I heard Tony Touch play before, and I was impressed. But last night when I heard him...
I heard Tony Touch play before, and I was impressed. But last night when I heard
him...
I learned the importance of diversity. Clearly I'm no critic of DJ's but I can
appreciate a DJ that can fluently play different genre's. But let me start from
the beginning.....
Last Friday I get an email saying that Louie Vega & Tony Touch were playing
together in New York State. There was an email address provided to RSVP. Now
already I'm interested because my man Louie is rocking and the party starts at
3pm. An it feels kind of exclusive. RSVP and all. And it's nice and early(y'all
know I'm old. Shut up!)
Anyway, I thought I'd surprise Louie and show up.
So after sending an email I get a response from a guy that I don't know. It read
"Hey Josh. Here is the address....."
So now I'm confused. Is this a house party? Club? What is this?? So I hit the
guy back... "Should I bring something? What time does it start? Is this a house
party or a club?"
So he responds, "Bring whatever, ice, beer..."
Now I'm thinking that this is probably going to be nice. Louie Vega and Tony
Touch dj'ing at a cats house! After driving for 2 hours we(Gloria and myself)
pull up to the place where the GPS led us. A friggin gated community. Not the
gated communities that have been built in the last 10 or so years, all
fabricated. This is an old gated community that millionares live in. Houses made
with stone, brick, mahogany, and glass. Not plywood, glue, some nails and
siding. No. This is the Beverly Hills of NY state.
Two security guards on duty. One asks for my name. And he sure nuff had a clip
board with names on it. So we gain entry. As soon as the car went through the
gate I notice the shrubbery. Impeccable. It looked like the gardener just left.
Beautiful. It was at that moment that Gloria asked, "Are you sure we're not
under dressed?"
I mean the houses looked as though the cheapest one started at $1,000,000. Crazy
architecture. Rounded driveways, sunrooms, elevated sumporches, wrap around
porches, paved and custom designed walkways. WEALTH was everywhere. I'm
accustomed to seeing a Benz or some fancy car. But I'm so out of my league at
this point that I was wondering "Do I have any warrants? Is my license
straight?" Cause if anything jumps off out here, y'all know I'm the big, black
dude. "He must have done something, get em!" I'm just saying. The cops would
know right away that I'm from way out of town. LOL!
After a short drive we begin to hear music and see cars parked everywhere. You
know you're at a rich persons home when at their house party they hire a valet
service! Let's be clear. I'm waiting to run into Bill Gates at any moment. I'm
almost uncomfortable. I've been around the world a few times. But never have I
been in someone's home who is this wealthy. We enter in the driveway and the
homeowner has my dream car sitting there getting washed. A 1972 Cadillac
Eldorado!!!! Whew!!!! Cleeeeeaaaannnn. I didn't want to be uncool, or a nerd and
react like a little girl. But let's just say I started skipping, and sang a made
up, happy song, while flailing my arms. A few steps away was this sports bike
all tricked out with a fat 300 wheel in the back. Dope. We saw these two women
coming in and before we got to the house, still in the driveway, they say "Have
you seen the Porta Potty? Oh God. You have to see the Porta Potty!" I assure
you. I've never been more excited to see a Porta Potty in my entire life. It
looked like a mini trailer. It had wheels and steps. It sat up high so you had
to walk up the small staircase provided to get in.
It was more of a portable bathroom. One side was for women and the other for
men. It had lighting, and air conditioning. Wood paneling and tiles on the
floor. This looked better than some apartments I've seen. The sink was so clean
that I thought about drinking some of the water. I'm not even in the dudes house
yet. I enter in from the driveway to the backyard. I like that. He kept the bulk
of the party outside in the backyard. Everything you needed was there. He had a
small pond filled with Coy fish. A little bridge to walk over the pond. On the
other side of the yard there was a heated pool. There was a beautiful bar with
two bartenders. Now I'm thinking, "Who is this guy?????"
The party is being catered by some Spanish women who not only cooked amazing
authentic Spanish food, but they doubled as the clean up crew and they were on
the grill cooking burgers and hot dogs. Now this blog would not be truthful if I
didn't mention the ladies. To all my male readers, if you're reading this let me
tell you, the ladies were sure nuff there. Whenever money and power are
together, you better know the ladies are going to be there. But here's the
clincher, I'm noticing a lot of body building brothers in the house. Muscles
were everywhere. I'm actually feeling a little inspired. I don't need to look
like Mr. Olympia but a nice physique would be nice. So I say to Gloria,
"Gloria.. You see this brother right here.. I want to look like that." Now I
don't know if I just opened a can of worms, or was this the opportunity that
she's been waiting on, but Gloria became someone else for about 7 whole minutes.
I'm thinking, "Did I just make a mistake by telling her that?" She turns to me
and says "I'm not gonna lie. THAT MAN IS ATTRACTIVE."
And I swear she took a tall glass of him when he back around!! And to top it
off, she pointed out another cat and said "Now he has the perfect body for me."
Of course I needed to see why she was so taken. So I look at the first guy
again. Hard. Now listen to me clearly, I think I was gay for 1 minute. This
brother was at least 6'5. Muscles but not steroids. A deep Chocolate complexion,
no facial hair. Soft eyes, stylish Mohawk. Kinda soft curly hair. I'm thinking
to myself, I've really got to get in the gym. This brother looks like a walking
magazine cover. LOL. What really stung was that he could have been 30-31. Young
dude. Damn. And here I am, stomach all big. My navel touching my scrotum.
LOL!!!!!
Oh well. But anyway, after I regained my security I parlayed with some friends
that came, Mayra, Dwayne, Barkan, Minea, Christian G and his new wife and the
Long Island crew, Jerard and his family, Brazen & Lamar, Frankie Estevez & his
wife, and a few others. I'm starting to feel really comfortable. Some of my
people must have received the same email. Cool. Now it's a party. I introduce
myself to the owner who was very cool. No attitude or weird vibe. And
parenthetically, let me say this. People that have money, hardly ever act like
they're better than you. It's usually their friends that have no money with the
attitudes.
Anyway, Tony arrives and starts to play. I respected his set. I'm a house music
cat when I'm in this setting. I love all kinds of music and can vibe with it.
But when I'm in a setting like this club/house/classics is what I want to hear.
Tony was able to rock hip hop, reggae, house and a little r&b and still keep the
crowd interested. Gotta respect that. Louie arrived about 7pm. He got on at 8.
I'm always impressed at his professionalism and skill. It's nice to see. I look
at him and say to myself, "This dude is very very much down to earth and a
Grammy Award winner." Yet he's playing at a backyard cookout, chilling with
everybody, snapping photos, and everything. I don't take my relationships for
granted. In my mind everybody is special in their own way. Some people have
special things about them that we can see, while others are changing lives for
the good and never thanked. For example, I'm hearing records being played
tonight that we all love. "I Can't Get No Sleep..... Your Touch Is Making Me
Weak..." Everybody was like "Oooooooooohhhh!" Right away, we know that's a
Masters At Work classic. But Steve Barkan, the engineer for that record was
sitting right there. He's the guy responsible for the quality of the sound of
that record. But that job is almost thankless. He goes unsung. My point is that
I'm grateful for my special friends and acquaintances.
So...anyway....
Louie is rocking some joints! The party is rocking, and Mr. Home Owners dog
comes out. A muscular blue Neopolitan Mastiff!! Talk about expensive taste. If
you're not familiar with Neopolitan Mastiffs, allow me to describe. Think
Pitbull but only beautiful and bigger. This dog body is grey. Head to toe. Well
groomed and very muscular. It looked like it takes steroids. What I love about
this scary animal is that it has the very opposite temperament of a Pitbull.
This is a gentle sweet dog.
So it's getting late. I do have a two hour drive on front of me. I'd better pack
it up. So I say goodbye to my people. I let Mr. Homeowner know that I enjoyed
myself and I thought I should go in the home and say bye to Louie. Well. Keep in
mind that I haven't stepped foot in this mans home yet. I've spent the entire
night in the backyard. When I go in the house it was as if I stepped in the
mall. The ceiling had to be at least 25 feet high. The lighting was beautiful.
This was wealth. Not riches but wealth. I really get it. Wow.
I get invitations via email and Facebook all of the time. At least 3 times a
week. I had no idea why I even bothered with this one. But after getting here
and seeing what I saw today, I believe it was inspiration that led me here. I'm
so inspired to do more music and even better music than I've been working on.
It's not necessarily about having material, but I'd like to have it and share it
with people like this guy did today. My guess is that from the Porta Potty to
the last hamburger, this guy spent at 10,000. While I was at the bar, one of his
friends was standing next to me. The bartender gives him a packaged bottle of
Blue Label. So I said "Nice!" and he replies "Oh yes, he does this for me
everytime."
My brother Moses and I are close. But I'm not buying him a $200 bottle of whisky
every time I have a party. That's wealth. I hope you too can be inspired from
this. Dreams can actually come true. This guy(Mr. Homeowner) certainly showed me
that.
P.S. I would have given you a blow by blow, but my phone died.. Next time..
