so about a year ago i was shopping in san francisco and i saw this totally cool shirt. it was western style, but re-tailored to fit really well, and even had long, narrow sleeves which are hard to find. even more, it was all wrinkled and splattered with paint. man, was this ever a shirt with my name on it. i tried it on and, bingo, it fit. then I glanced at the price tag… $200!!!???. hilarious. on principal, i just couldn’t buy it, so I left it behind.
four months later, i pop back into the same store. it’s still there. what? nobody bought this totally cool shirt? i mean, a lot of people buy overpriced lofts in sf, so why was this shirt still on the rack? unless… nobody else thought it was as cool as i did? impossible, but it did give me an idea. i marched over to the sales person to ask if, perhaps, maybe, hint hint, they might know if this particular shirt was marked to go on sale “anytime soon”. the response: “ooooohh, no, this designer neeeeever goes on sale”. wellokthen…
a year later… bam! it’s on the super clearance rack. it was still $100, but on principal, I had to buy it. it rocks.
i'm wearing a suit and headed off to qoöl. just thought you would like to know.
every year i go through this period where i second guess going to the miami winter music conference. this year some bookings are pulling me through my annual episode of miami doubt. that and the prospect of spreading the word among the dance industry about qoöl (we just opened a 2nd one in los angeles), and a ridiculously good batch of tunes jondi & i just signed to loöq records. no doubt miami will be as busy and crazy as ever. ok…I’m psyched again. thanks for listening.
drop me a line if you’ll be at wmc!
a lot of djs seem to be abandoning vinyl, but i won't if it's still around. why? it sounds better. cds will be heavily featured in the mix as well because those are how you get to play your own music out before it gets to vinyl (we are also getting a ton of loöq demos and upfront stuff on cd or via mp3, and those obvously need to get played via cd as well). still, some djs seem to be ignoring vinyl altogether when the 1st rule should be to ask, "is this a good track?". if it is, it should get played from whatever format it's on.
in a matter of days, i encountered two unfair jabs against suits, and presumably about the people that wear them:
suit jab *1*
someone just told me about some wisecrack someone made recently about people wearing suits at qoöl, the implication being that the presence of these poor working people was somehow bringing down the "hip" and "underground" quotient of qoöl itself. well, i disagree. what they *are* doing there is the following:
a) being themselves (and having a good time while they are at it, i might add).
b) increasing the diversity of the crowd. for those of you that don't know, diversity, inclusiveness and acceptance is at the heart of qoöl. i would liken it to the congregation at glide memorial if they didn't have us beat in that department, but you get the idea. it's what we strive for.
suit jab *2*
i just received a puma messenger bag as part of a gift from nitevibe.com and their sponsors for being elected to san francisco's dj dreamteam (thank you very much).
the tag on the bag was full of forced, "try hard" marketing blahdy blah, with stuff like, "so, you're interested in puma? nice move. you're smart, confident and know what you want in life. sure you work hard, but you're no slave to the corporate fat-cats. you know the score...". this is funny reading on it's own, but it gets better, saying, "we know what we're doing. people in magazines wear this stuff. fashion people, sporty people. people who don't have to wear a suit every day." i don't have to what? what a load. i guess the sentiment is something like, "congratulations, mr. urban creative worker man, you're so cool that you don't have to wear suit." they leave out the best part though. that what you *do* have to do, however, is conform to everyone else and wear your hip uban uniform, preferably with some puma thrown in there. hey, it all helps. at this point you are probably free to go laugh at your friends that still have to wear... gasp ... a suit.
so wasn't it nice that, last night, two of the most underground djs at the dreamteam event, laird and smoove, showed up with suits on. talk about your hip, urban, artsy types. hey people, sometime things just aren't what they seem. and poor puma is caught in the crossfire. next season, be on the lookout for... puma suits!
[for you convenience, this blog has been posed on both jondiandspesh.com and djspesh.com. enjoy]
i am currently sitting in the loöq office working on all sorts of stuff related to qoöl, jondi & spesh, and of course, loöq records. jackie and jondi are here too, and we're all nice and busy. i'm djing later on tonight at qoöl and that will be my day today. i'm digging it.