DJ Gig: Top Chef Masters Viewing Party with Food Critic Krista Simmons

By virtue of an extremely unlikely confluence of events I found myself asked if I was available to play music at a party hosted by Krista Simmons, the food critic who's been appearing as a guest judge throughout this season of Bravo's Top Chef Masters. Krista was hosting a viewing party for the latest episode at the Roosevelt Hotel here in Hollywood. If you didn't know, the Roosevelt is a very beautiful 1920s hotel in the heart of tinseltown that hosts loads of events and offers many uniquely luxurious amenities, including a swank bowling alley designed to look like a speakeasy. Because it's become a young celebrity and socialite hot spot, It's very common to observe all varieties of gorgeous women and tatted up sickbros collapsing out of the Roosevelt and onto the sidewalk in booze-soaked, powder-coated piles of designer jeans and six-inch stilettos. Naturally, every DJ wants to spin there. Added to my sincere admiration of luxury hotels, my years-long obsession with Top Chef, that I haven't done any DJ'ing in a couple of years, and the fact that my old Meltcast mate Chris Rosa was going to be there made the proposition something of a no-brainer. 

Fortunately for Krista but perhaps unfortunately for you readers, the event was an eminently classy affair with absolutely no fisticuffs or overdoses of any kind. The party went down in Room 100, a cushy lounge adjacent to the Roosevelt's famous/infamous pool. (I joke about the hotel's notoriety as a party spot but the truth is it's a splendid hotel and the staff were magnificently helpful.) The decor included torches and other tropical touches that informed my musical selections (when people are kitted up in coctail dresses and suits to drink chamagne, snack on orderves and watch Bravo, it's not really appropriate to drop the 20-minute version, if you know what I mean). I wish I could tell you something about the menu, but I only managed to grab a few slices of roast beef (they were really good).

The brief was very simple: "electronic," and a few artist requests from Krista (notably Breakbot). Everything was extremely short notice so I only had a couple hours to assemble some tracks and work out a rough playlist with room for improvision and some self-indulgence (I have been really into Saint Etienne lately, so I said fuck it and played a lot more than you're "supposed to" -- also, I snuck in a track from Prince's Batman soundtrack, because it's awesome). I rolled up with my laptop and nothing else, not even headphones. Truthfully, you don't really need anything fancy for events like this; you're just providing some ambience, with your primary function being "don't let the music stop and don't play anything too shitty." I've seen a lot of event DJs just rock it on iTunes even though they pile up a mountain of gear. I like messing around with Traktor to see what kind of tasty transitions I can make. These were my ingredients, including pre-party appetizers (i.e. testing the sound system, messing around before people show up):

1. Underworld: Ansum
2. Beck: Diamond Dogs
3. Underworld: Banstyle (Alex Reece Mix)
4. Saint Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
5. Saint Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Richard X Foxbase Beta version)
6. Goldfrapp: A&E (Maps Instrumental)
7. Chromatics: In The City (Instrumental)
8. Saint Etienne: Like A Motorway (Alternative Version)
9. Annie: Anthonio (Fred Falke Remix)
10. David Lynch: Good Day Today (Underworld Classic Remix)
11. Röyksopp: In Space
12. Saint Etienne: London Belongs To Me (Richard X Foxbase Beta Version)
13. The Chemical Brothers: The Boxer (DFA Version)
14. Poolside: Take Me Home
15. Moloko: Familiar Feeling (Martin Buttrich Remix)
16. David Lynch: Good Day Today (Diskojokke Remix)
17. High Contrast: The Long Way Home (NHS Mix)
18. The Prodigy: 3 Kilos
19. Underworld: Cups (Salt City Orchestra's Vertical Bacon Vocal)
20. Daft Punk: Fresh
21. Leftfield: Release The Dubs
22. Primal Scream: Autobahn 66
23. The Chemical Brothers: Das Spiegel
24. Belle & Sebastian: I Didn't See It Coming (Richard X Remix)
25. Breakbot featuring Ruckazoid: Fantasy (Ruckazoid Remix)
26. Breakbot: Penelope Pitstop
27. Pet Shop Boys: Flamboyant (Scissor Sisters Silhouette & Shadows Mix)
28. Mylo: In My Arms
29. Mylo: Guilty Of Love
30. Saint Etienne: Hug My Soul (Alternative Version)
31. Poolside: California Sunset
32. SebastiAn: Arabest
33. Underworld: Moon In Water
34. Gorillaz: On Meloncholy Hill
35. Electric Guest: This Head I Hold
36. Janelle Monáe: Tightrope (Solo Version)
37. LCD Soundsystem: I Can Change
38. SebastiAn featuring Mayer Hawthorne: Love In Motion
39. Yelle: Ce Jeu
40. Pet Shop Boys: A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi"
41. Röyksopp: Eple
42. Prince: Vicki Waiting
43. Kavinsky: Nightcall (Breakbot Remix)

You can listen to most of these on a Spotify playlist I made.  

Krista was an excellent hostess and everyone had a lovely time. She was especially happy with the music and I was pleased to help her celebrate her big night. If you're into food, you should definitely follow her work at the LA Times and elsewhere. 

Club 33

I got into Club 33.

Club 33 is a private club located in the heart of the New Orleans Square section ofDisneyland. Officially maintained as a secret feature of the theme park, the entrance of the club is located next to the Blue Bayou Restaurant at “33 Royal Street” with the entrance recognizable by an ornate address plate with the number 33 engraved on it.^[1]

Club 33 members and their guests have exclusive access to the club’s restaurant, and the premises are not open to the public at large. It is the only location within Disneyland to offer alcoholic beverages, though Disneyland has a park-wide liquor license and has set up bars throughout the park for private events. Club 33’s wine list includes vintages priced at $1000. In addition to beer and wine, Club 33 has a full bar, though patrons may not order directly from the bar and must place orders through their server.

More pictures from my trip at Flickr.

One year

Pom Puppies from Robert Vogel on Vimeo.

It was one year ago yesterday, February 12, that we brought home our Pomeranian puppies, Yoshi and Harley. At first I was terrified of the responsibility and expense of having new born puppies with our schedules and finances, but now I can't imagine living without them. 

The truth is, we weren't certain we'd be getting a dog, much less two. But Stepho had been desperate for a puppy for quite a while and persuaded me to go with her to just "take a look" at a couple of dogs she'd found on the Internet. As you can see from the video, which was shot by Rob Vogel the night we brought them home, there was no chance we were leaving without one. Stepho bonded immediately with the little boy. She took him out of the small box and transported to some kind of cuteness heaven. I was watching them before I felt little paws on my arm. When I looked down I saw the girl puppy up on her hind legs, leaning on me and begging to be held. I would be lying if I said I didn't fall in love with that puppy. After I picked her up, Steph brought the boy near and they immediately began to play with each other while still in our arms. We put them back in the box and looked at how close they were. I've been a dog lover my whole life but I'd never seen littermates as connected as these two. Knowing there was a third pup from the litter who'd already found a home but was all alone, we knew there was no way we could separate this brother and sister pair. We brought them home that afternoon.

The proud parents

Sometimes I really miss the days when it was just me, Stepho and my 13-year-old cat Io (eye-oh, like the moon), but those feelings disappear pretty much immediately after either of them does more or less anything. And while we love both dogs and they love both of us, the bonds Steph and I formed with Yoshi and Harley, respectively, have maintained over the last year. In fact, I've never had a dog at any point in my life who was as devoted to me as Harley. She always wants to be in my lap or sleeping on my head at night; she always tries to protect me from Yoshi when he wants to crawl over my face on the couch; and she waits for me by the bedroom door while I turn out all the lights and lock the doors before bed. 

Like I said, at this point I can't even imagine life without them.

The slideshow below is in chronological order, so you can watch the puppies transform from little furballs with eyes into proper little dogs.

Looking forward to Comic-Con 2010

Loathe as I am to use this phrase and invoke the numerous nerd body-odor stereotypes and jokes that can and will certainly be made, I think there's something in the air around this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. It's true that the convention is offering more than ever (possibly too much) to genre fans and consumers in the forms of panel discussions/presentations, creator/celebrity interactions, product announcements, shopping, community events and more, but what’s exciting me are the developments in the digital content business that’s grown out of all this great stuff, and getting a chance to reunite with or finally meet and hang out with many of my colleagues in this area.

As you may know, I essentially went off the grid last September after about three years of full-time work at the mighty Comic Book Resources. Keeping the site and its content in tight, Eisner-winning shape was a great job but it was intense and I needed to do some other things like create this website, write more about music, get back into DJ’ing, play around with photography, go to more geek culture events, and write the occasional bit of hipster relationship advice. 

Curiously, it was during that time I rediscovered my enthusiasm for comic books and pop culture, an enthusiasm I’d been too busy to notice waning. I’ve read more comics and graphic novels in 2010 than I think I did in the preceding three years combined, resulting in some freebie evangelism here on my site, like my comprehensive guide to Grendel and eulogy for Phonogram, not to mention my semi-regular graphic novel, music and DVD recommendations.

Concurrently and consequently, I’ve been able to familiarize myself with the increasingly great number of awesome websites and commentators that have emerged as the stars of comic book and geek culture rise. There are a lot of cool people doing really entertaining work that’s different from and beyond the more or less straight news line I was on before, and it’s inspired me to get involved again. I’ve been very quietly inching my foot back in the door of the comics/film/television/music digital content business (I’ve written a press release for CBR about something that is genuinely cool, you will see it tomorrow) and applying my experience in the digital music business to some comic book-related ventures as well as some other things I -- God help me, I can’t believe I’m going to say this -- can’t talk about yet.

I feel like there are some exciting opportunities waiting for me at this year’s Comic-Con. Opportunities for new work? Sure. But what I’m looking for this year are those opportunities for that once elusive mutant, the terrifying work-fun hybrid.

DJ gig: FORMA Design.Build

I played music at the showroom opening of FORMA Design.Build, a very cool home design studio specializing in custom, hand-made work in the European style. The event was open to the public and a lot of fun, with lots of cool things to look at, including the photography of Gusmano Cesaretti. The showroom is right next to Silverlake's popular Red Lion tavern, so there was a lot of hipster foot traffic mixed in with the highfalutin-types. Probably 100 people at the most.

A great success i think, and the patrons and management complimented me several times for my selections, which was a relief because I was just playing whatever I felt like that might also fit the ambience. As you'll see in the setlist below, I definitely indulged myself.

Click to enlarge

Setlist 

1. Underworld - Ansum
2. Saint Etienne - How We Used to Live
3. Moloko - Familiar Feeling (Martin Buttrich Remix)
4. Annie - Greatest Hit
5. Goldfrapp - A&E (Maps Instrumental)
6. Mylo - Valley of the Dolls
7. The Prodigy - 3 Kilos
8. Underworld - Oich Oich (Lemonworld Jam)
9. The Chemical Brothers - The Boxer (DFA Version)
10. M.I.A. - Paper Planes (DFA Remix)
11. Daft Punk - Fresh
12. Underworld - Cups (Salt City Orchestra's Version)
13. Primal Scream - Autobahn 66
14. Röyksopp - Happy Up Here
15. Mylo - Emotion 98.6
16. New Order - Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)
17. Beck - Diamond Dogs
18. Meat Beat Manifesto - Everything Counts
19. The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want (Soulwax Remix)
20. Underworld - Jumbo
21. Moby - Porcelain
22. Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
23. Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Beta Version)
24. Mylo - Guilty of Love
25. Underworld - Dirty Epic (Dirty Guitar Mix)
26. Daft Punk - Voyager
27. Leftfield - Release the Dubs
28. New Order - Regret (New Order Mix)
29. Saint Etienne - Hug My Soul
30. David Byrne & Fatboy Slim featuring Nellie McKay - How Are You?  
31. The Chemical Brothers - Das Spiegel
32. Pet Shop Boys - Flamboyant (Scissor Sisters Silhouettes & Shadows Mix)
33. Scissor Sisters - Running Out
34. Antônio Carlos Jobim - Insensátez
35. Underworld - Banstyle (Jam Version from Everything, Everything DVD-ROM)