Chapter 21: Freedom in a crowd

I may dream in Technicolor, but I trip the fuck out in old school black and white. – tandex@e2

There is a remarkable freedom associated with not caring. If you cease to care what others think of you, then no longer are you constrained by their opinions. These massive chains that have been around you neck are cut loose and you may act without abandon. On Saturday I went to my first nightclub / rave, a club called the Metropolis in the Flats of Cleveland. A local DJ warmed up the “crowd” (there wasn’t that many people there) before the headliner came on, a DJ from England. It was a new experience, and having been thrown into strange surroundings, my first instinct was to sit back and watch. Many other people were doing the same, to the point where for every person dancing under the spinning lights and strange effects there was three people watching. Standing on the side you feel isolated from the dancers, like you are an outcast that can’t walk into their world. So I walked forward. Into the center of the floor this newbie walked, until I was standing directly underneath the lights fantastic, and directly in front of the pair of van sized speaker sets. Once in the center, surrounded by swirling figures of people whom I have never met, I stopped caring that I was being watched. Freedom at any price they say. I found my freedom for $15 at the door and a $10 cab ride.