DJ Meltdown Live in The Studio | February 26, 2011

DJ Meltdown Live (In The Studio – Chicago, IL) – February 26, 2011

Track List

DJ Bam Bam & Alex Peace – 1,2,3,4
UberJack’d vs. Pharaoh Monch – Simon Says
Ruff Loaderz vs. Cut Up Boyz – Music Sounds Better
Corona – Rhythm of the Night (Demoro Mix)
Technotronic – Pump up the Jam (Mike Candys Remix)
Reel 2 Reel – I Like to Move it (GForce Remix)
Wiz Khalifa – Black & Yellow (DJ Kue Remix)
Katy Perry – I kissed a girl (DJ Bam Bam & Mixin Marc Edit)
Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – We Speak No Americano (Chew Fu Fix)
Basement Jaxx – Raindrops (Funkagenda & Paul Thomas Rerub)
The Roots – What you want
Tatyani Ali ft. Will Smith – Boy you knock me out
Big Pun – Still not a Playa
Jay-Z – Can I Get A
Fat Joe ft. Eminem – Lean Back (remix)
Dru Hill – Somebody’s in my bed
Snoop Dogg  ft. Nate Dogg – Lay Low
Sasha ft. Fat Man Scoop – Sexy Body
Beyonce – Single Ladies (Reggae Remode)
Ja Rule ft. Ashanti – Always on Time
Mystikal – Shake ya ass
Busta Rhymes – Put your hands where my eyes can see
Mariah Carey ft. Da Brat & Missy Elliot – Heartbreaker (DJ Clue Remix)
Mary J Blige ft. Notorious BIG – Real Love (Bad Boy Remix)
Louchie Lou & Michie One – Rich Girl
Tanto Metro & Devonte – Everyone falls in love
Mr Vegas – Heads High
Chaka Demus & Pliers – Murder She Wrote
David Guetta vs Cajmere – Love is Gone (Percolator Transition Mix)
Edward Maya ft Vika Jigulina – Stereo Love
Porter Robinson – I’m on Fire
CeeLo Green – Fuck You (Ajent Able Remix)

Harvest-Properties.com Whale Bowl

The NHL’s first “Winter Classic” garnered positive media attention and was deemed a success. Over 70,000 people packed into Ralph Wilson stadium outside of Buffalo, NY to watch the Penguins top the Sabres 2-1 in a shootout.

Four years later, on the day before the NHL’s Heritage Classic, an outdoor game in Calgary, AB, the CT Whale would take on the Providence Bruins at an outdoor clusterfuck known as “Rentschler Field”. After Robert Kraft officially dicked over the state of Connecticut with negotiations to move the New England Patriots, Rentschler Field was built as the home stadium for UCONN football. A 40,000 seat monstrosity built on a former Pratt & Whitney airfield in East Hartford, CT.

Lets discuss the shortcomings of the venue, before discussing the game. So what’s wrong with Rentschler Field you say?

• Parking… 40,000 person capacity, but the main lot is only about double the size of the stadium, and has a capacity for roughly 2,000 vehicles.
• Seating… There were only 6,000 seats installed in a stadium to hold 40,000 people.  In a stadium built in 2003, 34,000 aluminum bleachers were installed

Now before everybody starts to rail me with the “weather” that evening, yes, it was brutally cold and windy (-10F Wind Chill), but if the logistical nightmares that presented themselves were corrected, it would have been a fun, enjoyable game aside from the seating.

I inherited the tickets from my uncle, the tickets were in two different rows in section 131.  Because of the cold weather, I knew not everybody was going to show up to the game, and they had only sold 1/2 of the capacity of the stadium, so finding seats together, somewhere in the stadium, wasn’t going to be a problem.  What I didn’t know before I got there, was that 80% of the stadium was aluminum bleachers.

After a filling dinner at Moe’s in West Hartford, we headed to the stadium, waited in a line of traffic for about 25 minutes before finally make it to the entrance of the main lot.  After waiting another 10 minutes or so, an employee moved some cones, and directed us down a dirt road.  We drove down the dirt road for what seemed like more than a mile, and after a while I turned back and looked to see the stadium fading in the distance.  After making my way almost to Brewer St, I was greeted by an arab man with a thick accent who told me “$15!”.  I said, “Are you kidding me?  We’re not even remotely close to the stadium, its 5 degrees outside and you want to rape me to park in a mud puddle more than a mile from the stadium?”  He responded, “$15!”, because apparently that was the only english he knew.  I told him that I wanted to leave, and he pointed to an exit lane that required me to cross 5 lanes of cars coming into the parking lot, great move Howard Baldwin.

View Larger Map

Driving down the dark road of despair and nearly bottoming out my car in a mud puddle I finally reached the old runway of the airfield and made my way back around to the front of the stadium.  I figured, nothing lost because the tickets were free, but when I got back around to the front of the stadium I noticed that the lot for Cabela’s was only about 1/2 full, and I saw a steady stream of people crossing from the Cabela’s lot to the stadium.  I thought to myself, surely people have to be parking there for free and walking over.  So I made a right and went into Cabela’s lot, and sure enough, plenty of people were parking at the far end of the lot and walking to the game, which was MUCH closer than the remote mud puddle they wanted to charge $15 to park in.

So with no money invested, we were free to check out the game, and if it was crap and we wanted to leave, I didn’t have to feel bad wasting $15 to park.  We gathered up the blankets, hats, scarves, gloves & other warming items from the car and started the trek towards the gates of Rentschler Field.  One thing that we forgot to grab from the car, which everyone else seemed to remember, was a huge bottle of hooch.

We made it to the front gates and got in line to enter, there were security guards at the gate doing pat-downs and the man with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentile.  They patted both my wife and I around the waist, presumably to check for firearms?  However, they didn’t ask me to unfold my blanket which could have easily concealed any alcohol, illegal drugs, firearms, or WMD’s I wanted to bring into the stadium, boy did I feel safe!

Upon entering the stadium there were groups of fans huddled everywhere to keep warm.  My wife went to use the restroom, and said she waited for about 5 minutes behind a group of people who she thought were waiting to use the restrooms, however they were only in there to keep warm.  We finally tried to may our way to our seats but were blocked because somebody thought it would be a good idea to leave 2 sections of the stadium full of ice & snow (how long was this event planned for?).  Thankfully, it wasn’t a problem because there were only about 7,000 people there and we were able to get front row seats (on aluminum bleachers), along the home team blue line closest to the rink.  Notice I said “closest to the rink”, thats because the genius engineers who constructed this rink did not “center” it on the football field, instead shifting it towards one end/side of the stadium.  

I’m eternally thankful I didn’t PURCHASE my tickets to this event.  The face value of each ticket was $30, and if the event was packed, and I had to sit in end-zone seats, on cold, muddy aluminum bleachers, with virtually no view of the rink I would have marched right into Jim Schoenfeld‘s office and shoved Ken Gernander up his ass.

We stayed for the first period to see the Whale score their first two goals, while begrudgingly trying to ignore the drunken antics throughout the stands, and the constant loop of the “Brass Bonanza”. Every college frat boy and his “bros” who scored free tickets were in attendance, because it was a place to get drunk and act like a fool.  Without an “XL Center” usher in sight, these fools had the green light to pretty much stand in front other ticket holders, shout obscenities, and unnecessarily bang on the bleachers with their metal crutches that seemed to serve no useful purpose other than to bang on the bleachers.

News reports after the game said that 21,600 tickets were sold, but roughly 15,000 people showed up for the game, which I find hard to believe.  There couldn’t have been more than 8,000 people in attendance.

Overall the game was a horrible experience, poorly executed, a logistical nightmare and if I were a top level executive at Harvest Properties, I wouldn’t want my company’s name associated with any aspect of Saturday’s calamity.  To the lingering Whaler fans, give up.  The Whalers are not coming back, they were the laughing stock of the NHL while they were in Hartford, barely eeking out a winning season in ’85, and getting obliterated in the other 3 post-season trips to follow.  Gary Bettman has already said that Hartford will not get another franchise, short of building a new arena.  Seriously, what team wants to play in an abandon shopping mall?

Howard Baldwin should tuck his tail between his legs and go back to producing films, and leave the memory of the Hartford Failures to be exactly that, a memory.

House & Crossover Dance Charts – February 2011

1. David Guetta ft. Rihanna – Who’s That Chick (Ajent Able Remix)
2. Britney Spears – Hold it Against Me (DJ Kue Remix)
3. Duck Sauce – Barbara Streisand (Afrojack Mix)
4. Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette – Hello (Michael Woods Remix)
5. Axwell ft. Errol Reid – Nothing But Love (Remode Mix)
6. Tim Berg – Seek Bromance (Avicii’s Vocal Mix)
7. Moguai & Westbam – Original Hardcore (Bass Kleph Mix)
8. Fedde Le Grande & Patric La Funk – Autosave (Original Mix)
9. Starkillers ft. Nadia Ali – Pressure (Original Mix)
10. Olav Basoski – New Day (Original Mix)

Hip-Hop & R&B Charts – February 2011

1. Wiz Khalifia – Black & Yellow
2. Lil Wayne ft Corey Gunz – 6 Foot 7 Foot
3. Rick Ross ft. Chrisette Michele – Aston Martin Music
4. Waka Flocka Flame ft. Roscoe Dash – No Hands
5. Kanye West – All of The Lights
6. Fabolous – You be Killin Em’
7. Eminem ft. Skylar Grey – I need a Doctor
8. Snoop Dogg – Sweat
9. Bruno Mars – Grenade
10. Jerimih ft. 50 Cent – Down On Me

Fedde Le Grand & Patric la Funk – Autosave (Original Mix)

Fedde Le Grand & Patric la Funk – Autosave (Original Mix)
My track of the week for Friday February 11, 2011

Moguai & Westbam – Original Hardcore (Bass Kleph Remix)

Moguai & Westbam – Original Hardcore (Bass Kleph Remix)
My track of the week for Friday February 4, 2011

Best Buy Extended Warranty (Product Replacement Plan)

There is one thing across the board that cripples businesses across the globe, consistency.  It’s true for all big businesses.  Have you ever tried getting a straight answer from Verizon, Comcast, or some other national company?  It’s impossible, and it’s impossible with Best Buy as well.

It’s a fact of the trade, most DJ’s use headphones, including me; and, like most DJ’s, I put my headphones through hell.  When I first start DJ’ing I found myself going through headphones like water.  Either blowing out drivers, or ripping the cords, or breaking the jack.  About 12 years ago another DJ turned me on to Radio Shack’s extended warranty program.  He told me that eventhough radio shack didn’t carry the best headphones, for $12-15 he could buy a 3 yr warranty and have them replaced any time, without question.  So, naturally, I went to Radio Shack and bought some headphones (with the warranty), and had no problem swapping those headphones out for a new pair when needed.

In 2008 Radio Shack amended their extended warranty so that you can only swap your broken product 1 time, thus eliminating the value that the extended warranty once provided.  Although $15 was much cheaper than paying $45-50 for a new pair of headphones, I wasn’t getting the mileage of swapping them 10 times that made it such a deal.  So when my last pair of Radio Shack headphones went down, I set out to find a company that had something similar to Radio Shack’s old extended warranty.

In November of 2009 I ventured into a Best Buy in Chicago, IL to see how the prices faired and what the warranties were like on a new pair of headphones.  Prices were fair on a pair of Sony MDR-V150 headphones, so I asked for the manager to clarify the warranty.  I spoke to the manager at length and made sure to ask him the very important details

• Most importantly, does the warranty allow for multiple replacements within the warranty period? (he answered yes)
• Does the warranty cover accidental damage such as rolling over the headphones with my desk chair (he answered yes, further going on to state that i could pretty much run over them with my car and they would still give me a new pair)
• Are there any other fees/costs associated with obtaining a replacement (he answered no, just make sure you have your original reciept)

At this point, I thought I was golden, so I completed my purchase of the headphones & warranty and left.

In early February 2010, I needed my first replacement, so I headed to Best Buy to have the swapped and I was in and out in 10 minutes, no questions asked.  ”Great”, I thought.  I’ve since swapped by headphones another 4 times, in various locations throughout the Chicago area and in Connecticut, therefore when I went to swap my headphones again the morning of February 5, 2011, I wasn’t expecting any problems.

I walked into the Best Buy in Meriden, CT around 2:45 and searched for the pair of headphones I needed, but I wasn’t able to find them on the shelf, there were none there, nor was there a space on the shelf for them.  I approached the customer service desk, explained my situation, and the employee behind the counter looked up the item and said he had them in stock in back.  He called for a manager, and about 5 minutes later a new pair of headphones appeared.  At this point I thought all was going well, little did I know it was about to go WAY downhill.

Four(4) Best Buy employees tried figure out how to do a PRP (Product Replacement Plan) exchange in their computer system, all of them failing at some point in the process.  Now 30 minutes have elapsed in a process that has never taken more than 10 at any other Best Buy, and I’m dealing with a 5th employee while the manager (Bob) looks on offering no help to his fledgling employees.  The 5th employee enters some information into the computer, including asking for my drivers license for the 19th time, then turns to me and says…

The Product Replacement Plan does not cover accidental damage.

I called bullshit on that one, citing what the previous manager had told me, and also citing my past experiences.  He left his post and went to discuss this with his manager and he comes back to tell me that it’s going to be $6.00 to replace my headphones, at this point I lost it.  I screamed at him, “for what??”, and again reminded him of my prior experiences.  He then told me that the product replacement agreement stipulates that after they replace the product once, their obligation under the agreement has been fulfilled.  So all 3 of my original questions when buying the plan were negated in 1 trip to Best Buy…nice.  After 45 minutes of dealing with complete incompetency, I really didn’t care to ever set foot in a Best Buy again.  I told the clerk and the manager that I had enough and I was going to take the new headphones and walk out, they told me they would have to call mall security to taze me if I did that, so I left without anything (including my license).

After leaving I called up a guy that I deal with at Guitar Center and told him my story, he said to bring in the receipts, the broken headphones, and he would honor what Best Buy wouldn’t.  I called the store manager (Bob) later that night, had a lengthy conversation with him about the PRP process, and told him that I would be coming back in the morning for what I left there, and Guitar Center, unlike Best Buy, actually cares about how they treat their customers.

I arrived back at Best Buy about 10 minutes before they opened their doors (11AM). Once they opened up, I walked in and was greeted by the same staff of imbeciles I dealt with the day before. I promptly asked for the store manager on duty, unfortunately Bob wasn’t working. The manager on duty told me that everything I needed was at mall security (YAY!), so I left Best Buy and headed through the mall.

Upon arriving at mall security, I informed the rent-a-cop at the window who I was, and asked for my things. He promptly retrieved a bag of items that contained my license, receipts, and a shiny box with a new pair of headphones, but before he handed them over he asked what happened in Best Buy the day before. A little taken back, I asked if he didn’t have access to the security tapes. He then said, “Don’t get smart with me.” So naturally, I did, and responded, “Listen Blart… Are you going to give me my stuff, or do I have to call a real cop to straighten things out?” I was soon walking out with my stuff in hand.

I looked carefully at the receipts after getting them back, along with a new exchange receipt, there was a ripped page from part of the PRP agreement stapled to it, with a part circled in pen that outlines that Best Buy’s obligation ends once they replace the item.  At the top of the page above the circled area, the agreement lists the items for which that agreement applies, and nowhere are “headphones” listed.

OK, I admin, a pretty long story with a melodramatic ending… we have learned a few things

• DJ’s should never buy headphones from Best Buy (Lesson learned)
• Mall Security Guards will take every opportunity to exert a power trip
• You can’t get a consistent answer from anybody in a large company

I’d love for Best Buy to elaborate on that last point….because there are still questions left unanswered.

• Would still love to see the policy that applies to “headphones” in writing…
• If Best Buy fulfills their obligation with the first replacement, why was it done a 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th time?
• Why did it take 5-6 employees, and well over 45 minutes to do a simple PRP?
• Why was there such a hassle, particularly over the replacement, if Best Buy was going to issue me a new set of headphones anyway.

I was also given a new receipt, which means when these headphones shit the bed, I can go back to Best Buy and exchange them again since my warranty contract doesnt expire until November of 2011. Please, somebody tell me why big corporations CANT get their shit together?

Jessie & The Toy Boys – Push It (2011)

Jessie & The Toy Boys – Push It (2011)
Ajent Able Remix
2011

Kaskade and Tiesto feat Haley – Only You (Manufactured Superstars and Jquintel Remix)

Kaskade and Tiesto feat Haley – Only You (Manufactured Superstars and Jquintel Remix)
My track of the week for Friday January 28, 2011