Adventures of DJ Michael K. Part 1

So tonight I did a fill-in DJ job at PESCE in Annapolis. Formerly Pesce Grande, formerly Piezano's Pizza. This was actually the first time I'd been in there since back in the day when it was Piezano's. Wow! What a transformation. From neighborhood pizza joint to upscale Italian restaurant & bar... nice.

I got this job through a casual DJ acquaintance who sent out a blind email to all his "DJ buddies" to see if anyone could cover the show. In his own words it would probably be a "laid back gig that would end early -say midnight." It was the first night of a new promotion - "College Night - 18 & over". Since it was starting a week earlier -with little advertising in place- no one really expected the 300+ people that showed up. Least of all ME. I was treading water from the get-go. I love to beat-mix and I'm all about playing dance/club music all night. The only problem is I haven't been able to do that for so long, I was kinda out of the loop and at a loss for what to play. Sure, I have most of the current club/top-40/hip-hop, but I just haven't had the opportunity to play a lot of it with the weddings and bar gigs that I've been doing over the past year. Still, I held my own and the night was a success. I know this because the owner and the manager both asked for my business card and said about me coming back.

There were two REALLY funny episodes that are locked in my mind:

#1- My friend, Rich (Dickie) showed up with a bunch of his friends early in the evening. I had sent out an email to my "peeps" letting them know I'd be there. He was unpleasantly surprised to learn it was College Night. Him and I were probably the oldest guys in there. Still he brought some other friends from work and although Dickie left within an hour of arriving, some of his drunker friends stayed and danced.

#2- I'm With the DJ Girl -
So the age demographic was an average of 24 -and that's generous given the number of under-21 folks that were there. I felt SOOOO old. But I was still trying my darnedest to exude my "Cool DJ" vibe. It must have worked because this chic (man I wish I could remember her name) came up and started trying to dance with me while I was DJing. She was attractive and would have been even more so if it weren't for the black eye, the hat on side-ways, and her firm grasp of ghetto jargon. I wasn't sure if she was poking fun at me or coming on to me. Never have I felt so old and so white in my life. There she was grindin' and workin' it for the DJ... bending over and shoving her ample booty (yeah, I said booty) all up in my junk (see, I got the hang of this slang, homey). Frontwards, backwards, arms around my neck... from the front, from the back. And there I am... trying to keep the beat with her grinding ass, knowing full well how utterly ridiculous I look to her and everyone else. I kept telling her "I can't dance." and she kept saying "yeah, I can see that." but yet she kept on with her bad self. I wish I had a video of the whole thing. I'd have a good laugh at my own expense. I find myself wondering now where/how the hell she got that black eye... a previous DJ? Bwah ha ha!

OK, it was fun. And I'd like to do it again simply for the adventure and the learning experience. A good excuse to learn this new music that I can't stand to listen to. But hey, it's different when you're DJing... and you have 100 people on the dance floor going wild over a song... a song you know is stupid and annoying to you in any other setting except this one.