Entry Sixteen.
Sunday 2003.05.04 3:58 AM CST.
Nostalgia:  Earth Day Weekend, 1990.

Well, a lot has happened lately.  Or, at least, it seems that way.  I really need to start making updates to this site more often, but I often get sidetracked.

Yes, the time above is correct.  I'm writing this update at just about four in the morning.  I should be sleeping, but I don't sleep as often as I need to.  That's another story altogether.  I should warn you that this update will have very little to do with my current DJing, my music productions, or anything else in those veins; it will almost strictly be composed of my own personal ramblings and musings over particular memories I hold dear from a little over 13 years back.

Anyway, I was prompted to start this update while watching the telly this morning.  After passively observing a double-feature of SMC ("Sell My Crap") commercials while concentrating on a high-intensity game of Postal 2, I was anxious to see the usual 3:00 AM Sunday rerun of Saturday Night Live.

It was evident quickly that this was an Earth Day episode.  The host was Alec Baldwin and the musical guests were the B-52s.  (Actually, the B-52s are performing their second song, "Channel Z," as I type this sentence, but for journalistic integrity I'll continue to recount this in past tense.)

I was thinking that this was probably from 1990, and when the B-52s began their first song, "Cosmic Thing" (Yeah, I was surprised they didn't include "Love Shack" in their two songs), I confirmed my theory, as they had a huge "B-52s Earth Day 1990" banner behind the band.

Earth Day 1990 was pretty important to me.  Well, the weekend surrounding it was really important.  Its value had nothing to do with actual environmental issues, though I am concerned about the environment and recycle almost religiously.  In the first year of EKG Pro Mobile Music, Earth Day weekend 1990 was one of my busiest weekends.  No, it wasn't that busy due to excessive DJ work, but due to other things occurring that weekend.  Right now, I'm in a sharing mood, so here's why the weekend of Earth Day 1990 meant so much to me.

The Prom.
The weekend started with my senior prom, on April 20th.  I won't name my date, since I pretty much hate her now, but at the time I thought she was wonderful and I was thrilled to have her there.  She and I had our first date only six days before, at the first EKG Duohouse Pilgrimage party.  I was pretty much falling head-over-heels for this chick.  I had refused to DJ this party (after all, it was my senior prom), so although I was hoping they would hire my friend/mentor DJ Dave's Mirage Productions, the powers that were chose the K-107 Road Show.  The show sucked - man, did it ever suck - but it was a very special night.

While driving her home, though, we had some problems.  There were some major storms in the area, and two of the main bridges to her house were covered in floodwater.  While backing up to turn around, the righthand wheels of my gold 1977 Malibu Classic went off the side of the road and we were stuck.  This was before the days when everyone and their dog had a cell phone, so eventually we actually had to hitch a ride (the only time I've ever done that, but we were desperate) back to my parents' house so that they could use an alternate route to drive my date home.  It's a pathetic story, yes, and even more pathetic because we didn't take advantage of the time in which my date and I were "parked" in an isolated rural area with nobody around!  :)

My date quickly became my girlfriend, and a little over 3 months later, she and her family would move to a suburb of Dallas, Texas.  Then, around seven months after that, my girlfriend would come home for spring break to reveal that she had lost her virginity to another guy and was dumping me for a 15-year-old skater punk.  Of course, I didn't realize any of that was going to occur, and I still remember that prom as being one of the most beautiful experiences of my mostly miserable high-school existence.

The OKC Gig.
The fun continued on Saturday, the 21st.  EKG had our first-ever Oklahoma City gig, and I was very worried because one of my two "regular" assistants and my best friend, Kevin, was not going to be able to help with it.  The other "regular" guy, Billy, went down to OKC with myself and my dad, who often helped set up equipment and whatnot.

The gig was some sort of college-age gig which had been arranged by the aforementioned friend/mentor Dave, who wasn't able to do it himself as he had work to do elsewhere.  Dad, Billy and I got down there and we were helped by a friend of Dave's, Andy something-or-other.  We got all the equipment set up, and the Dave dropped by and we went momentarily record-shopping at a nearby Sound Warehouse.  To help point out what musical period this was, he was hooked on a big hit song called "Poison" by Bell Biv Devoe, and it was my first time ever hearing of them.  :)

I want to say that I bought the "Poison" 12" single, and I know that I picked up the 12" of "Tell Me When the Fever Ended" by Electribe 101 that day as well.  We got back, Dave headed off to his event, and I performed for the little OKC party.  I remember that the crowd was not very active, and although I tried my best, I couldn't get them to move.  I had recently picked up the 12" version of Kaoma's song, "Lambada" (you know, the forbidden dance) and I remember throwing it on in an attempt to get my zombie crowd to wake up.  Nope, nothing.  Then, after our gig was over, as we were gathering and packing equipment, I looked down from our second-floor window to a big party that another DJ was performing for a primarily Latin crowd outside.  He had a relatively small setup and very few (if any) lights, but his crowd was actually in the mood to party and not just stand around, so they were having a great time.  He played "Lambada" and his crowd went nuts.  I felt envy that I wasn't that DJ, as well as a bit of envy that I wasn't down there having fun as part of his crowd.

I think the most significant thing that happened at that event, however, was that someone came up and asked me to play some "techno" music.  Within the course of a year, I would be a huge techno fan, but at the time, it was the first time I'd ever heard the term.  I had plenty of tracks which had actually qualified as "techno" music, but sadly, I had never hard anyone call it that.  Lots of the songs I had once called "house" or "acid house" or just plain old "progressive" now had a new genre in which to fit, and within the next year the massive techno invasion of Oklahoma's underground club culture would take hold.

The Magic Show.
The next day was Sunday, April 22nd.  A lot of people don't know that one of my earliest hobbies was performing magic tricks (or, as the late Doug Henning would insist, "illooooousions"), and I had been hired to perform at a birthday party for my friend Roger's kid brother (or one of Roger's kid brother's kid friends).  Having ridden on not much sleep for the weekend, I can't remember much about the event, except that it went okay, the kids enjoyed my cheap tricks, and I made a cool $35.  :)  Then, I went home and spent the rest of the day "putting off" my homework until the last minute, and went back to another fun (ha) day at school on Monday.

So what?
Why have I chosen to share these memories with you?  I don't know.  No, I haven't been drinking, thanks very much.  I felt like somberly reminiscing about an arguably happier time, back when I was a very different person.  Although I have often questioned the need for highly intricate history courses in high school or college curriculums, I find a personal history to be a very important thing.  By this point, it's about 5:15 AM, and it's probably time that I crash.

Incidentally, I do have a couple new remixes of an Oleander song up at AcidPlanet. I'm too tired to include the links right now; if you know where to find the other stuff I've done, you can likely find these mixes.

Also, here's a quick CD recommendation for you:  Check out the Details CD by Frou Frou.  You may remember that I remixed their song, "Breathe In," quite a while back (see Entry 13 for more info).  Well, the full-length CD is quite nice.  Quite nice indeed.

And, yes, I am still planning the big party that I've mentioned before.  Maybe October, maybe November.  No idea, but I've been further developing the probable tracklisting and it's shaping up to be a lot of fun.

Finally... and this goes back to the memories thing...  Remember my best friends Kevin and Billy that I mentioned earlier in this entry?  Well, I got e-mail from Kevin a few days ago, and while he couldn't give details, he told me that he was out in the (Persian) Gulf.  I don't know where Billy is at this point, but I would venture a guess that he's out there helping with the whole post-Iraqi-war efforts as well, since both Kevin and Billy are in the navy.  If you're so inclined, if you could throw in some prayers for Kevin and Billy and their families, I would appreciate it.

I doubt you've read this whole thing, but if you have, then thanks.  Thanks very much.

Badger.