from the editor

It seems that the best events are always in the summer months. Last month was no exception and in July things are only going to heat up.

The cover this month is more art work by Chrissy, the official "graphics girl" of phocas.net. She never ceases to amaze me with what she comes up with. The art work is that of the flyer for our upcoming event at The Grand Emporium, featuring Nigel Richards! I have been ecstatic about this event since everything was finally confirmed.

Increasing my excitement is the fact that this is only the beginning of regular phocas.net events. With the help of one of the biggest names in dance events, Disco Productions, we will bring you a new level of talent to the club and at other future events, each and every month. We will be bringing you names that you have only seen at huge events, such as the former Chaos Theory series.

Of course, this wouldn't be possible without the help of my friend and the GM of The Grand Emporium, pictured here with me. Her interest in dance music has definitely opened doors for us, as well as others, to do some relaly great things!

The shot was taken at the recent John Digweed performance at The Madrid Theater. I was quite surprised to see so many people out on a Wednesday night, but then... it was Digweed. Warming up the night, DJ billpile got the floor rockin hard before Digweed even took the decks. Overall, he played some good music and was his usual flawless self. He seemed tired though, as if he was out of energy. I talked to several people around the country who had been to his recent shows and received they echoed much the same sort of review.

Kicking off the month though, was Gay Pride in KC and Joe grabbed a few shots of RuPaul's performance down at the Liberty Memorial. That looked to be quite a show! The following week, the camping and music festival, Wakarusa launched into it's third year. It was really great to see electronic music properly represented among so much other great dance music. It was the place to be after the stages closed down and it couldn't have worked out better. Overall, during the day... it was stifling hot and my survival depended upon the lemonade they had for us in VIP and after the sun went down, a beer or three was good too.

It was that very same week, that Shaun was in Russia. He sent back some interesting shots from a club called Kasanova. He just sent in some photos from his recent trip to India, as well. There's also a story to go along with it in this month's issue. Be sure to check it out. He definitely travels to some strand and far off lands.

Not so far off though, Brian just got back from Murphysboro and sent us some great shots of the second installment of the massive weekend-long event, Underground Sound: Back 2 The Freak. There's a couple little surprises in there too! I really wish I could have gone this year, but other stuff kept me in Kansas City. Maybe I'll squeeze out of town again for Caffeine in New Orleans... or the Global Dance at Red Rocks. Either one looks awesome. Or who knows, maybe we can somehow go to both!

July is a huge month. The talent coming through the Midwest and around the country is some of the very best we've ever seen. We hope that we can share some of this outstanding talent with you, so for us... it all starts with Nigel ... I hope to see ya on the dance floor that night!

;)

~phocas~