syntaxfree

Sweet Juniper

I mostly read two types of personal blogs - blogs by my friends, because I am so bad at keeping in touch with people that even their infrequently updated blogs give me more information about their lives than I would otherwise have, and blogs by strangers that I enjoy so heartily that I totally wish those strangers could be my friends.

My reading list for the latter category is fairly short so I periodically go on big hunt-and-gather treks in search of new people to fall in love with, but usually end up frustratingly empty-handed. It's not that there aren't scads of blogs out there that are well-written by interesting people, because there definitely are. But I've often found that this still isn't quite enough to make me feed a blog to Google Reader - much like with people, I guess, there are plenty of nice people who you can meet and have a pleasant conversation with, but that doesn't mean you consciously look forward to meeting them again and rave about them to your other friends. There needs to be that extra sump'n sump'n, and that's what makes real, enduring connections so elusive.

So anyway, the whole point of this post is a) space-filling while I recover physically, mentally and emotionally from the MOTHERFUCKING CRUELTY that is the Sweet Sweet galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy, and b) to share a little yay with all of you that I've found a new blog for my list. Via this great guest post on Dooce about public toilets, Sweet Juniper is mostly written by a former lawyer who is now a stay-at-home dad. Much like Dooce, he writes so engagingly and entertainingly about parenting that it almost makes me want to be one! For like two seconds.

Pop My Cherry (13 June, 2008, Hacienda)

I know I should've updated earlier about the popping of my DJ cherry last weekend, but somehow it really took a lot out of me, and in the days afterwards I just needed a break from having to concentrate so hard on music! (This is where Super Mario Galaxy, my apparently untiring Rome addiction, and midweek karaoke stepped in, hence blog silence.)

Anyway, it went better and worse than I'd hoped. Let's do "worse" first - my equipment fears turned out well-founded, because I found myself really struggling to beat-match on the CDJs at the venue, and the cross-fader didn't work. This basically means that I wasn't able to transition smoothly between tracks by adjusting the beat of the incoming track to match the beat of the outgoing track, and I couldn't scratch. I'd been prepared for this so I just did chop-mixing (abrupt but well-timed transitions) instead. It wasn't too disappointing, really, because even if I wasn't able to do the transitions I planned this time, all the work I put into thinking about them was still a very worthwhile exercise, and it leaves me with a useful set "template" I can still work with as I get better at this, and hopefully pull off properly in future.

The "better" is that I got some nice comments from people who were neither my friends nor married to me, I got a great opportunity to give this a first try in a public but very forgiving setting, and I even got 4 free drinks from the bar and a little cash! I'm really grateful to Cherry for giving me this chance, and I'm hoping that if/when I get a second shot, I'll have progressed sufficiently to be able to show that I've left my smoothie criminal days far behind.

Here's the tracklist, for anyone who's interested. It's not intended to fill a dancefloor, because Hacienda at 11 pm isn't quite that sort of a setting. When I was coming up with it, I was thinking about how we used to sit in Cargo waiting for Xen night's main acts to start, drinking and gorging ourselves on heavenly hot sloppy ketchup-and-mayo fries, and how although I was mostly engaged in the conversation and it was a little too early for dancing, the music being played was always good enough to steal some of my attention away. It's a rather modest level to aim for in a DJ tracklist, maybe, but it seemed appropriate for the context and my skill level. I'll save dancefloor bangers for when I can actually beat-match without screwing up!

1. Apparat - Holdon
2. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Regiment
3. Talib Kweli - Listen
4. TTC - Leguman
5. One Self - Trying To Speak
6. The Kleptones - Jazz
7. Clipse - Chinese New Year
8. Ice Cube - What They Hittin' Foe
9. RJD2 - F.H.H.
10. Nine - Lyin' King
11. Marco Polo feat. Kardinal Offishall - War
12. Spank Rock - Coke And Wet
13. Gangstagrass - Going Down
14. Notorious B.I.G. (Ratatat remix) - Party And Bullshit
15. Muddy Waters - Tom Cat
16. DJ Kentaro - Heard Yer Bird Moved In
17. Sway - Hype Boys
18. Prince - Gett Off

Maybe I Should Call Myself "DJ Smoothie Criminal"

People have been asking how the DJ classes are going, so I thought I should update everyone here. I'm six lessons in, with two left before I finish the Basic/Intermediate course. I'm still not very good with all the technical terminology of DJing but I think so far I've learnt beat-matching, mixing in and mixing out, scratching, drumming, fader tricks, and some basic beat-juggling.

What's been the most interesting about the lessons is how I've had to think about music in new ways that are quite different from my previous classical-musician or avid-music-consumer frames of reference. My classical training means Koflow didn't have to teach me how to count bars, and it's probably given me a good ear for timing and complicated rhythms. However, grade 8 qualifications in violin and piano still ain't worth shit when I'm doing the frantic mental juggle of counting bars in one song's chorus while beat-matching the next song and deciding when and how to mix it in, or trying to coordinate my scratching hand with my fader hand. I still have frustrating muppety days when I'm like "I used to play modern classical music with multiple changing time signatures in an orchestra, but I can't fucking figure out whether this song's 4 beats are faster than that song's 4 beats???!!" Such muppetry is best illustrated by the following exchange during one of my early lessons:

Me, trying out something Koflow just taught me: Why does my scratching sound so shit?
Koflow, patiently: Because you didn't switch the turntable on.

As a consumer of music, I've always been looking for songs which are well put together as a whole, where all the song's elements work to take you on that song's journey from beginning to end. But to listen the way a turntablist does is to never dismiss a song just because it doesn't appeal to you in its entirety, but instead to be constantly on the look out for elements you can isolate from that song and use creatively somewhere else. Any clubber and mixtape consumer already knows this, of course, but passively appreciating someone else's creativity is totally different from having to actively engage with the music on your own.

Which brings me neatly on to the news that, as new as I am to this type of listening, and as dodgy as my newly-acquired DJ "skills" may be, my friend Cherry recently took advantage of my drunken high at a good drum'n'bass night, and persuaded me to take a slot in her regular all-girl amateur DJ night, Pop My Cherry. The event's this Friday night at Hacienda (full details here), and my slot's from 11 to 12.

I'm a bit bashful about encouraging people to come, because I'm not actually going to be doing much of what I've learnt in my classes. I could give a long-winded explanation of why I'll essentially be doing my set on equipment I'm totally unfamiliar with and how things could go terribly wrong as a result, but I decided an easier way would be to just show you my phat home setup:

Yeah, so basically I have zero equipment to practice on at home. I've been meaning to get some, but it'll be the most expensive purchase I've ever made in my life, so I've been dragging my feet. Anyway, I've decided that for my first attempt at public DJing I'll just focus on not being too nervous and doing the best transitions I can between tracks, even if I don't manage to beat-match or scratch. So do come if you'd like to - I'd love the support - but if you do, just be aware that you'll be listening to a DJ whose only mixer is mostly used for smoothies.

Wii Are Not Amused

Good: Having a husband who brings home a Wii from his business trip to Hong Kong.

Bad: Having a husband who, when setting up the Wii while you're out, decides that this is the best way to depict his wife.