ADRIAN DOES STUFF

It took me forever to finally get around to buying one, and then, once I did, it was still about two months before I really started using it in earnest. And now..

I'm totally addicted. I take it with me everywhere. I LURV IT.

 

The running joke has been that I wouldn't buy an iPod until they came in BLACK. And now, I have two of them – a nice 60GB video iPod, and a 2GB iPod nano that MacZone tossed in for free when I bought my now-obsolete PowerBook G4. (Yup, only two months old, and it's already outdated. Apple just released the MacBook Pro, which is four times as fast as the PowerBook I just dropped $2000 on in November. I am sooooo pissed. But that's another rant.)

 

Pimp my iPod!

Macworld was here last week in San Francisco, but they might as well have called it the iPod Accessory Show. There were so many gizmos and cases and things for iPods. I got little plastic screen protectors for ours, but as far as buying a protective iPod sleeve or case, I think that's ridiculous. Some people are like, "Oh, but I don't want to get my iPod all scratched up!" WHATEVER. It's an iPod, it goes in your pocket, you might scratch it up. BIG DEAL. People like that are probably the same ones who buy an SUV, but then never ever take it off-road, for fear they might get a scratch. LAME.

 

I do, however, want this:

The following is pretty much excerpted from my annual holiday greeting e-mail that I sent out to family and friends a couple of weeks ago. But it also functions well as a nice little year-end wrap-up for myself, personally. Sort of a "State of Me" address:

2005 was especially busy – what with this being the year that mash-ups finally became a part of the American cultural zeitgeist. Needless to say, we ended up DJing a LOT of different parties and events. Our monthly club Bootie – the first mash-up party in America – has been doing great, and our 2-Year Anniversary in August turned out to be the biggest event we've thrown to date, with nearly 600 people. Two weeks before that, we went to Los Angeles to launch Bootie LA, which turned out to be an instant success. So now we're doing two monthly Bootie parties in two different cities!

The best part about Bootie is being able to host international guest DJs, and we've met some fantastic people by having them spin at our club. In November, DJ Zebra from France returned the favor by bringing us and our friend Party Ben over to Paris to DJ. We took a little side trip by train so we could spin in Amsterdam as well, and it was a blast.

In other mash-up news, one of our most popular tracks, "Decepta-Freak-On" (Missy Elliott vs. Le Tigre) appeared as the first song on The Best Mashups In The World Ever Are From San Francisco CD compilation, which has really helped put our local scene on the map. Plus, I've been singing regularly with my new band, Smash-Up Derby, which has been so much fun, getting to sing new wave and pop songs over crunchy indie rock.

As we (gasp!) continue into our mid-30s, I must admit, we're really enjoying being on the other side of nightlife culture now. Instead of simply partying, we're now partying with a purpose. Instead of just consuming nightclub and music culture, we're creating it – and that's a good feeling.

Although Deidre has quit her day job, I've still got mine. In fact, this year marked the 10-year anniversary of me being the Art Director of the Bay Area Reporter. Obviously, I still like my job! I tend to stick with things I like. After all, I've been going to Burning Man for the past 13 years, I haven't missed a single Trannyshack Reno bus trip since it started nine years ago ... and Deidre and I have been together for nearly seven years!

We have quite a few plans for the upcoming year, including putting out another mash-up CD, starting a monthly electro club night, and making more music – both mashed-up and original! Someday, we'll move out of our downtown studio apartment – but with rents in San Francisco being what they are, we're not expecting to anytime soon!

What else? How were my holidays?

Horrible. On December 23rd, I DJ'ed the Bootie Mashup Lounge at Pop Roxx at DNA Lounge – which at the time, was really fun. At the stroke of midnight, on Christmas Eve, it officially became my birthday, so people ended up buying me shots, and Sarah, the bartender in our room, kept making me REALLY STRONG Red Bull & vodkas. I ended up getting incredibly drunk, and ... I lost our entire CD book ... you know, the one that's pretty much our entire DJ career. Yeah, that one. Plus, I lost my wallet too –- which had $400 in it, to be used for holiday shopping the next day.

Of course, I didn't end up realizing any of this until I woke up the next morning, totally hungover. I kinda remembered the end of the night – such as quietly puking in the cab on the way home – but other bits were a little hazy. Needless to say, I had no idea where the CD book or my wallet was. I ended up having the WORST birthday and Christmas ever. Two days of stress and anxiety, calling the DNA, calling cab companies, etc.... coupled with me just punching myself over and over and over again.

D was incredibly cool about all of it. Unbelievable. Of course, if she had gotten too drunk and lost all our CDs, I would have already filed divorce papers!

Good news popped up on Christmas day though, when DJ Earworm got in touch with us. A girl named Lindsey, who had been at Pop Roxx, e-mailed him, thinking that it was his book. He forwarded her email to us. Apparently, she found the CD book just sitting there at DNA Lounge. So we were able to get in touch with her, and she gave it back to us a few days later. Lindsey ROCKS! It was the BEST Christmas present EVER.

Whew! Just in time for our New Years Eve gig at Mezzanine, too, which turned out to be great. Got to DJ to a really fun crowd on the Bootie outdoor patio/smoking lounge, and I got to see two of my favorite local bands, the Lovemakers and Every Move A Picture. Woo-hoo! (I also saw She Wants Revenge, the worst Bauhaus cover band ever. It's one thing to be influenced by your idols ... it's quite another to sound almost exactly like them to the point of being pointlessly derivative. Don't believe the hype. They weren't even that interesting to look at.)

Anyway, needless to say, I will NEVER be getting that drunk EVER again. From now on, I'm sticking with beer!

Still haven't gotten my wallet back though ... A few months ago, while in LA, I found some guy's wallet in a parking lot. He had an Oklahoma ID, so I figured he had proably just moved to LA. I went to great lengths to track him down, call him up, get his address, and send it back to him. I was hoping I'd get some karmic payback for that in regard to my own missing wallet ... but so far, I ain't got zilch. :-(