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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2001)
Airport survival tips for the humble traveler ■Stranded at the airport? Make the experience more bearable by following a few calm suggestions By Mason West Oregon Daily Emerald 9 ""9 * %9 9 I would like to start by saying that I hope everyone had an excit ing spring break filled with depravi ty and de bauchery. Those were pretty much my plans, but they started a little late thanks to the good people at San Francisco International Airport, where I had Reporter’s NOTEBOOK the pleasure of spending an evening. When I started traveling on my own, my mother gave me an elabo rate speech on what to do when things go wrong, which I promptly forgot as soon as she finished talk ing. So I had to divine my own rules of airport survival which I will now impart to you. You may forget them at your leisure. 1. Don’t get mad. There was a woman next to me at the counter who was bitching and yelling about how she wanted a free hotel room and why she would never fly Unit ed again. The manager dealing with her tried calmly to explain how “this wasn’t their policy.” Mean while, my attendant finished her work quietly and informed me I was booked on the first flight to my destination and handed me a free hotel voucher for the night. 2. Examine your options. By the time the shuttle to my hotel got to the airport, there were more people waiting than could fit in the vehi cle. By the time another shuttle would have gotten me to the hotel, I would have been able to sleep about four hours until needing to return to the airport. Was it really worth it? 3. Scout out a spot. Once I made the decision to stay for the night, it was too late to ask if I could stay in one of the fancy lounges that exist for frequent fliers. In my search for a bench to lie on, it became appar ent that there is an intentional lack of airport benches without arm rests. They do exist, but in sparse numbers, obviously done purpose ly to irritate me, and to further de prive stranded travelers of sleep, among other reasons. If you are lucky enough to find one, great. If not, welcome to the floor. 4. Don’t mind the noise. Airports never stop. There are always peo ple cleaning things with loud hum ming machines that will rattle your teeth. The announcements about watching your baggage repeat con tinuously — although watching your bags is pretty hard if you’re asleep — and people will invari ably flock to where you are and cre ate more noise. 5. Don’t sleep too much. If you are a heavy sleeper, it is very possi ble that you will sleep through your flight the next morning. I set a num ber of alarms on my Palm Pilot™ to get me up. If you don’t have such technological luxuries, try sleeping near the food area and leave a note near you instructing one of the em ployees to wake you up. 6. Get a handout. If you go to your respective airline counter and inform them of your situation, they will likely give you some sort of coupons for free food. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. These tips should help get you through a night at any airport. Heck, you may want to go airport camping with your friends just for fun. Ravers set out to stop drug overdoses in Orlando By Mike Schneider The Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. — After two of David Curiel’s rave-scene friends died of drug overdoses, he realized something needed to change. So two years ago, the 30-year-old industrial designer formed The Fu ture Tribe Project. The group consists of about 20 rave regulars who try to educate fellow ravers about drugs and safe sex in a nonjudgmental manner. They spread the word when bad drugs are circulating and pass out condoms at raves, the all-night parties that have a backdrop of hyp notic, electronic dance music. “We’re just trying to save lives,” said Curiel, who wears a nose ring, earrings in each ear and a stud un der his lip. “I don’t want to see any more of my friends die.” They’ve also tried to counter the socially irresponsible image of ravers by volunteering at a nursing home, an Adopt-a-Highway pro gram, and helping build homes for Habitat for Humanity. One Future Tribe flier says getting high is not what raves are about. “It’s about DANCING, the music, having a good time, opening your mind, connecting with others,” the flier reads. “We are not the slacker losers they want you to believe we are. We are creative, dynamic, young, peaceful, evolving, beautiful people.” The public relations campaign can’t come soon enough. Orlando’s rave scene has become public ene my No. 1 for the community’s politicians, law enforcement offi cers and religious leaders. “Ladies and gentlemen, our chil dren are being poisoned,” Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said in mm February during a hearing on the rave scene. The most recent attack on the rave scene comes from the Orange Coun ty Commission. It is expected to vote in several weeks on an ordinance that would tightly regulate after-hour venues that don’t serve alcohol but attract segments of the rave scene. The so-called rave clubs would have to be licensed every year, subject to inspection at any time, and required to have off-duty police officers and paramedics on the premises. “The idea is to create consisten cy between clubs that would cater to underage folks and those that would cater to adults,” said Orange County chairman Richard Crotty. “Clubs for adults are licensed.” The Orange County ordinance comes almost four years after the Or lando City Council forced bars and nightclubs to close at 3 a.m. in an effort to stop raves at after-hour bars. The city’s ordinance effectively moved the rave scene underground into ware houses, parks and private homes, al though a few clubs outside the city be gan playing rave-style dance music. One of those places was Cyber zone, outside the city in Orange County. Last September, Cyberzone patron David Stieb purchased what he thought was Ecstasy from anoth er patron and died of an overdose. In a wrongful death lawsuit, his parents accuse Cyberzone employ ees of throwing Stieb out of the club while he was overdosing and not seeking medical help for him. Drug deaths are a prime concern for The Future Tribe Project. It is af filiated with DanceSafe, an Oakland, Calif.-based group that began testing drugs in clubs several years ago to stop deaths related to the consump tion of fake or impure drugs. Dance Safe now tests drugs by mail and posts the results on its Web site. Members of the Future Tribe Pro ject frown on places like Cyberzone. Still, they say no more drug use goes on at raves than anywhere else. “I really, really doubt that you would have an easier time finding drugs at a rave than you would at your standard Pink Floyd concert or Doobie Brothers’ concert,” said Brad Lyons, a 20-year-old Universi ty of Central Florida student and member of the Future Tribe Project. Legislating the problem away won’t work either, Future Tribe members said. “Everything they’ve done to shut us down has done nothing to stop the drug deaths,” said Greg Shultea, 22, a light and sound technician. Concert Series ®§§i III Sponsored by the UNIVERSITY OF OREGON CULTURAL FORUM & KVAL Tickets available at the UO ticket Office and all Fastixx locations. For more information call 5464373
