»3    THE NEXUS-PARTY  -  A BAD JOKE!     

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by Angelwings/Syndrome³
³
On  Saturday, May 20th, the Nexus-party was held in Dueren (a small town
somewhere near  Cologne).   I  decided  to attend  this  party  together with
some friends, because I did not want to miss "Germany's biggest scene-event in
1995", as the invitation file promised.

We  reached  the  party  place at about 22:15. After we had paid the entrance
fee of 10DM each of us had to undergo a body search. Bottles and other poten-
tial  weapons were confiscated.  Now we were ready for the party. We just
followed all the other people, but what they lead us to was in no way a scene
party   but  an  ordinary  rave! Many techno-freaks  were  "dancing" in a big
hall,    loud    techno    music   made conversation  almost  impossible.  No,
this  could  not  be  what the average scener understands by a party. We went
back  and  noticed  a  second  entrance which lead to the party.  The fee here
was  12DM.   A  very clever way to make profit:  If  you  wanted to attend the
party  you  HAD  to pay the fee for the rave, as well! All together, we paid
22DM for   the  party,  2DM(10%)  more  than  stated in the invitation.

We found ourselves in a small room with a  4m x 4m screen:  The competition
room.   Stairs  lead upwards to another room  with  room for  about  seven or
eight  computers.   Luckily we did not bring  any equipment with us, there was
no place left.  After a short chat with some friends  we  went  down  again to
watch  the  compos,  they should have started  at  22:00,  but  there were no
signs of competitions of any kind, just the white screen and techno-rhythm
from outside. I  asked  an  organizer if I could  still contribute to a compe-
tition although the deadline was set at 21:00. I could still compete, and so I
put  a  module  in  the competition.  I filled a paper sheet  and  handed it
together with the disk to an organizer.

As  the  competitions  did  not seem to begin in any near future  we looked
for something to drink. The only possibility  of  buying a drink was in the
main  hall  where  the rave took place. Now   at  the  latest  the  security
procedure at the entrance turned out to be a farce: All drinks were served in
glass  bottles.   Anybody  could have abused these as weapons!

Finally   the   competitions   started. First came the PC compos which were
not so bad. A bit annoying were the pauses between the  demos  and intros.
After another  45  minutes  break  the  Amiga intro  competition started.
Only three intros  were shown,  one  of them was quite nice (by Bizarre Arts).
Then the demos:   That  was  what  everybody was waiting for. 
And   that  was  what everybody  got disappointed by.  Either the  demo  was
bugged  or boring or it contained  demo-maker(!)  effects.  The organizers
forgot   one  demo, which caused a certain VIS to argue.  Again the organizers
proved     their incompetence: They  did  not  get the demo started, so the
coder himself had to  give them instructions.  They still did  not manage to
run the demo, so the coder  did  it,  himself.  The audience could view
everything on the screen and was  amused  in parts (angry in others) by the
helpless organizers.  

After the last demo was over, the GFX-compo started. Only one good picture
(by Peachy)  among several really bad ones. And  then  the music-competition:
The modules  were  not  even played for two minutes and were either techno
(uhh...some   were   really   erm...   not  so good...) or by members of known
groups. Only  a  few  tunes  by known musicians (e.g.  Virgill) were played.

All  the  competitions  were constantly disturbed  by  a  member of Haujobb
who obviously had problems with himself. He gave  loud  comments  to  every
contribution (contr. by Haujobb: "Rulez!!!!", contr. not by Haujobb:
"Sucks!!!!").
In  my  opinion  he  reached  the exact opposite  of  his  aim:The reputation
that  Haujobb  had  achieved because of some really  entertaining  productions
was  ruined,  his  behaviour was embarrassing for his whole team. The
organizers did not even consider it necessary  to  take action against him.
Dear   organizers,   what  would  it
take to  wake you from your sleep? Did  you  already count your profits in
your mind's eye?

When  the  module compo was over and my contribution was not played I went to
the  organizers.   Here  is our conversation (AWS: me, ORG1+2: organizers):
AWS : "Did you play all contributions?"
ORG1: "Yes we did."
AWS : "Then  why  didn't  you  play  my one?"
ORG1 turns to ORG2, I cannot understand what they say. I ask again, this time
ORG2.
ORG2:  "This  was  only a selection, we did not play all contributions."
Ah, yes.  One says this, the other says that. Another interesting fact is that
a contact of  mine told me later on that he found the paper sheet I had filled
 for my contribution flying around somewhere in  the competition room.
I think this is  very  suspicious  and  doubt that a selection was made. 
A few modules just got  lost in the chaos. If there really was  a selection I
 would accept that my contribution was not chosen (it was not really finished,
anyway), but why did not all the organizers know about this, then?   In  any 
 case, this (apart from many many other points) shows how badly Germany's
    self-proclaimed   "biggest  scene-event" was organized.
The  votes were given by a jury and not by  the audience, this was already un-
usual.   Even  more  unusual  were rumours about a certain graphician from
the  jury taking part in the competition were  spread. An unlucky choice which
jeopardized the jury's impartiality (if these rumours were true!)

Okay,  now  let's focus on the positive thing about this "party":  A new
adjective was born!  Whenever you want to express your  disgust  and  strong 
disapproval towards something you can say:  "Uhh... this is really nexus!"

To  draw  a  conclusion:  The dim hopes that were aroused by the Black Box
Convention (held in Hamburg in April) that was good in comparison to other
German parties  were harshly destroyed by this so-called  "scene-event".   I 
am still wondering  why on Earth this was called Nexus. I cannot see any nexus
between this  event  and a good computer party. Whatever group organized this
party  (if it  was  a  scene group) - if I was  the leader  of  this  group  I 
would  have kicked  the  ones  responsible for this disaster right away.
The  average  Amiga scener calls such parties "lame", and this word fits it.