After the Party '96

[stev0@zuni.chaco.com (Steve Berlin)]

Every year at the Katemas party there's something being
presented.  Last year was the Total Kate Integration tape,
the year before was the Lovehounds Collection and the
Lovehounds T-Shirt, the year before that was a sneak
preview of some of the songs from The Red Shoes.  This
year it was something you didn't even have to be there to
be one of the first to enjoy:  The presenting of Gaffaweb
(http://www.gryphon.com/gaffa/  - more on that next message).

I went to the SF party, held by our humble pseudo-moderator,
Bill Wisner (motto:  "Go ahead, TRY to unsubscribe!  Bwah-ha
ha!").  IED was there, of course, but we missed the company
of ex-Katemas-hostess Karen.  Special guests were Chris'n'Vickie,
who flew in all the way from Chicago.

Vickie spent a good chunk of the party doing last-minute changes
and touch-ups on Gaffaweb.  IED played a small part (only a few
hours) of his amazing collection of tapes (only some of which I'd
never seen before).  After trouncing everyone the past couple of
years for IED's Kate Jeopardy! game, this year I got by butt severly 
trounced by Chris'n'Vickie (although the "other" team - everyone else 
in the room - held their own quite well, too).

The original plan was most of us were going to go see Sarah McLachlan,
but the show was delayed, which gave us a few more hours to party.
One of the highlights (for me, anyway) was Bill, IED, and myself having
a jam session, doing post-industrial covers of various Kate songs (and
a few other goodies).  If that Kate Covered project is still going on, we
plan to record some of the noise we made.  Earlier on, Bill 'n' I had fun
re-mixing some of the Kate MIDIs we found.  If the Residents ever do
an album of Kate covers (which wouldn't surprise me), it would probably
sound a lot like what we did.

The party ended on a but of a down note, when Chris'n'Vickie, after being
spoiled by Chicago's El, realized the ramifications of getting a hotel in
the middle of nowhere, having an 8:00 AM flight, and having the entire
San Francisco Bay public transportation system consisting of a guy named
Fred in a VW microbus.

All in all, a splendid party.  Lots of geek talk, lots of good food, lots of
great
music.  What more do you need?

- Stev0 the Pretty Hate Machine

"Oh, that's a great noise!"