Mt Madonna had wonderful graduation ceremony at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy for class of 23. We have done the last 4 celebrations but we did take two years off from Covid. Mt. Maddonna is so awesome to work with since they give us the schedule so its so easy to follow.  The amphitheater is a beautiful spot to hold a graduation. All you  need is two speakers to reach the whole audience.  The city runs the facility and all we do is make a phone call to get them to open up the  power  for us. It is nice to have that support. Such a beautiful place to walk the stage, grab a diploma, and share memories with loved ones! We provided the microphones, music and sound and made it memorable! We played a little background music as people settled in, the main song was Pomp and circumstance as the graduates walk in, rise up by Andrea day played in the back as students got up and shared a rose with someone who supported then along the way. Tomorrows people by Ziggy Marley played after every graduate had received their diploma. Final hits at the end of the day that were played were Celebration by Kool and the Gang can’t stop the feeling by Justin Timberlake, Firework by Katy Perry, Congratulations by Post Malone, 24K Magic by Bruno Mars, and many more fun songs were played that day. Congratulations to the Class of 2023!

We had a call to do a big corporate event in Sunnyvale.  I asked them how many people will be present and they said their should be close to 1000 folks. We made sure we had plenty of sound that day. There was also a Band Playing. We were in charge of making announcements.  The big worry was to figure out where the stage was since it was a huge campus but it was easy to find and the staff made it easily accessible. They had not had a big event like this in years

Company hosted an amazing family day event for their employees and family, which was a pleasure for me to be part of. As much is 10 different food trucks, beautiful, car show, robotics presentations, and Chicago style stepping dance show that was hosted by one of their employees. Guest of all ages we’re all over enjoying good food and great music. I was happy to receive amount of compliments for providing music from the 70s and 80s dance and funk. Some hits enjoyed. Include the song requested by a guest “get up Offa that Thing by James Brown, September, by Earth, Wind and Fire, Billie, Jean, by Michael Jackson, Girls Just Wanna have Fun by Cyndi Lauper Dancing Queen by ABBA and tainted love by Soft Cell. The game plan was to have music from little kids to 70 year olds. We had to get really popular music ranging from 70s to current times.

  When I first started learning how to spin music it was from records. Boy, it was not cheap. It was an expensive hobby and most people would go to cd then later to mp3.

I am proud that I learned how to spin off vinyl. We had to learn how to mix by ear which is a lost art. Now a day’s people just use the sync button which makes it easier to match beats.

But one of the most therapeutic time we had as djs was going through records and talking with the record store employees about the dj events or anything dj related.

  Right now if you google San Jose dj and look at the top 3 searches under the google businesses you will see Elite Entertainment, Black and White Affair, and Knight Sounds. Elite is a multi op who is the busiest dj business in San Jose. BWADj is who I am. And Knight Sounds is a record store slash dj business. I spent many hours talking with Carlos Diaz the owner of Knight Sounds and he was a master when it came to the old tracks and talking about gear. He was a mentor to me and pretty much anyone who from the Bay Area knew about Carlos and his store. He would have turntable stations so you can hear the track before you bought it.  Most stores are small but this store was big enough to be lost for hours. There were hours and hours of good old school music. As Carlos said, Vinyl never crashes. Feel Free to call Black and White Affair for our all vinyl dj set.

 Two weeks before the prom the school mentioned that they wanted silent disco in the patio area. We have done silent disco before but mentioned we do not own the gear but we know how to set it up. I gave the director a suggestion of a company we used. The cool thing about these companies is they send the silent disco gear by mail and then you send it back. It took a week to confirm that they were going to confirm with the silent disco event. I had a dj in the main room rocking with 4 speakers and one dj rocking the patio rocking with 0 speakers. The cool thing about silent disco you can have 1 to 3 djs in the same area mixing music while the party folks have 3 options of what mixes they want to  listen to. Also you do not have the neighbors complaining about the noise from the bass since it comes through the head phones. Plus, Silent disco is an awesome experience. You can select the type of music you want and can control the volume of it so you don’t have to worry about your eardrums blowing out. For this party we had a dj spinning live in the patio and we had two different kinds of genres playing on the other channels.  We had Latin music playing on one channel like cumbia and  reggaeton and the other channel had pop songs that are good to sing a long with.

  Taking on a prom is no easy task.  Prom is one of the most monumental events in a young person’s life so we try to make it as memorable as possible. We have to make sure we bring as much sound and get the playlist ready for the big night. Every prom is different since some have dinner included while some just have the dance component. With dinner proms, there is less stress since we don’t have to play hit after hit but rather calmer music. When it’s the dance part of the night we like to quick mix to help build energy.

We were picked to play at Corinthian on 3rd street in San Jose. We did a prom there in February so we were familiar with the location. The activities director was great. She supplied us with the map and was really easy to get a hold of. The school provided us with a playlist. These are the songs that stood out. We try to play as many songs as we can from their playlist since every event is a custom event. Since we have been playing at many proms we keep the songs close by that were hits in the other dances. They requested a lot of hip hop and pop. They gave a good amount of songs around 80 to work from. Students were able to request some songs they were not on the list and we tried to play as much of their songs as possible.

How do you set up a Sweet 16 Party?

I got a call month ago and the mom had no idea where to start. She did not have a venue so I gave her some suggestions. We could not book the dj yet since the date was not set in stone.

Once she found her location then we can talk about scheduling the events of the day. We were able to jump on the phone and figure out what events would fit on the special day. s

 We had a great party with a young lady with all her 130 guests in South San Jose. The party started at 4 and it went to 10. It was a good amount of time to celebrate the birthday. For the first hour and the half we played background music while folks had appetizers. Dinner was served and mom arranged a surprise by having a singer sing for 20 minutes at the end of dinner. After dinner, then it was open dance time with salsa and cumbia music as the main music of the hour. Then it was cake cutting time and then it was the major event time! Special people in the birthdays girl’s life were invited to the front. Mother did the shoe exchange and the brother brought a ring then later danced with the birthday girl. The birthday girl later danced with her step dance then it was open dancing. Open dancing was fueled banda, rock en espanol and it was instructed that most of the music will be Mexican music.

In 2016, we did a fun sweet 16 party in Morgan Hill. They were an awesome family and I remember how awesome hosts they were.  They made sure we had food which was so nice of them. We played in  heir spacious home and the set up was in the garage but we had a 3rd speaker in the outside. Then 7 years later, the family calls me up to do a monumental 90th birthday party.  This was an exciting event because we know Dad is 90 years old and can still dance up a storm. This time we took the party up North from the Morgan Hill Area to Half Moon Bay.

It doesn’t matter if your turning 10, 21 ,40, or even 90! We received a fun playlist from the family to make you to make you move! In this case it was a 90th b day party.  In the beginning it was a relaxed setting at first while the guests were having dinner and drinks, and out of nowhere, everyone rushes to the dance floor as soon as they hear that first dance hit of the night. This song that hit so hard was no other than 50 cents in da club (its your birthday) song. And of course the birthday man himself dancing away like he’s only 30, the night continued on till the very last second with the nights top hits mambo italiano by Dean Martin, Yeah-Usher, Titi me Prengunto-Bad Bunny, Cupid Shuffle-Cupid, and Cha cha Slide!

This was a truly fun party because of the fun music and the energy of the birthday boy.

Right off the 101, south of San Jose is a great spot to throw an High School Event in the lovely town of Morgan Hill. Coyote creek golf course has a nice venue with semi- outdoor covered area! It would be an ideal place to throw an event in the warm months of the year. It is a nice place to have a prom. It had a wonderful view of the course and meadow!  I was speaking with the coordinator of the dance and she was worried about the playlist. Her last dj was not following the playlist that she told him that they would like. We made sure we got all the songs they  wanted and built on what they requested. We just don’t rely on their selection but we add songs that would go with the flow. Tj Williams (A Gilroy High School) students knew just how to have a good time with variety of music including top hits of the night Baby-Justin Bieber, I just Wanna Rock-Lil Uzi Vert, Payaso del Rodeo ( again),  Low-Flo rida , and Hotel Room- Pitbull. As the night had reached its end, people did not want to leave. High School students still surprise me and inspire me with their choice of classic dance songs.  It proves that good music never dies.