...and I am worn out to say the least! But this isn't a bad thing considering my involvement in the tourney thus far and the fact that the tourney has been a super great time! Being a judge this year is probably a lot harder than it has been in past years because this year has an actual scoring rubric. A pretty detailed one at that. This is an excellent step to being able to quantify what we see and hear a DJ due during a set. It beats just sitting their, listening and then trying to qualitatively decide who was better. The qualitative process alone brings in so much error to the equation. (I'm not even going to go into it here.)
The weekend I had initially wrote I would be judging turned out to be
false. Instead, they used me twice on this past Friday and Saturday night to finish out the second-to-last quarter bracket. Last first round bracket will be completed this weekend on August 3rd, 4th and 5th (Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights). All of the DJs who have entered thus far are really good. Some have obvious faults which can be attributed to lack of experience playing in front of a croud and lack of experience playing with different equipment. After all, it is easy for us to master our own kit. The trouble is getting other devices that you don't know to put out like your kit does. This is something that can only come from experience and getting around and playing with other DJs. Just talking to them you can pass a lot of knowledge between a group. Also, it doesn't hurt to ask about a certain plateau or "brick wall" you may be facing. In the hunt for a new sound or new trick behind the decks, we often get hunkered down in technique when what we should be doing is allowing ourselves to improv every now and then. Many of of the neatest tricks and turntable wizardry have been discovered through pure accident.
In any case, the losers in the opening rounds I have made it a point to shake their hands and give them definite kudos and head-knods for their efforts. I mean it takes a lot of minerals to get up their and look at three judges staring at you plus hoping everything in your set goes smoothly. It can flat rattle people in that situation.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get a dynamic link of the bracket I created up and running so that all who give a shit can following along with the competition. I may have to do some snooping around in order to solve this problem or I may have to resort to printing, scanning and creating a pdf or slide of some kind. Y'all will know once I get it right - because I will be happier and excited like the crazy person I am!
***On a less happy note, Biggah-B had a buddy over in Germany die from complications resulting from a
seizure. I'm not quite sure of the absolute details, but I do know the person suffered from periodic seizures. I hope to learn more from Biggah-B and the crew as time goes on as I am only slightly experienced with seizure disorders.
My grandmother before she passed used to get seizures when she could no longer walk. She was able to move herself and position herself on a bedside or commode if she was exiting a wheelchair or some other transport device, but shortly afterwords she would have a bout of some sort. It could be just her sitting and twitching a bit or it could be a more animated type of convulsion. Luckily, they would never knock her off balance, meaning she would never fall off the chair, bed or commode. But what she would definitely experience would be a loss of time. Often, when she came out she had no idea what time it was or where she was for brief moments until she was aclimated by familiar voices and surroundings.
If you are interested, click the word "seizure" above or following this
link for further information on epilepsy and related disorders.
Biggah-B feel better. I know exactly what you are going through. Time will heal all wounds. My deepest sympathy and regards to your friend's family.
SYS
Mike P aka "The Cop"
Mike I
Morgan aka "Monkey"
