ubisoft corporate party

corporate parties are special. i normally have a rule (NO work parties) but i'm breaking it this time for falko.

the bastard. regretting it now.

will have more info tomorrow when i'm brutally hungover at work.

and later that week...

the corporate party was... special. i've been dreading it for a month (some lines shouldn't be blurred), but in the end the cops came right after i dropped my first track shutting things down. nonetheless, the champagne was free flowing, the space was well setup, and it was overall realatively less painful than most company parties i've been to. i was also hammered.

and below - the incessant xiao pang pang and the lovely jill lou.

fuck me i'm famous

well, turns out i know the person that posted it... but still. weird to see yourself on youtube unexpectedly. the trak i'm mixing is also a supersecret promo that the producer explicitly asked me not to tell anyone about or record. d'oh.

the only time you can see my face i've got the absolute STUPIDEST expression ever. awesome.

elvis

shanghai isn't the kind of place many people come to settle down. like los angeles, it's the kind of place people go to do something, accomplish something, or get something. then they split. it's like a waypoint rather than a destination. this month the lion's share of people i moved out with (or at the same time as) will have left or be leaving. it sucks.

at the same time, it let's the city be reborn again constantly. with each group that leaves shanghai an even larger group arrives. it makes it difficult for any sort of consistency to take root, but things can grow in all sorts of adverse conditions.

tanghui - 09.22.06

assuming that i don't pass out immediately after getting home from work tonight (entirely possible after last weekend's insanity) i'll be getting ready for tomorrow's gig @ tanghui. i've picked up some wicked tracks that should suit the club quite well. it's a notoriously anti-commercial venue, so it gives me an opportunity to play some really off-the-wall stuff. michaelf - the music director - actively encourages us to play as weird as we can.

of course, finding a groove is always priority #1 for me - but once falko and i get things going i'll defintiely be throwing in some quirkier tunes. falko and i are opening and potentially closing for this cat h ludvigson - a swedish tech and electro house dj. apprently he also runs a swedish electro house label. while i don't particularly like the setup they've got upstairs at tanghui it could be a cool show.

here's some of the tracks i'm looking forward to playing:

mr leisure - no scene (jacob london mix)
east coast boogiemen feat. dj heather - picture of you (into you mix)
olivier desmet - just like heaven
freaks - oh no! not another washing machine
style of eye feat. baby ark - run things
baker bros feat. vanessa freeman - walk into my world (trevor loveys & chris pedley mix)

i've got a few other tracks up my sleeve too - but i've got to keep some things to myself. will let you know how things go...

the people's republic of house

better late than never

i really should have sorted this blog out ages ago. i moved from the states to shanghai in june of 2005 and, aside from the odd collection of digital pictures or my increasingly vague recollectiont, i haven't really kept much of a record of the experience. granted, i've never been able to keep a journal. i've never maintained any sort of documentation over an extended operiod of time without being paid to do so. in spite of this, i feel compelled - or perhaps even obligated - to do so now.

so what's the deal?
you may have heard plenty about shanghai recently - what a huge city it is and how it's on the cutting edge of chinese culture. well, shanghai is a huge city. gigantunourmous. 20 million people and (aside from perhaps tokyo) more high-rise buildings than i've ever seen crammed together. as far as being on the cutting edge of chinese culture is concerned... you've got to bear in mind that china has been disconnected from the world culture circuit for the last 50 odd years. additionally, most of china's 1.6 billion citizens live in remote rural areas - without access to so many of the things people in other countries take for granted. so yeah - i suppose you could say that shanghai is on the cutting edge... but the blade is antique and covered in a thick layer of rust.


so the deal? well, i'm a house dj from san francisco playing tunes for a lot of people that don't always get it. or, in other words, i'm playing music to get down to in a country where a lot of the kids are still learning how to get down. back home house is an institution; not the mainstream crap (solveig, sinclair, duretta, etc.) but the more underground and indie stuff (i.e. the stuff with nuts - inland knights, jacob london, troydon, style of eye, claude von stroke, etc). i've spent the last year and a half slowly trying to build an appreciation for a higher quality house sound. it's not easy, but it's happening. i'm trying to build something here that guys built in sf when i was in my late teens and early 20's - and really beginning to aprpeciate the kind of commitment involved (it's huge). i'm not doing it because i wanna be some superstar dj - but because i genuinely believe that house is the engine tht drives the whole scene and the real essence of what it all tries to be. this blog is a record of my experiences out here in pursuit pushing house music forward in all corners of the world.