dj zak brown

Please go to Ceasefore Campaign and sign the petition. No matter where you stand on these issues, it's time for the bombs to stop falling in Lebanon and Israel.

It has been said that those who cannot do, teach. :)

My great friend Ali Lexa who happens to be the webmaster at LA's KPFK 90.7 invited me to fill in for another DJ named Kristi Lomax who has a show called Restless Soul. I'm a frequent listener of that station so I was very excited. I called up my good pal DJ Wolfie to join me. Can't play a radio gig without a posse can you?

The best thing about the gig was that the cool folks in the control room were dancing and laughing as we played. It's so much more fun to play when people are dancing. It's an obvious point, I know, but it makes a big difference.

It was fun to do the little interviews. It's no secret that I like the sound of my own voice, so it was fun to have the chance to put it out in the ether. We also had a chance to plug our upcoming Hipgenesis event. I'd love to see some people from KPFK's audience make it.

You can download the whole thing here. The levels are all over the place in the recording, the problem was that we were monitoring the signal going out over the air rather than a signal off of our mixer. So when the engineer would lower the level to compensate for a hot signal coming out of the DJ mixer the monitor would get quieter. Which would make us raise the level on the mixer without thinking about it. Which would make the engineer lower the level... repeat. There's a section where one of the channels has dropped out as well, an issue between the two boards again, but it was fixed pretty quick. It sounds alright overall though. Except for Wolfie's trainwrecks.

While I certainly consider myself more a Ninja than a Pirate. I find that neither really suits me that well. I think it's time for a third catagory. Let's consider some other options:


Cowboys: Billy the Kid, Wyatt Erp, Anyone Clint Eastwood played, Cowboy Curtis, Ennis, Yosemite Sam.


Pros: No gayer than Pirates. Known to carry a 6-shooter. Ponies! They've got a good call, "Yeeeeeeehaw!" All American. Lots of great lines. Costuming is easy. Killing Indians.


Cons: Gender specific. Western stuff is out, way out. The Indian lobby. All American. Saddles Sores easily mistaken for herpes. Stinky. George W. Bush.


Astronauts/Space Explorers: Han Solo, Eric Larson, Luke Skywalker, Flash Gordon, Buck Rodgers, Barbarella, Captain Eo


Pros: SPACE! Light Sabres. Killing Aliens. Gender Neutral. 0 Gravity sex. Freeze Dried Ice Cream. Dark Side of the Moon.


Cons: 0 Gravity atrophy. Bulky Costumes. Someone might film you with your Light Sabre. Space Herpes. Trekkies. The Alien Lobby.


Spies: James Bond, Austin Powers, Boris and Natasha, The Avengers, Agent Cody Banks


Pros: Sexual Infiltraion. Gadgets. English Accent. Martinis. License to Kill. Classy and Smooth. Nice Tuxedo. Sweet car.


Cons: You'd never be able to say what you were, you'd just look like you just came from a wedding. Nemsis'. People keep blowing up your car. English Accent.


UPDATE: This has been brought to my attention. A very important point, but one that makes me feel even stronger that there must be more heroic archetypes out there.


UPDATE II: Bears: Smokey, Yogi, Fozzie, Baloo, Winnie the Pooh, Andrew Sullivan.


Pros: Honey. Fur. Admired in California and Berlin. No one calls you a fag and gets away with it. Hibernation. Taoism. Pickinik Baskets. Fish. Cuddling.


Cons: Can be smelly. Conan O'Brian. Steven Colbert. Hibernation. Obsessed with food.

Check this out.



I don't often talk about politics here, but I probably will more and more as time goes on.



My only thought on this matter is about the soul of Israel. I consider myself to be someone who has an interest in both the Israeli people and their Arab neighbors. My step-father is a Jordanian immigrant with roots in Palestine and many people close to me have roots in Israel. When I see pictures and accounts of the recent fighting I can relate to everyone involved. I've been trying to imagine what would lead me take children to write messages on shells meant to be fired across a border. I think it would take a complete lack of empathy for the other side, it would require me to dehumanize them. If that's possible, it's possible to inflict any horror upon someone. I understand that land is worth your life, but is it worth your soul?



Of course the same should be asked of those on the northern side of the border as well.

This is all I have to say about LIB for now:


More later.

I know I always say this, but that was seriously one of the most fun parties I've ever been to.


The system was setup close to the water so you could listen to a mix of the waves and the music. The dancefloor was full of people cutting loose. All of my friends got CRA-Z, I saw a lot of things out of my friends that I never expected to see.


The music was all around very good, lots of breaks (the good, funky kind) and house. I had a great set on Friday night to get things going.


The party was very well organized, the promoter DJ Blue from San Diego as well as Ninja Skillz did a great job taking care of everything and making sure that we were left alone.


The water and the sky was beautiful the whole time. The weather was balmy.


I'm so excited to do it again, I'm going to help organize the next one.