Last Night

Last night I ended up @ Bollyhood Cafe with friends in North Beach. It's pretty amazing. The space is awesome and there were people dancing everywhere. The staff was really friendly and the crowd gave off a great vibe.

Here's some pics I shot from my camera phone... My standard low-light/camera phone therefore it's blurry excuse applies.

Here's the bar:


You can't see that this room is full of people dancing salsa but it is. The energy was electric and people were dressed to dance salsa!


Here's G striking a pose... I love her poses!


And J

Fancy Bathrooms

Yes! You read right. Fancy bathrooms.

As I wander around and about San Francisco I've noticed there's some pretty rad bathrooms in sometimes the most obscure place. No, I'm not talking crystal fixtures... i'm talking bathrooms with that certain je ne sais quoi. is the word I'm looking for character?

My disclaimer for the photos I'm posting is that I'm shooting most of these pics from my camera phone with no flash which means a lot of these are blurry... sorry. It's a hazard of the trade.

The first two pics above are from a mural in the woman's bathroom @ Bollyhood Cafe in the Mission which is quite the rad establishment. These two pictures are from Kennedy's Irish Pub and curry House in North Beach. For those of you not in the know... Kennedy's ROCKS! It has really good Indian food. Yes, Indian Food @ an Irish pub.

Yet another thing made possible by the open minds in San Francisco. Who woulda thunk??? But it turned out well.

Hats off to James Curd of the Greenskeepers!!!

Here's his latest mix! I think you'll agree. Check dhis shiz-nit out!

James Curd Greenskeepers - Lugo DJ Mix

another horrible day to be a San Francisco Resident.... NOT

if you squint you can see the sand stuck to my forehead by sweat.

a trail run in the marin headlands followed up by some R&R on the beach. what a crappy life i lead. see for yo' self.

today

here's the view from zenomena recordings right now:







i'm going to play with my new plates for a couple of hours and then i'm heading over to sunset/stompy. you down???

Pics from Distorted in San Jo, 29 August 2008

I went for my first time to Santana Row to see my friend's play @ this event: . Now, to someone who hasn't been before you think... DJs, sushi... whateva'. Let me tell you! This place was something else!!! I've included the flyer for the curious.

A couple of things struck me about the affair... Firstly... I saw more straight hot guys @ this place in five minutes than for the entire 2008 so far in San Francisco. Secondly, this establishment was a meat market on steroids. Seriously! I had an awesome time and I was really entertained happily by the whole affair... but I'm just sayin'...

I snapped a few photos! I'm trying to learn how to get pics using no flash in dark enviroments... And depending on the delay on your digital camera it ends up coming out blurry... But I'm learning.

Regardless. I think these pics have merit so you decide for yourself:





Let me tell you... there were quite a few ppl stuffed into that loungy bar area thingey... I had an awesome time. Most entertaining!

This Is Scary!

So we're back to shooting our dissenters, ARE WE? And let's not forget the Russian leadership's pension for poisoning it's double agents in London and such.

BBC Article on an Owner of a website critical of Russian leadership

Situation? Very Strange Indeed

I was having dinner with an amigo the other night @ Mexico DF. The food is fabulous but maybe out of the price range of some of my favourite starving artist friends.... They have these paintings on the wall that are light-backed and fabulous...

I tried to take pictures of said painings and I couldn't. Then I started trying to explain to my friend how when I tried to take a picture with my camera phone... I saw this fake funny nose and mustache in the middle? Did a gremlin get into my phone? You decide for yourself.

PS --> Yee who laughed @ me that night.... IN YOUR FACE. Hee hee hee hee hee

Save the Date!!!!

contact me for HOT guest list action :-)

i'm so proud of this i could do back flips!!!

Photo from First boom boom woods this season... Inspiration courtesy of people throwing party. What a combo.

20 new plates and i'm rearing to GOOO!

so i did my music homework for 5 days straight before placing that monster order to Juno. i think someone over there loves me to pieces today. i just catapulted myself into titanium status or something like that!!!

all rightey kidz. you've been warned.

i'm so excited to play right now i can't stand it!

CD Release: Enter the Borg (repost)

Well because I'm a supreme airhead and I can prove it... And cuz I mangled the links the first time arround... I'm doing a repost here....

Enter the Borg was recorded in my studio @ Zenomena Recordings in
San Francisco. This set is an exploration of a very specific
sub-genres of Deep Tech House with an emphasis on the
"Tech" in Tech House. I hope you enjoy it! 

This set is available in several formats. This set is
available as a zip archive to promote downloading all the tracks in one
click at both 320kbps and 128kbps fidelity as well as in one track
in both 320 kbps and 128kbps fidelity.

High fidelity [approx. 155.1 megs]: Enter the Borg

Low fidelity [approx. 72.5 megs]: Enter the Borg

Single Track mp3 320kbps [approx. 183.6]: Enter the Borg

Single Track mp3 128kbps [approx. 73.5 megs]: Enter the Borg

Muir Woods Run

Today we did a run in Muir Woods. It was fabulous. We enjoyed a fabulous BBQ afterwards. Here are pics of the run start that I snapped with my phone.

Ana Mandara in North Beach

so some of you may have heard of ana mandara over in North Beach... A new French, Vietnamese restaurant. Here's some pictures I snapped from my new phone there the other night.

One picture is of the bar and the other is the buddha on the wall.
The whole establishment is gorgeous with a wonderful courtyard off of the bar. The menu is both fabulous and pricey. But in my opinion wholly worth it.

Blausthaus featuring Steve Bug of Poker Flat Recordings

Here's a pic of Steve Bug of Poker Flat Recordings DJing during the wee hours of this AM for those of you who missed it.

Steve did a 3-hour set (yes... 3... i danced for three hours straight... don't believe me? ask him yo'self).

I tried to take mostly pictures sans flash as I didn't want to blind him... It's a courtesy thing. Enjoy!

Space Cadet Slightly Less Spaced... Only Slightly

So I'm going through my record collection trying to decide what to move where...

I live in an apt with what is actually a decently generously-sized kitchen.... Until my technics, studio computer, mixing board, etc, etc, etc moved in. Did I mention my record collection and camping supplies???

Anywho, I'm going through my collection and trying to figure out what goes where... What gets moved to the other room...

And that's when I noticed something. I have a sh*T load of schtuffs from: a) Poker Flat Recordings, b) Steve Bug, and c) Dan Berkson and James What. It's no wonder I had a fabulous time last weekend. And I bet I have a fabulous time tonight, too!

And right now I'm ordering a whole bunch more from all of those artists off of Juno.

Sweet and lovely Musik! You gotta love it. Dark, sexy, deep tech house delicious.

Save the DATE!!!! 27 September 2008

we are throwing a PAR-TAY!!!!!

Yo' azz will be a-groovin' all night long. it's time to step up your work-out regimen.

-xoxoxo

Listen Up Kidz!!!

So Steve Bug of Poker Flat Recordings (yes... THAT Poker Flat) is in town for tonight @ Mighty! For those of you who aren't familiar with the rad freaky deepy Tech House delicioso tracks of Poker Flat... it's time you were.

Poker Flat Recordings is just one of the best labels out there. For real.

For those of you who missed the phenomenal set of other Poker Flat artists, Dan Berkson and James What... here's your chance @ redemption!

See you there!!!

I can't resist

So I'm finally going through my scuba pictures from the end of April... Last night and this AM and I guess until it's done... So I'm NOT going to give you the rad pictures just yet...

not til I'm done categorizing them but ....

but i can't resist giving you this one little itty, bitty sneak preview... this pic is sehr cool in it's clarity

Reasons why San Francisco is rad???!!!

Well, DUH! Like 5 zillion. Not the least of which is sunset parties. Especially one where Dan Berkson and James What from Poker Flat Recordings are playing at live. Free outdoor parties @ Stafford Lake.

See for yourself:

Dan OH MY GOD Berkson and James W-h-a-t WHAT!!!???

to all you suckas who didn't reply to my invite to go the Sunset Party this past Sunday Afternoon... well all I have to say is you LOSE SUCKAS!

It was the best set I've seen all year... Just about. Maybe completely! Well, this year's not over yet so we'll see.... Up there in the top 2 at LEAST. YOWSA folks. I had no room left on my media card but here's some 33 seconds of Dan in an ethereal lovely key riff... Enjoy.

For those not privy to the 4-1-1... These gentlemen are in da' hiz-zouse on one of my favourite freaky-deakey deep tech house labels... Poker Flat Recordings.

I just dug in my bag and I have four pieces of vinyl in my bag from Poker Flat... My bag is my active play list. I said 4!

W-e-r-d. POKER FLAT PPL. Most rad. 'Nuff said.

CD Release: Enter the Borg

Enter the Borg was recorded in my studio @ Zenomena Recordings in
San Francisco. This set is an exploration of a very specific
sub-genres of Deep Tech House with an emphasis on the
"Tech" in Tech House. I hope you enjoy it! 

This set is available in several formats. This set is
available as a zip archive to promote downloading all the tracks in one
click at both 320kbps and 128kbps fidelity as well as in one track
in both 320 kbps and 128kbps fidelity.

High fidelity [approx. 155.1 megs]: Enter the Borg

Low fidelity [approx. 72.5 megs]: Enter the Borg

Single Track mp3 320kbps [approx. 183.6]: Enter the Borg

Single Track mp3 128kbps [approx. 73.5 megs]: Enter the Borg

Announcing: Enter the Borg

Right now I'm in the midst of tracking the newly-recorded CD: Enter the Borg... spawned from the off-handed remark by one of my DJ partners... Trev who said...

"You know I really like it when you just really grind the Tech House".

That got me wondering in my mind... "Hey... What *would* happen if I just grinded the sh*T out of the Tech House??? If I just took all my most out-there/interesting/raddest tracks and made them together into a 20-layer sandwich??? HMMMM????!!!"

So now we have a new CD. Enter the Borg! I'm so excited about this one... more than any other... I love it!

Announcing: Enter the Borg

My new CD. I think the title is quite self-explanatory...

A Sad Good Bye to Bernie Mac

One of the first things I heard on the news this AM (i listen to it daily first thing as I'm waking up every morning) is that Bernie Mac died. He's only 50!!!! Apparently it was from complications caused by pneumonia.

I don't even have a TV but I have seen the Bernie Mac show and I loved it... He was wicked talented... I remember him from Ocean's Eleven... I haven't seen Ocean's Twelve yet... I'm way behind on movies...

What a bummer... We'll miss you Bernie! So sad!

A Little Slice of Heavan

One of the Best parts of staying up all night dancing with yo' friends is seeing the sunrise...

Here's a shot of the Saturday AM sunrise in Boom Boom Woods. Enjoy:

A Note to You Denim Manufacturers

I was talking to an Italian (from Italy... NOT an Italian-American) last night... He has several tattoos, a mohawk... and is roughly my height... more or less. He let me in on how difficult it is to shop here in the US...

A paraphrase from my friend G... You know... It's impossible to find a good pair of jeans here in the US! They are all baggy... What are you supposed to do when you have a good azz and you need to show it off???

I'm shopping in the girl's section now!

DUDE!!!

Please denim manufacturers...

WILL YOU HELP A POOR BROTHER OUT??!!!!

hee hee hee hee hee hee

Happy Friday people.

-xoxooooxxxxx

Some Still Movie Exports from Boom Boom Woods Part Deux

I'm still processing the videos and pictures but for now I present these... (drum roll puh-leez...)

Look Ma! I'm On You Tube Continues....

Situation Busy as HECK

If you're wondering where I am right now it's cuz I'm working seriously hard. The only reason I have time to blog is because sh*t's taking FOREVER to download via my company's VPN and I'm too tired from running this evening and then NOT eating dinner to actually get up from my bed to fill this stinkin' drink glass. Yes, I've resorted to working in bed now.

I actually don't *have* to be working quite this way... But I think my life will get a lot easier after I finish building out this prototype and I would rather have the end of the week be more relaxing. So I'm front-loading my week.

Coming up this weekend is Boom Boom Woods - Part Deux (pronounced DUH). When I go up to the woods I want to feel good turning my brain to the completely off position and relaxing the HECK out of myself.

Here's a tip. If you're reading this blog wondering what the heck has happened to me cuz you haven't seen me in forever... You should call. Because if we don't hang out before German class starts up later in August... You can forget about it. I won't be coming up for air until 4 December when class is over.

'Nough Said.

Sunday in the City: Frida Kahlo Exhibit @ SF MOMA

Yesterday I went on a longer fabulous trail run in the Marin Headlands and it was fabulous! I experienced several minutes of runner nirvana whilst barrelling down the Miwok Trail through the clouds/wind/mist/fog almost completely unable to stop.

Then I headed over to meet a buddy @ SF MOMA to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit. It was fabulous! We both did love the MOMA-website-featured Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibrí), 1940 but other things seriously caught my eye...

The look of fear/vulnerability in the picture she called Ugly Self-Portrait.... The racey/extraordinary/wonderful nature of the 1933 tone of the My Nurse and I, the way she potrayed her mother as the proud matriach... even down to the sleeves on her costume as she leered out from the painting @ you.

What kills me is the way she saw herself. She was strikingly beautiful... yet in all of her self potraits what we see is an ever-present hint of a moustache that almost didn't even exist in real laugh and super-exaggerated eye brows. And then we see her partner... Diego Rivera.

Diego who she most surely probably thought was quite attractive. I don't find him attractive in the slightest. But she most certainly must have thought he was. This man's extraordinary artistic talent transformed his physical appearance in her eyes... And her lack of respect for herself also transformed her version of her own physical appearance in the opposite manner.

Now *that's* deep.

I'll stop there in order to allow you to reflect on that. It's a brain full.

Boom Boom Woods: It's Alive... Mwahhahaha

What happens when you take a tremendous community of friends, a six-foot disc ball, a rad sound system, and a beautiful campsite out in the woods???!!! Why Boom Boom Woods, of course!!! Well, DUH PEOPLE!

And I finally got around to building out the photos/vids gallery @ Boom Boom Woods .org. You can enter the gallery here: Photos/Video Gallery

Puh-leez :-)

My buddy is first generation italian born in America and he has this bottle of hot sauce in his house.... I'll let you be the judge:

Hello, This is Your Work Day Calling....

So I need to send out a hard copy of a pic to someone w/ a CD which has me going thru pics this AM. And on the plate for this weekend is about 15 - 20 hours worth of work on my website and others.

And my day job just got interesting again so I could end up doing 10 hrs worth of work/work.

And I need to make a couple more major plate purchses in the next two weekends. And I need to get to know these new plates backwards and forwards.

Fortunately my work is all creatively stimulating but I guess I'm not going to be seeing you guys very much for the next couple of weeks. EXCEPT for the Boat Party and tomorrow: 2nd Sunday anyone????!!!

Here's a pic from the KZSU Big Love Show on 11 Feb 2008 courtesy of Jandro (thanks Jandro!).

Hello, I'm Happy

I just wanted to check in right now to say how happy I am!

Many thanks to the DC folks. I really enjoyed returning to my roots. I learned that undeniably I get myself fired about politics... Like a good little Washington, DC native.

I just had a great bonding session with my records.

I can't believe I'm going @ the pace I'm going right now but I seem to feel good.

I really *do* plan to finish up both a) the scuba pics and b) the boom boom woods pics/template/nontemplate this weekend.

Wish me luck @ my workday marathon tomorrow. I will need to work with serious precision. I must figure out what the rsync is having an issue with.

That is all. And may that **#(*$#(ing ntpd problem kiss my azz!

What's Radder than Rad????

Thanks for asking! I'll tell ya' what's radder than rad:

The Smithsonian American Art Musuem!!!

It's got SOOO many great pieces of art work! I took a ton of pictures.

I'll put up a full photo gallery upon my return to San Francisco later this afternoon. For now, feast your eyes on this piece of work:



From the card next to the painting:

Levee Farms
1998 oil on Canvas

Wayne Thieband
born Mesa, AZ 1920

Look Ma! I'm on you tube (part deux or duh)

Plant City

Since I moved into my apartment about 2.5 years ago I have been aquiring plants like crazy. My bromeliad's bloom died and I cut it off and rubber-banded the base of the plant together. I kept the two new leaf groupings (blooms-to-be) filled with water and 20 months later we have two new fabulous blooms! See for yourself:

whoop whoop

people. i was at a dinner last night and really fixated on this 8 GB ipod that was being given away. i won an iPod 4 years ago and another one @ Christmas and the 4 GB one was too small and i priced out Ipods on my last Fry's trip and they were too pricey. but. if i one this 8 GB ipod... problem solved! well i am a weener. i mean i won. whoop!

Chichen Itza Photo Gallery Up... Finally

Here's a few teaser pics on my new gallery of Chichen Itza from my trip to Mexico in April.


Here's a Cenote we went swimming in before the trip. Cenote means underground cave...


Here's Cenote Segrado (Sacred Cenote) from Chichen Itza


And the main temple, the temple of Kulkulkan or El Castillo. This is a time temple... Despite the fact that this temple was completed in 250 AD... It's staircases face north, south, east, and west. Magnetic north even! Think about it... they KNEW about magnetic north back in 250 AD... The Mayans were known to be crazy good @ math...



On the spring equinox and fall equinox... The sun reflecting on the staircases makes a "snake" made out of light triangles creep up/down the staircase... Respectively. I'm going to go now whilst you think about that....

plans are hatched

who's that??

where's my clothes?

DOH! I hate it when *that* happens!!! One minute you have clothes on and the next minute! POOF!

A few preview pics

This is a pic of my friend C n Me although I forget who took it:



And my buddy H n Me...

23 June 08 on the Big Love Show

I'm happily returning to the Big Love Show with Native Intelligence.

What: The Big Love Show @ KZSU Stanford, 90.1 FM (Peninsula, South Bay)

When: 23 June 08
3 PM - 6 PM
4:30 - 6 PM set

Listen Live on the Internet, 90.1 FM (Peninsula, South Bay) : http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/audio/kzsu-1-128.m3u

Who: Native Intelligence
      DJ Zenith (Zenomena, Funkentanzen, Stirty Beats)

--Videos From Boom Boom Woods ---------

Video Download time DISCLAIMER: my new website location has a lot more
bandwidth then the old one but this is NOT streamed so you may have to
wait 1-2 minutes for download in the background...

Video Previews from Boom Boom Woods 08:

Me Digging for Plates:

http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/DJ_Zenith_01.avi

Spinning it just a Little Bit (4 secs):
http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/DJ_Zenith_02.avi

Spinning it just a lotta bit (26 secs):
http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/DJ_Zenith_03.avi

Native Intelligence:
http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/Native_Intelligence.avi

Boom Boom Woods w00t w00t

Hey

Look Mommy... I'm on YOu tube:



Since the other boom boom woods videos aren't on you tube yet you can see a few others here... NOTE: I only uploaded Native Intelligence and my videos FIRST because we're going to be on the big love show today... Your videos will be uploaded soon...

http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/DJ_Zenith_01.avi

Spinning it just a Little Bit (4 secs):
http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/DJ_Zenith_02.avi

Spinning it just a lotta bit (26 secs):
http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/DJ_Zenith_03.avi

Native Intelligence:
http://boomboomwoods.org/2008-part-1/video/Native_Intelligence.avi

Why I'm proud of myself (COMPUTER DORK alert)

I did it! I got my new wireless router to work with SBC. I DID IT!!! i have an internal router again! w00t!!!! w00t!!!

alright. i'm calm now.

Friday night

Friday night I had a strong reminder of why I DJ with Trev & O'Henry of Stirty Beats. When we play together there's a synergy and they both sounded great!!! This coming weekend is Boom Boom Woods '08.

The bass goes Boomty Boomty.

space, virtual and otherwise

so i have now entered the digital age as far as DJing goes... granted... i don't actually *own* a CDJ machine so i'll be purchasing all new tracks on vinyl. however, i have now/am now starting to play CDJs out.

digital format is going to be handy for older plates i think... plates that i don't necessary want to lug to the club/party but plates that i want to have around just in case...

so i'm up now downloading, backing up, and moving stuff around. i promptly ran out of space on my backup harddrive so i will be buying two more external drives this weekend.

and i'm finally, finally, finally dealing with the mound of records that has almost entirely taken over my kitchen. SIGH. this solution involves a trip to berkeley to my favourite store for vinyl storage solutions.

it's amazing all the space that's required to keep up with being a DJ. even with the whole download thing going the amount of drives/space required is just growing by the minute.

if you don't hear from me for a few days... why don't you give a call to my mobile... chances are i got lost with all my music in the studio. seriously. it's like that.

Service ??? We don't need no STINKIN Service!!!

so i called into SBC/AT&T to complain about the fact that I'm consistently only receiving 20% of the download speed i'm paying for. it took me 5 minutes of navigating through the automated system twice to actually get into a queue with muzak in background.

and thanks to the fact that i was calling on my mobile so i could get privacy at work when i actually *got* someone on the phone and that said mobile service is also with AT&T.... i got cut off right after i got through to someone the first time.

so we're back in the queue now 25 minutes later from when i started said process. on hold... they kept offering me service plus. question: Why would i pay more money for service from an organization who so obviously doesn't give a crap about me???!!!!

i know people who have built the infrastructure around these call centers... these companies are purposely cutting corners by not hiring enough folks. you see... if they actually hire enough staff then some of their executives may not be able to get that third yacht they require. life's a b*tch when you're rich & greedy.

sigh. anyway. i've complained. the cost of the amount of time spent on the phone FAR outweighs the amount of a monthly credit that they will undoubtedly offer me.

i say that because at the end of this 40 minute process... the rep told me they would call back in the next 4 - 5 hours on my mobile and i should be ready and keep the phone line free!

awesome! how about that service???!!!!

23 June 2008 on the Big Love Show

I'm happily returning to the Big Love Show with Native Intelligence.

What: The Big Love Show @ KZSU Stanford, 90.1 FM (Peninsula, South Bay)

When: 23 June 08
3 PM - 6 PM
4:30 - 6 PM set

Listen Live on the Internet, 90.1 FM (Peninsula, South Bay) : http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/audio/kzsu-1-128.m3u

Who: Native Intelligence
      DJ Zenith (Zenomena, Funkentanzen, Stirty Beats)

Ana Mandara

Ana Mandara is absolutely beautiful! Freaking beautiful. And the mini-setup O'Henry brought in was really nice for that space.

I got there late last night... The reason is that this mini-setup only included CDJs and I had to download enough tracks to play a set.

I don't know about you folks, you who also have DSL.... but it seems that I'm only getting about 20% of the download speed that I'm paying for. My coworker has noticed the same thing about her DSL. On a side note, I am going to call SBC today and complain from the office.

Anyway, because this was the first time I've ever purchased DJ music in a download format... It took me way longer than it should have. I was learning the search engines of the different sites also. So set-up time combined with glacial-paced DSL service put me there @ 11:45. Did I mention we were playing until 1 AM??

Anyway, my friends sounded pretty dope and we'll be doing this again soon! Stay tuned.

New Gallery Up

Here's a new gallery from my first full day in Cozumel.

Here's my favourite pic although it's a little blurry due to low light... This is the coolest little coffee house called Rock N Java with dirt cheap internet and good food and awesome staff.