I wish I had more time to work on a redesign!@#

But fear not dear readers, for I have devised a solution. For the past few weeks, hesampanahi.com has served as a gateway to my twitter account. I update my status on twitter, and it shows up on my site as well as on facebook. Although status updates aren’t as detailed as blogging, those of you who have seen my updates on facebook know that I do updates multiple times a day. So.. I will be updating this site to include those status updates, as well as installing a plugin for wordpress that shows my facebook photos on this site.

Which brings me to the title of this entry. I wanted to wait until my birthday to post about a new domain I bought. It’s short, simple, and easy to remember:

http://hes.am

Although the site is currently empty, I plan to move illusioned.org’s content and everything else to hes.am. Hes.am will serve as my real home page, including status updates, school related work, photos, and everything else. I plan to make hes.am my permanent home on the web. Part of the reason I felt this was necessary as that I need to establish a professional presence as well, and illusioned.org, as creative of a name as it is, doesn’t fit that picture as much as I’d like. Although I could have just used hesampanahi.com, I think hes.am is so much cooler.

So, in the meantime, hesampanahi.com will forward to hes.am. I’ll figure out how I plan on moving illusioned.org later.

And, in other news, happy birthday to me!

I went to go see Armin van Buuren @ Bar Rio with Lina, Mike, BPK, Stormy, Jamie, and others. Blake Jarrell opened up and played until 12:40 (!). I was a bit disappointed with his set – it went up and down, and much of the tracks seemed filler-ish.

Then, Armin came on the stage and the mood changed. It wasn’t that packed, so we were able to make it up to the front and stayed there for close to two hours. Being up front makes it so much more personal and you can actually see Armin’s facial expressions and reactions. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a great feeling. Among the tracks he played:

• Perpetuous Dreamer – Sound of Goodbye (Nic Chagall Drumbeat Re-edit)
• Paul van Dyk and Starkillers and Austin Leeds – New York City
• Ronski Speed – The Space We Are (with, amazingly, the lyrics being displayed on the projector to the exact timing of the song)
• Markus Schulz – Cause You Know
• DJ Shah – Who Will Find Me (!)

Throughout the night, I was hoping he would play John O’Callaghan – Big Sky. By 2:30, I was exhausted and headed out. Two minutes later, Jamie called me and told me that he was playing Big Sky! Ah well… 

And Armin acknowledged my red Amnesia – Ibiza shirt at least a couple of times.. it was a fantastic night!  

www.hesampanahi.com

More to come later – hopefully.

High above any danger…
Locked inside the tower of your mind,
dreams are veiled; passion blinded.
Safe from fear and fire.

Oh who will find me?
In your midnight eyes, I see a summer sunrise.
Fly far beyond these silver winter skies.
I see a beautiful life. Oh, come and get away.

Do you see the horizon?
Walk upon the water, you will find
all is still and yet alive
in the morning light.

Oh who will find me?
In your midnight eyes, I see a summer sunrise.
Fly far beyond these silver winter skies.
I see a beautiful life. Oh, come and get away.

Dance dance in the morning light.
Open your darkened eyes.
Hey, hey, it’s a beautiful day.
It’ll be ok. It’ll be ok.

Take a look, spin around, this is where I find you… where the roses bloom.
Leave your cares, leave your fears, leave them all behind you… yeayah.
It’s a beautiful day in the city of shining light.
It’s a beautiful day. This is where I find you… yeayah

Oh who will find me?
In your midnight eyes, I see a summer sunrise.
Come and get away.

Although Rich’s has been around for a few years, I had never been there. I was a bit surprised at how large it was, and it reminded me somewhat of a discotheque in Europe. There was no apparent theme or color scheme, which is not at all like the current club/lounge scene in Houston.

Usually, the opening DJs at these events have, quite frankly, sucked. They generally try to play something so far removed from what the headliner is playing that it’s absolutely boring. I was pleased to see that this wasn’t the case last night; the DJ before Ferry played some great trance, including the Signum mix of Above & Beyond – Can’t Sleep.

By the time Ferry came on, the crowd was energized. Ferry did not disappoint. He played many of his own tracks, but also some newer songs that I love, such as Kirsty Hawkshaw Meets Tenishia – Outsiders (Cosmic Gate Mix). Of course, the highlight of the night was when he played Beautiful. I remember hearing that track in Dance Valley and it sounded amazing there. However, Dance Valley is outside so the sound quality is not as good as a club. At Rich’s, it sounded much louder and clearer…

Towards the end of the night, Ferry got much more progressive. He ended up playing two and a half hours, which is not bad at all. His last few songs were more melodic and he ended with a CLASSIC: Veracocha – Carte Blanche…

View the photos from Ferry Corsten – Live at Rich’s Houston – April 18, 2007

However, I had much more elaborate plans for this birthday; this year is especially important seeing as how it marks a quarter century. I dreamed up the idea of having this website with all the photos and maybe some narrative. I eventually gave up on the narrative part, as I think the photos tell the story just fine (don’t they always?).

So here it is: twentyoneplusfour.com.

It’s plain, but has got a bit of lightbox goodness sprinkled in with some other AJAX. Unfortunately, I never learned AJAX, so I had to rely on existing libraries. Also, if there’s already an existing solution, why go to the trouble of making your own?