"Don’t Cry Because It’s Over; Smile Because It Happened" - The Memories Of Summer 2004
The last two weeks around most of the country have been fuckin' cold. Like bone chilling cold. But it's the end of December and that's just how it goes. One thing that I do, maybe more when it's cold because I'm inside is remember the good times and get nostalgic. Whether it's the proverbial YouTube rabbit hole or looking through old pictures wondering "where the hell did time go?" I think it's something most of you that are reading think about. It's seems like only yesterday I was graduating high school or enjoying time out with my friends. Now I'm 33 and am closer to 50 than 15.
I recently was cleaning up around my house when I stumbled across a old picture of myself. This is me at around 15-16 here and I think this was at a birthday.
It got me thinking about Summer 2004, a summer I'll never forget. For anyone that grew up in the late 90's and early 2000's, you remember the good times that it was. Everything was different back then and while we as a country dealt with unspeakable tragedy, we were able to live in a pretty great generation. We were just getting our feet wet with the internet. I remember how great it was when my family got high speed internet aka "DSL". We didn't have iPhones, it was Nextels and Sidekicks (Sidekick was a GOAT phone) and music, sports, entertainment and literally everything in general was different. You could say things and didn't have to always worry about offending someone. Rap genres like crunk dominated the music scene.
For most us we went through "stages." For me in 2004, I was in the "guido" phase. As you can see from the photo above I had the taper blowout haircut. Now I will say I had essentially always had that haircut even at 3-4 years old and carried it over to be more pronounced by then.
I also had the stupid headband that I wore when I'd go out to the mall with the gold chain and we went tanning on the regular. One thing that was constant for a lot of us who spent our evenings on MySpace was the music of Jonathan Peters. "JP" as he was known was a GOD in that world and if you listened to any sort of house or dance music back then, you've heard his music. JP would play the biggest clubs in New York really from the mid 90's to well into the 2000's. Places like Sound Factory were world famous for their parties that would start at Noon on a Sunday and last throughout the day and night into Monday morning. Then during the summer, he would go to the shore and play in the clubs there. He was a radio legend and everyone worshipped him.
Though for me there was a problem, I was only 15. We would at that time as kids go out at "Karma" in Seaside Heights to something they had called "Teen Night" but it wasn't enough and to be honest pretty lame. We all wanted to go see JP across the street at a club called "Merge." Merge became pretty famous in those times because it was where "Tommy Cheeseballs" would make famous in the very popular and notorious episode of MTV'S True Life: "I Have A Summer Share" in 2003.
So I got the idea to do what most young kids at that time did, I got a fake ID. I wanted to go see JP. Luckily for me I have always looked a bit older than I was and back then as I said it was a different time and you could get them really anywhere. Those ID's were clutch because they actually had your picture and you could get the state you lived in and same birthday so you didn't forget anything and only had to remember year if asked. They would basically put whatever information you wanted on the ID.
The story was simple and easy. Me and a friend of mine at the time, John who also had a fake decided we would go see JP at Merge that summer. I don't remember a ton of that night, I only remember we got in about as easy it gets. We played it cool and looked like all the other tan spiky haired kids that mixed into amongst the muscle heads, tube topped wearing girls with bright lipsticks and bronze skin and the older Sound Factory crowd that shared homes in places like Belmar or Bradley Beach. It was heavenly getting in there, the music bumped and he played all the classics including "Going Through It" and "All This Time"
It was one of those things looking back I would never forget. Now, all I have is that memory and the music. I never got to go to the mecca, Sound Factory but I did go to Pacha which they tried to paint as an offshoot of SF. Luckily something called YouTube would be invented shortly after and some God like creature would upload those exact events to the platform. He even put up the night at Merge I had dancing the evening away. Here's that set, separated in two videos, part 1 and part 2:
I spend some of my lonely week nights reminiscing about those times and jamming to those tracks. Recently I recorded my reaction to hearing a JP classic. I felt like the story explained would shed some light. Yes we really danced like this and it was some of the best times of my life.
All a lot of us have now is the memories of our youth. Times go fast and before you know it, you're 33 and dancing like a moron in your office and posting it for the world to see. For me though it means something. It's nice to just sit back and think of those good times. Nostalgia can be tough because it's exactly what it is- 'a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal association' essentially memories and memories are hard to have because you likely won't ever experience them again.
But now I guess it's time to build new memories. I did learn recently that JP, who is still doing mixes is doing a special SOUND FACTORY MARATHON at a club in a hotel in Atlantic City. I think it's only right I go to that.
Have a great New Year.