Ahhhh Los Angeles.

(I started this after Memorial Day)-- We've just returned home from a holiday weekend trip to Orange County/Los Angeles. We decided to drive back late last night in order to avoid Monday's inevitable traffic. We spent most of our time in Orange County where we visited South Coast Plaza and The Lab; the alternative "anti-mall" that is pretty cool but it's still just a mall.

Dr. Freecloud's mixing lab is there and it's nice to see that it's still ticking but as with most things from the past: it's just not the same. I used to go to "Doctor Free" at least every couple of months, mostly because I could find records that I had missed. They always had a good stock of discs from various domestic labels that in the earlier days were very hard to find in SD. They also had a great collection of downtempo--before Higher Source opened, Dr. Freecloud's was the only place I could find really good downtempo.

Anyway...now it's pretty stripped down. I'm sure they mostly sell CDs to anti-mall customers but at least they're still doing it. Don't get me wrong, they had some good stuff so I would still recommend that people check them out.

Orange County is a great place to buy records. The aforementioned Higher Source and Dr. Freecloud's, Noise Noise Noise which is a great spot for collectors and has no attitude--an important requirement for me to shop at a record store is that the people who work there at least make an effort to be helpful. Probably the best though would be Simply Jeff's DJ Culture which has a great mixshow, records, dj classes and a bunch of other cool stuff. More record stores are becoming multi-media hotspots for DJs and music lovers. One thing that hasn't changed over the years is that the record store (or websites etc.) is in most cases the only place to find good underground music. Sure distribution is much better now than it was ten years ago--so it's easy to find CDs from OM, Stereo Deluxe, Large Music and such--but there are many places in the world where people don't got no Tower, Amoeba, or Virgin Megastore, so an online community slash record store such as djculture.com or turntablelab.com (more on this later)is exactly what we need.


After hanging out in the OC we went up to LA on Sunday. The plan was that Melissa would shoot some pictures, I would try to find these Pilot Hi-Tec C Pens in Little Tokyo Plaza, and after we would meet up with James in WEHO at club Chub. This place was pretty cool because it once again showed me that gay folks know how to have fun. These guys were big, round, hairy fun-loving dudes having a good time dancing to some good '80s mixes--I'm not big on the '80s resurgence that's been going on for years now, I lived it and I'm over it. But the dj was good and he could actually mix his records, so it was fun. He played Sheila E Love Bazaar (all 10 minutes of it) and reminded me what a jam it was. Anyway, I was telling Miss how it's cool that these overwieght guys were out having fun and not just sitting in front of the TV getting fatter and being depressed. I know a bunch of straight skinny-ass people who would be a lot happier if they would do the same. I'll post a picture but it doesn't do the party justice 'cause you can't see the sea of chubs that filled up the back patio below where we were standing.

James asked me to play at the monthly event that he and his friends promote this weekend (June 12, 2004) So my next post will probably have to do with that. I'm looking forward to it because they're all really cool people and they know how to have fun.