Tsunami Fundraiser -- Pool Party!

Held a pool party as an effort to collect money for the Asian Boxing day Tsunami

Overall, the numbers at the pool party were very low, probably because many people bought tickets just as a donation, without having any intention of turning up! :-) Another reason could have been that it was not hot enough for an outdoor event.

However, with a total of 150 tickets sold before the event, and around 30 sold on the day, we have raised a total of AUD $2,700 for OXFAM! OXFAM will use this money for long term Tsunami Relief. The money was sent to OXFAM (can be confirmed by calling OXFAM Australia) and we're waiting for a receipt.

Despite the low numbers, the entertainment at the Pool Party was top of its class, with DJs playing a variety of tunes covering House, HipHop and even a mashup of Rock and HipHop! Thanks to Al Mac,LUKO, Dave Chestwig, Clint Hargreaves and JulesPLees for putting on an awesome display of skills!

Thanks also to the many volunteers, without whom we would not have sold all those tickets (and without whom there would not have beena BBQ!). The volunteers who made this fundraiser possible were; Dronan Atkins, Lasantha de Silva, Valerie Raffa, Nuwan Malawara Arachchi, Gaya Jayatilleke, Suranga Hewagamage, Tharanga Madurapperuma, Sheilina Geerdharry, Asiri Wanigarathne, Sanjay Reddy, Dakshika Nawaratne, Sanjaya Wickramasinghe, Thish Muthukudaara, Hashan Kodituwakku, Nalaka Gooneratne, Claire Barratt, Ivan, Nayoma, Angelika Widjaja, Nadhi Jayatilleke, Alex Mckenzie, Clint Hargreaves and Dave Chestwig.

A big thank you to all our sponsors who provided us with much needed resources and facilities. Bar Altitude allowed free entry for the Afterparty and gave us funds for the event, YMCA gave us free useof their pool area, the Leader Community Newspaper gave us free advertising space on their newspaper, X-Treme Entertainment gave us all the DJ equipment for free, Lustre Lounge gave us funds for theevent as well as a free glass of champagne for everyone with a ticket, DRUIDS Cafe and Bar gave us two large platters with cakes and nibblesfor free and Village Curry House gave us a platter full of Samosas for free.

Thanks also to JB HiFi for giving us many DVDs to give away as prizes, and Fox FM for letting us advertise the fundraiser on their website.

Last but not least, thanks to the two bouncers, life guards for theirhelp and entertainment, James Phung for helping with poster design and a huge thank you to everyone involved in making this a fun and charitable event! :-)

RMIT CS and IT Orientation Again!

Played for RMIT CS/IT Orientation again. Not many people turned up and I turned up late (had to pick up the dex/mixer/speakers after 12 pm and the BBQ started at 12.30 :-/ ). I was also struggling a bit with the DJM100's (cueing is a bit funny in those compared to the CD dex I'm used to). Managed to get things working but not a large turn-up and I ended up playing only for about an hour. Most of those who turned up were Asians so they wouldn't have enjoyed the commercial house I was playing either! :-/

Engagement @ Lustre Lounge

Played at a private function at Lustre for an engagement. Luckily they were not too fussed about the music! Played about 20 mins of 80's in the beginning, and when it looked like they weren't enjoying it, switched to HipHop for a while, played House for a while and due to popular demand, had to switch back to HipHop. Overall it was a fun night and they were very satisfied with the music.

No More Saturday Nights @ Lustre!

Heard from LustreLounge that they will not have their usual Saturday nights anymore!! This means I will only be playing at private functions! This gives me a bit of space to try out some other venues and concentrate on my PhD :->

House Music in Cairns

Went around looking for some good clubs/bars/pubs for House music in Cairns. Found a place called "Inbox Cafe" where the DJ (Psytron) was playing some funky, deep house tunes. Stayed there for about an hour. Nice setup consisting of Technics 1210's and a few Yamaha speakers going around the bar. It was an internet cafe + bar + cafe with some friendly staff. The day before I left for Melbourne we went to a nightclub called 1936. The resident DJ was playing a combination of RnB and Commercial House (my my my, push up, four to the floor, like a prayer etc.). The PA system there was amazing!! Some of the lights were controlled by the DJ but the smoke machines kept going on and off -- not sure who controlled those or whether they were timed. Had a drink and headed back to the hotel to leave for Melbourne the next morning :-(

Replacement @ Lustre Lounge

Had another DJ replace me at Lustre because I had to go to Cairns for a week. There was an engagement party on at Lustre on the night and they absolutely needed a good DJ that plays 70's 80's funk based music! I'm lucky I wasn't playing. Looks like he played some good music, met most requests, and had some fun doing it. He was a bit surprised that there weren't any 'monitor' speakers to listen to yourself mix more closely and recommended it to the bar staff. Hope they consider it :-)

Technics 1200

Bought a Technics 1200mkII !! Cost me $500 which was a pretty good price for a second hand turntable less than a year old and in perfect condition. The dude had put up the advertisement up on inthemix.com.au and he was nice enough to drop it off. Have to buy one more turntable but one will do for now. I think my parents are planning to buy me the second one for Christmas woohoo! Hmm better not get my hopes up :-/

DJing on PC

I just found that I had installed my first software for DJying -- PCDJ Red Demo, on 9th Dec. 2001 and Mixmeister 2 weeks later, both on my laptop.

At this time I was, practically (although not officially) living with a bunch of guys (a.k.a. the "The Howse of Da Boyz"). All I did those days was come home after Uni., chat, get my compulsory two hours of advice for the day (I was going through a break-up) and have an in-house DJ Competition with housemates; DJ Enveen (a.k.a. Naveen R.) and DJ CJ (a.k.a. MCJ/Chandaka). Newtana (Nuwan M.) would be the judge and pick one of us as the champ for the night.

Come to think of it, I never actually won, so these guys would have been better DJs than me if they took DJing seriously!! They were doing all sorts of fancy tricks like loops and beat matching. Despite the lag on my 300 Mhz laptop, their mixes actually didn't sound too awful. Hmm I wonder if they're reading this post. Just to make sure they do, I'll repeat their names so Mr. Google indexes this post.

Here we go: Naveen Ruwanpura met Chandaka Fernando on Nuwan Malawara Arachchi, so Chandaka Fernando had to make sure that Naveen Ruwanpura doesn't drink too much water, or else Nuwan Malawara Arachchi would need to have a shower, since Naveen Ruwanpura would do the number one on Nuwan Malawara Arachchi. Chandaka Fernando would then have to be blamed on Naveen Ruwanpura's behalf, and to be even, Nuwan Malawara Arachchi would have to do the number two on Chandaka Fernando while Naveen Ruwanpura cleans himself up.

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.