Gimme A Beat! PhDJ's 2009 Top 40

People often ask me (pictured above, taken by Craig Seymour) if the tracks that I spin when I DJ are songs that I love. That depends. I play requests. The management has their own. Plus, I play things for the bar staff--and for the dancers. I watch the crowd, too. If people respond to a certain kind of song, I play more of that. Still, some of those songs people expect or want to hear when they're out, I do love. I also slip some songs into my set that people generally didn't know about but would bop along to given the proper context. The PhDJ's 2009 Top 40 list I've compiled below represents both of those groups of songs. The list doesn't exactly represent what you heard when I spun this year because it charts only those songs (or new mixes of old songs) that impacted (often via blog) this year. So, the vast majority of all the Michael Jackson I've been playing--including the six hours of Michael I played the night he died--is not here. Also not here are the staples and crowd favorites that I played a lot before January. Also not here are any of the hip hop songs I've played. To keep the list somewhat manageable, I decided to stick to tracks close to each other in BPM. The order is in part based on the quality of the smile the track gave me and on the sheer number of times I played it this year. Here's Brian Mills (pictured below, from a fantastical F Word party this summer), who's all ears in anticipation.

PhDJ's 2009 Top 40 (mix name)

1. Lady Gaga, "LoveGame" (Space Cowboy remix/Chew Fu refix feat. Marilyn Manson)
2. Beyoncé, "Diva" (Whatever Whatever remix)
3. Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance" (Hercules and Love Affair remix/Chew Fu refix/PhDJ's revision)
4. Madonna, "Celebration" (Benny Benassi remix)
5. Whitney Houston, "Million Dollar Bill" (Frankie Knuckles Directors club & dub)
6. Beyoncé, "Broken-Hearted Girl" (Alan Braxe dub)
7. Ralph Falcon, "Whateva" (Peter Rauhofer remix)
8. Solange, "Would Have Been the One" (Red Top extended)
9. Beyoncé, "Ego" (OK DAC remix)
10. Britney Spears, "Circus" (Diplo remix)
11. Beyoncé, "Control"
12. Miami Horror, "Make You Mine"
13. Kings of Leon, "Use Somebody" (Dolby Anol remix)
14. David Guetta feat. Julie McKnight, "How Soon Is Now" (extended)
15. Drake feat. Trey Songz & Lil' Wayne, "Successful" (PhDJ revision)
16. La Roux, "Bulletproof" (iamxl remix)
17. The Xx, "Basic Space" (Astronomer remix)
18. Frankmusik, "Better Off As Two" (Justin Faust remix/Kissy Sell Out remix)
19. Peaches, "Lose You" (Yuksek and Brodinski remix)
20. Calvin Harris, "I'm Not Alone" (Deadmau5 remix)
21. Grace Jones, "William's Blood" (Yam Who Cosmic Jam/Axwell's MD official bootleg)
22. La Roux, "In for the Kill" (Skream vs. Foamo remix/Heartbreak remix)
23. Prince, "Controversy" (Stupid Fresh remix)
24. Beyoncé, "Sweet Dreams" (Karmatronic club/Dave Spoon vocal)
25. Britney Spears, "If U Seek Amy" (Chew Fu Ghettohouse refix)
26. Pixie Lott, "Mama Do" (Linus Loves remix)
27. Erykah Badu, "Honey" (Guy Robin & DJ Leo Underground remix)
28. David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland, "When Love Takes Over"
29. Madonna, "Into the Groove" (Sticky & Sweet Studio version)
30. Chelley, "Took the Night"
31. Beyoncé, "Halo" (Ober remix/My Digital Enemy remix)
32. Janet Jackson, "Make Me" (radio edit/Ralphi's Martini mix)
33. The Presets, "This Boy's in Love" (Lifelike remix)
34. Michael Jackson, "Pretty Young Thing" (U-Tern edit)
35. The Ting Tings, "That's Not My Name" (LA Riots remix/Soul Seekerz club mix)
36. The Hours, "See the Light" (Calvin Harris remix)
37. Antony and the Johnsons, "Crazy in Love" (PhDJ's revision)
38. The Jackson 5, "Forever Came Today" (Frankie Knuckles' Directors Cut)
39. Kelis, "A Cappella"
40. Rihanna, "Hard" (Chew Fu refix)

Crazy in Love (PhDJ's paging you right now revision) by fantasticalPhDJ

The Law of Attraction

A camera is a magnet after dark in New York City. Because it attracts people arm in arm in cocktail so easily, its lens should be a chisel as much as it an optic. It should narrate more than document. Subjects in motion, even within the single frame, elicit the specificity of that night, that place.

A photographer is a character actor with few lines, there to support the stars within the frame, there to give them someone to react to, there to unravel the plot. A single glance from the star is the photographer's cue.

"Move in closer," the look says. The star is in his scene, hits his mark, reads his lines, glances back to the photographer to gauge when he should work the pole.

I couldn't help but think of painter Francis Bacon, whose images and words have been rummaging around in my head since seeing his Centenary Retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the summer and buying Michael Peppiatt's biography of as well as David Sylvester's collection of interviews with Bacon (links to the books are at the end of the post). Even in the exhibit shop, I chuckled while flipping through the preface of Peppiatt's biography, where he writes that he was always thrilled to meet Bacon at Reece Mews, "which was usually the first port of call for drinks in a trawl through restaurant, bar and club that would last until dawn." Bacon was the only one not stumbling; and he went to his studio to paint after a night out. Sure, I was at the start of my own trawl the Saturday night I took these pictures; but I was thinking of Bacon's admiration for the ambiguity, not the transparency, of photography as I shot my dancer of choice. As Bacon told Sylvester, he appreciated photography's "slight remove from fact, which returns me onto the fact more violently. Through the photographic image I find myself beginning to wander into the image and unlock what I think of as its reality more than I can by looking at it. And photographs are not only points of reference; they're often triggers of ideas."

I understood the point of reference, the person of reference, this dancer offered me. He didn't trigger someone else because he looked like him. I recognized and responded to this dancer's movement. Plus, our photographic tête-à-tête assuaged my momentary upset from paying a cover for an advertised open bar that nonetheless charged $1 for each plastic cup of well vodka mixed with Diet Coke. Oh, well. It was my best friend Craig Seymour's last night in New York last week; and this was but the first of four places we were headed. Next up was Splash to enjoy the VIP area at the back bar offering free Grey Goose cocktails while DJ Hex Hector spun. We stayed for a bit; then ventured down to Mr. Black, where I knew some of the kids would be, including Nancy Nosecandy and Herra C (both pictured below, left and right).

Also there were Demanda Dahling and DivaSteve (both pictured below, left and right). Craig and I danced off a couple rounds before heading over to The Cock to close the night out in the basement with Ernie Cote. I don't have any pictures of this leg of our night because what happens at The Cock stays at The Cock. But Craig and I enjoyed ourselves so much that we needed a pit stop at Punjabi on the way home. Feeling adventurous, I had the vegetable pakora instead of my usual saag.

Jack Be Nimble, Jack Drink Quick

Despite technical difficulties that made mixing impossible--only one CD player played music through the speakers--I had a great time DJ'ing the Trevor Project fundraiser at Vlada. For the second night in a week, I was sipping on my favorite cherry infused vodka. The crowd was cute and generous, bidding for dates with benefits. Club VIP passes and food, that is. The ever tasty Dina Delicious was our auctioneer, with Gay Socialites Charles Winters and King Ralphy helping from the front row. Everyone was there in full regalia, including Nancy Nosecandy (pictured below, with Kyle), Jane Lane, and Demanda Dahling.

Once the benefit was over, we followed King Ralphy (pictured below) to Jack at Aspen. Dina and I had a nice stroll trying to find the place. Once there, we nabbed a corner table with a nice view and a Grey Goose bottle. (Thank you!)

With a vodka bottle comes others (cranberry, orange juice) and conversations you don't quite remember the next day. I found lots of photographs of one I had with Kyle. I seemed rather animated about whatever we were talking about. I also snapped away, of course; and Nancy Nosecandy (pictured below) was only happy to oblige.

So was Demand Dahling (pictured below). Once we emptied the Grey Goose, we worked the room. At some point, I followed everyone into a private room through the kitchen, where Jack Mackenroth of Project Runway fame was sipping a cocktail.

My best friend Craig Seymour (pictured below) was still in town. I'm not sure what we talked about on the cab ride home; but I did introduce him to the joys of late night Punjabi.

Always a joy was Dina Delicious (pictured with me below). I played her fantastical new track "Reverse the Beat" at the Vlada fundraiser earlier. I'm looking forward to going to the Out Music Awards with her on Tuesday.

Through the Looking Glass

We walked through a translucent glass door with round, clear "eyes" and a "mouth." It was like parting a ski mask, going through this looking glass into the Happy Ending lounge. We were there to support my best friend Craig Seymour, who was taking part in the monthly Sex Worker Literati reading series sponsored by Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys, an anthology and sex worker web site.

Craig read from his fantastical memoir All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington D.C.--and I'm not calling it fantastical just because I'm in it. As he read, he showed some of his photography from American Boys: a strip club diary, which you can preview and buy here. After a few rounds, Craig and I headed over to Campus Thursdays at Splash. It seemed appropriate to go watch underwear-clad boys dancing on bars. It was Campus Thursday's Britney birthday party, with $5 vodka drinks every time one of her songs came on. Craig and I soon grew restless, though, because there was no Brit to be had for quite a while.

So we headed over to Barracuda to watch the Star Search competition hosted by Peppermint (pictured above, with contestant Miss Kitten with a Whip to her left). The gang was all there: Kyle, Rudy, Jane Lane, and Cherry Jubilee were close to the stage. Yuhua and Demanda came after they were done with their show at Boots and Saddle. Miss Kitten served an impressive number with seven costume changes; but it was all about the showdown between Sheneeda Drink (pictured below) and Logan Hardcore. Week after week, the two tie and split the prize money.

Sheneeda did a timely number dressed as a more-than-pissed-off-by-marriage-inequality Lady Liberty. She set aflame a symbolic marriage license. Logan (pictured below) worked then doffed her leopard-print Snuggie and gave birth before doing her trademark acrobatics: handstands, flips, and splits in some fabulous new black stilettoes.

Peppermint closed out the contest performing "Whatta Man" by Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue. Then, came the moment of truth. "One lucky queen," Peppermint explained, "is going to pay her phone bill." The crowd screamed, hollered, and cheered to vote for their favorite. Decibels ahead of the other contestants, Sheneeda and Logan waited patiently for Peppermint to announce Sheneeda the winner. Logan had her four Glammy Award nominations to keep her warm. I can't wait to see how many she wins tomorrow night.

Happy Thanksgiving Me Another $1 Cocktail

Craig and I rang out his birthday at Spin. Just for Craig, Spin had $1 cocktails all night. Well, apparently, it happens every Wednesday. Chicago seemed to know: it was so packed, we could barely make our way around, both downstairs and through the upstairs rooms grooving to the videos on display, including performances from Sunday's American Music Awards. It was good to see Janet's medley again. The VJ also played Jennifer Lopez's performance of "Louboutins." At the moment of J. Lo's much-reported fall, the crowd roared "Ohhh!" in unison, as if they'd been doing it for years, not the three days it had been by then.

Craig and I traded rounds and bartenders, moving between the upstairs and downstairs bars, depending upon the lines. We were happy that the downstairs DJ played the Chew Fu mix of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." Craig was less happy that an excited dancer knocked his vodka diet from his hand. In the middle of the next song, the Spinsational DiDa Ritz (pictured above) took the stage and tore through Janet Jackson's "Make Me."

DiDa whipped around so much, I could barely get a shot with my iPhone. She had the choreography down pat. I wasn't surprised. I've seen her serve a mean Beyoncé "Single Ladies," Logan Hardcore.

The crowd loved Dida, too--not just because there were plenty of drinks in hand. Craig and I decided to put some more in ours. After a few more rounds, we decided to head out and walked to Berlin, home of a great Madonnarama party on the first Sunday each month. We waited in line a minute or so; but I was hungry. I wanted another slice from Ian's Pizza. We split a macaroni & cheese slice and a lasagna slice. I fell asleep to something on TV, happy to digest some more of the most fantastical pizza I've ever had.

Cleanliness Is Next to Friendliness

I may be away from my Empire State Building; but that doesn't mean I'm not out, sipping and snapping away. I'm in Chicago to help celebrate my best friend Craig Seymour's birthday. (He's written a great memoir, by the way, called All I Could Bare that I just happen to be in. But that's not why I think it's great. Also check out Craig's fantastical photography, which was featured in OUT magazine).

Last Friday, the first night I was here, Craig took me to Spin, which always reminds me of Tracks, the club I went to in DC almost every week when I was an undergrad at the University of Maryland. The crowd at Spin was huddled in the back room to watch the Bear Shower Contest. Clearly from these pictures, you didn't have to be a bear to compete. But a bear did win the grand prize.

These three enthusiastically acting out Britney's single are Russian, I learned from the evening's host Debbie Fox, who was featuring an Amy Winehouse beehive. Two of the Russians are a couple. One is single. If I hadn't pre-gamed so well and enjoyed Spin's cocktails so much, I might be able to tell you what their names are and which one is the single one. At least I remembered to take pictures.