I really should bring my Nikon camera to an event. My Blackberry takes alright pictures but just doesn’t do enough justice to how nice the wedding.
Here are a couple more from the event.
My Numark NS7 all set up and the party about to get under way under the tent. (well I am set up under the blue sky)
The best night pic I could get. The tent was huge so I shot one Revo 4 at the roof and a Revo 3 on the dance floor.
I was talking to DJ Clinton a couple weeks ago about wedding DJing and some great advice he had was making sure your DJ area looks neat. Deal with that mess ‘o’ cables that will conjugate around the DJ.
I’ll want to get a plain white table cloth… which I know sounds mundane, but it’ll really clean up the look of my DJ area. then I’ll want an LED light to shine behind me.
I think before I buy speakers, I might buy lights and rent speakers. I want to put together a quality light show that I have more control over. The speakers are pretty basic and easy to rent, (Plus big and I don’t have the space for them in my condo right now).
Just a couple little things I am thinking about as I get ready for my future weddings this August.
Giving up a gorgeous Saturday does suck. Coral and Mads are playing with Nana and Alyx in the sprinkler while Dad has to work. But today, it isn’t all bad. At least I get to mix the best of summer with my work.
Judy and Kent are getting married on the beach in beautiful Shawnigan Lake. I am all set up and killing some time before the reception. It is so hot out here. I love it. If I wasn’t motivated before to work hard and earn some money in my life, today is making me want it. Lake living is the best living.
These pics I snapped with my Blackberry… they do no justice to how stunning this reception will be and how perfect Shawnigan Lake is.
Pretty darn close to 30 degrees on the lake at Shawnigan.
Looking across Shawnigan Lake from the beach.
The head table.
When its a billion degrees and a wedding on the beach, you need a beer truck cooler. Even "cooler" if its fine local brew.
The Spin The Black Disc website is slowly coming along as a wordpress. Can’t wait till its ready! Then business cards. These are the things that excite me. Ha… tomorrow is a day off, and now more than anything, I want to be sipping pints and playing on the water.
Would it be so wrong if I wore shorts DJing tonight? I’ll wear a tie and button down on top?
Such a perfect day in Victoria. With this heat and blue skies it feels like holidays in foreign lands but the cost is so much better.
Victoria almost feels like the interior with this heat the wraps around you the second you step outside.
I walked to the radio station today. Through a park, on a trail along the Gorge, across the trestle bridge and along the Selkirk Waterway before finally having to cut inland and onward to the Quadra Village.
With the water and the boats and parks I could be forgiven to think that I was not on my commute to work, but rather a trek on an expensive vacation.
Oddly, one of the smells on my trip that launched my memories reeling to holidays past was the smell of engine exhaust. For me, some of my great times were had at Christina Lake at my friend Bob’s cabin. A cabin that you could only get to by boat and where each day on the water had temperatures that screamed up to the 30s. With so many boats around, the smell of engines hung in the air. And though engine fumes and filth is not a pretty thing, that smell does trigger in my mind the feelings of vacation.
I’ll take it.
two more weeks till Coral, Maddy Oh Yeah and I head off on our summer adventures.
I wrote last week about those records that at some time in your life, you loved. Capital ‘L’ LOVED…. but now, maybe you don’t listen to them all that much.
A record that did that to me was Sufjan Steven’s 2005 masterpiece, Illinois.
This record came out in the summer and at a time when I smoked a lot of pot. I worked nights at the Zone and when I got home after a radio show Alex would be in bed or maybe still at work.
I’d pack the bong and plug my headphones into the stereo amp and hit play on this compact disc.
By the winter, Alex had moved back to Vancouver and I was all by myself. My obsession with this album intensified. I listened to it almost every night and thought it was a religious revelation.
But then something funny happened. Well two funny somethings….
Alex and I broke up; and I stopped smoking pot.
Maybe it was the haze (or lack there of…), or time, or new music coming in…. but Sufjan got pushed aside and I really haven’t punched it up much at all in the past??? three years? Damn, I’m getting old.
Today I am reading about chili. Did you know that chili… the delicious meaty treat that many of enjoy from Tim Hortons or cooked at home… was first introduced outside of San Antonio to mainstream audiences at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893? (so was the hamburger, rag time music and neon lights)
Then I start reading about the Expo ’93… as I’m sure that is what the Industrial Age kids of the time called it.
Its an interesting story about this fair that made use of electricity and gave the world the Ferris Wheel.
I wondered about the music of the time and my wandering brain took me to discover ragtime. One of the great ragtime performers of the era played a show at the exposition and ragtime would go on to be the dominate music style in North America till jazz would develop after World War One.
This is fascinating because the Veneto Lounge styles many of their cocktails on this late 19th century culture and maybe ragtime would be the perfect musical accompaniment?
Right, Sufjan Stevens… there really isn’t a point to this rambling… as I am flying though the internet and iTunes, listening to ragtime and exploring the wonders of American exceptionalism. The internet wants me to listen to Sufjan. My searches and hyperlinks keep saying, “Do You Mean Illinios (album)?”
Um, no… but ok internet, I’ll bite. I punch up the record and the music washes right over me. It feels good. I remember all these songs. I can’t listen to it loud enough! (though back in the day, one of my favourite things to do was put it on as quiet as possible and try to have the songs tickle my little ear hair things as lightly as I could make out sounds… like I said, I smoked a ton of pot).
Illinois is such an amazing record. Its like an audio epic adventure. After reading about chili, Chicago, ragtime and The World’s Columbian Exposition… I couldn’t imagine or have predicted a better soundtrack.
Coral and I did some record shopping on the weekend. We hit the new Talk’s Cheap store on Pandora at Government Street. In the old Regalia Store space.
He has tons of great 45s. Coral and I are always looking for some more dance party hits for our vinyl sets so I loaded up on some UK chart toppers of the early 80s.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my music.
01) The Police – “So Lonely”
02) Squeeze – “Another Nail in My Heart”
03) The Jam – “Going Underground”
04) Adam and the Ants – “Stand and Deliver”
b-sides
05) The Police – “No Time This Time”
06) Squeeze – “Pretty Thing”
07) The Jam – “The Dreams of Children”
08) Adam and the Ants – “Beat My Guest”
A whole bunch of great hits of the late 70s and early 80s. The Police cut is the original 1978 single which went nowhere at the time. The Police released their album Outlandos d’Amour. When this record dropped it went nowhere. The BBC didn’t get it. A song about a prostitute? (Roxanne), suicide (Can’t Stand Losing You), loneliness (So Lonely).
But they soldiered on, toured, came to America and through hard work they were able to push through. They ended up re-releasing many of these future hits in 1980 and the second time around, The Police began to chart. To this day, so many of the most endearing Police songs are these early singles. Silly 1970s radio DJs.
At the Veneto Lounge, bar manager Solomon invented a style of the gin and tonic named after the owner of the Hotel and Lounge Mr. Danzo. Its called … the Danzo.
Head bartender Simon says Q tonic is the best tonic you can get to mix with your gin. So if you’re a G&T person and you’ve spent a few bucks on your bottle of gin… you would be wise to spend well on the tonic too.
They serve up the Danzo all pretty. The presentation is fantastic. Your glass comes on a plate with a single cube of ice and the bitters. A serving of gin is in a little glass to the side and you have your bottle of Q tonic as well. Cucumbers are on the plate. You then get to pour the gin and splash of tonic into the cup to your liking. Take a bite of the salted cucumber then dive into the smooth gin and tonic. It is for sure one of… if not THEE best gin and tonic I’ve ever had. Then Simon drops this bomb last night… “oh, I can make you a better gin and tonic than that…”
SWA?
Tracking all this stuff stuff down in Victoria is a mega challenge. It would be wise to just enjoy one in the lounge. I wanted to make something similar at home, but like I said… hard to find the stuff. So I created the junior Danzo.
+ Whatever Gin you can find in your cupboard. (I had Victoria Gin and Tanqueray… and opted for the London Dry Gin… Tanqueray).
+Western Family Tonic Water (hey, its a Pattison Company… he owns the Zone… and its just a buck for 2 litres.)
+ cucumbers (super duper on sale with my Save-On card)
+ aromatic bitters (I went with Angostura Bitters from Trinidad. The most common bitters you can find in a grocery store)
+ celery salt (it wasn’t very pink, but it served)
The Morning After 