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The Different Dialogos 2k1 Report
by Unlock/Vantage^Padua [issue 02/2002]

Dialogos PC Demo Party, 02 - 04 November 2001, Jena / Germany

INTRODUCTION
By the time your read this report, Dialogos 2001 will be over for quite some time already. You might have been able to read Dialogos reports online as well as in other mags before this one. Nevertheless, I've decided to publish it because it has a little bit of a different touch. When writing it, I tried not to follow the standard party report scheme but to concentrate more on the chill- and fun factor. You'll not read about how many people had a processor faster than 1GHz, but rather how tender the sofa cushions were. I hope you enjoy this one, and if you consider writing something about the article just take the chance to do so.

THE ARRIVAL
At first, I want to introduce the Swiss Dialogos delegation to you. These were Genox/Vantage/Calodox and yours truly typing right now. This delegation should have been a lot bigger, but Fred/Calodox didn't have the chance to come with us. Enjoying Swiss night trains on our way to Jena, we had quite an uncomfortable travel. My seat was broken and it was too loud in the waggon. In this moment of dark black despair, we decided to visit the bar rail car which can be found in the City Night Liner trains. This act should be the beginning of a wonderful travel into the deepest abysms of the human being. We ordered a beer - already expecting that it won't be the last one for the next few days. The night passed by unbelievably quick and in the end we arrived at some ugly German train station called Halle. Some guys were reconstructing the station, and we were not able to find any homy restaurant to get a coffee which would have been utterly great. It was 4 am. The terminal train was intended to leave Halle two hours later. It was abnormally cold. To get a bit refreshed again, we had to drink some of those hazardous 'Red Bull', which was not a pleasure after the monstrous amount of alcohol already in our blood. Somehow we managed to arrive in Jena. The first thing we saw (and that I can remember) was the 'Volksbad' [a public bath] which I wanted to remember later when I'd be in need of a shower. We were in luck, suddenly we were standing just inside the 'Holzmarktpassage', the location where the party was planned to take place. Interesting, all we were able to see were lotsa shops and restaurants. Besides, it was 7 am now, and the party opening was set to 14 pm or something.


THE PREPARTY
What to do in such a long time gap? Sleeping was not allowed, we're no script kiddies. After drinking innumerable cups of coffee, we decided to walk around that odd party place. We didn't believe our eyes when we saw an empty shop which beyond it even featured a Dialogos banner on the wall. Right beside the door to the shop we found some guys who set up a tent. Talking to them in German didn't help at all. After trying it with English, we got hold of the information that they were Hungarian - suddenly a girl came out of the tent and now we were sure that we found Tomcat and the Hungarian delegation at the party. Genox and myself, the partyfreaks we are, went on a long march through medieval downtown of Jena, popping into every guest house to get a coffee. This way, we got a huge dosis of caffeine that should help us to stay awake until the party starts, at least.

INSIDE THE PARTY ROOM
Finally, it was time to invade the party place. The first, and for the coming three days the most important, thing we saw were the sofas. There were lots and we decided to get them as our homelands. After some talks with the organizers and Tomcat/Greenroom we sat down on the sofas and had a beer. Our mood started to become crazier with every gulp we took. Colours started to interfer and my view was a bit diffuse. My last thought, before I fell asleep, was that this must have been the high amount of coffeine we had had. Interesting... I can't say when I got up again. I remember that I'd been asking the organizers for a shower, but he just told us that there was a 'Volksbad' somewhere. We didn't know this place, but decided to get us a nice cheap hotel room for the night. I mean, when you've been at lotsa parties and always slept under some table you certainly have that 'been-there-done-that'-feeling. In old age it's allowed to sleep a bit more comfortable. And there was a shower. But it was still Friday afternoon and my mind was not too clear yet.



Talking to people I don't remember and restarting to drink beer made me feel good. On some linen silver screen, the organizers showed 'heaven7' about four times. Yeah, and a guy called Crest started and oldschool demoshow. He didn't have sound, because he didn't plug in the cable. Very good. This guy showed 'heaven7' again, and I thought that he shouldn't. I decided to get another beer, and when waiting at the bar (There was a real bar in the party location. That's an extremely elite thing), triple-X crossed my way. He owed me a beer, so I didn't have to pay anything. I remember talking a lot with him, with some guys from Wildmag, with some Black Maiden guys, with the Farbrausch guys and also with Adok who I didn't recognize at first. That was kinda funny, don't remember what I told him but I think he hadn't drunk any beer because he was not in the same mood as I was. My perception went down the drain more and more. I made a small trip through the shopping mall together with Cyclone, it was quite funny. We waited for the elevator a long long time, but it didn't come so we had to take the stairs. Unimportant things got important and vise versa.

Soon, Melwyn and Droid arrived at the partyplace and brought a lot of Finnish Vodka. Ugly stuff. But it made me see colours again. Yeah, it had liquorice inside, a sick thing. Later on, Bobic showed up. I talked with him for a long time. And I found someone wearing a Buenzli T-Shirt. The PAiN stickers I brought with me to the party were sold out fast, too. Genox and myself searched for the Unik guys for some time, but we didn't find them. Unik always wanted to meet Vantage.


I'm drunk. Asking tripe-X if he knew Warp/Unik. Tobi helped me and so finally Unik met Vantage. The crowd started to band together to rush up to the cinema, everybody watching the compos. The organizers did live competitions. 'Kolor, ihr seid Ă„rsche' because after their demo, the computer crashed. In some reboot break I went downstairs again to get some beer and to do something on the toilet. When I came back, Melwyn had fallen asleep. I woke him up because his funny invitation demo for the Lobotomia party in Finland was about to be played. After the competition I went back on my sofa, which was very tender, took another beer and was so fucking tired that, after some time, I took my sleeping bag and lied down in some quiet corner of the hall.

THE FINALE
The waking-up was horrible. I realized that I was lying directly in a big draught because someone opened a door. I feld bad. My tongue was glued to my throat and I had a completely stiff neck. Getting up and drinking a Coke (In Germany you have to order a 'Cola', the guys there don't understand that a 'Coke' is the same) made me feel a bit better. The colours I'd seen the past few days had passed and I tried to find my way again. I met Warp, Hellfire and Acryl and we decided to go to MacDonalds to have an All American Breakfast. Acryl ordered a BigMac, a Cheese Burger and Large French Fries. He didn't touch the stuff. He felt bad, I think even worse than me. Hellfire almost fell asleep in the MacDonalds, but he managed to stay awake. Later on, we returned to the partyplace and waited for the Awards Ceremony. Outside it was cold, surely below zero. I don't remember exactly who won and all the things. I woke Genox because we had to find our train. After saying goodbye to all the old and new friends at the partyplace and thanking the organizers for the great party we left the location.

THE TRIP BACK
Our trip back would fill another article.

CONCLUSION
This party was too much. Best location, finest beer, most crazy people, most comfortable demo competition in a cinema, tender sofas, lotsa colours and unsharp impression. We'll be there again. And if you think what the hell was special in this report you have not learned your course: An editor always has to find some eyecatcher that makes people reading his articles. Thanks, you may leave now, as Fred/Calodox would have stated at this place.


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