Ostara plays DnB what

X:Para:Mental found me with guest Dj Moe Stoic who is a Dnb dj. I am not. It makes me insane in a bad way. So, for tonights bag of tricks, I made him play my records *house and breaks mostly.* and I played off of his.. *dnb all* for a short while. I did ok. He did well. I still don't like dnb but I do have a new respect for it.

10:02 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Somethin wed like your help with

You dont have to be crazy to get XParaMental but it helps

Last nights X:Para:Mental was kind of insane. I decided it was the perfect night to try going for an hour without headphones. I had special guest Dj Notice participating. I have to say he was a great sport.

I stole this idea from Dan Taylor who told me he did this once while playing vinyl and if you put your ear down near the needle you could here the highs and mids to mix. You can't do that with cd players. I ran over and over in my head how I might be able to pull this off. I told Notice how I thought it would be easier on him since he uses torq now. For full disclosure I must admit, I DO NOT practice an experiment before I do it live. I do however obsess over ideas of how to accomplish my mission. (If the idea is based on a word then I do try to think of as many songs before hand...) The point is to not be afraid. Experiments can go amazingly or they can blow up in your face. But if you let yourself get too nervous you forget what you're trying to do. I went in excited about this idea. If it didn't work.. So what. Everyone there knew what we were doing and they know its X:Para:Mental.

Somehow, I pulled it off! First mix I hit it and both Notice and my jaw's dropped to the floor. I thought it was a fluke. I honestly truly did. Then I hit the second mix. I couldn't stop laughing. If I hadn't of had witnesses I would have thought I was dreaming. (Or maybe the witnesses were a part of the dream as well... ) Would I want to play like that all the time, no. But I know I can if I need to now. Which is the other reason for X:PARA:MENTAL. Pushing the limits. You don't know what you're capable of until you try. If you never push your limits you don't know how far you can go. Thanks to everyone who made it out. And thanks to Notice for playing my fucked up games ;0)

8:11 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

A apology

I received this from Joshua Distance



ok. so you need to think about who i was writing too with that. most of our crowd only go to 3 bars in this city. if there is no beer, people for them to hook up with, and anyone under 21, they don't go. when that is why you go out, then yes the wreck is the last place you want to go out to. the message was not to anyone that would go to the wreck on a normal night, or knows about the wreck and the history of this cities dance scene. it was to people that only go somewhere if they think cool people are going to be there. and when that place is somewhere that is not where they want to be, i feel i have to say it how they feel to make it a better idea.

i do think the wreck is cool. after star 7 and ebm were gone, i was there every week. for a good 2 years i was the 1st in the door and the last to leave. i have tons of respect for that place' and anyone that plays there.

i'm very sorry that it came off as bashing the wreck.

joshua




My response

I've been working since November to change peoples perspective in this community of the wreckroom. And I've been making decent headway. DRD is a big part of this community and instead of getting peoples attention with a negative you should tell them the positives. I had no choice but to respond. But I didn't respond in an angry manner because I think I wasn't so much angry (unlike a lot of other people..) as I saw it as a push back against all this stuff I've been working so hard to accomplish.

I've done everything I can to respect DRD in this community. Even though we have a competing night I don't play my night like I'm competing against you guys. You do something completely different from what I do. I have nothing but respect. So when I wrote that I kept it business. I want to seethis scene come alive again. Make it about the music. Not the booze and drugs. We live in an era that makes that hard. So, every little thing we do to hurt the scene hurts it. Ya know?
/end rant...

I think I didn't say enough now that I've read that.. Lol.

Oh well.

11:02 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Just in case you missed the bulletins...

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Dance Robots, Dance!
Date: Jul 18, 2008 10:40 AM


Our good buddy Dustin Skiles is in town from Florida and will be DJing at The Wreckroom tonight. He runs a night like our called GO, and is one of the many faces that helped make the dance scene in Oklahoma what it is. Plus he did my favorite Shiny Toy Guns Remix......

So i know The Wreckroom is a little lame, but this is your only chance to see this dude destroy the dance floor! He plays late so you can still go to the bar and then see him.



I am going to take exception to the claim that the wreckroom is a little lame!

I'm not gonna rip the drd peeps for their opinion but I will share mine. The Wreckroom has been a staple in the underground music scene here for (I want to say) 25 years. Many of some the best djs in our community started there and some have moved on to other states and places. Dustin Skiles being one. Marcus Lange. Locals Ed Crunk (of DRD) played there as a resident. Sokmonkey and Bone. Now we have Saul V, Dj Dezire and myself (ostara) there as residents. And we are all working very hard to bring it back to life and support the underground dance community. No, it isn't the same place it was 10 years ago. All the club kids have grown up and now that they're over 21 if there isn't alcohol they aren't likely to come out so what you see is a lot of under 21 people. (You were one of them once too) Only, that's slowly changing. People are starting to come back out after hours because we are trying to play the music that an older crowd will enjoy after hours. The top 40 remixes stay to between the drag shows mostly because the under 18s get kicked out at 1245. State curfew laws and such. We want them to have a good time while they are out too.

If the only way you can have a good time is to be pissed outta your mind, then, yeah, the wrecks lame. But if you want somewhere you have room to dance and there is music that makes you wanna dance, the wreck is the place. Especially afterhours because there isn't another place you can go that is open.

Tonight, If for no other reason than to hear Dustin Skiles play, you should go. But make up your own mind. If you have a good time, come check it out again. If you didn't, well, at least you tried something different.

11:53 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Thank goodness I recorded this

Oh my shit.. I'm listening to wednesdays battle and I knew we had some shit going on then but now listening to this... WOW! There are mixes on both ourparts that absolutely have blown me away and I was a part of it.. Wtf! It will be uploaded to www.resetdjs.com asap and I think quite possibly I might bring my computer up to sidecar tonight and burn copies as well. We gave out close to 50 copies of the first B4B wednesday night but if you are not one of the lucky ones who received one and would still like to hear it, go to resetdjs.com and download it.

8:30 AM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

lenme put your mind at ease

 I have had a few people message or call saying they thought I won last night. I really appreciate the sentiment. Maybe it was too close to call. Maybe he won, maybe I did. The truth is.. it doesn't matter. Well for street cred maybe. But really, the way I look at it, you learn more  by losing than winning. Most people when they win take time to celebrate and that is lost  time. When you lose you start analyzing. What could have been done better? Where did I mess up? What changes do I need to make? What do I need to learn?

I'm trying todo something here and every loss pushes me further. And when I do when I dont' rest on my laurels either. I analyze everything still. Everything right now is a lesson. I don't mind that by vote I lost. That just means that next time... I got to rock harder. and there definitely will be a next time. 

7:50 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

B4b part 2

If you didn't come last night, ask anyone who came.... you missed it! Last night was amazing on sooooo many levels.

I can't give an exact play by play cuz so much happened. we decided to set up two sets of decks and two mixers. This upped the competition immediately. But because of this set up, I had to learn how to listen differently. I am not used to mixing beats from a monitor. I got an aural crash course last night.

Once we started it was on! We went toe to toe, beat for beat, song for song. Despite having to listen differently, I had this shit. I was keeping up. But he was fucking throwing down! At the end of the hour he asked if we were done and I said "only if you're admitting defeat because I don't see a clear cut winner yet do you?" then I told him to hold on and went to talk to Frances and Amy and was told we were firmly tied. On we go! We went til 120 when he told me he was out and I only had one song left that I could find so instead of taking the easy way and claiming victory *I had more ammunition! By golly ;0)* I again asked the ladies again and they walked around and took a poll. What it boils down to is he won because he played more songs people knew and I brought pretty much all new songs people didn't know yet. And that's part of the game. I am proud of both of us from last night. We both brought our game and we both held down. From what I hear it was way way close on the vote count still. So, I can be happy with that. And now I know how much I have to step up my game for the next (oh yes... there will be another... only.. Sokmonkey and I are adding a twist to it.. Stay tuned for more on that soon)

So.. Like I said, if you missed it... you fucking missed it. I had so much fun last night. And I know so did he.

Oh yeah.. We recorded te first hour and some change of it.. So... look for that to be released soon too.

7:18 AM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

XParaMental is getting ahead of me

And that is perfectly alright with me.

Tonights battle I'll write about tomorrow.

Next week comes Kelly Trance and a word X:Para:Ment like none other. There is no planning ahead for this one. Not a single word but a word from the previous song becomes central to the next. This makes less time tofind your song and you better know your music. Or I should say... I better. Made more difficult by the fact, Kelly ad I don't play a lot of the same atuff so we won't necessarily know any of the words until it gets into the vocals.

No I'm not completely insane.. But I may be after the following weeks X:para:Mental where I will be joined by Notice/ Notoriously F.A.T. AKA Pie Man! I'm dubbing this night the battle for pie but pie has nothing to do with it. We're throwing down the headphones. Literally. I'll willingly admit, I stole this idea.. I just happen to have a slightly different twist in that I'm playing cds and you can't hear those through a needle. But notice can see his through torq. Talk about pushing my luck. ;0)

4:35 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Battle for bone part two!

I'm sure you've seen the bulletins by now. At least I hope so. If not, here's the rundown:

Wednesday at the Sidecar, Sokmonkey and I ae battling it out for bone's undying devotion (ok.. Maybe not really but that's what we're saying... )

The rules: all of the songs played must be about war, battle or bone.

This is not as easy as it seems. This is x:para:mental and I try not to take the easy road. I push my guests like I push myself.

And this is Sokmonkey. One talented mother. Let me tell ya. I am very appreciative of his talents and I am not taking this battle lightly. It will be tons of fun but I also know that he is going to push me as hard and as far as he can and this is a take no prisoners event. I won't pull my punches this time and I know neither will he. I am excited and for once not nervous. I feel prepared. if I lose again its not because I didn't play my ass off.

That being said... if you missed the first battle, I recorded it and we're giving away copies. So come get one. ;0)

9:52 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment