Stories - I Have Stories!

Being a deejay is almost like being a hidden camera.  You get to see things that most of the guests have no idea are going on in the background.  There are happy things, sad things, things that make you scratch your head.  And all you can do, basically, is sit and watch and keep the music going.  Let me give you some examples:

I was deejaying a very upscale wedding at a country club.  Everything was picture perfect.  However, weddings can be a strange dichotomy – bringing together two families.  But, sometimes you can also have one or both parents remarried (on both sides).  That makes a LOT of families coming together (and a lot of egos).  In this instance the father of the bride had recently married a woman just slightly older than his daughter.  A striking woman.  A head turner (I believe that term is still used?)  During the evening we had been requested to start a limbo line.  Most of the guests were partaking in this activity and having a great time.  Then I started noticing that a HUGE majority of the men were now standing in front of me, facing the limbo-ers coming under the pole AND THEY HAD BIG GRINS ON THEIR FACES.  Why could this be, I wondered?  I watched for a while and then found my answer.  Every time Dad’s new wife would approach the pole, she’d raise her cocktail dress higher.  And higher.  And higher.  She wasn’t wearing any underwear.  None.  Zippo.  Nada.  Good times. 

There was the time where our bride and groom did not want to cut the cake until after dinner (which is typical in most places).  Everyone was close to finishing their meals, and I decided to check with the banquet manager to make sure her staff would be ready to cut the cake.  Then I noticed there was no cake.  I wandered around.  I mean, how hard is it to lose a cake?  A big white one?  I meandered into the kitchen and found three kitchen staff members standing around it.  They were slicing it to serve it to he guests.  I brought to their attention that the bride and groom need to make the first slices.  Without saying a word, these women started fitting the cake back together - like a jigsaw puzzle – then using their fingers to smear the icing around the cut marks.  They brought the cake back out to the dining room and made sure to position the defaced portion of the cake into the corner.  No one was the wiser. 

Being the host of the party is an important one.  You want to make sure your guests are having a good time, and you want to make sure YOU are having a good time, as well.  John and I have always felt it important that, as the host, you should make sure your guests have a say in the music being played.  They feel a part of the festivities that way.  Yes, it is your day, but you need to think about them, also.  So… we end up with an event where our client wanted funk.  5 HOURS OF FUNK.  Now, you have to realize, I am a child of the 70s.  I love disco.  I love funk.  But 5 hours of non-stop funk?  We were funked out.  Two grandmothers approached us to play something else.  We tried.  We really did.  Half way through “Brown-eyed Girl” (their request, mind you), the hostess came over and told us we weren’t playing funk.  She wanted more funk.  *deep sigh*  All I can tell you was that on the way home, the only way I could come up with “de-funking” was to make John play some Barry Manilow on the car stereo.  (What, you think I’d make him listen to Lawrence Welk?)

So ends story time for today, kiddies.  Have fun out there.  And don’t overdo the funk! 

Videographers - A Thing Of The Past?

Well, are they?  I know throughout the 90s EVERYONE had a videographer for their wedding.  (I'm still being forced to watch my sister's when I visit her - and that was from 1990!) 

At the time, one of the big selling points of booking a videographer was that with photos you could see your Aunt Dot or Uncle Bob.  In videos you could watch them move and speak and dance.  As a young newlywed it may not really matter - but down the road as these loved ones would pass on (and you became older), you could play back the tape (or DVD) and truly remember them.

I can honestly say that in the past 3 years of deejaying weddings, I have seen hide nor hair of any videographers plying their trade. 

Are people just trying to cut costs?

Is it a locale thing?  (Do they still have videographers in larger metropolitan areas?)

Have people with android phones taken over? 

Have they just become extinct and unnecessary?

Over the years I worked with many who were great at what they did.  It was their chance to be artistic.  Leave behind a little piece of themselves in each "production."

I'd be curious to hear other readers' thoughts on this.  Did you have a videographer?  Why or why not?  Are you planning on using a videographer?

First Dances of Bride and Groom Thru The Ages

I don't know why I really wanted to delve into this - except I sometimes have an insatiable sense of curiousity (which, I am, sure will eventually lead to other postings - stay tuned). 

Just about anywhere you look on the internet, you can find music lists for the "perfect" first dance of a bride and groom.  Sure - it's "perfect" for now.  But what did brides and grooms consider "perfect" years ago?  So I decided to look.

In the 70s, the songs most likely to be played as a first dance were:

• The Long And Winding Road, by the Beatles (note to my groom getting married this June who LOVES the Beatles... Thoughts?  Hmmm?)
• You're My Best Friend, by Queen
• Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, by the Maestro of Love himself, Barry White (unattractive man with the sexiest voice I have ever heard.  He could read the phone book to me and I'd be content.)

In the 80s, you'd hear:

• Take My Breath Away, by Berlin
• Take On Me, by A Ha
• Lovesong, by The Cure

In the 90s, you'd see the couple swirling on the dance floor to:

• I'll Be, by Edwin McCain
• Vision of Love, by Mariah Carey
• Truly Madly Deeply, by Savage Garden (we played that one A LOT)

Interestingly, the one song that still remains a true favorite first dance is At Last, by Etta James.  The song originally was recorded in 1941 for a musical film.  Ms. James made it her signature song in 1961, and it has been played at weddings ever since.  (Point of reference:  since 1991, John and I have used this as a first dance 14 times.)

So, what was YOUR first  dance (and when).  Like I said in the beginning of this post - I'm just being curious.
 
(Personally?  I was married in 1982 and we danced to If, by Bread.  Why?  The band had no idea how to play much of anything else.) 

Trivia #1

I thought it would be nice to offer our followers a chance for discounts for upcoming parties- through trivia.  So here's the first one:

URMYSNG is a lyric set in a vanity plate.  You need to give me the EXACT lyric, where it's from and the artist.

The first three correct responders will receive $25 off any show they book in 2013.  Please do not put your answers here, though.  Send them to kaylynne@funtasticsound.com. 

Good luck!

Wow. A New Year

A new year brings new changes.  I've finally decided to step into the 21st century and start a blog for our deejay business.  Welcome to those reading this. 

Hopefully, throughout the course of this blog, you will get to know me (Kay Lynne), my partner Johnny V, and Funtastic Sound. 

Where to start?  [add psychedelic effects here as we tumble back in time]

I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi ... wait a sec ... that was Steve Martin in The Jerk.  Seriously, tho, I have had a love of music as long as I can remember.  At the age of three I was taking dance lessons - tap, ballet, jazz.  Doesn't matter.  At three it all looks the same.  To the parents and the audience. All we knew at three was that we needed to keep moving our feet and smiling.  When I was a bit older I would sit in the basement for hours and make up dance routines and lip sync to songs.  It didn't matter what it was:  James Brown, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the soundtrack to Mary Poppins.  I was the STAR! 

My parents taught me the honest-to-God love of music.  There were always great sounds floating through the house.  Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, Marvin, Smokey and the others mentioned above.  I have vivid memories of my mother in a short short mini skirt and go go boots doing the pony and mashed potato across the floor while my dad would pull up his pant legs and shimmy across the floor like the Godfather of Soul. 

The 60s turned into the 70s.  I was in High School during the time of Disco AND Rock.  You had a choice - sparkly dresses and high heels or jeans and layered shirts.  Didn't matter.  I could go from listening to the Bee Gees and Donna Summer to Queen and Foreigner.  I ate it up, enjoying each new sound as it came into existance.  (MTV?  MY GOD, it was like the second coming!)

Long story short.  I was at a dance club one night and watched a house deejay work the room.  He would stand behind his equipment and knew every single song that he played.  I would watch him - how the hell he knew the all the lyrics to "Make You Sweat" or "Strike it Up" I never knew.  I just knew I wanted to do what he was  doing.  I wanted to be able to command a  room full of people to get up and have a good time.  (Do you realize what kind of power you have when you can get the whitest boy in the room to get up and dance like he doesn't have a care?  THAT'S power!  LOL)

I saw an ad in the paper for a company that was looking for mobile deejays.  They would train you.  Give you equipment.  It was your job to entertain.  To make it look ... gulp ... easy.  That was 1991.  I've been doing it ever since.  (And, yes, I DO know every lyric to "Make You Sweat" and "Strike It Up".)  I can't imagine doing anything else.