I whipped this up mostly for my houseaddict friends who were in the know with this "project" leap and I had going, but I thought I'd throw it up here too in case anyone was interested.... love to hear other people's experiences:

cc'd from HouseAddict:

This one has been in the works for a while. I'm not sure how many people are interested in this sort of thing, but talking to a few people, I figured i should throw this online for anyone who would find it worth a read.

The idea is to take two people completely out of the scene, and to introduce them to it in full force; I interviewed them before, during, after, and then after recovery to see what they thought. These were people never introduced to house music before, or club culture on the level that Toronto has to offer.... so without further delay, let me introduce you to...



March 31 2007 @ Footwork - Nocturnal Magazine presents: Simon Jain, Phantasm, Richard Dinsdale

Before we begin...this won't be a total exposure of the Shine's experience to the scene...first of all, we simply don't have the time to cover all the material. Nor do certain details want to be released, like the fact that Ryan enjoys wearing bright yellow thongs from time to time.

Let me introduce you to the team.



Leap has been trying to get her twin sister, Ella (El-Shine) with husband Ryan (R-Shine) to come up from the US of A for quite some time. They had heard of our HouseAddict antics and had often time scoffed at us for our seemingly over-the-top love affair with electronic music. Being the twin that she is, and having run marathons together, getting tatoos, and sharing all secrets together (yes, even ones that should REMAIN BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE.... i'm not bitter...no...I'm not bitter)... Leap had often wanted Ella to experience it so that they had yet something else in common to share between them.

Ella and Ryan have a very musical background. R-Shine is extremely talented at playing acoustic guitar and singing. I envy his abilities greatly, and we all enjoy it when he plays for us. He has a top 40 dj business, loves guitar hero 3, and sings karaoke regularly with some amazing skill. He enjoys top40, country and has a phenomenal memory for lyrics. In short, he really does love music. El-Shine plays the piano, has a fantastic voice (though she'd never let you hear it), and loves music too, often trading songs over the internet with her twin sister.

Given the love this couple has for music, I was SURE they'd love the spirit and soul that house music presents to the listener. But I was leary.... i remember many a time in Michigan, where I would take a drive with Ryan somewhere in my car, and he'd comment "so...this is what y'all like to listen to up in Canada, huh?'... haha...i said that no, most Canadians listened to what he did, top 40, and the usual gammut; that only a select few enjoyed the underground electronica stuff I liked. This memory haunted me as we invited them along on a weekend-long experiment I've come to call Project Shine (their surname being Shine).

Lea worked for months inviting Ella up saying they had to experience it, and finally, they agreed, and our planning went into action.

We considered many venues to take them to...we needed a Saturday night venue in the unlikely possibility of a Comfort Zone morning. Ultimately, we settled on two possibilities:



Footwork... or The Guvernment...specifically, the gallery? After a lot of discussion, we felt that we were feeling footwork as 'home' a lot more lately than Gallery. The Friday night sessions at Footwork couldn't be beat...and as we looked, we discovered that the Saturday night we were planning had a nocturnal party going on...featuring Richard Dinsdale!

Given our love for Footwork, and that Nocturnal parties are always slammin, we decided to hit footwork. boooo-yahhh.

So the girls got all prettied up for the evening, and changed hair to make the twin thing less confusing.



Although, everyone started thinking Ella was Lea, once we were at the club.
We warmed up the evening listening to a sic dirty house set, and playing Guitar Hero ][ intermittantly. Once it was time to go, we decided to suit up and go. But we had to wait, cause the gals were still getting ready.

I started getting ansy because i like to be at a club near open... i don't like missing the opening sets! I'm weird that way. Finally, we were on our way.

In the car, the team was in fine form...

The stress factor was a little high here for Ryan and Ella.



There was a lot of build up, they were going to a place where (potentially) they wouldn't like the music--and if you're not used to going out to clubs/bars all the time, I'm sure there was the added 'poser' feeling that top40 bars often impose on its visitors...

Arriving to footwork, Ella and Ryan got their first look at the entrance of a club. We had sorta prepped them that the entrance was literally down an alley way...



They seemed a little hesitant...but I think they were OK, having expected this a little based on our conversations earlier. They were used to buildings, and bars with front doors and windows... what was this alley way, a few line-poles, and some sort of loading girder overhead? What had they gotten into??

Fortunately, I had pre-emailed my guest list of us and the various friends ahead of time, so we were well taken-care of at the door--special thanks to Steph, Joel and Lyle for taking care of me and the group that night in an awesome way, really made the experience SUCH a good one. We were quickly ushered in after paying our dues and nabbing a wrist band, beats thumping away in the hallway.

I flashed a smile at Ryan and Ella, and they were all nervous smiles. Leap and Ella hit the washroom immediately; the one hour drive and nervous bladders had gotten to them. We hit the washroom too, all the energy drinks i had been drinking that evening came back with a killer vengence! We hit the coat check and waited for the girls. And waited. And waited and waited. 32 hours later, they arrived, and we checked their coats, finally settling in for a nice calm entrance into footwork---NOT!!! We were awesome assaulted by the usual crew who had all heard about Project: Shine, and came up to meet this couple that was completely new to the underground house scene. I have to say, being a relative 'regular' in the scene, the circle of people I have come to meet and see on a relatively regular basis make up such a huge part of the experience. Footwork staff (Steph, Lyle, Jamie, Christine, etc etc), club regulars like Pickle, Edith, Aubrey, KrisKool, Harmeet, Tara, and a million others... they really do make up such a great vibe, and to see many of those people there that night, so that Ella and Ryan could be exposed to that 'good feeling' that we experience on such a regular occasion, was certainly a pleasure. Not to mention the glue that holds all of this together...



Everyone was bobbing their heads and lots of people were dancing...and I looked over at Ryan and Ella and they were sort of awkwardly standing with each other. At another time, they were altogether sitting down, politely smiling.


(you can see a gal trying to hype them up here, early in the night...man, i love house music clubs!)

We all looked on, seeing if/when they'd get into it and that magic lightbulb would go on where they'd go 'aha!' and love house music as much as we did.



So Lea and I tried to get them into things, we got a drink, talked, introduced them around and sorta danced around them to the beats. I was eager to introduce them to Phantasm and Simon Jain, whom Leap and I knew from our early days of house music discovery... and Richard Dinsdale, well, I wasn't sure if he was an aquired taste or not, but I was CERTAINLY eager to hear him spin. An hour or two later, it became apparent that these two were certainly out of their element, but were starting to losen up a bit. I saw them dancing a little and smiling, still a little aprehensive, but getting into it. I pulled El-Shine a bit to do a 'during' impromptu interview... I told her that the beats were a little hard and edgy for me, not as rhythmic pounding as i like...she looked at me with this gleeful look 'actually, I really like this stuff...what is it called?' i had to admit, I was shocked, but completely encouraged. I asked her what was up with R-Shine, why he didn't seem as into it... 'Oh, you know how it goes... jitters at trying something new, a lot of percieved pressure, music that isn't our thing really, but we wanted to be open to this experience, and so far we really like it!' I wasn't compltely convinced Ryan felt the same, but it was awesome to see El-Shine getting into it and busting a move on the floor.

It was at this time that Sheldon entered the drama/reality/accident zone. Have you ever entered the drama/reality/accident zone? Yep, it's that time of night, where the music loses focus, the club, the people, the environment, all become just background noise to events that are infringing on your night. There were many, but the major one that stole me away for the rest of the evening was my dear friend Courtney. I had been at the washroom waiting for R-shine to come out when Courtney entered the club; normally, I would have expected a super flying-tackle hug from this gal...but instead I got a weak smile, as she limped down the steps to get her bracelet. I knew instantly something was up; my first thought was she was hung over (lol!), she came in, and I asked her what was up. She explained to me that she was acting silly in the elevator and slipped and fell--no big deal, she thought. But now that she was to the club, her knee was aching HUGE. She recalled her knee being sort of out of sorts, almost out to the side, but it popped back in. Now it was throbbing huge... she went into the club to try and chill out and forget about it. Later on, I found her sitting, clearly in pain; her jeans had gone tight around her knee--uh oh. swelling. She (wisely) decided to head to the hospital. Later on, through a series of freak accidents, our friend Kristy got a txt from her, asking if someone was around to give her a ride home--i checked my status, and said I'd go rescue her from the hospital. So getting to the hospital, Courtney tells us she had a dislocated knee AND a broken ankle.



WOW, from a little slip in the elevator, which she felt was virtually nothing. Just the wrong angle, the wrong pressure, and boom. Out for six weeks. I haven't heard from Courtney yet, but I'm sure she's uber-depressed, not being able to get out and dance as she so loves to do. I felt so bad for her--what ill luck. My grumpy friends at Footwork should take a lesson from her--be grateful for what you have, you could get a spontaneous injury like she did that puts a real crank in your plans for a while. Checking the time, it was 4:45 am... what about Project: Shine? How had Leap fared with El-Shine and R-Shine throughout the night? I had been gone for hours, at the hospital with some friends sitting with Courtney. I txt'd Leap saying we'd meet at a McDonald's restaurant.

Getting there, i found a tired, crew, but heard that everyone had a GREAT time, Leap_frog filled me in:

Around 3, Ella and Ryan were finally getting into it, realizing the crew there wasn't strange, weird, or unruly, but actually and truly, there to dance and into the music. They were surprised at how friendly EVERYONE was. Especially in the beginning when they weren't overly into the music--how many people were asking them 'are you having a good time'? As they let go and got into it, they really started enjoying themselves, letting the beats wash over them, and dancing away by one of the concrete polls.


Dance mofos, dance... (that's how Leap_frog talks. honest.)


(Phantasm spinning it UP!)

It was AWESOME to see Simon's energy behind the decks... i really love how interactive he gets with the crowd--i'm sure that he pulled Ryan and Ella into it huge with how method he gets with the faces peering at him over the decks.



Leap was so into dancing it up to dinsdale with El and R that we have no pictures of dinsdale! But apparently he was off the hook, dropping such tracks as She wants me and Don't feed by ego. I was glad to hear the music wasn't too hard core for newbies to the scene to enjoy, and that Dinsdale brought it big time to Footwork from Miami (WMC).

I apologized to the crew for bailing on such an important night, and they totally understood about going to see to Courtney (as a friend should do!) So I asked them, tired and haggard as they looked, how they liked it? ... I expected an 'it was alright.' or 'we had a good time.' with OK enthusiasm. So imagine my complete shock when they asked "So.... can we check out this place they call Comfort-Zone?"



I kind of smirked, as if to say "YOU two want to go to cozo?" ... like they weren't ready for it or something. But they eagerly replied that they wanted to do the whole experience... and they were committing, big time!!

Hold on here... you liked it so much last night, you want to keep going? What did I miss here?

And that's where it hit me... I was so eagerly looking for that lightbulb moment where a switch would flip and these two would convert eagerly over to house. I mean, that's how it happened to me. Or was it? Now that I think about it...it was an experience or influences over some time that converted me... years of loving edm, loving dancing, loving going out and hearing music spun, all coming together to convert me into the underground clubber I am now... so how did I expect these two to get it all in a couple hours without having time to digest their whole night? The experience has to be savored, thought about and pondered on. Apparently, they had enough time to do that between Footwork closing and Cozo opening, because we found ourselves changing clothes in the car and heading over to comfort zone. We had two line by passes, so the gals went in, and R-shine and i waited in line where we met my daily quota of meeting new zone-friends (stephan! you rock man!)...and we heard the beats calling us inside Zone. Ryan looked over at me... 'going to a club sunday morning? This is crazy man... i had no idea....' -- and he didn't.

Talking to Ella and Ryan a week later, they are all recovered, and still a little shell-shocked (in a good way) by the whole experience. They find they have a great respect for electronic music now, seeing the respect and passion us addicts have for the music. They enjoy it more, knowing that it has culture, and isn't just "cheesy techno video game music." Their eyes have opened to a very unique culture that we all adore. What a cool experiment. To be honest, I fully expected them to have an OK time out...but wouldn't be into the 'scene'...not like we are. Sort of like how we can have a fun time if we go to the top40 clubs...not really our thing, but we can have fun if put in that position. They sure surprised me by wanting to hit CZ afterwards...

All in all, I would say, Project Shine: A success! Thanks to everyone who helped out with the experiment. I wish i was there for more of Footwork, but from what i heard, everyone had a blast, and dinsdale took the roof off. Nocturnal parties are among some of the best I've been to...my altime favourite being the sa-slame boat cruise, summer 2006 (Phantasm, Simon Jain, Nathan Barato, et al). Every nocturnal party has been such a blast, i look forward to seeing what they do next. Footwork was a great place for this party too, the place was rammed to the the pins for the whole night. Good fun all around. If you haven't been to footwork yet, definitely hit it up.

So let's hear it from other ppl... what happened when you took your friends or families to an underground club for the first time?