it. Same thing. Someone on the zee-list once described magick as 'being able to believe the right thing for the right situation', and by extension, being the right _person_ for the right situation. Being able to be A when it's necessary to be A, and Not-A when the situation calls for that.

That's why people who are really serious about capital-m Magick often surround themselves with skulls and insence and pentacles and so forth. Big rituals make it easier to convince yourself that you're really doing something.

That's my take on it, anyway.

Actually, I really like that theory on Magick. That would mean that you can actually do it any time, sans all the tools typically used, provided you could put yourself into the right frame of mind. You are the right people, in the right place, at the right time (doing the right thing, no less).

Most of the raver chicks I know would *love* neon Wellies. The most amusing part of seeing Adrienne is that I always wind up with glitter on me, usually on something black. I'll just start telling people that I was abducted by faeries.

Well, if I am not mistaken, in the past fairies were not taken so litely, and had a bit of a mean streak to them. Kidnapping was not neccessarily out of their realm of interest. This brings us back to magick. What sort of ritual could one perform to keep raver fairies at bay?

Hypnotising them with lightsticks might work.

That Creative Visualisation stuff is really amusing, though, isn't it? There was an article about it in Cosmpolitan recently. Apparently if you want a new job, you should light a candle and whisper what you want into the flame (sounds alarmingly dangerous). Or alternatively open the window and tell it to the wind. Well forgive me for being reactionary but I always thought the best way to get a new job was to send your CV (that's resume to you) to a headhunter. Still, I might give it a go.

Almost all the really good stories about fairies give them a rather nasty streak. There was one story I liked a whole lot of a guy who went to town with his friend just before Hogmany to get some casks of whiskey for a celebration. They started home with the whiskey on their backs (and no little bit in their stomachs) and they hear music on the way. To make a long story shorter, they find a fairy knoll, and the friend decides to go in to dance "just one reel". It gets to be dark and he refuses to leave, so the friend leaves him there.

The guy who comes home gets blamed for the disappearance of the other guy. So as a last ditch effort to show himself innocent, he goes the next hogmany to the same place, and finds the knoll open again. His friend is still dancing inside, telling him just "one more reel". He doesn't believe he's been in there for a year--after all, he hasn't even finished one dance. His friend drags him out and drags him home--everyone is surprised to see him--and he finally believes when he sees that his puppy is a full grown dog.

When they finally get the barrel off his back, they find that the heavy winter clothes he was wearing are worn down where the barrel rested on his back--all the way to the skin.

I always thought that seemed a bit eerie

But the real question is If the liquer had aged a year or had it been cought in some sort of time skip spatial anomoly a la Star Trek. Speaking of which. Why doesn't Star Trek have more fairies?