Wednesday, October 29, 2014

UNDERWATER PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

Saturday November 1st starting 1pm SLT (9pm CET)
Beware that daylight savings time in Europe is one week earlier than US
T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

States of Water and Songs

Water appears in nature in all three common states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) and may take many different forms on Earth: water vapor and clouds in the sky, seawater in the oceans, icebergs in the polar oceans, glaciers in the mountains, fresh and salt water lakes, rivers, and aquifers in the ground.

Yes, these are my favorites songs!

STEAM

RAIN

RIVER


SEA


ICE

WATER

Water is a transparent fluid which forms the world's streams, lakes, oceans and rain, and is the major constituent of the fluids of living things. As a chemical compound, a water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms that are connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at standard ambient temperature and pressure, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice; and gaseous state, steam (water vapor).
Water is the chemical substance with chemical formula H2O: one molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom.

Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface. It is vital for all known forms of life. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in seas and oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.

Water on Earth moves continually through the water cycle of evaporation and transpiration (evapotranspiration), condensation, precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land. Water used in the production of a good or service is known as virtual water.

Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other lifeforms even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and gross domestic product per capita. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%. Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. Approximately 70% of the fresh water used by humans goes to agriculture.

T.R.A.C.S TRANCE PARTY

Last Saturday, much guests followed us into the world of electronic dance music.
DJ INFA played tracks with 125 to 160 beats per minute, and even more beats, that lead us into a state of hypnotism and heightened consciousness.
Here is my set of snapshot. 

Friday, October 24, 2014

Same Love


"Same Love"
When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay,
 'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight.
 I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
 She's like "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-k, trippin'."
 Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?
 Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.
 I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league."
 A preconceived idea of what it all meant
 For those that liked the same sex
 Had the characteristics
 The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
 And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
 Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
 Playing God, aw nah here we go
 America the brave still fears what we don't know
 And "God loves all his children" is somehow forgotten
 But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
 I don't know

And I can't change
 Even if I tried
 Even if I wanted to
 And I can't change
 Even if I tried
 Even if I wanted to
 My love
 My love
 My love
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm

If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
 Have you read the YouTube comments lately?
 "Man, that's gay" gets dropped on the daily
 We become so numb to what we're saying
 A culture founded from oppression
 Yet we don't have acceptance for 'em
 Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
 A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
 Gay is synonymous with the lesser
 It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion
 Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment
 The same fight that led people to walk outs and sit ins
 It's human rights for everybody, there is no difference!
 Live on and be yourself
 When I was at church they taught me something else
 If you preach hate at the service those words aren't anointed
 That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned
 When everyone else is more comfortable remaining voiceless
 Rather than fighting for humans that have had their rights stolen
 I might not be the same, but that's not important
 No freedom 'til we're equal, damn right I support it

(I don't know)

And I can't change
 Even if I tried
 Even if I wanted to
 My love
 My love
 My love
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm

We press play, don't press pause
 Progress, march on
 With the veil over our eyes
 We turn our back on the cause
 'Til the day that my uncles can be united by law
 When kids are walking 'round the hallway plagued by pain in their heart
 A world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are
 And a certificate on paper isn't gonna solve it all
 But it's a damn good place to start
 No law is gonna change us
 We have to change us
 Whatever God you believe in
 We come from the same one
 Strip away the fear
 Underneath it's all the same love
 About time that we raised up... sex

And I can't change
 Even if I tried
 Even if I wanted to
 And I can't change
 Even if I tried
 Even if I wanted to
 My love
 My love
 My love
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm
 She keeps me warm

Love is patient
 Love is kind
 Love is patient
 Love is kind
 (not crying on Sundays)
 Love is patient
 (not crying on Sundays)
 Love is kind
 (I'm not crying on Sundays)
 Love is patient
 (not crying on Sundays)
 Love is kind
 (I'm not crying on Sundays)
 Love is patient
 (not crying on Sundays)
 Love is kind
 (I'm not crying on Sundays)
 Love is patient
 Love is kind


"Same Love" is the fourth single released by Seattle-based hip hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis from their 2012 debut studio album, The Heist. The track, featuring vocals by Mary Lambert, talks about the issue of gay and lesbian rights and was recorded during the campaign for Washington Referendum 74, which, upon approval in 2012, legalized Same-sex marriage in Washington State. The song reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and reached number 1 in both New Zealand and Australia. The song was nominated at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year.
The song was featured as a part of YouTube's Pride Week.

Rik shared this ▼ video on Face Book and that is why I got the idea to post it. Thank you, Rik.
A video Created as the closing act for Mardi Gras 2014. The song was performed Live By Adam George, Nathan Mahon and Marcia Hines, here is used the original track By Macklemore and Ryan Lewis "Same Love"

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

TRANCE PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

TRANCE (music genre)

Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s in Germany. It is characterized by a tempo of between 125 to mid 160 beats per minute (BPM), repeating melodic phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. Trance is a genre on its own, but also will include other styles of electronic music such as techno, house, pop, chill-out, classical music, and film music. 
A trance refers to a state of hypnotism and heightened consciousness. This drifting sensation is portrayed in this genre by mixing many layers and rhythms to create build and release. For example, a characteristic of virtually all trance songs is the soft mid-song breakdown, beginning with and occurring after the orchestration is broken down and the rhythm tracks (typically provided by a Roland TR-909 drum machine) fade out rapidly, leaving the melody, atmospherics, or both to stand alone for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Although this genre can be devoid of vocals, with mixes done by semi-amateurs posted online at informal locations, mixers who have gained recognition of major labels put out mixes for the radio market with mostly but not limited to female vocals, typically soloists and notably photogenic. Vocal talents range from mezzo-soprano to soprano sometimes without verse/chorus structure. These are categorized as vocal trance. Vocals have been described as "grand, soaring, and operatic" and "ethereal female leads floating amongst the synths".

Origins
Germany is regarded as the birthplace of electronic trance music, with the original melodic trance sound first appearing around 1993 in Frankfurt.

The origin of the term is uncertain; one theory suggests that the term is derived from the Klaus Schulze album Trancefer (1981). The earliest reference to 'trance' in modern dance music is British act The KLF on their 1988 track What Time Is Love (Pure Trance 1), on which the record sleeve is also annotated 'Pure Trance'. Dance 2 Trance is also an early example of trance music, having first released single in 1991.
Other schools of thought argue the name may refer to an induced emotional feeling, high, euphoria, chills, or uplifting rush that listeners claim to experience, while other suggestions trace the name to the actual trance-like state the earliest forms of this music attempted to emulate in the 1990s before the genre's focus changed.

Some trace Trance's antecedents back to Klaus Schulze, a German experimental electronic music artist who concentrated in mixing minimalist music repetitive rhythms and arpeggiated sounds. In truth it was really Sven Vath, his labels and others in the same group that saw the initial releases of trance. In France, Jean Michel Jarre, an early electronic musician, released two albums in the late 1970s: Oxygène in 1976 and Equinoxe in 1978. Also a possible antecedent, Neil Young's 1982 electronic album, Trans, bears resemblance to the trance music genre. Another possible antecedent is Yuzo Koshiro's electronic soundtracks for the Streets of Rage series of video games from 1991 to 1994. It was promoted by the well-known UK club-night megatripolis (London, Heaven, Thursdays) whose scene catapulted it to international fame.

Examples of early Trance releases include but are not limited to German duo Jam & Spoon's 1992 12" Single remix of the 1990 song The Age Of Love., German duo Dance 2 Trance's 1990 track "We Came in Peace".

One writer traces the roots of trance to Paul van Dyk's 1993 remix of Humate's "Love Stimulation". However, van Dyk's trance origins can be traced further back to his work with Visions Of Shiva, which were his first ever tracks to be released. In subsequent years, one genre, vocal trance, arose as the combination of progressive elements and pop music, and the development of another subgenre, epic trance, had some of its origins in classical music., with film music also being influential.

Trance was arguably at its commercial peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Armin Only is an all-night electronic dance event featuring solo performance by Armin van Buuren. The event consists of trance music, light, laser and firework shows and supporting acts of vocalists or artists such as Sharon den Adel, Nadia Ali, Racoon, Ilse de Lange, Audrey Gallagher, Richard Bedford, Eller van Buuren.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

TRANCE

Trance denotes any state of awareness or consciousness other than normal waking consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.

The term trance may be associated with hypnosis, meditation, magic, flow, and prayer. It may also be related to the earlier generic term, altered states of consciousness, which is no longer used in "consciousness studies" discourse.

Etymology
Trance in its modern meaning comes from an earlier meaning of "a dazed, half-conscious or insensible condition or state of fear", via the Old French transe "fear of evil", from the Latin transīre "to cross", "pass over". This definition is now obsolete.

Working models
Dennis R. Wier, in his 1995 book, Trance: from magic to technology, defines a simple trance as a state of mind being caused by cognitive loops where a cognitive object (thoughts, images, sounds, intentional actions) repeats long enough to result in various sets of disabled cognitive functions. Wier represents all trances (which include sleep and watching television) as taking place on a dissociated trance plane where at least some cognitive functions such as volition are disabled; as is seen in what is typically termed a 'hypnotic trance'. With this definition, meditation, hypnosis, addictions and charisma are seen as being trance states. In Wier's 2007 book, The Way of Trance, he elaborates on these forms, adds ecstasy as an additional form and discusses the ethical implications of his model, including magic and government use which he terms "trance abuse".

John Horgan in Rational Mysticism (2003) explores the neurological mechanisms and psychological implications of trances and other mystical manifestations. Horgan incorporates literature and case-studies from a number of disciplines in this work: chemistry, physics, psychology, radiology and theology.

Working definitions
The following are some examples of trance states:
  • Enchantment: a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation
  • A state of mind in which consciousness is fragile and voluntary action is poor or missing
  • A state resembling deep sleep
  • Capture: attract; cause to be enamored; "She captured all the men's hearts"; in the sense of entranced
  • A condition of apparent sleep or unconsciousness, with marked physiological characteristics, in which the body of the subject is thought by certain people to be liable to possession
  • An out-of-body experience in which one feels they have passed out of the body into another state of being, a rapture, an ecstasy. In a general way, the entranced conditions thus defined are divided into varying degrees of a negative, unconscious state, and into progressive gradations of a positive, conscious, illumining condition.
  • A state of hyper or enhanced suggestibility.
  • An induced or spontaneous sleep-like condition of an altered state of consciousness, which is thought by certain people to permit the subject's physical body to be utilized by disembodied spirits or entities as a means of expression
  • An altered state of awareness induced via hypnotism in which unconscious or dissociated responses to suggestion are enhanced in quality and increased in degree
  • A state induced by the use of hypnosis; the person accepts the suggestions of the hypnotist
  • A state of consciousness characterized by extreme dissociation often to the point of appearing unconscious.

Trance conditions include all the different states of mind, emotions, moods and daydreams that human beings experience. All activities which engage a human involve the filtering of information coming into sense modalities, and this influences brain functioning and consciousness. Therefore, trance may be understood as a way for the mind to change the way it filters information in order to provide more efficient use of the mind's resources.

Trance states may also be accessed or induced by various modalities and is a way of accessing the unconscious mind for the purposes of relaxation, healing, intuition and inspiration. There is an extensive documented history of trance as evidenced by the case-studies of anthropologists and ethnologists and associated and derivative disciplines. Hence trance may be perceived as endemic to the human condition and a Human Universal. Principles of trance are being explored and documented as are methods of trance induction. Benefits of trance states are being explored by medical and scientific inquiry. Many traditions and rituals employ trance. Trance also has a function in religion and mystical experience.

Richard J. Castillo (1995) states that: "Trance phenomena result from the behavior of intense focusing of attention, which is the key psychological mechanism of trance induction. Adaptive responses, including institutionalized forms of trance, are 'tuned' into neural networks in the brain and depend to a large extent on the characteristics of culture. Culture-specific organizations exist in the structure of individual neurons and in the organizational formation of neural networks."

Kay Hoffman (1998) states that: "Trance is still conventionally defined as a state of reduced consciousness, or a somnolent state. However, the more recent anthropological definition, linking it to 'altered states of consciousness' (Charles Tart), is becoming increasingly accepted."

Kay Hoffman (1998) asserts that: "...the trance state should be discussed in the plural, because there is more than one altered state of consciousness significantly different from everyday consciousness."

States of consciousness
There are some brain states in which consciousness seems to be abolished, including dreamless sleep, coma, and death. There are also a variety of circumstances that can change the relationship between the mind and the world in less drastic ways, producing what are known as altered states of consciousness. Some altered states occur naturally; others can be produced by drugs or brain damage. Altered states can be accompanied by changes in thinking, disturbances in the sense of time, feelings of loss of control, changes in emotional expression, alternations in body image and changes in meaning or significance.

The two most widely accepted altered states are sleep and dreaming. Although dream sleep and non-dream sleep appear very similar to an outside observer, each is associated with a distinct pattern of brain activity, metabolic activity, and eye movement; each is also associated with a distinct pattern of experience and cognition. During ordinary non-dream sleep, people who are awakened report only vague and sketchy thoughts, and their experiences do not cohere into a continuous narrative. During dream sleep, in contrast, people who are awakened report rich and detailed experiences in which events form a continuous progression, which may however be interrupted by bizarre or fantastic intrusions. Thought processes during the dream state frequently show a high level of irrationality. Both dream and non-dream states are associated with severe disruption of memory: it usually disappears in seconds during the non-dream state, and in minutes after awakening from a dream unless actively refreshed.

A variety of psychoactive drugs and alcohol have notable effects on consciousness. These range from a simple dulling of awareness produced by sedatives, to increases in the intensity of sensory qualities produced by stimulants, cannabis, empathogens–entactogens such as MDMA ("Ecstasy"), or most notably by the class of drugs known as psychedelics. LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, and others in this group can produce major distortions of perception, including hallucinations; some users even describe their drug-induced experiences as mystical or spiritual in quality. The brain mechanisms underlying these effects are not as well understood as those induced by use of alcohol, but there is substantial evidence that alterations in the brain system that uses the chemical neurotransmitter serotonin play an essential role.

There has been some research into physiological changes in yogis and people who practice various techniques of meditation. Some research with brain waves during meditation has reported differences between those corresponding to ordinary relaxation and those corresponding to meditation. It has been disputed, however, whether there is enough evidence to count these as physiologically distinct states of consciousness.

Monday, October 20, 2014

GREEK PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

DJ Cat is back and she made a great comeback, last Saturday at T.R.A.C.S. She had made a 2 hour set with, danceable, all original Greek songs. It was a great party and we all had a lot of fun dancing the syrtaki. 
Here are the snapshots I made during the event.
DJ CAT
ONE MORE TIME...............................