January 2010 « La Jolla DJs [Blog]

Archive: January, 2010

Bernardo Heights MS – Gym Dance

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Last night I had the pleasure of DJing and MCing my second school dance at Bernardo Heights Middle School and I had an absolute blast! From the moment I walked in the ASB kids were so welcoming and complimented me on “being on time” which they were apparently not accustomed to with the DJ they had before they hired us. I took a little video of my setup which consisted of 2 powered Mackie speakers, a B52 sub and some dance floor lighting. The kids brought in some black lights that I helped them set up and together with the dance floor lighting, it made the room really pop. Once the dance began at 5pm, the kids pretty much rushed in and started socializing and filling up the room nicely. I did a great deal of mixing in the beginning to get the kids warmed up, playing very popular hits such as “Replay” by Iyaz, “Hard” by Rihanna and “Tie Me Down” by New Boyz. Once they got ready, I had them all come to the front and I kicked off the party with the most appropriate song to start a dance “Party In The USA” by Miley Cyrus. The sounds of 300 middle-school kids singing at the top of their lungs was deafening and music to my ears all at the same time. I played more hits as the night went on and also let the kids know that they could request songs all night long as well. At that point, a stampede began and every 3 seconds a kid would come up to me asking to hear their favorite song. With the exception of the two boys coming up over and over again requesting every single song by Coldplay they could think of, I was planning on playing most of the songs the kids requested. The next big highlight came when I played a squeaky clean version of the current #1 song in the country, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. I wanted to save it for later and build up to it, but I was afraid a riot would break out if I didn’t play it when I did because of all the requests I got for it. As expected, the song was a huge smash and easily the most popular song of the night.

But what would a school dance be without a great line dance? Who would have thought that a 13 year-old song which was released when most of these kids weren’t even born, would receive such a huge response? The kids loved the “Cha Cha Slide” by DJ Casper and I even jumped out there along with the school’s principal and danced with the kids. I then decided to push the envelope a little and I separated the kids by splitting the dance floor down the middle. I named the kids on the left “Bernardo” and the kids on the right “Heights” and went back and forth to see which side could be the loudest in a screaming contest. When it was over I couldn’t decide which side was loudest, so I brought them both together and had them make some noise together. At that point, I lost my hearing.

Other highlights throughout the night were Lady GaGa’s smash hit “Bad Romance” which is currently the #2 song in the country. And you can never go wrong when you play Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” for a middle school crowd. They sing the song so loud and word-for-word you start to believe that they wrote it.

I decided to end the dance with two of the most popular songs of the night so that the kids who got there late could hear these songs too. So I ended the night by replaying the most popular song of the night (and in America) “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha followed by “Party In The USA” by Miley Cyrus again. That’s the great thing about kids of this age; you can play a song over and over again and they rarely get sick of it. And with that, the dance was over. I spent the final few minutes of the dance getting high-fives and fist bumps from the kids as they exited the gymnasium followed by smiles all around from the parents and teachers. But all the “thank you’s” in the world couldn’t compare to the joy I felt by being able to assist in these kids having a good time last night. And watching them have fun made me have fun as well. I’m looking forward to returning to Bernardo Heights Middle School in May for their next dance and I think next time I’ll bring some ear plugs.

Tags: event photos, middle school dance, Video Clip
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SETH AND AIMEE SPROUL’S WEDDING – THE RITZ CARLTON, LAGUNA NIGUEL

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

I made my first (and hopefully not last) visit to The Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel to DJ/MC the reception of Seth Sproul and Aimee Alarcon on January 2nd. They couldn’t have picked a more perfect place to get married, the view from the ballroom was breathtaking and the decor inside the room was gorgeous. The linens, provided by Fusion Linen, perfectly complemented the flowers (provided by Elegant by Design) on the guest tables and cake table.

Eryin Choi and the staff from The Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel was very helpful in making sure I had what I needed for set up and they also provided the beautiful cake and the up-lighting around the room. Once the reception began, the videographer Daniel Boswell of dvArtistry and Michael Svoboda from True Photography, did an excellent job of capturing every moment of the events throughout the event.

I was honored to work alongside Lisa Moon of Lisa Moon Events throughout the afternoon and she was a very competent coordinator and a joy to work with.

Aimee decided to have a special Bridal Party dance to kick off the first dance set and chose “Como Ves” by Ozomatli. Halfway through the song I invited the rest of the guests to join the Bridal Party on the dance floor and playing off of the energy from that song, I mixed in “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas. That caused a huge reaction from the crowd as they danced and sang every lyric from the song. From there on out it was all about me since the bride and groom didn’t submit a request list beforehand because they were confident that I could handle it on my own, and handle it I did. With the exception of the bouquet toss, garter removal and toss and same-day video montage prepared by Daniel Boswell, I kept the floor packed the entire night playing everything from Top 40, 80′s and 90′s music.

One of the highlights of the evening was Seth requesting “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond even though Aimee had vetoed that song previously. So before I played it I asked Seth and Aimee to come to the middle of the dance floor and instructed everyone to create a circle around them and sing it to them. The song was a huge success and Aimee seemed to enjoy it even more than Seth did!

I ended the evening with “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey and got out on the floor and got everyone holding hands in a circle with the Bride and Groom in the middle again. I probably could have gotten away with playing the instrumental of the song with how loud and verbatim everyone was singing the song.

Every feature went off without a hitch and Seth and Aimee seemed very pleased with the way things went. Seth told me that his sister commented that she was happy to go to a wedding where the DJ was good and played good music, and that put a smile on my face. I had an amazing time and hope that I was able to provide the couple with the reception they had always dreamed of.