Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Not So Glamourous World of Being A DJ

If you’ve been going out in Dublin much in the last 12 months you’ll have heard loads about “creative clubbing”. Whether you think it’s a pile of old guff or love whacking on a bit of a face paint on a night out there’s no denying that loads of new things are happening around Dublin town.


Of course it’s all very well harping on about being polysexual and the like (Am I the only one who thinks of Polly Pocket when that word comes up? Shudder) but ultimately running a club night/being a DJ/that sort of thing is quite hard work. For every 4 minutes of DJ glee when you finally get to drop that electro sleaze take on Britney there’s multiple minutes more of freaking out about guestlists, hoping people come to your night and more importantly that they all have a good time. Not even mentioning the now infamous "How To Start A Club Night " video which Barry Farrell made awhile back:





All this was running through my mind as I watched a short film on Toronto based DJ Craig Dominic. Craig DJs in various gay places around the city and I used to love his sets when I was there in the summer of 2008 (a piece I wrote about it for Spun Out can be found here). He has a great ear for Top 40 pop/r&b/dance music and a knack for mixing things together with real skill. I remember nabbing some of his mixes on CD after one particularly crazy night out and I still play them regularly. His blog has loads more where that came from too.


The documentary itself is a great watch. It’s short and only touches on some of the difficulties on competing with bigger clubs/promoters but it paints an interesting picture of life as a DJ/event promoter. Dominic cuts an interesting figure, resolutely disciplined and obviously talented but still eager to do other things. I’m not sure how much longer he’ll keep spinning but I hope he stays at it. In the meantime check out the film and spare a thought for those well dressed purveyors of tunes the next time you see them floating around your local night spot.



Spin That Record - Top Tunes of the Moment Circa April 2010



Again, inspired by Eimear's blog, just a list of tunes that have been spun by myself lately. Some old, some new. Various degrees of cheese too (of course) but I'm not going to go into detail here but a nice mix of electro pop, commercial R&B and remixes methinks!

BoA - Eat You Up

Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body (Skillrex Remix)

Wynter Gordon - Dirty Talk (Laidback Luke Remix)

Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight

Big Boi - Shutterbug

Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon - Body Bounce

Estelle - Freak (Disco Fries Remix)

The Bloody Beetroots - Domino

Lindsay Lohan - Stuck

Trina feat. Lady Gaga - Let Them Hoes Fight

Goldfrapp - Rocket (Tiesto Remix)

Kelis - Acapella (Dave Aude Remix)

Lil' Jon - Give It All U Got

The Hills Final Season: The Trailer to End All Trailers ( With The City for Extra Fun)

We've already touched on the end of The Hills here. Sob sob sob etc. And the trailer for the final season has been knocking around the web for the last few weeks. But that isn't going to stop me posting it here. Excitement overload:




The montage of the best bits is great. Although it makes you wish that they just let the whole thing die when Lauren left. But we've already done that dance so let's move on. This trailer is great stuff and also hints at a radical departure for the show in terms of referencing the lives of the people on the show. Heidi's surgery was far too public to not bring up on the show, Kristin's "drug problem" which was in the press recently (Which I'm willing to wager was a planted story) and the crazed qualities at one Spencer Pratt have all been all over the tabloids in the last few months. Sounds like the producers want to amp up the last vestiges of drama before the whole thing comes to a close.


Also, can we all just agree that Stephanie Pratt making ANY comments or acting surprised about plastic surgery when she herself has had more than a few changes of face in the last year. Just saying!


As a sidebar, the trailer for the next season of the City is just as good:




The bit where Erin and Kelly Cutrone sit down and chat is so mindblowing that I think my face melted a bit the first time I saw it. Wouldn't it be great if all TV shows were just trailers? The world would be a better place.

Sex and the City 2 and Style At Set: Oh The Excitement

Apologies for the radio silence here over the last week. Lots of things going on at the moment which may result in posts becoming a bit scant for a couple of weeks! Style at Set was amazing, an incredible buzz and so thrilled to have got to go down. Well done to Blanaid Hennessy on pulling it off. Check out this post by Rosemary MacCabe here to get more on the madness that went on. Safe to say it was the most fun I've had on a Saturday night in a very long time. Do check out the Set Theatre by the way, it is obscenely beautiful!






Those of you who made it to Style At Set might have watched the Sex and the City movie on the Friday ( I bet it looked amazing on the screen there!) and of course the new trailer for the sequel was just released this week. Fleshing out the plot points for the new film with more ease then the previous trailer it made me awful excited despite some very obvious flaws/usual irritation factors that this series brings out in me.



I should point out that everytime I watch this I got a fuzzy, "WHEN IS IT MAY 27TH?!" feeling that makes me gloss over the slightly ridiculous move away from New York, the bad puns and the vaguely ridiculous moments. Just look at how foxy Carrie is! Look at the spikes on Samantha's dress! AIDAN IS BACK! etc etc.


Also the song in the second half of the trailer is an odd one. It's the vocals from Ricki Lee's track U Want A Little This spliced over the instrumental of a rather great swing remix of Mariah's Touch My Body from a few years ago. The two songs are back to back below.




What an odd combination. Needless to say I'm more than a little bit excited about SATC 2. Promises that it's more light hearted and upbeat are interesting and who knows what stupid puns Carrie will break out? I need a lie down just thinking about it.