DJing woes

Sweet

See, what everyone's missing COMPLETELY here is the unwritten rules of how to run every nightclub on Earth:

There are no "types" of nightclub. If there is a place that has a bar, and a sound system, and someone to play records, they are obliged to play Top 40 records (otherwise known as "dance music" ) and possibly the occasional power ballad.

The only exception to this rule is for nightclubs that play popular hip-hop/R+B. In this case, the DJ is obliged to play only songs currently in top rotation on local top 40 and urban radio, with the occasional "underground" remixes of said songs for variety's sake.

Any DJ caught violating these guidelines is either uninformed as to how to run a nightclub, or is simply being a total dick for his/her own ego-gratification. Symptoms of this syndrome include any and all varieties of house, trance, drum and bass, breakbeats above 110 BPM (collectively known as "techno" or "rave music" ) or reggae/dancehall not currently in radio rotation.

Any patron who finds a DJ violating these guidelines is obliged, nay, REQUIRED, to sit the DJ down, explain the rules and get the party started properly. Exemptions may be made for "techno" remixes of Top 40 songs; however, any patron wishing instead to hear the "real" version of said song may demand that the DJ stop the remixed record and play the original version in its stead.

Any patron found DANCING to music which does not fall within these guidelines is clearly on drugs, and should be removed from the venue posthaste, so as to make room on the dancefloor for those wishing to dance to "regular" music.

Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.

Speaking of which, I will be DJing and VJing tomorrow at the Newport Film Festival afterparty.

http://www.newportbeachfilmfest.com/Email/outreach_2006/youth.htm

New sketch

This time, for the girls.

I'm definitely going for a more "casual future" style. A lot of "Mr Fusion" references. Still huge influence by HTK, I can't seem to shake him. I've noticed that his stuff is very "medieval future", where he mixes archaic dress and rennaisance era styles with very future tech and angles. I think that's what gives him his look. I'm not sure if I want to approach that rennaisance angle much... I don't think I can pull it off right.

The power mod

A non-clothing-design post:

You know, desperation can be a great asset, especially when you lack the means and knowhow to fix something, however you MUST GET IT FIXED.

My Toshiba tablet PC has been victim to a poorly built power adapter cable. When symptoms first appeared, I thought there were problems with my batteries or with (heaven forbid) the laptop power connection, since it stopped charging altogether for a brief period of time.

This symptom came and went, and I just ignored it for the most part, thinking it might be some kind of glitch with my laptop.

Unfortunately for the past few weeks, the problem surfaced more and more often, so much so any slight shift in the power cable's position caused recharging to stop. My intuition suggested that something in the wire was being mangled or worse yet, crossing.

This morning was the day that it finally gave out, and decided to not charge my laptop indefinitely. That was a big problem, since my only source of internet was this laptop, not to mention my project files. I shut off the laptop just as a precaution (in case I need emergency power to boot it up and transfer something off of it), and began fiddling with the wire for half a day.

By 7:30pm I've already pondered all the possible ways I could rectify the situation. I could go online with the remaining power and order a replacement. This was such a poor option, since delivery to my apartment is problematic, and that the replacement adapter itself is 75 bucks (!!!).

Inspired by Nimoy's power adapter contraption, and self-assured that my waranty had gave out long ago, I decided to "man-up" and let the wire under the knife.

So, about four hours later, this is the result. And yes, it works!


Since I had no proper tools to perform this operation, I was forced to improvise. My tools were: nail clipper (does wonders for wire stripping!) a butter knife, and some pins. At one point I also used a vegetable knife, but it didn't help too much.





Here are the remains of the original power plug head, chewed to bits by my nails and my nail-clippers. Some form of irony to be found, there? I don't know.

What happened was, deep in the core of the plug head, where the hot wire gets near the ground to meet with the plug head, the hot wire's coating had been pulled back, revealing it to the other wire and causing a short. There were burn marks on the wires as well as the plastic/rubbery material surrounding it. When a short happens, a tiny beeping noise comes out of the power adapter. Interesting.

So the fix was simple. I stripped the entire plug head down, as well as enough wire from the end. I seperated the wires from each other (the ground was wrapped in a cork-screw shape around the main, seperated by a layer of wire skin whatever you call it). Then I wrapped each with electrical wire so they don't have a chance of crossing. Easy enough. The hardest part was digging through that plug head, which was hard as rock (hence me pulling out the vegetable knife!)

Alas, I might as well make it into a mod. I'm considering sewing stuff around it and making it 'decor'. Yomsain?

Black Cat Motif

It's about 5:30 in the morning and here I am sketching out designs.

That's a good sign, isn't it? Afterall, I did end a multiplayer session of Civ IV to do this.

Here are some new sketches for your eyes.






Some notes:

The top design is based off of a vest that I currently already have in stock. I'm trying to come up with many variaions before I settle.

However, hitting some creativity blocks, I started doing some writing, as well as looking around for some inspiring designs. Namely, my biggest current influence is Hyung Tae Kim as well as this japanese clothing online store.

I realized I needed a theme for this collection, several motifs and color schemes. I broke it down as follows:

Motif: Cats. Creatures of the night.
Colors: Black + Green/Blue/Red/White lines and patterns
Theme: Clothing that transform human beings +
prints on fabric
the heavy use of zippers as "teeth"
Images: Night clouds. Moon (sparingly). Tails. Teeth. Knives.
Words: Ferocious. Quick/Swift. Night. Unrelenting.

Also I realize that yes, some designs would be too difficult to produce. However there are two schools of thought from which one can apply concept design:

Concept design from bottom up: Disregard all technical challenges and figure it out along the way, making changes as needed.

Concept design from top down: Clothing design must reflect practical ways of fashioning material, fabrics, etc.

The second technique is far more professional, however I don't have the technical knowledge right now. I have visions and inspirations, and to me that is currently more important. I'm sure I'll figure the stuff out and learn the technical side as I explore the possibility space.

Clothing Design

This month my focus is clothing design. I believe this will take the majority of my focus, and might as well bleed into the following months. Today I've engaged the local Barnes 'n' Noble for a book-hunt. Above are the books I have purchased, from left to right:

"Fadings
Graffiti to Design, Illustration, and More. 24 Profiles".
I had to have it when I saw it. What can I say? I am an art-book whore. If you've ever been to my place, you know that the first thing you see as you enter the door is a bookshelf filled with the stuff.

"Fashion Design by Sue Jenkyn Jones"
An EXCELLENT book that covers everything about fashion design, from clothing design historical context, the craft of sewing and choosing the right fabric, design principles, color choice, style, producing a collection, and all the way down to finding employment in this field, as well as a list of recommended resources.

"Inspirability
40 Top designers speak out about what inspires."
This book is just what I need at the moment, finding out what inspires others and how to motivate myself to do more design-related work.

And on the top right, a book I already have "Fruits". A photobook from Phaidon that documents the extreme liberal fashion sense in a city in Japan.

I also want to share a bit of sketches I've been doing.





For now, all male clothing designs will be for myself (and some of my friends). They will have a more hip-hop sensibility that merges with a "Heavy Red" style of gothic flavor. The colors will be mostly blacks as a base and sharp and distinct lines of bright greens and reds.

For female clothing I will be photographing all of the work on either friends or models (if you know any who would do shoots for free for their portfolio, let me know!) and simply giving the stuff away at the end. Possibly keep a few for myself, too (for portfolio purposes, you sick bastards).

My approach will be a mix of things I make from scratch as well modifying things I find in thrift stores (this is EXTREMELY helpful for a newbie such as myself..). Also, I'm thinking of attending some evening classes for sewing and other technical knowledge. If you guys know of anything you can recommend, please let me know :)