DJ Superhighway

On Sunday morning I woke up and walked into my kitchen. Curled up asleep on my couch was Robb Green, a DJ I met years ago after playing at Hoyt's Pub in Queen Anne with Sensory Effect. We'd been trying to connect before his move to San Francisco at the end of the week, and my living room on a sleepy Sunday morning is as good a place as any. We chatted in the kitchen with Masil Q. and Pink as I cooked up some breakfast burritos and Robb retraced his going away extravaganza, which started last week and looks like it will continue into October. "It's wierd", he said "I've been running into people on the street that I haven't seen in years. And they're like, 'what's up?' and I'm like, "I'm moving to San Francisco!". He's set on a place, a job, and already a DJ gig there and in Portland on the way.

"I gotta show you this track", he said, and headed back to the living room. "But first, did you ever notice how INXS's Kick mixes straight out of this Metro Area?" For the next few hours, Rob Green went off, playing one of the smoothest sets to emerge from the Leschi Lounge. Part rock, part punk, all dance. Punk Rock Disco, an obvious genre to be spawned from a city of Grunge forced by a 'no dance ordinance' to find refuge at Raves. And Rob Green was on it. Tight.

All bubbly on burritos and bop, we started on a trek to a quaint beach down by Seward Park to Mimosas & BBQ promised to us night before. Unfortunately, we'd completely underestimated the length of the Lake Washington and Rob, a club kid, was not wearning comfy raver shoes. Masil Q. spouted, "These better be some gawddam good Mimosa's!."

After a call to Sokolicky and refreshing stop at the Ice Cream man, we were saved just in time to take a right on 50th and 'so long' to the sparkling blue smile of Lake Washington. We chilled on the beach for a while and napped in the sun until Rob jumped up, "I have to get to a radio show at 6!" Packing up the punch, we headed to the car and taxied Rob to hand off to his next gig, a BBQ and beats party for Remote Control Radio that airs every Sunday on Oseao.com. "After the set this morning, I'm all warmed up," he said, and Punk Rock Disco made its way into airwaves history.

Stay tuned for Robb Green on Remote Control Radio, brought to you by Shameless and Oseao.com.

See Rob Green at Delerium in San Francisco on Sept. 10th and in Seattle at the Decibel Festival Sept 22-25.

regarding motivation...

I threw away two krispy kreme donuts this morning by wrapping them in the same plastic bag along with a piece of styrofoam and I found myself wondering which one would decompose quicker.

On a somewhat related note, I've also found it far more motivating to do an Ab workout while watching Suicide Girls as compared to Abs of Steel.

Midweek Beats winner for Round 2 - Joshua James!

The Midweek Beats Spin-off was excellent last night! The floor was packed with people and the DJ's were right on. I had a blast. Looking forward to see who will be the winner from Round 3 next Wed! Keep our eyes out in the scene for Adlib, Joshua James and Dynamike. They were kickin'! Also check out some pics from Midweek Beats page. Also see the Seattle P-I's story on the Spin-off!

Yo, Cleapatra Jones ...

(Wed Aug 17)
Round 2 DJ Spin-off @ Element
DJ Adlib
Jen Woolfe
Joshua James
Dynamike

Butterfly from Digable Planets @ War Room
Pierre Crutchfield opening

(Thu Aug 18)
Dandy Warhols CD Release Party @ War Room
DJ Fishlure host DJ
Dandy Warhols will be there!

LICK @ Chop Suey
DJ SapphoMaster StanDJ FagopolisDJ Nice Youg Jewish Boy

(Fri Aug 19)
Jacob London @ SeeSound

BT live Remix Set @ Element
Eva
DJ MB
Austin Payne

GUS GUS DJ Set @ Chop Suey
DJ Colby B

(Sat Aug 20)
Rockstar Orphans Pre-compression @ Fremont Outdoor Cinema
Movie: Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Girl4Girl Seattle @ Premier

Free Mid-Week Madness

For us who work weekends, week days are well worth it!

(Tue Aug 16)
Eagle Presents Vibrator's Punk Rock Rodeo!
DJ's Fishlure & Femur ... the ain't no bUll!

(Wed Aug 17)
Pre-Folk at Conor Byrne's with Meagin Donovan

Midweek Beats Presents Round 2 of the DJ Spin-off @ Element
Jen Woolfe (House)
DJ's Adlib (Progressive/Tech House)
Joshua James (Tribal House)
Dynamike (Breaks)

No Cover and $1 Beers!

(Thu Aug 18)
Pre-Funk with Movies @ Baltic Room
Double Feature Labyrinth & Dark Crystal starting at 5:30

http://seattle.metblogs.com/archives/2005/08/things_you_shou.phtml

then off to ...
Open House @ Last Supper Club
w/ Residents Flav, Hyperfunk, DJ Jordon

What dreams may come

The burning man dreams are almost nightly, now. Last night I dreamt that there was a no re-enter policy and we kept leaving for whatever reason. I only had one ticket, so the first time Demetreus sweet-talked our way in. The second time, Pink worked it out with the door woman by finding two names on the list (which happened to be the same as mine) and saying they were ours. I was having huge issues with this, because I knew it was screwing over whoever the names truely were. Was this the burning man way? But I let it go, as I figured there was a lesson in there somewhere and it would all work out. When we were in, the greeters at the gate were placing people into a small merry-go-round thing and making them 'shakeit, shakeit, shakeit'. It got 'em smiling as they entered the playa, cuz you can't go in there with a grimace, O no. My parents were there, as were some of my aunts and uncles (leftover memories from viewing pictures of my family reunion this weekend). There was also a lake, which made me a little mad and feeling old-skool. 'We don't need a lake!' I kept thinking, much in the same way that I refuse to use the Soniccare toothbrush. We've been washing ourselves just fine for years with leaves and recycled pee, thank you!

In real life, I gifted myself a surround sound system for my bedroom last weekend. I was looking for some nice speakers to hook up to my laptop so I can stream Groove Salad.com and have nice sound. I ended up with a system that plays DVD's, CD's, and various other formats like MPEG, JPEG and MP3! Plus the adapter to hook into my laptop, so there are very lovely beats caressing you from 5 angles. I'm not much into flashy things or toys and such, but I have to say that watching X-Men 2 in surround sound is a lot nicer than it used to be.

Well, I'm off to put together a set for Oseao.com that I'm recording today. I'm totally nervous about it because I have to talk on the webcast. It will be a fun and great experience, but I've never done it before. Hence, the shaky knees, sweaty palms and procrastination. I joked a few weeks ago to Pink about how it would be funny for us to do a radio talk show at Burning Man called 'Air Numbarica Radio', a spin-off from Air America radio. And now here I am, talking on the radio. Be careful what you wish for, my friends.

NEXT GIG: Wed Aug 17 @ Element

Join me at Element on Wed for Round 2 of the DJ Spin-off brought to you by Midweek Beats!

332 5th Ave North
$1 Beers and $5 doubles

Not your mom's Geo

The Playa Faerie built a Geodesic Dome in our front yard! We leave two weeks from yesterday!

(Sat Aug 13)
Hitgirls LA Kendall and Miss Funk @ Last Supper Club
MOJO on Live Percussion!
http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=91172&eventid=21747

Colby B, Julie Herrera @ Mirabeau Room

(Sun Aug 14)
Check out Naha, Sir Kutz, and Messiah for Broken Grooves @ Contour
http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=91034&eventid=21707

Changes to Audio Page

Yay! I finally fixed the nasty Audio page and made it more like the Events page. Now sometime I can fix my annoying Images and make them into a nice and fancy picture gallery.

You'd think...

I'd have more time to blog being unemployed. But no...


(FRI AUG 5)
Uniting Souls @ See-Sound Lounge
Mat Anderson & Ramiro drop some chunky funky beats at our favorite Belltwon bar! Location:

Max Graham @ Element
http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=89604&eventid=21230

In Portland?
"Journey" with The LawnChair Generals. Sean Majors & Gene Lee @ Level http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=90441&eventid=21529

(Sat Aug 6)

U~Turn @ Baltic Room
Brandy Westmore
Jen Woolfe
Erin O'Conner

2 for 1 with Brandi Carlile tix! Come by for directions to afterparty at Leschi Lounge.

Magnetic~ @ Pacific Science Center
MARK FARINA & HUMAN BLUE
http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=90628&eventid=21588

Rabbit in the Moon Live! @ Premier
http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=90756&eventid=21619

(Sun Aug 7)
Sue and Fangor tie the knot!

Next Gig: Sat Aug 6 @ Baltic Room

Hitgirl! Presents.....

U-Turn @ Baltic Room Sat Aug 6th
Brandy Westmore Grace/Plasmodium Radio
Jen Woolfe Hitgirl!/Session
Erin O'Conner Grace/Poppa's House

$5, 21+8PM - 2AM
Ladies FREE before 10pm

Check the flyer by Issac Novak or
Bump up the NW Tekno thread instead!

New Mix! fuck me sexy

It's a demo, so it's kinda short. It was supposed to be called 'fuck me funky' but it's far more sexy than funky. Enjoy.

Life (L)imitating Art Imitating Life

I've always been facinated by the lives of writers. Sometimes I've enjoyed a writer's biography far more than the writer's work. There are two authors in particular where I've found this to be true, Henry Miller and F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of Miller's love interests was romanticized in the movie Henry and June. The movie portrays a sensual time of art and obscenity in France in the 1930's. Around this same time in America, F. Scott Fitzerald described a similar lifestyle. One author lived wealthy. One as a pauper. Both wrote from the eyes of a romanticized ideal of themselves about experiences surrounding them. Both led lives of art and leisure.

I went to college to write. I knew I had to make a living, so I decided the closest logical thing was to be a journalist. I became a staff writer at the college newspaper. I did this for two years until the Editor stole a story of mine and turned it into his own. Realizing this cutthroat business was not for me, I switched to photography. I enjoyed doing lay-outs and decided to change my major from journalism to graphic communications, which was in the Technology department. I learned photoshop, illustrator, took drafting and speach. I minored in business and bluffed my way through Marketing and Accounting. Even through all of that, my favorite classes were centered around discussions of society and relationships, and the sharing of ideas. I wrote very little while finishing my major.

During my senior year, I took an Art History class. I learned far more in that class about Christian history than about the history of art. Especially for that, I loved the class and stayed in it even when I realized it didn't count toward my general requirements. A paper was due at the end of the quarter to describe a piece of artwork that one would create in order to define how increasing dependance on Technology is affecting art. I forgot about the assignment until 1am the night before. I remember pulling up my laptop on my bed and blurting out two pages of fluff. A week later, my teacher handed them back. "There is one paper that I was so touched by," my instructer said, "that I want to read to the class." Realizing I was the only one without a paper returned, my cheeks turned bright pink and I sunk tried to dissapear into my chair. Not until she read it out loud did I realize how good the paper really was. It described the image of a man, the left half in paint and the right half printed out from a digital image. In one hand he holds a paint brush and in another, DaVinci's 'Mona Lisa'. His attention is focused in the upper right-hand corner. He is mezmerized by an flashing screen. So mezmerized, in fact, that he drops both the paintbrush and the priceless work of art in the mud.

I was supposed to graduate in 1998, but I didn't 'technically' earn my degree until 2003. I had to make up 7 credits, because during my last quarter, I dropped out of an Art of Computer Graphics class to work during the same hours at a small Print Shop in Spokane as a graphic designer. I left Spokane in July and moved back to Tacoma. A friend of mine from high school was quitting her job and said I should apply. I'd have to learn a new skill, Unix, an operating system, comparable to Windows, that runs computer software. I was facinated by this new skillset. I studied during work hours and often took classes at night. It took me a year to understand how to interpret the software and another year to understand the field itself. By 2000, I was in charge of the technical end of the small department in which I had started. By 2001 I had moved to Seattle to accept another opportunity within the Tech field to join a team and manage a half dozen systems of variying functionalities. I continued to take classes and learned different facets of computer technology, a field of endless learning and opportunity for growth and change. Each time I felt the need to move forward, I was presented with a new job that fit my needs and continued to expand my knowledge in the field. I never wrote, except a few entries in my journal. I never read except for technology books and a few historical fiction novels that I squeezed in while riding the bus.

A year after I moved to Seattle, I developed a passion for House music and started DJ'ing. Here was yet another new skillset to discover, completely different from what I did 8-10 hours a day. A skillset of feeling instead of intellect. An outlet from the confinds of my continuoulsy exertive mind. I could even listen to House music while I was working. I found the vocal-less beats helped my concentration not drift from the project at hand. My two passions lived harmoniously for a few years, until the demands of my DJ life began to conflict with the demands of my Tech life and a finally, a few weeks ago, I had to choose.

In the past 6 months, I've been very emotional and confused. I've sought help so I can figure out what's ailing me in the best way possible. I've been speaking most about my inability to be there for people that I most care about. Between my demanding work and DJ schedule, I haven't been the friend that I want to be. I started this blog because I needed to put a website up quick and I wanted a way to let all my friends know what I was up to and why I haven't been there. I don't know if it's actually filled that desire, but once I started it, I've realized a passion that I've long since drained from my psyche. A passion of feeling AND intellect. A passion that I once left my childhood to persue. I had nothing to write about when I was 18. Now, at 30, I have lifetimes.

I quit Tech. I feel like I've just stopped a speeding train. I can't say I won't return to it, but if I do so, it will be in a far more creative way. I'm scared to say that I quit Tech to be a DJ. I'd like to say I quit to be a writer, but that also may not pay. I suppose I quit to be an artist, to persue my passion, to lead a life I myself most loved to read about. Whatever lies ahead, be it wealthy or pauperized, I will always know that I took a chance to follow the road less travelled. And as I've been told by artists far more successful than me, that has made all the difference.