5-Disc Changer DJ

Saturday was the birthday and 10th year anniversary of Manhattanville’s president and I was “nominated” to be the DJ for the night. I didn’t mind doing it as it would be my first time performing in front of a live audience and I missed doing my college radio show so much. It was kind of a last-minute decision a week before the party, but something that needed to be done.

The original plan was to have the party in 2 places. Downstairs in the Pub, a bar and me spinning live would kick off at 8:00; kind of like a pre-party type situation. Then, by 9:30, we’d move people upstairs for live band performances, videos and a roast.

I left early to avoid the worst of the nor’easter and trudged my way over to campus in the snow. I brought some sleeping gear in case I had to stay over, but nonetheless I was ready to go.

Things began to fall apart when BOTH of the bands schedule to perform cancelled (no surprise), leaving no entertainment for the upstairs portion of the night. Therefore, the few people running the event decided to have me DJ all night. 9Mistake number 1, not having a postpone date. It probably just should have been cancelled).

For some unclear reason, at the last second, they decided to cancel the whole downstairs idea, move the bar and the main party upstairs… not only was I disappointed, but I was also irritated. They told me all week that I would DJ live, but the DJ equipment was downstairs and only downstairs. (Mistake number 2, not sticking to the plan).

The only way I could DJ is if we brought the equipment upstairs… well, after a 2-hour fiasco of trying to do just that, it turned out that the equipment didn’t work very well nor would it be possible to have a live DJ upstairs. 2 hours wasted; I was so ‘effing disgusted and annoyed.

Weeks prior to, there was a huge ordeal over this DJ thing and I was willing to do them a favor, although I was never formally asked to do it, more so volunteered. Then all of a sudden, they didn’t wanna do it.

Luckily, there was a 5-disc changer upstairs, so I decided to throw in some pre-mixed compilation CDs so it would SOUND like a DJ was there and to make things easier.

ANOTHER monkey wrench came flying from left field: I was supposed to be done playing music by 9:30pm, but was told to keep going until 12pm! So much for having a break and being able to socialize.

Of course I would have to sit there to make sure no one messed with the damn thing humiliated sitting there doing NOTHING. Not only were the pauses in between songs (for the unmixed CDs) brutal, but the pause in between DISCS was HORRIFYING! Bad, bad, bad news. I had to get people to MC while I changed CDs, the fucking thing was so slow!

It didn’t help that all the invitations, promotional materials, and e-mails sent to hundreds and hundreds of people said “Tunes by DJ Kaitou aka Brandon Mosley” when I wasn’t actually DJing. I felt like a fake, a fraud and a loser. I downed 2 full glasses of champagne which got me twisted enough not to care and it numbed the embarrassment.

People were coming up to make requests, thinking I was spinning live, but I couldn’t fulfill them cuz let’s face it-you can’t do that with a 5-disc changer. Considering I play a lot of house music, people were begging for hip hop and pop and kept asking for different kinds of music all night. I felt really bad because I couldn’t fulfill any requests and they were probably all thinking I was a phony. I felt like a fucking dumb ass for the rest of the night.

On the bright side of things, if I wasn’t there, there would have been no music at all… so at least I saved the night in some way. I had to save the dance floor by forcing a limbo competition so people started to loosen up then. Everybody looked like they had fun so maybe it wasn’t too bad… but by 12am, people were so drunk and riled up that they wouldn’t shut up during the roast and video. That was nearly a disaster in itself. If people had stuck to the damn plan, it would have been FINE!

That is the last time I offer them ANY of my time like that. I don’t even feel like I had a weekend! Let's think about this: I had to DJ from a 5-disc CHANGER!!