Are You Getting Toasted?

Ran into this tonight and thought I would share it.

If the person who is going to be toasting you at your wedding reception is nervous about doing so, you may interested to know that a book has been written about the subject called Wedding Toasts Made Easy. It was even recommended by Regis Philbin and Amazon has a used copy for $6.

RJ

Weekend Update

Congrats to Velincia and Breyon on their new beginning! Saturday night was a great night at Angel Springs Events Center. This venue is first class all the way. It is beautiful all around with lots of trees, space and is well maintained and clean. The owners, Norma and Anthony are on top of things. I wish I had taken more pictures of the place. Got to finally see people doing the Chicken Noodle Soup and I enjoyed that quite a bit. The kids were all over me to play it. Ran lots of old-school and we had a great time.

The ice sculpture was beautiful and was created by Doug at Amazing Ice Designs.

Special thanks also to Kasha, Inez and Kristin from Bella Occasions who helped keep the evening flowing smoothly from the reception to the end.

Found out today that Adobe has a new version on Audition out (2.0) which I was unaware of since I wasn't getting their email updates. We got it at the radio station on the new computers that were installed this week, so it is time to do an upgrade here since I do a lot of audio editing with that software.

I am starting a new thing with the Monday radio show called All Request Monday. I took calls from listeners today to get their old school requests for songs they haven't heard in a long time, esp rare things that aren't so obvious. This will be on the 1st Monday of the month from 1-2PM on KAZI 88.7 FM. If you have a request, let me know: REQUEST.

The highlight of my evening tonight was when my daughter Alex came over to hang out and was teaching me music theory with the notes on the bass and treble clefs. She is on it!

All for now...

Musically at your service, RJ. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everybody had a great holiday with family and food and all that! I hung out with my mother all day. We got to play some music together which was nice. She played piano and I played bass. We played some Elvis songs and other various things from the 70s songbooks she has so many of.

After that we hung out and my Uncle David came over and we got to catch up with him which was nice. We ate and got stuffed and hung and talked for awhile, then Mom and I watched Cast Away with Tom Hanks which I enjoyed. Later we watched some Jerry Seinfeld comedy stuff that was funny until we both passed out.

Lots of interesting discoveries and happening this week with music and business. The big news is that the new Music4Life website launched finally. Special huge thanks to Bryan Chaney who designed it and made it beautiful.

The other big news is that we are now on TheKnot.com and I know that will lead to many good things and more new friends to have fun with. Special thanks to Cindy Elley & Angie Fenn who have been providing great service to me. No graphics there yet as we're are working on scheduling a photo shoot with Linda Lucas of Dream Images. She does some great work if you are looking for a photographer.

I got linked in to Last.FM this week, so you can see what I have been listening to and top 10 chart for the week. It's very cool and so far I love it!



Looking into setting up a Music4Life podcast and trying to figure out which provider might work best to host it. Looking at LibSyn and also Podomatic, which I am already using every Sunday at Unity Center.


Monday morning, had my first recording session with Sister Lissie. She has a great song called Just One that we began laying a track for. I'm excited to be working with her as we have worked together at Unity for about 4 years already.

Had rehearsal on Wednesday night at Unity to begin preparing for a Christmas performance on December 18th which I will be playing 2 songs in. Very challenging stuff to play!


Special thanks to the German Cowboy, Sylvester Becker for all the great ideas in our coaching session this week and keeping me up to speed on new Web 2.0 developments. I think we must be geek brothers! LOL

More on the recent post about Level 42...I also found former drummer Phil Gould on MySpace and his blog postings are very articulate and insightful and reveal many of his thoughts about songwriting and his time in the band. The new music he is producing is really great too! Check him out: Phil Gould.

Beyonce has the top song on iTunes today with Irreplaceable. Saw her for a moment on Oprah this week promoting her new movie Dreamgirls which looks like it will be good.

I'm listening to the Funky London podcast this morning and quite digging the vibes.

Tomorrow it's a wedding for Velincia and Breyon at Angel Springs Events Center in Georgetown which I am really looking forward to. Should be a funky good time and I'm looking forward to working with Norma who I met at a networking event recently.

All for now. Have a good weekend!

DJ-RJ

Level Headed... Still!

So imagine my surprise this week to get a friend request on MySpace from one of my all-time favorite keyboard players; Wally Badarou! He found me by searching in my musical influences and it made my day for sure!


He has been an insiration to me since the 80s. He has played with the Talking Heads, Grace Jones, Black Uhuru and many others folks, most notably for me he was the 5th memeber of an English pop band Level 42, who you may remember for their big hit Something About You which blew up here in '85. After linking up with Wally I decided to do some more digging and see what the rest of the band has been up to as I have been out of touch with their works for awhile. Their last studio album was released in '94 and I was fortunate to get a copy while in London that year and even got to visit their management office. I did some digging and found out that they had a new album out called Retroglide, which I received in the post from Amazon.co.uk today. I have listened to almost all of it and the grooves are deep and the melodies beautiful as usual for Level 42, not to mention Mark King's incredibly funky basslines. Grab it on Amazon.com if you want.

Level 42 pianist Mike Lindup also has a new jazz album out that features him on solo piano and it is beautiful. Click the link and listen to the samples.

On a related note, I have have been playing a new version of Something About You, by an American R&B singer named Anthony David that is excellent!

Amazing how one band can have such an influence on so many people with the music they make. Thank you to all the members of Level 42 for such awesome quality music!

DJ-RJ

"forever now
as the world goes round and round
one eternal moment in time
to live forever
live forever now"
Level 42 "Forever Now"

Awesome Fireworks!

Last night I attended an event held by Austin Wedding Guide and one of the vendors did a demonstration of fireworks that were incredible! He can do them for weddings or any special events. If you are interested, you can contact Steve Wolf at Austin Wedding Fireworks.

RJ

Gift Certificates Available Now

Do you know somebody who has a passion for singing?

Why not give them a gift certificate to do some recording?

At Music4Life Studios, we can take karaoke tracks and add vocals to them and mix them down and put them on CD. We can also produce and record your songs and bring your ideas to life.

Afterwards, we can create a place for them on MySpace and include their music for the world to hear.

We are currently offering a three hour recording session to new clients for only $50. Click on the Paypal button to pay with credit card and we will send your certificate to you via email today.

RJ

What A Weekend!

Taking a moment to post a lil about what's been happening since the weekend...

On Friday, I played a gig for John Deere at The Hyatt Lost Pines out by Batrop. What a cool place! I played mostly country and had a great time in my Texas Tuxedo.

On Saturday, I had a great breakfast with my sweetie at The Original Pancake House on Parmer & Metric. They have awesome pancakes! After that, had client meetings all day and got to see my daughter before she headed off to homecoming. She looked beautiful in her black dress!

On Sunday, did audio at Unity Center. Later that evening I had an audition with Don Chani playing bass and I'm excited to start playing with them. We hope to play out in December. Hopefully opening for Grimy Styles somewhere.

Today, I had a coaching session with Dana Minney and then did my R&B radio show from 1-3. After that I came home and had a recording session with Laura Vella (click to listen to it on her MySpace). I got to play bass and build a track for a song of hers that she wrote for her mother called Breath Away. Special thanks to mom who hooked me up with her. This was our second session together and we had fun and great vibes together!

RJ

Here Come The Holidays!!!!

I am planning to end this year with a huge bang! KAPOW!!!!! Happy New Year! One of our specialties is customized holiday theme parties for any size group or theme with a choice of the music that YOU want to hear: Jingle Bells, Frosty The Snowman, Winter Wonderland, and all your favorite holiday hits!

If you or anybody you know has to plan a holiday party, please call or email me their names and numbers and I will make it as easy as fruitcake in December. Oh yummy!!!!!

DJ-RJ
Music4Life

YeeHaw!!!!!

This week I am doing a party for John Deere. I'm to be dressed up in cowboy gear and it has been a long time since I did that. It is definitely going to be interesting revisiting that part of my past. I'm having fun with it so far.

Tonight, a reunion of graduates of The Soul of Entrepreneuship class. It will be good to see my old classmates again.

All for now, RJ.

Updates

Taking a minute to reflect on the very full weekend as I listen to London Elektricity's podcast...

Early Friday night, I played drums at Unity Center in a benefit for the church. We did 24 songs that members had requested as dedications over the previous 3 weeks. Even though I did not play all of them, it was very challenging, learning the songs in such a short time. We did some country, jazz, R&B, and even a reggae tune. Bill Whiz was the mastermind who kept us all from losing our minds as it came together. Special thanks to Larry Harms for stepping up and playing basslines as we could not find a bass player in the 'live music capital of the world.' Props also to Tommy, Tina, Cheryl, Rev. Jill, Becky, and Joy who all brought their magic to the evening. Oh and thanks to Mom for coming out too!

After that, I flew down to Flamingo Cantina on 6th street for another edition Catch A Fire with Jah Ray & Q45. Turnout was slightly off, maybe due to the cold. We had a great time though and the vibes were nice with the music, esp the 'tune-4-tune' session at the end of the night. Thanks to Victor for help on the sound as always. We will take the month of November off and return on December 15th.

Saturday night, I played the wedding ceremony and reception for Bob & Natalie at Kali-Kate in Buda. The ceremony touched me as usual. I just love to see people get married! I've been hearing about this venue for awhile and was glad to finally experience the place. It's an outdoor pavillion and very spacious. The horses are great too. Special thanks to Cindy & Blain of Kali-Kate for their help and also thanks to the wedding coordiantors: Emily, Jerre, and Mandy of Something to Celebrate for helping to keep the evening flowing and the timing perfect on the ceremony. While loading out, the final adventure of the night was watching the groomsmen break into a car trunk with a crowbar! Somebody had locked their keys in the trunk.

Sunday, did my usual sound gig at Unity and taking it easy for the rest of the day, aside from working on the Music4Life vision board.

Here is my schedule this week:
Monday - KAZI 88.7 FM - 1-3 pm - RJ's R&B
Tuesday - KAZI 88.7 FM - 6-10pm - Dad Show & Reggae Evolution
Wednesday - Flamingo Cantina - Project Life Capoeira Benefit
Thursday - 6:30pm - Open House at San Michele in Buda. Come talk to us about our services.
Friday - Threads Of Change party
Saturday - PrintGlobe party

Wishing all of you the best in life and love!

RJ

CU / Texas Star Events Center

On Friday evening, I played for Consumers Union Special thanks to Melissa, my daughter's mother at their housewarming party. We had a cool Friday evening with everybody enjoying food and beverages at the end of the work week. Thanks to Melissa, my daughter's mother for hooking me up with this great opportunity.

On Saturday night, I played at Texas Star Meeting Event Center last night for Shannon & David Zuniga and we had a great time. This venue is way deep in South Austin on Manchaca and can hold up to 400 people. It's very clean and has two huge halls that can be used at the same time. They have a cool gazebo room if you want to have the ceremony there as well. It is conveniently located behind Austin Party Central, where you can rent any additional items you need for your reception.

Musically, we went all over the place, from classic jazz to hip-hop, tejano, and country. I played 6 songs for the dollar dance. People just kept lining up, so we kept it going. I wish we could have played a couple more hours.

Thanks to Shannon & David for a great event and thanks also to Lydia of Texas Star who was very helpful coordinating the flow of the evening and keeping me supplied with water.

A great weekend!

DJ-RJ

Great Bride-Father Dance Song

Brides out there should consider "I Loved Her First" by Heartland as a father-daughter dance song. It's currently number 2 on Billboard's country chart.

Listen to it here. Check the comments of this post to read the lyrics and comment if you like.

DJ-RJ

ISES meeting

Tonight, I attended an ISES meeting at Green Pastures. ISES is the International Special Events Society and is composed of other wedding and meeting professionals who are commited to producing quality events. Met some wonderful people and the food was great. The presenters were Bill Steigerwald and Ronne Rock. The topic was branding and was very informative. It has me thinking harder about my branding and logo and marketing materials and refining my message about the essence just what Music4Life is. I know that I want to continue building the company and brining people joy with music and great service. So, I have to think about all of this and figure out how to move forward with my branding, etc.

I want to thank ISES for a great event and for taking the time to educate those of us who want to improve and do better.

RJ

Tune In - Monday 1:00pm

Inviting you to tune in on Monday at 1pm to KAZI 88.7 FM in Austin. I'll be playing some R&B classics from the 80s and then an hour of new-school R&B songs after that.

DJ-RJ

What A Weekend !

It's only halfway over!

On Friday night, Anne and I had a date for a change! We went out to dinner and later went dancing at Graham Central Station. The concept of the club is that they have multiple rooms with different musical themes. The first thing I noticed when we went in was that we were not in Austin any more as many of the people there were smoking inside the club. Something I have gotten very used to not having to deal with when I play in clubs in Austin since smoking was banned awhile back. There was country in the big room and it was pretty full. The DJ booth was inside a White Freightliner semi cab. There was the 70/80s room that we jammed in for awhile to some Prince, and Michael Jackson and some other 80s rock. The DJ had some tight mixes and kept the beat going quite nicely. We checked out the Coyote Ugly room which was the most empty room. We couldn't figure out the point of it. The karaoke room was good and also the hip-hop room. Overall a cool experience and interesting people watching too. Straight outta where? Pflugerville y'all!

Tonight, I did another wedding at Hamilton 12 and it was excellent. Played lots of classic jazz for drinking and dinner. Spoke to many of the people there and got lots of requests, most of which I was able to play. Even played a request for Doris Day that the older folks were digging on, "que sera sera!" Got in a car accident on Hwy 71 about 10 minutes before I got to the gig when a man cut over two lanes of traffic in front of me. Turns out it was a teacher from LBJ High School where I used to go and we had a few good laughs about the whole thing. I am not attached to cars so much and was able to get to the gig in time. I am just glad we were both alright. So Monday, it will off to the bodyshop for new hood, front fender and bumper.


Tonight, after the gig, I'm enjoying music from Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, two of my favorite producers. They are former members of The Time and have worked with everybody in R&B from Janet Jackson to the S.O.S Band, Alexander O'Neal, Cherrelle, New Edition, Mya and on and on. I need to do some digging and see what they have been working on since moving from Minneapolis to LA other than Janet's new release. I don't care for the first two singles from her new release so far.

Now I lay me down to sleep...

DJ-RJ

Drumming in San Antonio

I'm off to San Antonio on Friday to play with One Destiny, one of Texas' finest reggae bands, originally from the Virgin Islands. I will be playing at 2 pm at Our Lady of The Lake University. Here is a clip from the last time I played with them.

Saturday night I will be at Hamilton 12 for Bryan & Emily's wedding.

Tonight, Anne and I finished our 2nd segment of The Soul of Entrepreneurship with Dana and Sylvester. It has been an amazing empowering course and I recommend it to any of you that are trying to figure out how to make your passion into your career. Dana and Sylvester care about getting you into action to move past your fears and make it happen.

DJ-RJ


Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. ~Francesca Reigler

MP3 of Radio Show

So tonight, my client Patrick Asiedu who got married on Saturday was on the air with me with his best man, Reggie Atta-Keson. We featured hip-life music from Ghana for 90 minutes and we had a great time and some interesting discussion about the music and culture of Ghana. I have posted an MP3 on the website for you to hear (right click to save). It's 71Mb, so you've been warned. I am constantly amazed at all of the wonderful people I get to meet and work with.

Here is the playlist:

Austin Community Radio KAZI 88.7 FM
Reggae Evolution with DJ-RJ
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 7-10 PM

90 Minutes of Ghana:
Guests Patrick Asiedu & Reggie Atta-Kesson

Bollie/ you may kiss the bride
Ofori Amponsah/ toolege
FBS/ old man boogie
Nkasei/ yefri tuabodom
Batman/ Linda
Kofi Nti feat KK Fosu/ rakia
4x4/ odo fitaa
Praye/ shordy
Terry Bonchaka/ zoozi
Obour/ Konkotibaa
Obour/ shine your eye
Castro Destroyer/ toffee
Sidney/ obia nye obia
Kofi nti/ Obo me din, Obo me din, sweetie pie pie
Kwabena Kwabena/ aso
2face Idibia/ African Queen

During the show, we mentioned three radio stations in Ghana that are streaming. The stations are: Joy FM, Peace FM, and Citi 97.3 FM. Also another site, Ghanaweb has some cool music videos. Appreciate any feedback or comments on the show.

Wishing you all the blessings that God has in store for you!

DJ-RJ


Much silence makes a powerful noise.
~ African proverb

Groom to Be On The Radio Tonight

Inviting you to tune in tonight, when Patrick Asuiedu will join me on the radio. We will feature Hip-Life music from Ghana. Patrick & Lisa were married on Saturday at Avery Ranch and the reception featured lots of music from Ghana, so it seemed the next logical step would be to bring him on the radio with me. Hope you can join us:

Tuesday, September 26th 8:30-10:00pm
KAZI 88.7 FM

Two other gigs this weekend were excellent too!

Friday night, I played at Ringside at Sullivan's for a wedding celebration for Chris & Shawn. We played lots of classic rock and even did the Tootsie Roll! Ringside is a small venue that would work nice for a smaller reception less than 75 people.

Sunday night I was at Embassy Suites North and it was really poppin'! Carlos & Beth had a great party. I played 80s music and some salsa and merengue and Gypsy Kings & Del Castillo for dinner music.

Here are some shots from that evening:










Monday's radio show featured some great R&B music, with the first hour being 80s R&B hits. Here is the playlist:

Austin Community Radio KAZI 88.7 FM
Monday, September 25, 2006 1-3pm
RJ's R&B

Mtume/ you, me, he
Surface/ happy
Jermaine Jackson/ do what you do
Eugene Wilde/ don't say no tonight
Melisa Morgan/ do me baby
Debarge/ time will reveal
Bobby Brown/ rock witcha
Rene & Angela/ your smile
Champaign/ try again
The Jets/ you got it all
Isley, Jasper, Isley/ insatiable woman
Regina Belle/ show me the way
Babyface/ whip appeal
En Vogue/ giving him something he can feel

Corrine Bailey Rae/ trouble sleeping
Anthony David/ something about you
Freddie Jackson/ transitions
Chestnut Brothers/ travelin' on
Luther Vandross/ so amazing
Gerlad Albright/ deep into my soul
Aaron Neville/ it's alright
Richard Bona feat John Legend/ please don't stop
Kerry Wilkins/ the right mood
Liyah/ for eternity
Janet Jackson/ so excited
Mojoe/ yesterday
Anthony Hamilton/ dear life

Please let me know how I can help you put together the event of your dreams.

DJ-RJ
512-973-8686



We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are there always for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you.
~Jeff Warner

Update

Hey y'all,

Have not had a chance to post all week, so here are some of the latest things going on...

Last Saturday's Austin Breaking Ground was a great success. We had a very nice turnout and good vibes all around. People enjoyed the music I played and the fashion show and dance performances were way cool. Soon we begin planning for the spring event.

Other things happening last week: client meetings and planning sessions, jam session with Bill Wiz for an upcoming benefit concert on Oct. 20th at Unity Center, radio shows Mon & Tues, ACC video shot rehearsal on Wednesday for TECEC, training my friends about audio recording at The Foundation.

Last night I had two gigs. The first being a jr high dance at Fulmore Middle School which was great. Played mostly hip-hop and had a guest performance by one of the students that people loved. After that, went to Flamingo Cantina for another version of Catch A Fire. The vibes were nice and we played more roots reggae than dancehall, even played some ska early on and some soca too.

Today, planning sessions for two weddings next weekend. One will be an 80s theme and the other mostly music from Ghana. I am excited about how both of them are coming together.

Tomorrow my father arrives in town and will stay with me for a week or so and I am sure we will get to listen and learn more about 50s and 60s music as we always do, staying up way too late into the night.

Implementation of the online planning tools is nearing completion and I am loving it so far. Streamlining a lot of processes and will save lots of time with managing the business. The redesign of the website is in full swing and should be live in the next 30 days.

All for now.

Have a blessed weekend!

DJ-RJ

Another DJ Gathering!

I registered for the DFW ADJA conference today on the 25th of September. I've really been enjoying meeting other DJs and networking and learning. Houston was a great experience and the Ghamma folks really put a great two day show together that not enough DJs came to experience.

Speaking at the Dallas show will be Mark Ferrell of DJA Radio. DJA Radio is a great new daily free podcast by DJs for the DJ industry.

Also speaking will be Brian Dodge who is a hilarious motivational speaker.

It seems that some of the seeds that Disc Jockey News planted may be starting to sprout in new places... hats off to John Young for vision to bring in quality speakers.

I will be performing this Saturday at Ruta Maya from 4-7pm for Austin Breaking Ground. There will be shopping, a raffle, vendors, a fashion show, plus of course Ruta Maya's awesome organic coffee. Come by and say hello and ask for our wedding discount coupon.

RJ