First let me start off with the trip to LA. I missed my first flight because I woke up late, so Kaze ended up travelling ahead of me. Good thing I work for an airline and it’s nothing to switch plans like that :D. Long travel story short, I ended up in LA around 2 p.m. and met up with Kaze and his boys Carlos and Casey (casey was actually just in Rhianna’s new music video, so look for that). I don’t want to bore everyone with every minute detail of the trip so I’ll just stick to some of the highlights.
Friday night we went to this little party that was supposed to jumpoff the whole Remix Hotel conference. There wasn’t much going on here so Kaze called up his friend who works at Lucky Strike, a bowling alley in hollywood, and we headed down there to say whatup to him. Why did we get the bowling alley and not only is there a bouncer, but a dress code too?!?! That’s hollywood for you I guess. Not only that, but there was a waiting list to bowl! Long story short, I bowled a low score as usual, but I was kind of bummed out because I missed my teammate who was still back in NC. I think we left around 2 A.M. and I was exhausted because my body was still on NC time so it felt like 5..Here’s a couple of pics of the crew and the bowling alley:
The next morning we got up and headed to the Musician’s Institute, where we would be all day for the Remix Hotel. These types of events are good for making industry connections and you tend to meet a lot of “behind the scenes” people. For most of the day we sat in on some panels to learn about submitting music for various things like film and video games. In the middle of the day Kaze did his show (which is the whole reason we were there). He was well received by some pretty connected people, and I’m sure it’s going to pay off for him. He finished off his show by doing “Blood Thicker Than Oil” (courtesy of resonatedradio.com) which went over REALLY well, I guess in part because california is really liberal. Make sure to download that if you’re anti-bush, anti-war, etc. I guess one of the best parts of the day was getting to meet Hank Shocklee. For those that don’t know who he is, he’s part of The Bomb Squad. You know them best for their work with Public Enemy. I must say it was an honor to meet him, and he’s a real down to earth guy
We stayed at the conference all day, so I never really got to see any of LA (which just gives me reason to go back). By the end of the day I was exhausted so I didn’t really go out, but just went to bed early since we had to fly out at 7 AM. I sat in first class from LA to Dallas (working for an airline is great!!). Dallas to Raleigh was a different story, as me and Kaze barely got on (we got the last 2 open seats) and I got stuck in a middle seat, so I couldn’t move around much. Ended up back in Raleigh around 4 P.M.. As much as I love taking trips and going out of town, nothing beats that feeling of landing and realizing you’re back home. Managed to take this in the air just outside of LA (doesn’t it make you just want to hop on a plane right now?):
Updates for the DJ Premier show and the Friday five coming over the weekend (I’m behind, so what!)
