IT'S NOT EXACTLY the Summer of Love again in San Francisco, but if you go outside at two in the afternoon, stare into the sun, and close your eyes, you can almost pretend. Things have got that start-of-summer rush feeling – a surge of sudden hope spurred on by the Federation's "Hyphy" remix bumping out of every car window and $4.75 veggie super burritos at Taquería Can-cun.

I wish you could be here with me right now. The fog is rolling in over Divisadero Street, bike messengers are zipping down Oak Street, making the one-pant-leg-rolled-up look cool again, and I'm being transported to another dimension via Trax Records 20th Anniversary Collection. Adonis's "No Way Back," with its piston-pumping 808 bass line and whispers of "Too far gone, no way back" – despite sounding resolutely shitty through my iMac speakers – still contains the ghosts of Chicago 4/4, back when house was predominately black and gay and fierce and far from the sanitized fluff in the background at Blowfish Sushi.

My first introduction to Trax was in 1996. I had just moved to Berkeley from Los Angeles, and despite being a die-hard junglist, I found myself at a lot of techno parties. Monty Luke, Jon Santos, and Joe Rice were throwing Static at the old Bahia Cabana, Pack-a-Bowl had just kicked off at the old bowling alley on upper Haight Street (where Amoeba Music is now), and I would spend Sunday afternoon playing my friends' ghetto house and techno records in the basement of Kit Clayton's house off Webster Street. Sped-up records from Mr. Fingers and Marshall Jefferson led straight into dirty, dirty ghetto house numbers on Dance Mania from Paul Johnson, DJ Funk, and Milton. Ghetto house – which would eventually be sped up and ripped off to form ghetto tech – was rough and ready and stripped-down. Plus, tracks like "Something 2 Hoe 2" and "Now Suck It" served up the same guilty pleasures as 2 Live Crew had seven years previous, when, as an 11-year-old in L.A., I used to flip the radio to K-DAY and feel alternately repulsed and attracted to the lyrics and beats of "Me So Horny."

Not long after I first was introduced to Trax and Dance Mania, Kit and friends (operating as One Track Mind) threw a party called That Girl Mona in one of the many old warehouses around at the time (alas, my memory isn't good enough to remember the name). They blew everyone's mind by flying out DJs Funk, Milton, and Deeon – who were more or less unknown outside of Chicago – and having a sweaty Midwest-style jacking session that, I dare say, has inspired a lot of people to this day. It inspired independent video director Ruben Fleischer to make his first film, a ghetto house documentary you can watch at www.ruben.fm (along with videos for Gold Chains, Dizzee Rascal, and the Dismemberment Plan). It inspired Jon Santos, who now lives in New York and designs for Tigerbeat 6, Gravis, and untold other brands. It inspired me. And I mention it to inspire promoters, DJs, and music lovers to throw parties based on love and obsession.

Speaking of inspiration, this whole reverie was totally the product of too much coffee and chili-lime corn chips, Trax's compilation, and the recent Class of '94 party at DNA Lounge that started me dreaming about the good old days. Classic DJs like Dutch, Spun, Ethan, and Markie Mark didn't play Chicago jack trax – more like the trippy proto-progressive house that put San Francisco on the map – but the night was a reminder of how good things used to be ... and (of course) how good they'll be again.

Ride on By the time you read this, Toph One will be in the final phase of his training for the AIDS/LifeCycle 3. I can't really explain how amazing it is that Toph, local party promoter-DJ-instigator-lemur lover-tequila baron, is doing this 585-mile bike ride. Suffice it to say he's an inspiration to all us who spend our time in the dark and know the smell of barstools, bathrooms, and cigarettes that defines the dive bar at 3 a.m. better than we know the scent of fresh air. He already had his slamming benefit at Milk, but it's not too late to donate your drink money to Toph Evans, rider no. 2049.

Global Sight and Sound: '04, with Karsh Kale and Cheb i Sabbah, plus live interactive art and dance, takes place June 11, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., Metreon, Fourth and Mission Sts., S.F. $19. (415) 305-6041.

Thump, grand finale party at the DNA featuring psytrance and breaks from Absolum, Christian, Dutch, and the Thump DJs, takes place June 12, 10 p.m.-7 a.m., DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., S.F. $20. (415) 626-1409.