Sunday, 29 August 2010 21:24
Muema
110 Reads Music
FAT BEATS, a hub for hip-hop vinyl since 1994, is becoming another chapter in the story of the death of record stores big and small. Fat Beats’ stores at 406 Avenue of the Americas and in Los Angeles are closing; its e-commerce Web site, music-distribution business and Brooklyn-based record label will continue. James Heinz, 27, an assistant manager who goes by the name J57 in the hip-hop group Brown Bag AllStars, said that since about 2007, fewer and fewer record collectors had climbed the crooked, graffiti-streaked flight of stairs to browse the bins at Fat Beats or gaze at the hundreds of autographed pictures lining its walls and ceiling. Pointing to a stack of albums by Nas, Common and D. J. Premier, Mr. Heinz said, “It’s easy to get a lot of this classic stuff online now.” He said that what he and his customers would miss the most were the “in-stores,” live appearances by up-and-coming stars. “In 1998, Eminem came here when he launched ‘Slim Shady,’ and there was a line wrapping around the block and back again,” he recalled. “It was epic.”
Sunday, 29 August 2010 21:17
Muema
102 Reads Music
UT a hollow, silver flashing cube atop a mountain of sand five miles north of Saudi Arabia two weeks before Ramadan, and you certainly win originality points for a dance space.
It’s a site that a month ago was nothing but empty sand. In a few years it will be an 18-hole golf course. But on July 29 it was home to Distant Heat, a nighttime marathon of electronic dance music in a Red Sea setting to impress even the most jaded concertgoer.
The trendy Meatpacking District nightclub where the underage daughter of a US ambassador partied before plunging to her death from a Midtown apartment will be the focus of a criminal probe by the Manhattan DA's Office, sources told The Post.
Investigators plan to interview owners, bartenders, cocktail waitresses and bouncers about how Nicole John, 17, was allowed entry to the hotspot with a bogus ID and what she did while inside the club on Little West 12th Street.
Potential criminal charges could range from a misdemeanor, serving alcohol to a minor, up to the more serious, although unlikely, felony charge of involuntary manslaughter, said a law-enforcement source.
Born and raised in Newark New Jersey, I began deejaying at the age of 17 and later developed my skills as a mobile deejay. After 6 years, I left the Mobile business behind and simply assumed the role of a bedroom deejay. Even in that role, I never sacrificed the quality of my selections or gave up hope that I'd return to the deejay arena but in another capacity. I tailors my sets to listeners and dancers and firmly believe, they always come first. Heavily influenced by many musical genres such as Latin, Disco, Jazz, R & B and House music, my goal is to captivate the audience with a smooth blend of vocals, rhythms and beats. In 2005, I returned to deejaying but as a promoter/freelance club deejay, spinning Club Classics, Deep, Afro, Soulful and Tech House music. Having admiration for deejays such as Tony Humphries, Timmy Regisford, Merlin Bobb and Louie Vega, I always desired to enter the dance/club scene. Currently, I host a weekly internet radio show and have played several New Jersey club/party venues for organizations such as ThinkSoul, Humble Beginnings, Club Elevation, Exact Nature Party, Eclectic Entertainment Group, Axiom Studios, Perle and Sapphire NYC. During this musical journey, I've shared the decks with several deejays such as Teddy Douglas, Louie Lou Gorbea, Adam Cruz, Omar Abdallah, Esteban Fernandez, Duce Martinez, Bobby Morales, Joey Mazza, DJ Mann, DJ Sweet, Rob Lewis and Franky Hows. If my musical journey ended tomorrow, I'd still consider myself very fortunate to have shared the gift of music. It's truly been a dream come true...
This is the story of a man, Richard Grant, and his creation, a love story between a nightclub and its patrons, a story of abuse of power, persecution and a man denied his most basic human rights. It is a personal story of love and loss and death, a story of a homosexual man who survived and flourished in an intolerant society. It is a story about betrayal and treachery. It is a story of the survival and triumph and eventual redemption of a complicated man with a complicated past. Eventually charged with five felonies, stripped of his business, arrested and incarcerated, we will follow him through his trial, imprisonment and acquittal. The audience is left to judge for themselves if this man should ever have been charged with a crime and to determine the motivation behind the governments expending of huge sums of taxpayer dollars in an effort to bring this man and his club down.
The driving force underlying this drama is the club itself, the music, the extravagant theme parties, the theatre, the costumes and the moments of greatness in this fifteen year odyssey. The movie going public will rise to their feet as they witness the exhilarating party scenes. They will discover for themselves that Soundfactory was a very different place, a source of lifelong friendships and love affairs that in time became marriages. Sex was casual and free and fellow partygoers were accepting and nonjudgmental.
To this very day “The Legend Lives” and we intend to make a film worthy of its fame.
