Thursday, 27 January 2005
How much do I love my new band?
So... Smash-Up Derby had a show last Friday. And we hadn't seen each other, much less played together, since ... well, since our last show, which was like, over two months ago, when we opened for the Epoxies at DNA. So I was a little worried, because we only had two rehearsals scheduled. But fuck! We all got together for rehearsal, and the separation anxiety just melted away. It sounds like we just played all these songs a few days ago.
Have I mentioned I love my new band?
It's all so effortless. We all get along great, the vibe is there, and quite simply, we just have a blast playing these songs. And everyone is such a great musician. Now all we have to do is just buckle down for a few extra rehearsals to work out some new mash-up arrangements. Trixxie Carr is all gung-ho to join Smash-Up Derby as a full-time member, and we're all psyched to have her. I can't wait to give her something to sing lead on, so I can sing back-up harmonies. And how about a mash-up duet? What rock song works well with "Don't You Want Me?"
But for this show we did on Friday -- a benefit for the SF IndieFest -- Trixxie had a prior engagement in Lake Tahoe, so it was the stripped down, but still rock solid, Smash-Up Derby. So much fun.
No clubs to DJ at this week, but it was still somewhat busy, what with lots of music-related projects in the works. Me, D, and Party Ben all had a power lunch on Saturday with Tripp and Matt Hite, discussing the possibilities of doing some Bootie parties in Monterey and Santa Cruz, among other places. Seem insteresting ... we'll see what happens.
But the thing I'm most excited about is a Top Secret Project which I'll code-name TSP. We've been working on it for some time now, but it's looking like it's really going to happen, and I can't wait! All will be revealed soon...
Okay, so how much do I love my Ableton Live class at Robotspeak? I'm not learning a ton, but what I am learning has been so critical. I fixed up the "stuttering drum" problem on "Decepta-Freak-On," and learned how to warp marker a song quickly, easily, and systematically. (As opposed to convoluted and scattered, which was how Stink taught it to me.) I started working on a mash-up of the Depeche Mode B-side "Dangerous," for Tripp's Violated project. We'll see how it turns out.
One last thing: I went to a botox party at Miss Lynda's house on Sunday. I'm not sayin' nothin' 'cept ... mmmm, botox. It's hard to say no when it's only $125. It's amazing how "fresh" and "rejuvenated" I look these days!
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Monday, 17 January 2005
GYBO Awards
So the GYBO Awards came out today. And I know that most awards are really just glorified popularity contests, but for some reason, I still love them. Like, for example, I love going to Oscar Awards parties, even though I've hardly seen any of the movies. Anyway...
So yeah, it's just an insular awards thing for a clique-ish message board forum, but these people are our colleagues and our peers. Our club Bootie -- the first mash-up club in the United States -- was nominated for Best Regular Bootleg Night, and the our big, huge One-Year Anniversary Mash Bash was up for Best Bootleg Event. And we got shut out of both. Which I guess isn't surprising, given the Euro-centrism of the Get Your Bootleg On forum. But still...
We are arguably the largest all-mash-up party in the world. We've had several international bootleggers fly in to spin sets at Bootie, not to mention we have other things that make it special, like performances, go-go dancers, giveaways, etc. Yet, the long-running Bastard, which is held in a space in London no bigger than my living room, won. And the International Bastard Weekender in Germany, which seems more like a mini GYBO convention than it is an actual event for the nightclubbing public, won best one-off. Meanwhile, we flew McSleazy in for our Anniversary Mash Bash, and had nearly 500 people dancing their asses off at our party. WTF?
Oh well, we're just going to keep doing what we do -- bringing mash-ups out of the bedroom and into the nightclubs, bringing them to the people!
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Sunday, 16 January 2005
Blah Blah Blah
It's my first drunken post at six in the morning! Typing on this new shitty keyboard I got from the Macworld expo, which means that I have no way of returning it, fuck! Anyway ... this past week has been spent ramping up towards the launch of our new club, Blah Blah Blah. Damn, it sure seemed like a great night! The place was comfortably crowded, everyone seem sufficiently alcoholically lubricated, and D and I spun some really good sets. We're trying to branch out from just our mash-up thing, but it's sometimes hard when that's what you're mostly known for, and that's what you're most familiar with. But I really enjoyed playing electro, and thumpin' that dance floor.
So ... it seemed like a great night ... at least after 12 midnight, when the place got slammed ... but then we did the math, and it turns out we didn't really make very much money. I don't know, maybe we had too many expenses for this first one, what with decoration costs, SF Weekly ad, and other things. Weird. I mean, it was still a great party, and I'm really happy about that.
Not so sure about that free Jolly Rancher Apple Martini shot through the door ... apparently, a lot of people didn't even TIP on it! And then they didn't really buy drinks beyond that free shot. What the fuck is wrong with people? Maybe everyone goes bar-hopping in the Lower Haight, gets good and drunk elsewhere, then shows up at Underground SF to dance.
It's time for bed! I have a cold, plus I have to do homework for my Ableton Live class on Monday!
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Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Bootie week is always busy
Okay, quickly catching up here on last week. It was the week before Bootie, which is always pretty busy. But for some reason, on Tuesday, January 4th, I agreed to be in Marcy Meow's number at Trannyshack, which was "Girls Girls Girls" by Motley Crue. The theme of the night was "Video Killed The Drag Star," and Marcy dressed up like Vince Neil. At the last minute -- i.e., the night before -- she recruited myself, Spaz, and Foxy to be the rest of Motley Crue. She told me that Christian was making wigs for everyone, but that night, she showed up at my office (conveniently located right above the Stud) with no wigs in hand ... fifteen minutes before showtime! I was supposed to be Mick Mars, but I don't think Mick every had red dreadlocks!
Whatever, it's Trannyshack. It was total chaos onstage, but I'm sure it looked fun to the audience. Besides, it was fun to be a background performer in someone's number, which I've never really done before.
The next day was pretty hectic ... I was at work late, downloading as much as I could off of GYBO, going through 12 pages worth of tunes. D and I are frantically getting everything ready for Bootie, and cleaning our house in anticipation for DJ Payroll staying with us.
On Thursday afternoon, Payroll, aka Simon, arrives from London. He shows up at our apartment, and he's an immediate chilled and cool vibe. We drag him down the street to the Crepehouse for some dinner – the same place we took McSleazy and Go Home Productions. D and I have to DJ at The Cinch that night, plus, I have to go to Underground SF for a photo shoot, so Simon hangs with us for a bit, then cabs off to go nightclubbing at Popscene, where Party Ben put him on the list.
Can I just say, we LOVE a houseguest who can run off by himself to go exploring the city, and doesn't need us to show him around everywhere, every single minute of the day? The next two days, Simon was gone, shopping like a madman. Just like Mark GHP, he bought himself an iPod, which are apparently MUCH cheaper here than in the UK. We're envious of the strength of the British pound, which is worth twice what the US Dollar is right now. So much for any future budget travels to the UK.
I spent all day Friday putting together a custom mix for the Scissor Sisters afterparty at Bambuddha Lounge, which we might be DJing at! Then it was off to dinner at Fina Estampa. Simon had never had Mexican food! Then we went to Slim's for One Night Stand, which I must say was kinda lackluster this year, except for Forbidden Zone, the Oingo Boingo cover band that PF had formed. Matt played drums, and Bill Barton was on keyboards, with Patty O'Furniture singing back-up, along with six other band members. It was definitely the highlight of the night, and the only thing that made the evening worth it! Party Ben had met up with us at Slim's, so we all ended up going to The Cinch for a nightcap. Definitely a fun night!
Saturday was Bootie. What a great night! Here's the full report that I posted to GYBO:
The rain let up just enough, and despite our fears, the place ended up being packed! We had something like 275 people crammed into the Cherry Bar, and everyone seemed like they were having a blast. Dada got some people on the dancefloor early in the night -- always a good sign when people are dancing before 10 PM. Then I took over for a short 40 minute set, then Party Ben and the Mysterious D (the new Bootie DJ power couple -- I've been usurped by Ben!) took over. And THEN we had a bit of a crisis!
Payroll was supposed to start his set at 11 PM ... Simon popped his CDs into the decks and ... NOTHING! An error code shows up on the CDJ decks. So he puts in his back-up CD ... same thing. He tests out all his CDs and not one disc will play. Aaaaaiiigh! All the way from London, and he can't even play his set!
So Party Ben continued his set while Simon and I haul ass back to our place in an attempt to re-burn the CDs on my computer. We hop a taxi (just as Jay-R was arriving, screaming out "Hey, Payroll!") and race up to our apartment. We pop the CDs into my computer, re-burn and re-rip two of them, and then haul ass back to the club. We get back just in time for the midnight mash-up show with Patty O'Furniture and Lily LeRouge, then Payroll hit the decks. Thankfully, both of the re-burned CDs worked, so he slammed down an AMAZING set that had the crowd going nuts. ("Pink Satisfaction" was a big hit).
Then just before 1 AM, when the crowd was good and drunk and the energy was just AMPED, Earworm began his set, which was the perfect late-night electro mash-up set. Party Ben finished up the night, closing with "Boulevard of Broken Songs," and then somehow, we convinced him to host an after-party with 30 people at his loft a block away. There, we partied until the wee hours of the morning, and Simon, D, and I finally ended up back at our place at 7 AM. Like I said, what a night!
Sunday was spent recovering, then we went to the Capricorn party at the Patisserie that Christian had organized. It was quite nice, a group birthday party for me, Spaz, Christian, and Jordan L'Moore. The food was good, Crazy Girl DJ'ed, and then I did a loopy silly set at the end, getting to play on Spaz's brand new Denon compact CDJs, which are so small and cute and have lots of effects. D, Ben, and Payroll all joined in fucking around with the effects and loops, and Payroll ended up doing an impromptu performance on the "mic" (actually, headphone plugged into the mic jack), rapping over a loop of The Music, and generally doing a lot of "yeah, yeahs." TOO much fun, and a very nice last night to Simon's stay here in SF. I think we showed him a good time.
Finally, on Monday morning, just before Simon left to go back to the UK, Deidre finally got her big wish: we got new CDJ decks, along with a new mixer. She's been wanting a new DJ set-up for a few weeks now, and we found a pretty decent deal on Craigs List: two Pioneer CDJ-800s and a Behringer DJX700 mixer for $900. Plus, a pair of headphones and a microphone thrown in. D is elated. Now she feels like she can really practice her DJ skills ... and these are the same CDJ decks as the ones at Underground SF, where we'll be doing our new club, Blah Blah Blah, starting this Saturday.
Aaaaiiigh! So much to do this week to get ready for Blah Blah Blah ... exciting...
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Tuesday, 11 January 2005
No time
I do so much stuff, I don't have time to write in my blog! This past weekend was a blast, with DJ Payroll in town from London, doing a guest DJ set at Bootie and hanging out with us. Full update coming soon!
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Monday, 03 January 2005
On a budget
D and I worked on a "family budget" yesterday ... more New Years resolution-type stuff, sure. But actually, we've been procrastinating on this for months. We've been needing to do a budget, ever since I realized I blew about $3000 in the space of a month. Okay, sure, that was mostly for our wedding – and half of that was just getting our asses to Burning Man, in a rental RV, of course. And I know that that's hardly anything compared to what some people spend on a wedding. But we did what we could afford, and it was still the most beautiful wedding I've ever been a part of!
But anyway, ever since August, it seems like I've been really bad with money, not really keeping track of anything. And we went at least $1000 over our budget for our honeymoon, even despite all the gifts we got at TheHoneymoon.com. So ... yeah, we needed to start a budget.
So now I'm the family "financial planner," and am in charge of all our finances. In two months, D's unemployment is going to run out, and she's going to be living off of just DJ gigs, which is, quite frankly, pretty tight. I've allocated an allowance of $400 a month for her (and the same for me too), which still gives us enough money to cover our rent and bills. Ideally, I'd love to start an IRA for her, too. That can probably happen with some money from extra DJ gigs and things like that. "Bonus money," as I call it.
I've been covering a lot of expenses, and haven't really been able to sock away money like I used to. And if I ever want to buy that RV or Smart car, I'd better have a nest egg! So hopefully, this budget thing will force me to save some money. Maybe someday we can actually buy a condo or something ... although probably not in San Francisco.
18:20 Posted in Goals | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
My Smart car
Here's the car I want! It's a Smart car, and I've wanted one ever since I saw them in Amsterdam and London four years ago. It's finally cleared for import here in the U.S., and it would be perfect for San Francisco streets (or parking spaces, actually). And it gets 60 MPG. (Can you tell that fuel economy is important to me?)
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My dream RV
Someday, I will own an RV ... and this is the one I want: a Vixen 21 SE. They only made 172 of them, and as far as I can tell, it gets the best gas mileage of any automatic transmission RV ever built – 21 MPG. (The manual transmission turbodiesel version gets 30 MPG – but we can't drive a stick shift.)
The Mysterious D and I could buy this, put our stuff in storage, and travel around the country doing mash-up DJ gigs. There's even one for sale for only $19,000 right here in the Bay Area. Mmmmm....
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Saturday, 01 January 2005
Goals for 2005
• Start a weblog.
• Clear out the clutter in my apartment. Sell it all on eBay or Amazon. Get rid of it.
• Organize what's left.
• Get on a budget. Stick to it.
• Eat healthier. Stay fit. Do yoga.
• Make more mash-ups. Learn how to kick-ass at Ableton Live.
• Sing more. Play more. Relax more.
• Go on more roadtrips with Deidre.
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