Santa Fe

For creative and artistic types, Santa Fe, New Mexico is a great place to spend some time. I just returned from my fourth trip in the last nine years. As quickly as the second morning of my visit, I found myself walking and talking slower, breathing more deeply and evenly and thinking more profound thoughts. Brainpower normally reserved for the chores of life gets freed up to process the things we are seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and learning of. If you are good at bracketing, (ask me privately) everything is a fresh and new experience, even the things you think you have done before.


I stayed at a lovely ranch/mansion in a place called Pojoaque (Po hoah KAY) Pueblo about 15 miles north of Santa Fe on the way to Taos. The photo above is the view from the front porch where I would read in the mornings before breakfast.

The area is full of opposites. There is ancient history and an increasingly fast-paced modern world growing up all around it. Los Alamos is a few miles west, up in the mountains which was (and still is) home to the most brilliant minds ever assembled. They gathered there in the middle of World War II from several nations and became one- to try to figure out how to split the atom. The bombs created there were used in the greatest single act of violence ever committed by humanity which, in another opposite, mercifully ended the war. All of this technology is situated right next to others who still live simply off of the land. It's encouraging to see lots of people there who embrace technology such as solar and wind power to live a modern life but leave the smallest footprint on the earth as is possible.

There are elements of spirituality and religious traditions juxtaposed with very humanist or secular philosophies. Santa Fe is home to a violent history of conquering "Christian" priests and missionaries who brutally enslaved the native people. Recently, a bronze statue was erected at a house of worship depicting one of those conquering priests on the back of a horse in a heroic pose. During the night, the leg of the priest was torched off by a local who wanted to make a statement that they hadn't forgotten the ancestor slaves whose legs were chopped off when attempting to escape. The artist recast the leg and there has been no further vandalism but the locals all cast a knowing glance that their point and the remembrance was made.

Variations of Catholicism are alive and well, but the mainstream Catholic church probably does not recognize or endorse several of the rituals that go on there. Each year, the "Penitente" attracts hundreds (maybe thousands) of people who walk on their knees for several miles, some carry crosses and some more extreme types flog themselves bloody and as late as the 1990s, certain penitents allowed themselves to be nailed to crosses until the local officials put a stop to such things. Stories also abound of the healing powers of the dirt or the water or the leaves of the trees of this or that location.

On to lighter things- I visited Bandalier National Monument. It's the ruins of a city in a canyon that was occupied 1200 years ago. They would migrate south in the coldest of the winter months and there is evidence that they actually traded with people in Mexico as far as 1000 miles south. It appears that they outgrew the available space in the canyon and began to abuse the land and resources that supported them and they disappeared. I thought it interesting that there are now hundreds of times more people occupying the land but we still seem to be able to exploit the resources by shear force of will and brute force of our technology that allows us to dig deeper and to ship things to and from distant locales.

I would sit on this porch pictured below in the mornings or evenings to read and the neighborhood dogs from some of the other properties around would always come and say hello or bring a stick or a ball for me to throw. The two ranch dogs on the property are getting old and sick. They would sleep most of the day but when feeling up to it would at least come out and watch the festivities.

I heard a story about one of the neighbor dogs- Molly. A large mixed breed, very friendly and very rambunctious. There was a colt born on one of the ranches nearby which Molly witnessed. She went home and got a pull toy and came back and taught that colt how to play catch/fetch/tugowar with a length of ragged rope. The horse is grown now and can be seen regularly tossing sticks and catching them.

I didn't get a photo of it, but the Santa Fe Opera House is a beautiful and imposing structure about 2 miles south of Pojoaque Pueblo. I was a week too early for a major music festival held there. The venue sits on top of a hill and is the master of all it surveys. I'd like to hear a concert there on another visit. Listening to a classical station in Phoenix when I got home, they mentioned that if you left right now, you'd get to Santa Fe Opera House in time the opening concert that evening to kick off the festival.

I needed to come home earlier than I would have liked for the birthday party of a major event industry figure around Phoenix and then a DJ job the next evening. My last stop before heading out of Santa Fe was at an art gallery. I was speaking with the artist while looking at her work. About mid sentence, she stopped and said- are you a Disc Jockey? Yes. Do you live in Phoenix? Well- yes, Mesa. She continued that she had been the featured artist at an art show at Inspirador in Chandler about 18 months ago and that I was the DJ. I remembered her and we chatted about that event. I told her that I hadn't been back to Inspirador since that night even though I thought I had won them as a customer but oddly, I had been invited to an industry party that night- at Inpirador- and that after I left her gallery, I would be driving home to get back in time for the party that night.

I'm thinking of returning in October.

The difference between a professional DJ and a hobbyist DJ

During a bridal consultation to consider hiring a DJ for her wedding, a bride asked if I had a strategy if people weren't dancing. It's a great question and really serves to separate out a professional DJ/entertainer from a hobbyist. If a DJ has arrived at a place where people aren't dancing, the time to have not had that happen has already passed. An inexpensive hobbyist DJ would be left only with a cheesy and uncomfortable tactic like the "Hokey Pokey" or a stupid announcement like "Yo people get up out ya seats!"

The time to plan to have a dancefloor full of dancing wedding guests is in advance of the event. It comes from time spent talking to the bride and groom about their musical tastes and the vision they have for their wedding celebration. It happens during the dinner hour, chatting with wedding guests as time allows. It's the DJ reading the crowd properly. Well selected and executed background music should have naturally elevated the mood of the room from a formal ceremony to what will be a dance party after dinner. It comes from creating a confidence level in the abilities of the DJ, even before the first dance song is played, which includes the way you stand, the way your equipments looks and sounds and the way you are dressed. Then a professional entertainer can lead the way and take the wedding guests on a fun/ crazy/ musical/ dancing/ celebrating journey and finish the night breathless and satisfied and with fantastic memories of the night.

Miscellaneous thoughts for the month of June

I LOVE writing in the first person! I have another article being published this week in The Wedding Chronicle and in it, I told a story that just cried out to be told in the first person but my editor wouldn't have it. She wants her magazine to be in one "voice" and one point of view. Add to that--the last 26 months of weekly college papers that could not be in the first person either. I'm glad to have my humble blog to write this way.

Last Saturday was an exceptionally long day for a DJ. I was out the door at 6AM for a bridal expo out at Estrella Vista Reception Center in Avondale, sponsored by my best buddies and my best cheerleaders, Thee Wedding Warehouse. In addition to being a vendor at the show, I was the stage manager and sound reinforcing technician and announcer for two bridal fashion shows during the day. There were two other DJs at the show and I was pleased to be competing with two of my professional brethren who charge a proper professional fee and I didn't have to fight an idiot hobbyist or beginner DJ with a ridiculously unrealistic low "special" bridal show price. Those guys won't be in business next year and they may not even make it to the weddings that they book. I've heard way too many horror stories about those kinds of vendors taking the money and disappearing.

I was the only one allowed to play any music at the show. No videographers or photographers or anybody else could show a slide show of their work with music playing on a flat screen TV monitor or anything- they could show it, just no sound. I was the one providing the musical flavor of the show. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? It's a job that can be fraught with landmines. Brides planning a wedding are in a certain mind set- thinking about harpists and classical music and sweet romantic love songs. Those kinds of songs work just fine AT the wedding. While any vendor would probably want to cater to that, the reality is that those songs in THIS time and place would suck the life out of the room. Secondly, I'd almost rather not play any music as a vendor at a bridal expo because I may get only a few seconds to reel in a potential customer and if I am playing song "A" and a bride happens to be imagining song "B" for her wedding, she may consider the fact that I am playing song "A" and extrapolate out that I ONLY play song "A" when I am hired. She'd say to herself, "This DJ is an idiot, he's playing song A!" They are only quickly passing by, making their way to other vendors that provide the goods and services they need for their big social occasion. I won't have time to move on to song "B", "C" or "D" to give her the benefit of comparison.

Another problem with playing music at all is that when a vendor has a bad sales day at a show, it is easy to blame everything else under the sun but their own poor marketing abilities, crummy promotional material, grumpy face, too casual dress, lack of marketing focus. They blame their booth placement in the room, they complain that the promotion and advertising of the show was weak and there was a lack of qualified brides or that the DJ that played music and they couldn't talk to their potential customers. I'm smart enough to know and gauge the proper volume for any occasion, but I don't want to be the one that any fellow wedding vendor could complain about.

Lucky for my lightning fast reflexes and my cracker jack coordination, I pulled it off. I played "the Pink Martinis" for my photographer friend Kym Ventola who was at the show, and mixed that with some other fun music that would add life to the room and still compliment the frame of mind of the potential customers.

I didn't intend to play any Michael Jackson because I just didn't think it was the time and place, but I had several customers and vendors alike make their way over to say hello in the course of the day and quietly ask if I'd play this or that song from Michael Jackson and that it would mean a lot to them. I ended up playing 6 or 8 songs and it always got a response and we had people dancing in the aisles and telling stories about when they performed MJ songs talent shows back in the day and about an old girlfriend/boyfriend that they think of when they hear those songs. I had to bust a move myself when moved upon by that music. I had several people comment on my Facebook page that they didn't know I had such moves! Oh, I got moves you ain't never seen!

Sadly, it seems Michael Jackson lost his way in many aspects of his personal life. Our society probably added to his burden with the way we treat celebrities of that stature. Even in my small-time entertainment career, I've had some people take the fantasy that I try to create on stage, which, in the hands of normal people, is a nice escape for an evening but in the hands of someone a bit more unstable, it has become uncomfortable and I have even been stalked more than once. That experience varied from annoying to downright terrifying! Michael Jackson made his share of weird decisions but I'm not in any position to gauge what kind of pressures he was under and what the reasons may have been or what the motivations people had for their accusations and the things that they would say and publish to sell magazines. I just hope I'm not remembered for my mistakes but rather the good contributions I try to make in the world.

When I finished the bridal show, I had to jet out of there quickly to get to a wedding at the very posh "Sassi" up by Pinnacle Peak in north Scottsdale. I hadn't met the groom. I had planned the music of the wedding with the bride while he finished up some schooling at MIT. When I finally had a moment to go and say hello to him and introduce myself and congratulate him between some wedding photos, one of the first things he asked was if I would play some Michael Jackson tonight. He mentioned a song that he wanted and shared a brief story about why the song was important to him. While I didn't want to tell him that I thought it was a mistake to play at his wedding, I was going through it in my mind- that there would be some guests there with their various delicate sensibilities that would think I was detracting from the order of the day which was to celebrate a wedding. I would look like I was the one who had chosen the song and was trying to memorialize MJ and take peoples minds and hearts away from the bride and groom.

My fear was unfounded. In my 30 years as a DJ, I can't say that I have played a Michael Jackson song at every event, but I can say that I can't think of an occasion where a Michael Jackson song wouldn't have fit in nicely. It ended up fitting the wedding celebration even better than usual and didn't detract from the celebration of a really cool couple. I'm usually pleased when I have 65% to 75% of a room on the dancefloor. I had virtually 100% of the crowd dancing that night. They spilled off of the dancefloor and even behind my speakers and beside my little booth! I think I only played 2 MJ songs at the wedding but it was "The way you make me feel" that got them out there and they stayed the rest of the night.

Thanks, Michael Jackson, for the music. We remember you!

Father's Day

That's my dad, Vance Whipple, on the left and my Grampa, Floyd Whipple on the right. This may have been taken in San Antonio Texas or perhaps in Mexico in the early 70's. I've always loved this picture. It's so familiar yet so foreign to our way of doing things nowadays.Either we don't care about our shoes as much as we used to or we just don't have occasions to wear nice shoes that need to be shined. My life is fairly casual, but I do love the fact that I attend a formal or at least semi-formal function almost every weekend as a DJ. It's one of the things I have always loved about being an MC/DJ is that everybody is dressed up, they are celebrating something, there is good food, music, lights... I love it!

Here's another one. That's my dad, Mr. GQ, with my brother Garry. Garry is 10 years older than me. I was born in '65 so I'm guessing this is about 1958 or '59.
My dad passed away almost 11 years ago. I wish I had the life experience earlier in life that I have now to have more fully taken advantage of his advice on things. That is the problem though, it's life that gives us life experience and it comes whenever it does and not necessarily when we are ready for it.

My dad spent his adult life in retail and was passionate about it. He loved attending the fashion shows in New York and selecting things that he could sell at his store in Northern Arizona. He'd plan a sale or other retail promotion and put an ad in the local paper and arrange the items and he'd be tickled to death when customers would show up to buy the things that he planned for them to buy.

I learned from him that there is a certain percentage of profits that should always be put back in to marketing and other promotions to perpetuate the profits. I'm glad I know how to do that. I'm actually GROWING in a tough economy! I haven't changed the amount of advertising or marketing that I'm doing, but lesser competitors have cut their advertising budgets and dropped off the radar. It appears that I'm everywhere now when I'm simply in the same places that I had been already- I just don't have any competitors around me.

I love the behind the scenes stuff that goes into planning a good social occasion or event. Invitations, food, music, linens, photography, lighting, dancefloors, dancers, ice sculpture, floral arrangements and other entertainment. I love to see the people arrive, full of anticipation and have the good time that we planned for them to have and leave fulfilled and happy. I often get to be the "face" of the event. Attendees will come and thank me for a lovely evening when there were 40 to 50 people that served them directly and indirectly and there were thousands of dollars spent in a more unseen way. I always make sure to get a cheer for the kitchen staff and the matre'd and the bar tender and the photographer etc.

I started my DJ career at a retail promotion in Winslow Arizona out in front of my dad's store 30 years ago. Retail and entertainment go together well. Thanks dad, for teaching me how to shine my shoes and for the education and the support. I miss you.

Planetary alignment

I was in Los Angeles last weekend on DJ duty for a lovely wedding. While I was there, I had lunch at BJs Brewhouse in Brea CA with a high school buddy that I hadn't seen in 21 years. We had recently connected on Facebook and our lunch was the highlight of my trip. We started our careers in music and entertainment together as young teenagers and we used to regularly discuss our dreams for our music and our lives and we are still both in this industry in different capacities.

A couple of years ago, I read the autobiography of comedian and actor Steve Martin. There is a line in there that struck me and I have thought about occasionally since. Remember he is writing as a grown man looking back at a remarkable career and its impact on American culture. He wrote, "When I moved out of the house at eighteen, I rarely called home to check up on my parents or tell them how I was doing. Why? The answer shocks me as I write it: I didn't know I was supposed to." He didn't have a particularly tragic childhood but certainly his parents made some terrible mistakes- I've made my share of mistakes in relationships. When I left home at 17, I left all things Winslow Arizona behind, including home, friends and family, and I didn't look back. The regrettable reasons are too personal to share here. I'm glad to be living in Arizona again getting reconnected to my siblings.

It was such a pleasure to be with and talk to my old friend and it was just as if the time in between hadn't passed- other than catching up on details about our separate adventures over the years. We were just as comfortable as we had been in high school. We both commented on the brilliant value of Facebook. I also regretted the lost time and apologized for that fact I hadn't kept in touch with someone who was instrumental in helping me become who I am now- and I am quite fond of my life and who I am now! The waitress was aware of our reunion and her hostess skills seemed to compliment the experience.

He handed me a self produced CD on which he wrote the songs, played all instruments and sang all the vocals. I'm listening to it as I write. I wish that I was the one playing keyboards on it and singing the back up vocals with him. His CD is entitled "Planetary Alignment". I have played with other musicians off and on in the intervening years. Some have been far more talented that we were at the time, but there hasn't been a group of guys that connected like "Fugitive" did in 1980 and 81 in Winslow Arizona. It's interesting how a chance meeting can turn ones life at right angles or even 180 degree turns. The planets really did align. Thanks Jason! I'm not going to let another 21 years pass before another meeting.

In case there was any question...

Let it be put to rest! I have worn the mystical square hat of learning!
Here's a pic of me and my sister Cindy, who attended my graduation last Saturday. I was about to melt into a little puddle on the sidewalk in that robe and sash. I was smart enough to earn the degree but not smart enough to skip the suit jacket. I would have done fine with just the shirt and tie.

There you have it!

I have a list of little projects that have been on hold for several months to blast through now and I have a stack of recommended books on my desk to read. I finished Team of Rivals by Goodwin- heavy book, starting Narcissism Epidemic by Twenge tomorrow.

Don't shoot, I'm just the piano player

If I wasn't aware of the economic crisis out there, I would never know it looking at the malls and the restaurants. I DJ'd a huge Cinco de Mayo party at Cantina Laredo in Scottsdale last week and the place was packed. All tables sold out for the whole night several days in advance. People were allowed in to the bar/patio but were alerted that they may or may not be served any food from the grill. I was supposed to play until 9PM so they could close the grill at 930 or so and close at 10PM. That place rocked until 11P! I looks like it will turn into a regular Thursday night event for me alternating between DJing, hosting karaoke or piano playing.

A couple of weeks ago, I played piano at an industry function in the courtyard at Old Town Torilla Factory, also in Scottsdale. The write up said that "in a voice reminescent of Rod Stewart, he played and sang for nearly two hours" it concluded with something to the effect of, the wedding industry hears more than its share of sappy love songs and the set included NONE of those but the selections were known and loved songs that weren't the obvious and over-played songs usually aired by piano players. They mentioned me in the same sentence as Rod Stewart?!!?! I'll take it!

Here's somebody that was "moved" by my performance.



Playing and singing is something that I have always loved but never regarded as my gift. Since I stopped working a day job 3 years ago, I have taken the time to develop it into something that I feel very confident about- something that it is entertaining and can even move people! Word is out regarding my abilities as a musician in addition to my DJ abilities and I have been approached to play at a few other great restaurants around town on weeknights. When you do a good job, the money always seems to follow. When you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. Fun stuff!

Thanks to Stuart Thurkill of Eyes 2 See Photography for snapping a couple of photos that night.

Sometimes I just sit and think...

and sometimes, I just sit.

I had a great event in Santa Monica CA on Friday night that went until nearly 1AM and then I packed up the toys and drove all night to get to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale AZ by 9AM for my college graduation at 10AM (6-hour drive). I slept for about two hours out in the desert somewhere but it really took a toll on my body.

I had a dream out there about a bizarro parallel universe where everybody wore black robes and square hats and marched in to a giant stadium while Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance played... wait a minute...

I had a splitting headache and generally wasn't feeling well for my graduation and a dose of Tylenol proved ineffective. It was good to see some instructors and classmates from the prior years but I wasn't my usual witty and charming self. The whole experience was a blur unfortunately. Not just the ceremony itself, but looking back, where did the years go and all of the classes and assignments? Since all of my text books were in an online library, I was robbed of the opportunity for a book burning party. I didn't get to rip up a bunch of old assignments even- I just had to delete them. What's fun about that? Toga party anyone?

My sister Lauri also graduated yesterday with a Masters degree from NAU! Congratulations Lauri!

I still haven't collected all of my thoughts on the subject of graduation. I'll post again when I get the photo of me walking across the stage to receive my diploma- as long as it's a good picture and my eyes are open and everything.

Story time

I was on DJ duty at the Ishikawa Dragon Bar-b- que today. It's a little PTO fundraiser at the elementary school down the street from here. It was kind of an end-of-the-school-year-end-of-State-mandated-testing-party that would have been even better had it been held closer to the end of the school year but the weather is much nicer now to have such a celebration. 6 or 8 classrooms at a time had lunch served out in the courtyard in shifts. I had a few announcements and giveaways from local merchants to make it fun in addition to some good music. Parents were invited to come down and have lunch with their kidlets.

We had a screaming contest. The 2nd graders won by a landslide! I reminded them that I was a grown up now and that Principal Heath couldn't make me sit in her office for having a screaming contest but that she may still take me out in the parking lot and beat me up. The amount of dust kicked up by 100 dancing 6th graders at the last lunch shift was alarming. I'm glad the food was kinda put away by then. We did the YMCA, we did the cha-cha slide, we did Hannah Montana. It was-- lovely. I hated to get those kids so worked up to send them back to class for 2 more hours, let alone 25 more school days.

It is good to have several thousand watts of sound reinforcing power at my disposal, but the mistake many DJs make is that they think they need to be loud to be heard. There are a hundred other ways to command attention without making loud announcements. The dying art of story telling is one of them. When the kindergartners and 1st graders came out, (there were about 80 of them) I said hello to them over the sound system and then lowered my voice and drew them in to a story about how I had arisen from my bed early in the morning while everyone was still asleep and the stars were still shining and I drove my van out into the desert north of town here by the Salt River and I quietly hid behind a giant Saguaro cactus until the sun started to come up and I and waited for a dragon to make its way down to the river for a morning drink... then I got out my sword and I quietly snuck up behind the dragon and I SLEW the dragon and his guts were spilling out everywhere and I was slipping around in his guts and I put it in my van and brought it back to the school cafeteria and they cut it into little pieces and they threw it on the grill and now we'll be having some Dragon burgers and some Dragon dogs and they will be Deeeee-lish! I added that it was a lot of work and that I hoped they would each enjoy their Dragon burgers and Dragon dogs... and then I smiled at them silently for a moment.

There was sort of a collective question mark over their heads.

What was so fun and great about it was that they quieted down and listened! No shouting required. You could see the imagination in their eyes and the wheels turning in their heads to processing the thought of a dragon living in the desert north of Mesa Arizona and that their favorite DJ could kill it and then there was the added wonder of what a dragon burger might taste like and whether there might be anything else to eat.

I am the El Presidente of the American DJ Association and our educational content this month was about developing the next generation of DJ customers. It was a really fun event today and I feel like I helped to tie it all together and turn it from a good event to a great event and that those kids will grow up thinking that if you want a great event, you hire a professional DJ.

I guess if you just want some story time, you could call me for that too.

Pizza by the slice

I attended my final class last night. The University of Phoenix was nice enough to send a clerk from the academic advisors office with three Dominoes pizzas to congratulate us... "Two slices for you young man? But of course! That will be $30,000 please." Yes, in addition, to the sausage, could you sprinkle some gold flakes on mine?

I'm glad to be done but it was an anti-climactic finish. Maybe I'll feel different at the graduation ceremony in 3 weeks. Wait a minute, I'll get to wear that funny/cool square-hat-thing and a choir robe and THAT doesn't suck! They are having a member of the faculty speak and a student speaker and then a song or two and then read the 1000 names and turn us loose on the world. They aren't even getting a b-list local celebrity to speak! They did promise that the bagpipe regiment would be worth it. I've got a DJ gig Los Angeles the night before until well after midnight and will be driving like a mad man to get back to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale by 10AM.

I don't know if these statistics are correct, I didn't confirm them. There are less than 25% of the citizens of the U.S. that have bachelors degrees and less than 9% that have masters degrees. So I'm joining a rather small group of people who have put themselves through such stringent paces. I'm trying to make arrangements to have my son Javin come out with me from California because I want him to see that education is important and that it's something we make a fuss about as a people. We only wear those square hats on exceptionally special occasions such as this.

Side note: My sister is getting her Masters Degree at Northern Arizona University Skydome at 2PM that same day. I was thinking of driving like the dickens to get up there for hers after mine, but after a 6 hour all night drive from LA that doesn't sound too appealing. We'll have to have a celebration another time.

I graduated High School and left home at age 17 and had no clue about what insurance was and how to work a check book and I was ill-prepared for adult life which contributed to some terrible mistakes in relationships that I am still recovering from 25 years later. I have had a really good experience at UOP and I feel like I could contribute in a wonderful way to a business or a non-profit or a government agency, with some of the cool things I have learnt, coupled with my life experience, my DJ/entertainer career and 18 years in the reinforcing steel business, but I have no more interest in corporate America. As I look back at some experiences in business with a more classical training and perspective, I say, "You know what? I did that right!" I also think of a few other things that were accomplished only by shear force of will and there are smarter and easier methods. For the most part, it has given me a structure for otherwise crazy and ethereal thoughts. The structure makes me define better or even defend my position sometimes. It fleshes out alternate ideas and bridges gaps.

When a dog chases a car, I ask myself what that dog thinks he is going to do with that car if he catches it? Now I have a degree- and I wonder what I am going to do with it. I guess I'll start with the big job fair on Saturday morning. For the moment, I seem to be able to make a decent living as an entertainer and as long as it's fun, pays the bills and the customers keep calling, I'd love to just keep doing that for now.

This note may sound depressing and negative-- it isn't. I'm quite fond of life and I prefer not knowing what is around each corner. My life is a great balance of taking what I want and yet wanting only the simple things that life has given me naturally and freely. It is seemingly planned and yet entirely random simultaneously. Who knows what is around this next corner? Film at 11.