Hugest DJ Yet
Something I return to a lot in this blog is feelings rather than actual events being memories.
For instance, I can remember the feeling of walking into a junior high dance that was being held at the gym. I do not know which year it was. I don’t know who I was with. I don’t know what poor little girl was subject to my horrible prattling on.
I wasn’t necessarily a real perv back then. And I’m not one now. But I was all into chatting up the ladies 24/7.
And I don’t know what happened that night. I don’t know where it went, what successes and failures I had, but I remember the feeling of that place.
I can’t remember what it looked like in the daylight. I couldn’t identify it out of a lineup of one. But I remember the feeling, and it’s pure magic. I can close my eyes and go back there right now.
And it was a mix of anticipation, of teenage lightning, internally, and the music. And the volume level. And the selection.
I have a middle school dance this Friday that I’m doing. Seventh grade, I think it is, right in the middle.
One of my best friends has a middle school daughter. And I’ve watched his transformation into what music means, through the eyes of his daughter, just like mine did through the eyes of my sons.
I’ve never taken a DJ gig more seriously.
So I reached out to him and asked them to make me a Liston which to base my playlist. I got a picture of a piece of notebook paper with songs in pencil.
OMG- makes me want to cry.
I cannot imagine in the city of Houston, Texas, a document with more thought and care put into it that day.
I hope my friend and his daughter keep that piece of paper. I’m certainly going to keep the picture.
But I’ve taken it as a base, and I’ve made a playlist, and I sent it to another friend of mine's daughter who’s a senior in high school, and she said it’s RTG.
I’m going to bust my ass on this gig.
I have more high-profile gigs. I have more pressurized gigs, I have more of this than that, but this is basically the most important gig I’ve done yet.
When I talk to myself about my successes and failures in life, it’s to this younger version of me. What would little JD think about what I’m doing right now?
I think he’d be pretty freaking into it.
He would damn sure know that I would nail this gig.
So I’m doing it for him. I’m doing it for Ellie, but most of all, I’m doing it for all those kids who are gonna be there.
I can’t wait.
I’m not gonna mess this one up.