Just messing around and making a music video about Dreamstate SoCal 2022 and Lane 8. Obviously, I don’t own any of the songs, nor am I monetizing this project; I wanted to piece together fragments of videos and memories to celebrate my friends and the music we shared.
Songs Cher “Believe” Lane 8 “Sunday Song” Elysian “Moonchild”
As Xmas ends and Mariah Carey sealed away til next December, I finally got the time to coerce my friends into doing a podcast thingy! In this Festies with Besties episode, Lance and Ray join me alongside new faces Lucy and Layal to recap our Tranceventures at Dreamstate SoCal last November. The event was hella sick as we saw the likes of Bryan Kearney, ATB, and Trance Jesus Armin Van Buuren!
You might want to skip around if you’re looking for a comprehensive discourse about Insomniac’s trance festival. But if you want to hear some friends share some laughs, please come along for the ride. If you were at Dreamstate this year, comment below about your experience and why you loved/hated the event.
Okay, I’m finally over the festival flu, and I’m ready to share my 14th Electric Daisy Carnival experience with y’all! With over 166k Headliners attending each night, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, this was probably my biggest EDC. I had a fantastic time, but there were a few bumps down the rabbit hole for Insomniac’s 26th Windy-C (sorry-not-sorry for the pun).
Quick SparkNotes about Electric Daisy Carnival 2022
Insomniac added a ninth stage called bionicJUNGLE for house lovers. The new addition featured Lee Foss and Felix Da Housecat.
NFTs were everywhere. Canadian star Grimes, who played a DJ set at cosmicMEADOW, and Jauz’s surprise guest Snoop Dogg were some of the few who debuted their new crypto projects this weekend. A Bored Ape even appeared during one of the midnight drone shows.
LV police diverted traffic around the speedway, so leaving the anti-PLUR parking lot wasn’t too bad. It took us about an hour to get back to our hotel each night.
The rave drip was on-point this year. Saw a lot of vibrant tanks and fishnets, furry boots, anime-themed costumes, and a whole mess of glitter! Oh, and let’s not forget about the sea of Rezz, Seven Lions, and Illenium jerseys throughout the weekend.
Frolicking Between circuitGROUNDS, quantumVALLEY, and neonGARDEN.
The talent at circuitGROUNDS this year was unreal: Tinlicker, Nora en Pure, Jason Ross, KX5, the list goes on! My favorite set, though, was no other than Eric Prydz!
For 75 minutes, Prydz created an experience so immersive that I forgot about the ginormous festival happening behind me. Illuminating visuals of stars zipping around lush planets, lightning storms, and androids whose glossy shells reflected the radiant colors of space teleported me into a Prydaverse of electrifying synths. It was a breathtaking journey across a dazzling universe as he played “Allein,” “Every Day,” and “Juletider.”
To the right of CG was quantumVALLEY. I missed Ilan Bluestone’s set, but I did catch Mat Zo, Craig Connelly, and freakin’ MaRLo. It was an emotional end for the Australian’s set as Triode and Linney (who sang live) appeared on stage for their rendition of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.” (RIP)
Just outside of QV was neonGARDEN. NG stayed true to its underground roots with a minimalistic design compared to the other eight stages. Between the dusky neon lights sweeping the crowd and the onslaught of techno reverberating off the stacks of steel containers encasing the dance floor, I felt like I was at a rave within a festival. Joseph Capriati, Charlotte de Witte, Anfisa Letyago, Deborah De Luca, and I Hate Models were some artists I saw over the weekend. Though, Adam Beyer’s three-hour set was my choice of the best act at NG.
A Negative And A Positive.
My biggest complaint about this year’s EDC is about the bathrooms by BP and NG. There was only one opening used as an exit and an entrance, so people would get stuck trying to leave or enter. There were times when I feared a trampling situation would happen. Of course, the frustration caused a few fights, and a few people got their phones stolen while crammed in the herd of ravers. The situation got better on the second and third day of EDC.
Stepping away from the negatives, one cool thing about this year’s EDC was seeing people my age or older Under the Electric Sky. Josh, 35, a travel nurse from Texas, was one of the many who brought his parents.
“My whole life, my dad has shown me different cultures, places he loved as a child, and things he didn’t have growing up,” he said. Josh knew his father would enjoy the festival because they share an interest in art, and his stepmother loves to dance. “Now my dad has a crew for next year and already has his VIP tickets secured, lol.”
“They wanted to stop everywhere and take pictures; it felt kinda like I was parenting small children because if we got separated, I couldn’t just text them to find them,” he said. Despite having the parental roles reversed, Josh could not think of any way to better celebrate his 7th EDC than by sharing it with his parents. “I think the most fun part for me was at Tiesto since it’s one of the few artists they knew; watching them dance and really enjoying the set was priceless.”
My Take Away
Reading everyone’s posts online about how they wish they were still with other Headliners Under the Electric Sky made me realize the most significant thing EDC offers is a connection with other people. I felt more PLUR this year compared to the last five years. I believe the Electric Daisy Carnival can create these magical moments of love and joy through music and adventure. Of course, I don’t want to discredit other people’s negative experiences because some things are out of your hands. But if you take the risk, I believe you’ll find a community willing to help elevate your experience (if it’s within their power, of course).
Not sure when I’ll stop going to EDC, but it won’t be soon. I hope to see y’all next year Under the Electric Sky.
A collection of videos and photos from my Ireland trip set to Lane 8’s “Don’t Let me Go” and Mumfords and Son’s “Little Lion Man.” I, obviously, don’t own any of the music and am not monetizing this video so in no way or form, I am making money from this. I just want to share my adventures with the amazing people I was with….and I also have the receipts for these songs in case anyone comes looking!
This is also my second attempt at making a video like this. After viewing it a few times I noticed there were some spots where I could have made the edits tighter but I will keep that in mind for the next time I try my hand at another music video.
Hi hi, sorry for the long hiatus, but I’ve been gone on a holiday in Ireland. I should have some videos about that coming out soon. But here is a recording where Will and Erick joined me in a conversation about growing up in Visalia as nerdy hoodrats. We talk about what it was like in a multicultural community, racism, economic disparity, being nerds, finding anime, and being hoodrats running around the ghettos of the Central Valley.
If you have your own stories about growing up in Visalia or being a nerdy hoodrat, comment down below!
Link to the second part of this recording (the realllll weeby anime stuff) Weebthusiast EP12 | https://youtu.be/ksyWX87ffGA
Timestamps 0:00:00 – The Oh Wow Nickel Arcade 1:10:48 – Skipping School to Eat at Gumbo and the Buffet at Adventure Park 1:20:41 – Being First-Generation Kids without Adult Supervision 1:31:48 – Rebelling Against my Asian Parents and Finding my Crew and Avoiding Gangs 1:41:44 – How I found Anime and The New Generation of Kids in Visalia 1:51:55 – My DDR Story and the Beef Between Fresno and Visalia Nerds 1:04:23 – I Love Growing up in the Central Valley and Bless Nobles Mom’s Heart
I sat down with local Bay Area DJ JustJovani to talk about his debut release, “It’s All the Same,” on DTL Records. The interview was over an hour, but this is just 30 minutes of essential bits of knowing Jovani Melendez. I will release the entire video in a few days, but you’ll have to make do with the Cliftnotes version.
Below are links to his new track, socials, and a show he will be playing this weekend.
Hi hi, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a video on this channel (life is still crazy), but I’m still here and bugging my friends to make podcasts with me. In this episode, Laura and Lance join me in a conversation about the rise of nerd culture and how things are…better? I guess. We also dive into discussions about what it means to be an American and find your identity and sexual identity during the growing pains of high school.
About an hour was cut out of this episode for the sake of time and will be released as shorter clips later. So watch out for those.
Comment below if you have any geeky stories you want to share, or tell us what it means to be an American.
Timestamps
00:00 – Growing up with Pokemon, When are you too old to enjoy your hobbies?
07:00 – Back in high school, freaks and geeks were not popular
15:00 – Redefining what is popular in mainstream America…and talking about P***
25:00 – Talking about WWII and my UBER Pool story about the Pacific War
32:35 – Gatekeeping now with the rise of nerd culture and fandom
40:55 –High school was a weird time, finding yourself, and Lance’s story about being g@y in HS
45:49 – Last words about finding ourselves and advice for those who are still searching
It has been some time since my last upload. I’m finally back in LA after traveling for work the previous three months…and, you know, trying to get my life together. On my first video back from hiatus, my two amazing friends, Lance and Garrett, will be joining me to discuss how our careers and goals have changed in the aftermath of Rona.
This episode will talk about The Great Resignation and some of the challenges that come with changing vocation or dreams or whatever we’re doing to pay the bills. We will discuss how our mentality has changed since our time in college and how it’s changed since facing a pandemic where we had to quarantine for 15 months. Along with the talk about change, we briefly touch upon mental health because these times have been hard for everyone. Below will be a list of resources if you need someone to talk to or a helping hand.
Comment below if you want to share how your career, goals, and dreams have shifted since the 2020 catastrophe. And also do the thumbs up and subscribe and all that stuff.
Being a child of immigrants is pretty darn hard. Your parents may have gotten you across the border, but now it’s your turn to put in that elbow grease and finish off the American Dream thing they started. In this video, Salutationsandgoodvibrations and, I will explore some of the challenges first-generation kids will have to face as they try to find the American identity for themselves and their family.
We will also talk about some of the biases in the news when it comes to reporting crimes, the chaos of having a multicultural family, and cultural appropriation with the Asian community. I’ll tell you what, trying to find your identity as your growing up between two different cultures isn’t gonna be an easy one. But I think we owe it to our parents to give it the ol’ immigrant try, eh.
If you have a story about being a child of immigrants or some kinda wonky cultural appropriation story, share with us down below…..and if you like it (sigh, I hate saying this) like, subscribe, comment, the whole jazz. . .please.
Before I even start, I want to say !!!TRIGGER WARNING!!! We will be talking about racism, hate crimes, recent attacks, sexual assault stuff, and other sensitive but real matters at hand.
Well, anywho, I got a new episode for you. . .but this time, it’s not gonna be a comedy thing. My friends Xtina, Jerome, and Erin will be joining me to talk about the recent hate crimes against Asian Americans Pacific Islanders.
In this episode, we talk about the “What about me?” mentality, racism within the AAPI community, try to figure out why there’s so much tension between other people of color and Asians, BLM vs AAPI, dealing with friends and family members who might not be so . . . nice, and everything else I mentioned or didn’t mention in the beginning.
I was super nervous about this recording because the subject just hits so close to home. I was so worried that I forgot to check my mic and lighting settings. I know it doesn’t excuse the shitty audio quality, but I’m sorry. I tried to fix it and spent almost 10 hours listening to the same 10 seconds repeatedly. Despite the recording being three hours long, I trimmed some stuff (which I will release as small clips).
So I hope y’all will, I guess, enjoy the show. Some stuff I want to mention: AWA was started in the Bay Area, I was wrong. And the importance of empathy and realizing the enemy is not one race but a system within America we have to change. We have to be careful not to weaponize our cause against anyone else; everyone’s experience is valid and their own. Below I linked a bunch of resources for more information. There are also sites where you can report hate crimes and get legal help.
If you have a story you would like to share, leave a comment down below….and you know, do the like and subscribe thing.
Timestamps 00:00 – Intros 01:23 – Xtina and Jerome’s Thoughts on the Rise in AAPI Hate Crimes 05:30 – Who are the Asian Americans? Asian Identity Crisis in America 12:12 – Hate Crimes vs Crimes of Opportunity, Daniel Wu and W. Kamau Bell Interview 17:10 – Anti-Asian Redoric (Kung-Flu), Model Minority Myth Division, and Colorism within AAPI 30:00 – What About Me? BLM vs AAPI: Trying to Understand the Divide 39:00 – AAPI Identity: What does it mean to be Asian Asian American? 46:38 – Growing Up Asian American in Visalia/Central Valley and My Experience with Racism 53:45 – You Can’t Just Blame White People or Black, Brown, Whatever People for Problems 1:00:30 – Maybe AAPI Deserves This Hate, We Brought This Upon Ourselves? 1:04:47 – Education and Exposure to Different Races and Cultures are Important! 1:12:37 – Modifying Our Language for Racists and Sympathizers, The Spectrum of Racisms 1:22:09 – Combating AAPI Conservatism: Without Empathy, People Won’t Change 1:31:00 – Standing with the AAPI Community: Who is the Enemy of the AAPI Movement? 1:38:45 – What if You’re a Bystander Witnessing a Hate Crime? Asian With Attitude 1:44:16 – Erin Telling Us About His Experience at the Stop Asian Hate Rally in Oakland 1:51:42 – Touching on the Discrimination/Racism within the Asian American Community 1:54:26 – Fetishization of Asian Women (Incel Culture) and Emasculation of Asian Males
1:58:21 – The Fetishization of Asian Males (Twink Stereotype) in the LGBQ+ Community 2:06:29 – Asians With Attitude and Stop AAPI Hate Organizing and Rallying People 2:08:00 – Closing Thoughts and Saying Goodbye
#SorryAsianParents 
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