Played Vinyl for the second time! -- was funner ;-) The bar guy (and 1/3rd manager) said that was the best he's heard me mix! Not sure why though, probably had something to do with me playing Vinyl ;-) I'm actually starting to enjoy House music and would prefer playing house over RnB/Hip-hop, mainly because I'm not as experienced with RnB/Hip-Hop.

First Vinyl Gig

Tried out Vinyl for the first time -- it was fun! Was fairly similar to mixing with CDs, main difference was that there was no countdown timer saying when the song is ending. Have to get used to seeing the tonearm move towards the end of the song. Also found it convenient to beatmatch since I can push/pull the Vinyl rather than pressing those damned "+/-" buttons (which are not even standardised on different CDJs). I joined a forum called "inthemix.com.au" and asked them all the questions about Vinyl before I played at Lustre.

Collector's Corner

Bought 15 Vinyl's from a place called "Collector's Corner" just 10 minutes from RMIT! There was a special and most Vinyls worth around $10 were given to me for $4 because I bought in groups of 5. Most of the music was funky/disco house but some of them weren't upbeat enough for dancing -- but will do for the first hour or last hour at Lustre :-)

Records @ $1.50!!

Received 50x 12" Vinyl House/Disco Records I won at eBay. Most of these are old stuff but can't expect much better for $1.50 per record (including shipping costs). Have to either buy a second hand turntable to listen to these at home, or go to Lustre early and listen to some of them before I can mix them.

19th @ Lustre

Had a 19th party at Lustre. It was wasn't a private party but it was a hell of a fun loving crowd! Most of the requests were for commercial house. They had heaps of fun. This was also my first day on the turntables. I bought a U.S. house/breaks record from HMV with just 3 tracks and mixed them in mostly towards the end when I started breaks. The turntables were easier in certain aspects than the Denon, especially when adjusting the pitch momentarily. The pitch control needed a bit of getting used to because it doesn't have a digital display/ high precision markings.

21st @ Lustre

Had a 21st party again at Lustre. Probably the biggest party there yet. I had an entire song list given to me by the person celebrating her b'day. Was a bit of a headache playing someone else's music (especially when the music she wanted included Shannon Knoll!! -- which I avoided ofcourse). Went well in the end though. I also enjoyed playing 4 hours of RnB.

LazZ's debut and Val's B'day!!

Celebrated my girl friend's b'day on Friday with about 40 guests, plenty of food, beer and lots of music!! This was also LazZ debut performance!! He warmed up the dance floor with mostly RnB and HipHop while I played some RnB and 80's (requests!!).

Had a great time -- probably the best party ever held at this house.
The great thing about this house was the huge lounge with floorboards which formed a good dance floor for the parties. Also the extra bathroom on the ground floor is very conveniently accessible for even the quickest of pukes! And the backyard!! Great for all the BBQs and for a quick smoke. Too bad we couldn't stay there for more than a year or so...the landlord's son wanted to move in :-/

Here are some pics of LazZ (top left), my g.f. (top right) and myself in action!! You may notice the unfinished pizza and beer in the pic with my g.f. in it.

Change of Management at Lustre Lounge

Heard that the manager of Lustre Lounge will be leaving next month. The bouncers (also owners) will be taking over the management. This means I can play a bit more of what I like!

Future DJ

Competed at the future DJ competition held at RMIT. Had no chance of winning since the winners had much more experience than I had. The winner -- DJ Flux was really good. He was a scratch DJ. Looked like he had at least 5 years experience. He went on to the state finals which will be held on 8th October. I'll hopefully have better luck next year :-P

Sony MDR V250V headphones

Bought a pair of Sony MDR V250V headphones after realising that the time is up for my (cheap) Philips headphones. The Sony has everything I needed; it had rotating speakers, was lightweight, compact, and cheap ($50 after bargain)! I'm not sure if the Sony speakers lying on my ears rather than covering them would cause difficulty when I play for 4 hours or more at a stretch though. I chose the Sony over a Senheisser HD 212 which went for $100 (after discount from $115). The only possible advantage the Senheisser could have had is better sound quality (which for me is not that important when beatmatching on headphones), since the Sony is more compact and versatile and black in color (which I preferred over the silver Senheisser).