Austin's Green Wedding Venue

The Barr Mansion is about to be certified as Austin's only green wedding restaurant serving only organic food. I think that is great news for those of you who are looking for higher quality meals at your reception. Check out the article for more info.

DJ-RJ

The Aloha Spirit

Tuned in to Hawai'i 101 tonight while hanging out with my mother and it has been wonderful vibes. Not quite as good as being there, though the spirit is in the music for sure!

Check it out and relax:

Hawai'i 101

DJ-RJ

New Wedding Planner

I received an email from a sweet woman named Marsha Jack today who was very excited about her new business. I gave her a call and we spoke for a few minutes about her new company called A Gay Affair. She is Austin's first wedding planner catering to the GLBT community and I'm sure she would be delighted to help you plan your event.

DJ-RJ

Building The 50-Year Marriage

In these times with so many marriages ending in divorce, it seems like a great idea to make an investment in the relationship you are building so you can go the distance. I met Julie Darby at the Bridal Show last Sunday and she is offering a course on how to build a 50-year marriage on Saturday, April 7th at the Rennaisance Hotel.

Check out her website for more information: Block Out The Noise.

Wishing you the best this weekend!

DJ-RJ

Join Us at BiG Austin Marketplace 2007

Every day more things happen that bring me an immense amount of joy and show me that I am exactly where I am supposed to be in life. I just found out I have been one of the 20 businesses picked to participate in BiGMarketplace 2007 at The Hilton on Friday, April 27th. I am just elated!

Special thanks to Anne for kicking my butt to register. Her unwavering support continues to inspire me every day!

DJ-RJ

Bridal Show

Special thanks to all of the couples who came by our booth today at The Convention Center and spoke with us about the reception. Ted, Lori and I had a great time and we look forward to making some more new friends to celebrate with. Special thanks also to Dan at PrintGlobe for the awesome banner and next day delivery too.

RJ

New Venue in Dripping Springs

A client turned me on to an awesome new wedding venue today in Dripping Springs called Vista West Ranch. The venue is owned and operated by Cindy Pearson and her husband and has a capacity of 350. They are booking now and in the final stages of construction. They open at the end of May and they are currently running special pricing at $2,000. That's a great deal if you are looking for a nice place away from Austin.

They also have a floral business called Petal Pushers.

DJ-RJ

Bridal Show - This Sunday

Hope to see you this Sunday at The Austin Convention Center from 12:30-5pm. The whole team will be there to answer any questions you may have about the services we provide for weddings. We are in booth #606. More info and tickets are available online.

Recent Photos

Here is one from the Vida Deluxe gig on Sunday at Flamingo Cantina:



Congratulations to Jeff & Nikki! From Saturday night out at Creekside Pavillion:






And last weekend at Trevor & Victoria's birthday party:



Having fun!!!

Tomorrow and Wednesday I will be recording the kids for UIL competition during the day.

DJ-RJ

Pflugerville Flag Article

Very happy to have this come out in the Pflugerville Flag last week!

Beats for Pizza

I booked a wedding tonight with Naddy & Tanner that I am very excited about. Naddy is from Trinidad and we will be playing lots of soca and calypso music along with American music at Plantation House in Pflugerville. This one is going to be hot!

Just finished working with Mark Brown on a demo for a commercial for Mangia Pizza. We came up with a cool beat and laid the vocals in about an hour.

Just got an MP3 on email from Nick and a new mix of the DnB track we are working on and it is coming along quite nicely. We set the lifeline to have it finished on April 1st and then we will release it digitally to iTunes and probably also Beatport and see what happens.

RJ

Creating Music

I did my first session with Booof 7 tonight and we have some great vibes coming together with a funk tune we are working on together. I'm very excited about it. You can hear an early demo of it on MySpace. Looking forward to getting it out into the world and seeing what happens with it.

I sent an MP3 of the Workie Workie riddim to General Levy (at his request). He is a ragga MC from London and he wants to voice a song on it. Next I will see about licensing the rights to the riddim track from Steely & Clevie.

Work continues on a drum-n-bass track that I have been working on with Nick Little. I think we're calling the project 10 Cents Mofo, which is what it costs Nick every time I send him a text message. LOL!

My sweetie and I are putting together a new band project called Vida Deluxe for a benefit for my friend Yellow at Flamingo Cantina on Sunday March 4th. Yellow is in the hospital and needs a heart transplant. The lineup is going to be great with Grimy Styles and Mau Mau Chaplains and more. Also, just found out Mad Professor will be in town Saturday night at Flamingo with his Dub You Crazy show. Should be cool.

Sent my application to ASCAP last night to start publishing the songs I have been writing under the name Music4Life.

Have been booking lots of shows with the DJ business too, so life is great!

Let me know if I can help you in any way and don't give up on your dreams.

DJ-RJ

Podcast Launched

Woohoo! I have posted the first episode of the Music4Life podcast today:

Music4Life

You can leave comments and feedback there.

DJ-RJ

Great Vibes Today

Dad and I got out in the ice today and did 2 hours of great 50s R&B (see playlist in the comments). Got lots of calls from folks who were digging it.

Had 2 awesome weddings this weekend also.

Life is great!

DJ-RJ

New Music Moving Me!

A couple CDs I am excited about today.

James Hunter's album, People Gonna Talk is like taking a journey back to the 50s when RnB was quite different from how it is today. All live instrumentation and crisp recording. James is an English soul singer and I can't wait to turn my father on to it. Very nice!

Another new thing a friend turned me on to is a French artist named Jehro (pronounced ZHE-ro). His self-titled album is really a breath of fresh air for me. He is a Frenchman who moved to London and soaked up the sounds of reggae and soul around him and his created his own sound from those influences. I hear Bob Marley influences, with sweet vocals, some in Spanish too. Acoustic soul vibes!

One of my MySpace friends posted some new songs to iTunes today and I quite like them as well. The group name is Ror-Shak from Brooklyn and their sound is smooth pop and electronic with Julee Cruise on vocals. Similar sound to Zero 7.

Check them out and enjoy some fresh new sounds!

DJ-RJ

Recording - New Year Vibes - Pops

Been in the studio more lately it seems. Did some vocal overdubs with Jye-I on Sunday and today recorded demos of three songs for Lissie Connelly and also got her up on MySpace. Check her out and say hey.

Had a great show on Monday (see comments for playlist). The new What It Is! funk compilation from Rhino is fantastic. Played some tracks from that and also excited about Omar's album called Sing (If You Want It). Since the new year turned over I have had a lot to sing about.

Later this week, my father is in town again. Tune in to my show next Monday from 1-3 pm when he will sit in with me agin. Last time we played 50s R&B and got great response from listeners.

This week Austin Wedding Day magazine will premiere their first edition for 2007 in a new format and size. I'm looking forward to seeing it as well as the new ad in it for Music4Life... then two weddings this weekend that I am excited about.

All for now. Seattle's Best just asked me to turn off the open sign so I guess I gotta get out of here.

All the best to you this year!!

DJ-RJ

Vinyl is Alive

Did my reggae show tonight and played almost all vinyl. It was so nice to revisit those times. I just don't get to play much vinyl any more. Really enjoyed those pops and ticks!

Happy New Year!

DJ-RJ
ps: click the comments for the full playlist

New Orleans Vibes

Stumbled onto WWOZ radio out of New Orleans and they play/stream all the best music from New Orleans!

Check them out if you enjoy NO music: WWOZ

RJ

Mom Rocks!

Tonight I got to hear my mom play with New Horizons Band at Bates Recital Hall on UT campus. I was blown away by how great they sounded! They did 8 or 9 songs and brought all the kids on stage to play jingle bells at the end which was great too. Check my nephews Andrew and Nathaniel on stage.
More on the weekend later when I get some time. Gotta get some rest tonight.

DJ-RJ

Updates

First off, congrats to Chi & Ben who got married last Saturday night at Villa Antonia. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was fun. Special thanks to Michaya at Villa Antonia for all her help with coordinating and making the evening flow smoothly. They have a beautiful venue out in Lake Travis and I can't wait to play there again.

Had a cool video shoot at the beginning of the month at ACC Pinnacle. We were on the sattelite live for 5 hours. I assisted with audio and ran camera. Special thanks to director John Breed and floor manager Pam Harper for doing a great job holding it together. Here's a picture of the whole crew:
I did a great party for Midway on the 1st at Iron Cactus on 6th street that was a blast. Played so many different styles of music and they loved it all.

Special bigup to Yolanda B who has been working with me doing radio spots for her comedy shows at Texas 1115. She is becoming quite an announcer!

Over at KAZI, we are training for a new computer system that is to be implemented next week. It is going to be very exciting as we will be able to voice track our shows in advance if we want to. I know it is going to take the station to another level too. Special thanks to our manager Steve Savage for making it happen and also to James Davis for putting all the gear together.

Other projects happening lately: transferred Adrienne's website to a new server, continued production with Sister Lissie on her album, recorded a new song with my sweetie Anne called Breathless, rehearsing with the Unity choir for our performance this Sunday morning, getting ready to announce the date and location of the next Austin Breaking Ground. Here is one of the pictures that we got in this week from the fall edition, special thanks to Emily for her great work:

Friday will be another dance for Fulmore Junior High. Coming up this week: Thursday, my 2nd Christmas party for Work Source Career Center. Later that night, Catch A Fire at Flamingo Cantina...the Final Bash as this will be our last time to do this at Flamingo. Saturday, a party with the folks from Austin All Natural. Congrats to Anne who is featured in this month's edition which you can find at Whole Foods and different places around town.

Look for the new podcast launching this week too! We will link it here, so check back here for more info.

Hope your holiday season is going great! All for now!!!

DJ-RJ