DJ WARS

The West Central Florida DJ Scene: Corruption (or Disruption) on the Dance Floor?

When you first think of the DJ scene in West Central Florida, you think of the weddings, the parties, the fun. You don’t think of the beefs between DJ’s, the constant fighting over who rules the turf, who DJ’s best, who runs the West.

Unfortunately, that seedier underbelly of the DJ scene unveiled itself to me, an unwitting pawn in "the game", earlier this week. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to find infighting where I thought I’d find solidarity, bickering rather than brotherhood…

It all began when I received an email from one DJ Marty the One Man Party, AKA Martin Sullivan, West Central Florida’s answer to the call for NY’s finest (DJ’s). DJ Marty has been DJ’ing in Florida since 1994, running the gamut from weddings to Bat Mitzvahs to emceeing parties. His letter read as follows (my personal data has been deleted, but the rest remains the same, any spelling and grammatical errors and all):

"What do you charge Yo & how much you willing to pay Yo! This is a buisness Yo & not MySpace.
DJ Marty The One Man Partywww.djpartymarty.com
Name :* Sione
Address :* ----
Email Address :* ----
Phone : ----
Date of Event : 4/30/2008
Type of Event : Party
Approximate Number of People : 190
Comments :*
Yo Marty the one MAN party! How much does your partay cost yo?!
___________________________________________________________

I was a little bit surprised by the tone of his email and his dismissal of what could potentially be a future customer. I let him know that by sending him the following email response:

Hello DJ Marty,

I’m not sure who filled out this form in my name, but I can assure you that it was not me. Still, this seems like an inappropriate way to respond to customers. Also, if you are into a more formal addressing, wouldn’t your response tend to be a little less childish and not include misspelled words? If you are intending to attract customers, which I assume you are, I’ve looked at your website and it looks like you might be relying on a bit more than just that to do the job. Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most valuable assets a good business can have on its side and to throw this to the wind is foolish for a business to do. You’ve brought your own actions to my attention, as a potential customer, and attached your website there in your signature. If you are doing this, I’d recommend that you try to be a little bit more polite in the future. I’ve been handed a bad impression of you and your services right from the initial meeting, now. You know the expression about how one happy customer tells one of their friends, but one unhappy customer tells 10 of their friends? It is very often true…

Thank you,

Sione

DJ Marty didn’t hesitate for a second before quickly naming names and pointing fingers. All fingers pointed directly at another local DJ, DJ Junior Rockstar, and all the names were just that one name. DJ Marty sent me DJ Junior Rockstar’s MySpace information as well as all of his business information (address, phone number, real name, etc.). This seemed a bit odd to me, as the easiest thing seems to me to be to just write a quick "Sorry note" and move on from there. This was when I knew that something must be amiss with the West Central Florida DJ scene. I was so intrigued that the whole controversy basically dominated all of my waking hours from that point on until this point right now (the point where I’m writing this, not necessarily when you’re reading this). What was going on? What happened to the DJ Code of Ethics? If things could fall apart and turn ugly between DJ’s in West Central Florida, what was stopping all DJ’s from just rioting and starting a mass revolution?

I decided that I should try to get into contact with DJ Junior Rockstar, AKA Gregory Sanchez, to get his reaction and see if he had any idea about what was going on here or any opinions about DJ Marty…

Hello Greg,

I'm not sure what sort of conflict that you have with DJ Marty (the one man party), but I received some email from him kind of being rude about some contact that he claimed to have gotten from me. When I responded to him, instead of apologizing for the mistake (I didn't contact him originally), he stated that he believed you sent him my contact information. He then emailed me your MySpace information, business information, name and such. Whatever sort of problems you have with one another as DJ's, I just don't want to have my contact information sent around as "pranks" or "tools" for your getting on each other's case.

Sorry, don't mean to be presumptuous in assuming that you did do this, but just that I was frustrated in that this was happening at all and was then sent your information as "who to blame", basically. If you have any insight into what's going on with this situation, I would love to find out! I also think it's pretty inappropriate of that DJ Marty to have sent out your contact information amidst all of this as well.

Thank you,
Sione

I did not get too much of a response back from Mr. Sanchez, though he did seem to insinuate that it really was all Sullivan’s doing. He wrote back saying simply, "I never sent anything about you to marty i never even heard of you. he has the problem with me i did nothing to him he a immature bully and needs to get a life[sic]". Wow. What can I say? There really was something going on between these two and there was clearly no love lost between them! It was at this point that I began to wonder just how deep it went. I began to get a little bit nervous, unsure as to just what I’d uncovered and how serious this was. My mind raced, thinking back to the beef between Tupac and Biggie. This was serious business!

I contacted a few of other DJ’s who work in the same area(s) in Florida as both DJ Marty the One Man Party and DJ Junior Rockstar to try to find out if I could get any more information about what was going on or if it was just a problem that was permeating the whole West Central Florida DJ scene. Unfortunately, it seems that everybody I attempted to contact was very "tight-lipped" about the whole situation, which left me with nothing but more questions. I don’t know whether other DJ’s were just a little more into looking out for each other than Sullivan and Sanchez were, or they just had no idea who either DJ Marty the One Man Party and DJ Junior Rockstar were. Either way, I think that their silence speaks volumes…

The Dream Team

This is just my team. We are the Corporate Marketing Guest Incentives Team of Wyndham Vacation Ownership. I'm posting this for no other reason, but that I said I would post this everywhere. We were really making the dream work here. From left to right, there is Salue, Kimberly B., Ilana, Kim P., Me in the back, and Jacqueline.

Seattle Says Goodbye to Shaun

Well, although it isn't really a surprise to see the news today, it is a sad thing to see that former MVP Shaun Alexander has been released by the Seattle Seahawks.

Alexander was drafted in 2000 and became Seattle's lead back in 2001 and has performed well over the years and been to the Pro Bowl three times. His performance started falling after his MVP performance in 2005, mainly because he has been plagued with injuries since then.

News of his release isn't much of a surprise because there has been plenty of talk of it since Seattle signed two other running backs, TJ Duckett and Julius Jones, a couple months ago. With them recently signed and also Maurice Morris on the roster, who had been splitting time pretty equally with Alexander by the end of last season, the position was looking pretty deep and talk had really increased of the possibility of Alexander getting released. While the news wasn't much of a surprise, it is def sad to see him go as he has really helped the Seahawks throughout the years and was def a large factor in our getting to the Superbowl a few years ago. He'll be missed here in Seattle, but he still plans to play, so hopefully his career continues successfully!

Pennsylvania: The Democratic Last Stand?

Pennsylvania held their Democratic Primary today. It is the first Primary to be held in 6 weeks and has really been long awaited. Well, the polls are closed and the Primary is over now. While results are not in yet, will the results make a difference? At this point, the results are too close to tell. If Barack Obama manages to pull of a win, it will be a surprise, though he's risen in the polls from having Hillary Clinton 20 points above him, but would it be the end? Surely if Clinton has not pulled off a win today, there will be many more Democrats calling for her to step down. But will she? Will it even make a difference, the results? If she does win, will it be enough for her to continue? I don't think it matters, as she will still be in it. The Clintons don't step down...

At this point, Hillary Clinton isn't really looking to pull ahead in the delegate count. She's going to basically ignore that, as it is practically unimaginable that she can overcome that deficit, even if she wins big today and wins all of the remaining primaries and the last caucus. What she will look for and hope for is to at the least pull ahead in the popular vote. If she has this, she will surely use it as an argument to Superdelegates to consider voting in her favor. Is this really enough to get favor towards her?

Hillary Clinton has grasped to everything and anything to use to bolster herself up. When she was losing primary after primary to Obama, she discounted these losses by saying that they were "red states", they would never vote for Obama in the Fall, they had caucuses and these weren't "fair", and basically in essence, that these states that Obama won did not matter. She basically cut up the map into states that she won, which would matter in November, and the states that Obama won that were basically unimportant. As he won more primaries and caucuses than Clinton, her camp continued to discount the wins and put her up as still the one to choose. When it became seemingly impossible for her to overtake Obama in the delegate count, she basically quit looking at that as an indicator. She won't take that into consideration now, while trying to persuade the Superdelegates to back her, despite the fact that this is a race to get the most delegates. That's what it is and it's no surprise, yet she'll avoid that fact and take another angle.

Now, as I've started writing this, I saw that Clinton is claimed to have won Pennsylvania and, "The former first lady was winning 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for her rival with 14 percent of the vote counted, and she hoped for significant inroads into Obama's overall lead in the competition for delegates to the Democratic National Convention", according to the Associated Press. Well, this will surely mean that Clinton is not going to step down, though I didn't have any illusions that she would, either way. With this win in her pocket, she'll still be in a very very tough position. She'll need to win Indiana and she really can't afford to lose any of the races, though North Carolina is already looking strongly favorable for Obama. It's tough to say how this race will play out from here, but it still looks like, at this point, it's Barack Obama's race to lose and Hillary basically has to just wait and hope that he makes a big blunder or that something comes to light that really hurts his image...

McCain's Plan for a "Gas-Tax Holiday"

Senator John McCain of Arizona, in what he hopes would stimulate the seemingly downturning economy, has urged Congress to suspend the Federal Gas Taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day (the basic "Summer season" when gas prices typically rise) in what's being referred to as a "Gas-Tax Holiday".

By reducing gas prices, McCain hopes for the same trickle-down effect that's hoped for by issuing the rebate checks that will start coming out next month. It doesn't really look good for this plan to work with the rebate checks, as many people are planning to pay down debt and/or save their $600, rather than going out and spending it and boosting their local economies. With the plan to suspend gas taxes, will this lead to people's spending money elsewhere? I don't think so. I think it's going to unfortunately lead to people not worrying as much about trying to cut back on gas usage, which should be a strong focus, economy or no economy. It leads to less of a focus on efficient cars and allows people to keep on driving as much as they want.

Now don't get me wrong. I def would like to see actions taken to help stimulate the economy, but I don't think this is the way at all. I don't have the perfect solution myself, but allowing people to afford more gas and drive more seems to be counterintuitive, as all trends are leading towards the hopes of driving less and finding cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient methods of travel. Maybe much greater tax breaks on more efficient cars, be they used or new, would be one better move. Perhaps not just for hybrid vehicles or electric cars, but cars with a specifically high efficiency, such as getting over 25mpg, for example.

Whatever we need to do to help the economy, I think we must still focus on also helping the environment that we're living in at the same time. I know there are answers to do both and we need to work to discover these, rather than peddling easy answers that might sound good on paper to someone who is struggling to make ends meet. We need to help those that are struggling, while helping all of us to keep our heads above water and do it while not helping to add to the ridiculously high levels of pollution we're already putting out...

Is This Art?!?!

Costa Rican artist, Guillermo Vargas aka Habacuc, took his "art" to inconceivably cruel levels last year in the form of animal suffering. Vargas paid a few local boys in Nicaragua to help him to capture a dog and he then tied this dog in an art gallery where it was on display for days without food or water, until it died. This was his concept of "art", entitled "You are what you read", which was "written" on the wall in dog food. This cruelty to the poor animal didn't earn him any punishment for his misdeeds, however. Quite the contrary. Instead of being punished for these actions, he has been selected to represent Costa Rica in the "Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008", a visual art gathering of selected artists.

Is this so-called "art" really what should be held up as representative of a country and on a lesser scale, "rewarded" at all? This horrible and inhumane treatement of animals shouldn't be condoned! The reasoning behind it was to supposedly show the suffering and make people realize that while they were looking at it and perhaps feeling pity in an art gallery, that they would not stop and help the same dog had it been in the alley behind their house or in their own neighborhood. While the message might be true, to actually allow it to happen and overtly take actions to ensure the suffering of this poor creature are just terrible. It's not art. It's just ridiculous cruelty and hard to imagine that someone could be so cruel as to do something like this, all in the name of art. If he were really trying to help prevent cruelty to animals and make people think, there are many organizations dedicated to such purposes that he could have supported, worked with, or created artwork for/about. I may not be the quintessential visual art critic, but I don't consider this art at all.
[Although there has been much said and written about this, I haven't found absolutely conclusive evidence that this did happen, though I do believe that it did.]

The Printed Word

Well, I don't remember how I had gotten contacted by Michele Melendez, a national correspondent with Newhouse News Service, but she got in contact with me just before Christmas in 2006. She was writing an article about "hangover cures" and asked me if I'd be interested in being interviewed. Sure, it's not the first topic I'd like to be interviewed about, but I figured why not? It's not like people were beating down my door and asking me my opinions on the occupation of Iraq or what I thought of the state of affairs of the post-Cold War Eastern European situation... I figured I better toss my two cents wherever I could get them to stick and I had two cents' worth of words on this.

Here's the article below-->

(Here's a link to it in the Seattle Times)

No scientific proof for hangover cures

BY MICHELE M. MELENDEZ

c.2006 Newhouse News Service

More stories by Michele Melendez

Bad news for New Year’s Eve revelers who toast with a few too many: There’s no conclusive scientific proof that anything cures a hangover.

But there are home-tested remedies that partiers swear by — a greasy breakfast, raw eggs, tripe soup, a gallon of sports drink, a brisk run. Some even make sense, as fluids and exercise help rehydrate and push blood more quickly through the body.

While “hangover” refers literally to something that remains from an earlier time, its medical term, “veisalgia,” says it all. The word mashes the Norwegian “kveis,” meaning “uneasiness following debauchery” and the Greek “algia,” for “pain.”

Then things become less certain.

“There are so many different biochemical changes that occur after drinking alcohol that no one’s entirely positive which one is the key one that causes people to feel (a) hangover,” said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, assistant professor of preventive and general internal medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Besides its dehydrating power, alcohol can irritate the stomach and intestines to cause nausea and vomiting. It can also lower blood sugar, depriving the brain of energy and leading to fatigue.

The punishment usually kicks in several hours after drinking stops, when blood-alcohol concentration falls, and may include headache, lethargy, dizziness and sensitivity to light and sound. Research suggests that hangover symptoms and severity may depend on a person’s weight, the duration of the binge and the amount and type of alcohol consumed, among other factors.

What to do when you overindulge?

“There’s not really any scientifically documented remedy, but there are some folk remedies that may work, exercise being one in particular,” said Barbara Mark, a clinical nutrition instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

The idea: Get moving to boost blood flow.

“When you have less fluid in the body, your blood kind of gets sluggish … it’s a little bit thicker,” Mark said. “So, you’re not getting oxygen and nutrients to your body.”
Exercise is a tough sell when you’re in a hangover hole. It might be easier to drink water before, during and after imbibing alcohol, to replenish liquids. Yet in the midst of celebrating, that isn’t always a priority.

“Once the party gets started, it’s not normally within my mental capacity to think about the consequences of the next day,” said Travis of Sacramento, Calif. If he remembers before going to bed, he said, he’ll take aspirin and drink a ton of water.

Most remedies are left for after the festivities.

“I think that sleep is probably the best one,” said Lennon Duggan, 22, a bartender at the Washington, D.C., landmark bar and restaurant Madam’s Organ. “I think a lot of Gatorade, seltzer or Orangina, something like that. The greasy food helps. Bloody Mary or a mimosa, depending, but sometimes you’re not really ready to get back in there.”

Nor should you be, physicians advise. “Resist any temptation to treat your hangover with more alcohol,” says no less a source than the Mayo Clinic’s Web site. “It’ll only make you feel worse.”

Lane Allison, 36, of Overland Park, Kan., developed his antidote in college: raw eggs, Fruit Punch Gatorade and ice, blended: “You get the protein from the egg. You get rehydrated with the Gatorade. The ice makes it slushy.”

If raw egg inspires the woozies, how about a steamy, spicy bowl of a cow’s stomach lining? Menudo, a Mexican tripe soup, is legendary for its purported ability to kill hangovers.

Just as you reach for chicken soup when you’re otherwise feeling sick, said Jesse Chavez, 30, of Northridge, Calif., “It’s menudo when you have a hangover.”

Vietnamese cuisine also offers a hangover-battling soup: pho, a broth-noodle combination.
“The bowls are fairly large, so the broth alone gives you a lot … to help rehydrate you, along with salt to perhaps help you retain some of that water,” said Sione Kinahoi Phillips, 30, of Edmonds, Wash. “I don’t know if the rice noodles can act like breads and such starchy foods that people recommend to eat.”

Phillips adds hot sauce to make him feel like he’s “sweating out the hangover.”

When Sara Sanders, 44, of Aiken, S.C., feels a little green after drinking, she seeks help from the Green Giant. That brand of frozen Brussels sprouts alleviates her headaches and nausea, though she says fresh sprouts work just as well.

A friend told her about the treatment after a Christmas party years ago. “The next day, everybody was feeling rough,” Sanders said.

Still others believe in the power of vitamin pills to restore balance, including C and B. And a variety of supplements are marketed to prevent or ease hangover symptoms using assorted ingredients. The Apothecary’s Garden Hangover Drops, for example, include ginseng, a Chinese herb.

“It’s a fun pick-me-up, when you feel like you’re dragging,” said Laura Bertoldi, a sales representative with Belgravia Imports of Portsmouth, R.I., the U.S. importer of the English sweets. But, she adds, “They are certainly not a cure.”

So, with no sure-fire remedies, Santa Fe, N.M., nutritionist Kaayla T. Daniel offers this: “Contemplate a New Year’s resolution not to drink to excess.”
Dec. 29, 2006

Pinching the Proverbial Penny: Dollar Stores, Discounteurs, and More!

What with talks of a recession, inflation, housing trouble, and shrinking jobs and growing gasoline bills all ringing in the ears of Americans, who isn't in for saving another buck or two? Every place you can cut back on the spending will either allow a little more for other places, a little more for the savings, or maybe a little less in the red. Well, there's a lot of simple things and shopping tips that'll save those few cents and might just all add up to common sense...

Dollar Stores? I've been a frequent (perhaps frighteningly so) shopper of Dollar Stores all my life. I am just obsessed. The idea that each thing you come upon in the store is only going to cost you one dollar excites me to the core! But that's just me... In terms of approaching one, there are a number of great deals you can find here. Perhaps they do have a lot of junk, such as their tools (which can actually be pretty useful, just not for industrial or automotive purposes, but most simple household tasks can be done), kitchen knives (almost the same parenthetical comment as for the tools!), and children's toys (I just can't help questioning myself, but cheap toys are great to let children destroy on a weekend trip or such), but there are some great values to be found for a dollar as well!

Some of the good values I've found:

Dish Soap
Bar Soap
Sponges
Scrub Brushes
Vacuum Bags
Picture Frames
Colanders
Sunglasses
Food (Really? Yes, but you be the judge and not all food is equal...)
Many randomly useful items like bike bells, automotive funnels, auto sun shades, etc.

Now, for $1, just about any of those is typically a steal of a bargain and well worth the asking price! There are some foods I'll be skeptical about, but you can use your own judgment in what you'd be comfortable with. I don't mind buying cheap tools that work well enough for small simple tasks, so long as I remember that I have a Craftsman toolset for "real jobs".

Big Lots and other such stores...

"Closeout Retailers" such as Big Lots! or Tuesday Morning offer great bargains on all sorts of brand name items! I mean you can find some ridiculously cheap prices! You just might not be 100% certain as to what you'll find in the stores and it can be like a treasure hunt going into these. These stores can get closeout and overstocked items from other locations for cheap and sell them for cheaper than you'll find in traditional retail stores. You just might walk in the next time and find the supplies are gone. Now here at Big Lots!, I've bought some food. They've got cans of sardines that are $.65/can! Tomato paste for $.25/can! Most all of their boxes of cold cereal were under $2 (Shrek Cereal was $1/box [I bought 3!]!)! Crazy prices for food when bills are seeming like they are going to overwhelm you! There's also great prices on all sorts of random toys, children's items, bath and beauty, furniture, towels, and more! If you are looking to trim the fat from your shopping bills, a few stops here a month could really do the trick.

Coupons? Yes! I know it sounds corny and feels just the same, but clipping coupons, printing them out online (Coupons.com, Ultimate Coupons, etc.) can really save you big money! It doesn't take a whole lot to really start adding up! By just checking the sale ads for your local groceries and maybe a few websites, you can really get all you want to eat for cheap!

US Rare Coin & Bullion Reserve

Now, I'm not one to diss on infomercials, typically... I'm a sucker for a lot of them and will sit and watch a whole lot of them. One, in particular, has become my fave for sure, being the Magic Bullet one. Classic. Characters? Check. The diner waitress with the cig hanging suspended from her pursed lips, the middle-aged party animal, this thing is well scripted!

Now, this morning I was watching television and saw what I think had to be the most ridiculous infomercial I've seen. Ever. I know they are typically written to "idiots", basically with lines easy enough and questions simple enough that anyone can see them through to the end, but this one really takes the cake in insulting the intelligence of the viewers. It was from the US Rare Coin & Bullion Reserve. Don't worry if you missed the infomercial because they have a website so you don't have to miss out on your opportunity to get some gold, like all of the major investors are moving their money into gold. Just check out http://www.usmoneyreserve.com/ or call 1-800-314-3612 today!

Really, though, why do I think they are not quite the investment managers I want telling me where I should direct my investment capital? It's mostly their arguments in favor of gold over cash. Here are some of their "reasons" for investing in gold:

• The War in Iraq


• Nuclear Weapons


• Gas could go to $10 a gallon


• Experts predict $2000/oz price of gold in the future

Why is the war on Iraq reason to invest in gold? Here's what they have to say-->

"Now its fifth year, the war in Iraq has cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $400 billion dollars, or more than $200 million a day. With the U.S. economy already burdened with a national debt of more than $9 trillion, many people are deciding that the safest place for their money is in Gold. "

Who are these people that are deciding that the safest place is gold?

How about "Nuclear Weapons" being a reason? Well, on the infomercial, the host claims that if a nuclear weapon is detonated anywhere on the planet that gold prices will skyrocket. And don't forget that North Korea already has nuclear weapons! Why will gold skyrocket as a result of a nuclear weapon? I guess more people will decide that while money can burn, gold will be the safest place to invest, what with nuclear weapons being detonated somewhere.

Gas could go up to $10/gallon? Wow. I heard this one repeated a couple of times on the segment, but couldn't make the connection between this and buying gold. I guess if gas gets so expensive, it'll just be easier to pay in gold. I guess this also really puts that $4/gallon gas prediction in its place...

Experts predict $2000/ounce gold prices in the future? The site says, "While no one can predict with absolute accuracy whether a Gold Coin’s future value will go up or down, troubling economic and world conditions have many experts pointing to Gold’s tremendous upside potential and the possibility of it reaching as high as $2,000/oz. in the future." Who are these "experts"? Unknown. Is this in the far-off-distant-spaceship-flying future? Maybe. It's a little bit hazy...

The host has two "guards" bring out a platform with $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in gold coins. He holds up the $50k in cash, which is in 3 small bundles, in his hands and talks about how you can put this in the bank and earn 3% and in a year, you'll have an additional $1500. He then starts feeling through the gold and explains that if you invest $50,000 in gold and it goes up to $2000/ounce, you'll have $160,000! He then has another guard bring out $160,000, which is in a large case and looks like millions of dollars in comparison to the $50,000.

The biggest thing is that he constantly says that you need to buy gold in case gold prices take off. Is that really a safe investment? To invest just in case you might make a profit? I try to follow investment trends and strategy, rather than investing just in case it might help.

The worst thing of all is that there is a constant ringing of phones in the background throughout the whole "show". I guess it's to show that tons of people are calling in to order, but doesn't really make sense when he's walking all over the place with this ringing phone sound. Especially when he's showing you their high security safe where they're shipping all of your orders from. Who is taking orders in there?!?!

Long story short, well, maybe not so short, you should probably def buy some gold just in case it shoots up in value. The market is set and experts are saying that it's going to increase in value in the future!