Full Disclosure.

I have to admit, Maison kinda crept up on me this month.  Luckily I sent the invite out over 2 weeks ago, and more importantly I have tons of new French House, Nu-Disco, and French Touch I NEED to play.

If you hadn't noticed, I guess I have a *residency* at Tabaq on Friday and Saturdays.  Full disclosure, I HATE the word residency.  The term is usually used incorrectly and almost always used pretentiously.  I prefer "in-house" DJ.  Anyways, Tabaq is a good gig but I mostly play hip hop there.  Not that I'm not into that, but I need a creative outlet and a break from the hip hop and pop, which Maison almost always seem to be for me.

I also gotta impress my homie, Chris Nitti who will be DJing with me this month.  I DJ'd with this dude back in November for his (and other cool dudes') party Clockwork at Rock N Roll Hotel.  We had a blast, talked about Maison and French music, and next thing ya know he's booked for this month's Maison.  Chris has really gotten into Maison's M.O. and has introduced me to tons of new French music (i.e. this article).  Chris is also DJing at Bliss Dance Party at U Hall this month.  Not sure how he got that gig but I'm super jealous/excited for him.

Also, I'm excited to get back to Maison's roots of playing a wide-array of French Music.  Nostalgic (Modjo).  Relevant (Yelle).  Progressive (dOP).  The past two month's were really fun with the Daft Punk and Yelle tributes, but that was a little gimicky for me.  Maison has always about throwing a bare-bones party, developing a signature sound, and drinking cheap champagne.  It should be the anti-thesis of the Stefan-defined party themes that sometimes get the best of gay party promoters, myself included.


I also need Maison emotionally.  If you didn't know I've been DJing full time since November, and honestly it's been really tough.  I've been lucky to get lots of gigs to help pay the bills, but most of these gigs have not been like the creative outlet Maison or Aural Pleasure have been to me.  Top 40 and Hip Hop are fun, but once you start down that track you open yourself up to people requesting the Black Eyed Peas and such.  I've really come to learn that 90% (I love making up statistics) of this city has really really bad DJ etiquette.  You can request a song, but if I don't play it next, requesting it again is just really annoying.  And I really don't believe you when you say it's your friend's birthday, nor do I care.  If I don't have something you requested, I'm sorry but handing me your iPhone isn't going to get your song in my DJ catalogue and able to play on the turntables.  If I already played a song, I'm not going to play it again just because you say, "Come on, please, I wasn't here."  I admit I need to learn how to deal with song requesters in a better way.  I've sort of resorted to ignoring people and sometimes making snide comments to the more egregious of them with remarks like, "There are plenty of bars that have jukeboxes."

I've been dealing with really rude people, technical difficulties like an entire sound system at a bar failing on me while DJing, not getting paid on time, trying to make this freelance DJ gig work for me financially, and most dishearteningly, dealing with the passing of my grandfather and not being able to go home to mourn and be with my family because I have to DJ and can't find last minute flights home to the Quad Cities.

So yeah, I'm hoping Maison goes well tomorrow.  It's been a rough go since Shea has departed to focus on his other events and take a step back from DJing non-stop.  I understand and respect his decision and it's awesome that he came back as a "guest" for the Daft Punk party last month.  But it's definitely challenging having Maison all to my lonesome.  Luckily I've been able to invite some great DJs and even better friends to join in on Maison's sound.  Doing the Yelle party with Mikey was so fun, and, as I previously mentioned, I'm obviously stoked to have Chris this month.  Additionally, I can reveal that February's guest DJ will be Steve Lemmerman (DJ Lemz) from Baltimore who I've been dying to work with since I met him in December of '09 when I was guest DJing for the Pink Sock party, which I'll be at later tonight!

And that brings me to the point where I decide if this post is too revealing, too long-winded, too much of a pity party, and should therefore be deleted.  Just writing it has already made me feel better, which I guess is the point of journal writing.  But then again, this isn't a journal... this is a blog.

So fuck it.  I believe it was a very wise man by the name of Dr. Dre who said, "If Y'all don't like me, BLOW ME!  Y'all are gonna keep fuckin' around wit me and turn me back to the old me."


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