Sweet 16 Party

It's been another grinder of a week. On my day job, I was in Ohio and then Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday. Domestic travel is increasingly less glamorous, and this last trip lived up to that mantra. A series of storms lingered over the Midwest, turning O'Hare into a circus of transient travelers. My 7 PM flight started boarding at 8:30 PM, but we had to sit in the plane (100% full) for an hour, undergoing de-icing and then waiting for flight clearance. I was in the middle seat. To my left was some fidgety businessman who was encroaching on my limited territory. It was a joy to land in Philly at 12:00 midnight and get off that cattle car! The drive home was silky smooth and I opened the door at 1:30 AM.

Earlier in the week I had focused on burning the 16 songs for the Sweet 16 Candlelighting ceremony for tonight. I had to purchase about 8 songs and resorted to walmart.com. I needed a bunch of updates, but to make a long story short, I downloaded the song and then I couldn't open them due to license management problems. I called the toll free number and waited for an hour before finally giving up. In the interim, I downloaded i-tunes and have swore off Wal-Mart. I don't like their bricks and mortar stores, and I certainly don't like their online music store. I urge all Americans to ban Wal-Mart and support their local retailers.

Tonight's Sweet 16 Party was a resounding success. I used two long six foot tables in an L formation, and got the video projector in a good formation relative to the screen. I was able to mix in a lot of videos for songs requested by Amanda, the birthday girl. The dancefloor was packed all night and my hip hop inclinations paid off. This crowd also like some alternative and pop music. The new lighting effect I added this year is fantastic. It fills up the entire room with colorful horseshoes and is very bright. For $100, that was a great investment.

Actually got a request for Matisyahu (first time ever). Big impact songs - Laffy Taffy (D4L), Temperature (Sean Paul), My Humpz (Black Eyed Peas), You're Beautiful (James Blunt), I'll Be (Edwin McCain), Sweet Karoline (techno version), Satisfaction (Benny Benassi), How We Do (50 Cent & the Game), Welcome to Jam Rock (Damian 'Gong' Marley) and many more. The mother and father of the birthday girl were pleased - the dad in particular - and I left about 20 business cards with various individuals. After this Sunday's teen birthday party, I'll be having some weekends off from DJ'ing. March and April are looking pretty barren at present.