It’s that time of year again! Love Parade 2008 in Dortmund - “Highway of Love” I got up at 8:00 and around 10:00 I set off with Ramona and Dennis. Like last year, the train station in Krefeld was pretty crowded, but in the train we had enough room - not near as bad as last year. We arrived in Dortmund at 13:00, and minutes after leaving the train station a short, heavy downpour set a trend which would continue for the rest of the event.

We then set off on foot, through Dortmund, about 2-3 kilometers to where the parade and main stage was. We had made some new friends on the train, another trend which continued throughout the day - meeting cool, new people. Despite the frequent downpours, everyone was “gut gelaunt” (happy/joyful) and friendly. You’d find yourself talking to someone like you’ve known them for years and suddenly you’re thinking: “Wait, I don’t even know her name….” But that’s one of the coolest things about the Love Parade - that’s what sets it apart from other electronic music festivals. Maybe it’s because the event is free, maybe it’s the completely informal, ad-hoc planning, or the “love” theme, but the Love Parade has a unique character.

Some costumes were quite amusing, others were just strange, and of course there were also the sexy ones. The floats were also all unique.

Around 15:00 we arrived and minutes later, the heaviest downpour of the day struck. The whole area turned into a sea of mud and puddles. But, after a few minutes, the sun came out and the party went on. We spent the next few hours dancing, watching the parade, watching the parade from road-sign mountings over the highway, hanging out at the main stage and enjoying the numerous flavors of electronic music. It kept raining off and on, the mud got deeper, but no one seemed to care… the party went on going, the love kept flowing. Around 19:00 the sun came out to stay and, as the floats all slowly left, the big-name DJ’s started to appear on the main stage: Moby, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin, David Guetta, Underworld. The highlite for me was the set from Armin van Buuren, closely followed by those from Hawtin and van Dyk. We headed home around 23:00, which means we missed the Finale with the light show by Gert Hof. My twitter update from 11:45 captures that moment perfectly.

OK, the weather really sucked, logistics were a nightmare, most of the time no cell coverage, mud and water everywhere…. But all that gave the event character! Who cares if the conditions aren’t ideal for an outdoor event. The Love Parade is all about celebrating life, love and music - and that’s exactly what we did!

Pictures: here

Video: Moby and Armin van Buuren

Found this site in my RSS feeds this morning. I really liked the Steampunk walls presented, so I collected some of my favorites and uploaded them.

ENJOY!

Check out http://www.stuff.c010depunkk.com/quotes/ !!!

Event: Projekt Revolution

Location: LTU Arena, Düsseldorf

Time: 17:00 - 23:00, June 28, 2008

Lineup: The Bravery, The Used, N*E*R*D, H.I.M., Linkin Park

Summary: My last Twitter update of the evening sums it up….

Vidz: YouTube

Pics: here you go.

UPDATE 2008.07.21: Uploaded pics and added link.

Take the physics engine from DiRT, combined with racing-simulation-worthy graphics, add the super-sweet Flashback feature, a highly interesting story line and what comes out: Race Driver GRID, the latest game from Codemasters.

Let’s start with the graphics: My system (3,6 Core2Duo, 4GB RAM, GeForce 880GT) has no problem running the game with all settings maxed. I think I’ll let some screenshots do the talking:

Sometimes I forget to race cuz I’m enjoying the scenery….

Until the sound of squealing tires and screeching metal jolts me awake… SHIT! crashed. At which point, all you have to do is hit RETURN, the Flashback feature is activated and you can “scroll back and forth in time” to undo your mistake.

Gameplay and the story line are also highly enjoyable. While building up your own team, you can drive for other teams, which lets you drive sweet cars from the beginning on, instead of having to “earn the horsepower” like in other racing games. The variety of tracks and events is also impressive, from drift battles to demo derbys, to american muscle….

A sweet arcade/simulation cross that gets a 8/10 rating from me.