Happy Hour at BOKA

I'm heading over to the Clubvibes Happy Hour at BOKA in a few minutes and then MAYBE on to Havana to see Miguel Alvarado and MB.

Depends on how tired I am.

Either way, I think I need a drink after the buzz-kill of not seeing the Blue Angels fly by at the Columbia Tower Club for Lunch today. Total bummer.

Ah-well...

Platinum Saves The Day

Thank god for Platinum Records. Not only are they the only place to purchase decent vinyl in the city, but, they also repair equipment. Score!

I mentioned the other week that one of my TT's was damaged in a move from my house to an event. According to Mark at Platinum who has worked on over 600 TT's (damn), it was a short in the pitch control.

Exactly what we thought it was.

Although I was secretly scared that it would end up being something much worse....(I had visions of having to purchase a whole new turntable - which would have been very upsetting since the TT's are only 4 years old and frankly, one of the reasons one buys Technics in the first place is that they last forever. Plus, I'd rather spend $500 on equipment upgrades, not downgrades for godsake!)

...Luckily, the damage was minimal and so was the cost to fix it: $49.99 for an hour's worth of work. Now I can relax and start working on my set(s) for the Seafair Cruise happening this Sunday.

So, let's just pray the weather cooperates....

To Forever

Speaking of Tiesto, I'm pretty much in heavy like with the new "In Search of Sunrise 7" cd that came out recently. Yes, I still buy CD's...and yes, I am in love with track 5, "To Forever" by Rachael Starr.

Her soft but haunting voice resonates throughout, leaving me teary-eyed almost every time I hear it. The song also has sentimental value, but I won't go into that...

Given that I am willing to divulge my new YouTube obsession (better late than never), let me direct you to a sweet and endearing video from xxTotalxx. He (assuming) doesn't provide a code to embed, so you'll have to check it out for yourselves...

http://www.youtube.com/user/xxTotalxx

I will however, provide the lyrics, just because they make me happy:

I see you and you see me
There's only one thing this could be
I think you know just what I mean
When I'm with you I feel so free

When we meet up the whole world stops
The musics louder, temperature drops
It seems like they are all dancing to our beat
Look around I know you'll see

And I love you
And I hope you love me too
And I need you
And I hope you need me too

Babe, I just hope that you know
To never let me go
Cause when it comes to forever
We should be together

Hide and Seek

I was leisurely listening to Pandora this morning at work hoping to hear something moving when I stumbled across an old favorite from Imogen Heap called "Hide and Seek," only this version was remixed by the incomparable Tiesto. It was exactly what I was looking for.

And when I heard it everything stopped.

Until I started searching frantically for it online. iTunes? No. Myspace? Not happening sister. So I tried YouTube, and there she was....

If you have some time, please have a listen, it's worth it.

Last Days for Spring/Summer Sale at The Finerie

After accidentally (ok, not quite) using my Fashion First outfit for another event (please refer to the Orange dress in Profile/DJ photoshoot pictures and in the Clubvibes Boat Cruise Pictures - yes, I wore it twice!), I wandered aimlessly around the streets of Seattle from boutique to boutique, hoping to take advantage of what the city had to offer, and maybe a summer sale or two.

On my way up 1st Ave from BOKA one day I decided to stop by The Finerie to say "hi" and talk about what's hot on the runway with one of my favorite fashionistas, Fashion First participant, and owner of The Finerie, Tanya Friberg.

I perused fine Summer wares as Tanya told me about her Spring/Summer Sale. Bingo! I was in the right place to (a.) find my Fashion First outfit and (b.) get a great deal while I was doing it.

WHERE: The Finerie // 1215 1st Ave // 206.652.4664

WHAT: Spring/Summer Sale

*Get 40%-80% off in the Sales Loft or, participate in the "Progressive Sale" happening ALL SUMMER throughout the entire store and allowing you to get a certain percentage off with each purchase: (see below)
1 item = 20% off
2 items = 25%
3 items = 30%
4 items = 35%
5 items = 45%

WHEN: Now! Hurry in, the sale ends when July does.

HOURS:
M-Th 1030a-7p
F 10a-830a
Sat 10a-8pm
Sun 11a-6p

IN ADDITION: The Finerie offers Personal styling and private shopping events for you and your friends or clients. Email style@thefinerie.com to inquire about your own event at the The Finerie. They also validate parking with purchase at the Hotel 1000, about a block away.

OR...

Come check out all the hotness that you know Fall Fashion has to offer from The Finerie on the runway at Fashion First happening August 7th!!

FALL FASHION TIP: According to Tanya Friberg, owner of The Finerie, Color is still BIG this Season - choose Orange, Purple, Green or Royal Blue garments to liven up your Fall and Winter in 08 and 09!

Clubvibes Seafair Boat Cruise feat. Yours Truly

That's right, it's time to start thinking about Seafair. If you don't have a fab friend who owns prime real estate on the lake, may I suggest joining us on the Clubvibes Boat Cruise on Seafair Sunday? I'll be spinning two 45 minute sets to enhance your excessive-imbibing experience.

Think about it: Water. Boat. Front Row seat to all the action. All inclusive food and drink. Unbeatable price. Great music. Good people. (They may be drunk people, but they're good people, no doubt.)

Details:

Clubvibes Seafair Boat Cruise
Sunday, August 3rd
$65 - Includes food/drink All day
DJ's: Alex Xavier, Darnell Sue, AJ Sorbello, Barbarella and more....spinning House and Hip-hop
21+
*Click here for tickets

Bastille Day and a Broken Pitch Control

I haven't had a chance to discuss my DJ'ing philosophies yet, but I figure we've got time. In fact, before we get started, please note that I'm working on a highlighted photo montage of some of my other DJ'ing gigs over the past year. In the meantime, let's talk about Bastille Day at Le Pichet a week ago Monday.

First off, I'm not sure why I accepted a gig on a Monday night starting at 11pm and ending at 2am when I had to be to work sometime between 8am and 9am the next day...but I did. It's not like I'm 20 years old anymore for god sake. Which is exactly why I have strict rules like...not playing on the Eastside on a "school night," or, not taking my equipment to house parties or any other parties, or, only committing to playing exclusive parties and events for reasons that may appear greedy, but make perfect sense to me.

But, it was Bastille Day after all, and according to my good buddy Cedric Ross, booking agent for this event and Community Relations Manager for Culturemob.com, this was the party of the year. Well, that and....(payday was top notch - not like we're keeping score here). Plus, it was good exposure and something I hadn't done before.

But I digress...

Let's get to the heart of the matter here. That matter being that I broke one of my tried and true rules.

How dare I!

I brought my equipment to the venue. Something I said I would never do mere moments ago! Not setting a good example here, am I? No. No, I pulled a fast one on myself and packed up my equipment in a classic Turntable Coffin and hot-footed myself down to Le Pichet after picking up DJ Jeromy Nail on the way. We had planned to split the 3 hour shift, and I planned to split my paycheck.

No biggie.

I was just happy that I wasn't going at this alone. That is...until we got there. Not only was it packed at 11pm on this Monday night (SO unexpected), BUT, turns out, one of my Technics MK5's had gotten "jarred" along the way. Yep, Jeromy and I were stuck with one turntable that had pitch control and one that didn't.

Awesome.

Just so you know, it's pretty much impossible to mix records in this situation. OK, not impossible, but EXTRA complicated. I couldn't help but think this was happening because I had broken one of my cardinal DJ rules. And I also couldn't help but wonder how we were going to get through this.

Then I realized that everyone was wasted. They were none the wiser. Thank god...


**So...this is the point where I'd like to upload more pictures, but, seemingly, I haven't quite figured out how to do that. Apparently, I'm just not good at technology.... ;)

Let's start with...

Technorati!