Disasters aren’t so bad. In fact…they are amazing.

Can we give a shout out to DJ Dizzaster for today’s sweat breaking beats. She came in like a tornado whipping us away in her bass thumping, body bumping tunes that started with the first song. We started the dance-a-thon-thon off swaying, carried it through with some swinging, some stomping, and ended it with some singing….for our beloved Jenn B who is bodacious and beautiful might I add. Yep, it will soon be her birthday, but she will not age..for she has Dance Dance Party Party to keep her young. That being said, DDPP would not be what it is without our amazingly talented DJ’s that put in their blood sweat and tears to make our feet and legs…and our sexy womanly thighs move to their fantabulous mixes. DJ Dizzaster did not disappoint. In fact, I wish I had dizzaster on my hands every day. Something to keep me going, challenge my body, and make me feel sensational…all in the company of some outstanding individuals. There’s a rare kind of companionship only found at DDPP. I felt it today. Thanks DJ Dizz. You da bomb..and I love your striped socks. Without further ado, snap crackle & pop to this mix below.

Blast from Bizzo Past

Fresh off a plane from Maui, Kiki Bizzo wasn’t tired of traveling. Oh no! She was primed and pumped (complete with pretty blue flower in hair!) to take on the role of DDPP tour guide…back…in… time. She whisked us away through her tune-age back to our hangin’ out with the ladies by the lockers days with LA gear sneakers and side ponies and slap bracelets galore.

This mix was so effective at this time jump that I had the wildest dreams/flashbacks last night of Mr. Beaver’s (no joke – that was his name) science class and performing a D.A.R.E. rap in spandex in front of my 5th grade class. (trauma time). But god damn! We loved it! She showed us how to develop and maintain our own prerogative and – how to have faith! Faith in our awkward years and how far we’ve come along since then (or not – in my case)! And above all – the lady made us S.W.E.A.T.! I haven’t been that winded in yonks! Sweet ass mix Bizzo! Good to have you back!

FYI: The Freaks (also) Come Out Mid-Afternoon

Spoonie Gee says “All Aboard!” (with his eyes)

Although she played no Journey, DJ Lalee took us on one. We started off on a raucous rock and rollercoaster and paused at the Cornershop for a smoke break. We then boarded the soul train – taking us up and over the mountains, through funk country and delivered us into a the mystical monastery of nun other than the women we worship – MIA, Bjork and Lil Mama (who let’s face it – delivered some big ol beats – 10 pounders!). After getting down to the three wise wonder women, we got deaky – freaky deaky. Although it was in the 60s and sunny out, it was night time in our cozy confines. And you betcha – the freaks in all of us came out for a hiyahello. But all the freakin makes a lady hungry – so we spread the monster jam on our toasty buns and called it a night. After all – good is good, no? Yes. Yes indeed. Thanks Lalee for this masterful earful!

Beautiful day; 13 beautiful ladies. Who says the #13 is bad luck? DJ Tanner was the luckiest lady in the house tonight.

Ladies, ladies, ladies. Jenn Martin, aka DJ Tanner was getting a little nervous when the clock struck 6:25 and not a lady was to be found on the dance floor. What’s a girl to do with her pink dancing shoes on, in a room of flashing lights, but no dancing partners? Don’t even think of the answer because you don’t have to. The ladies know that DDPP loves them and they all whipped through the door at 6:30. Thirteen beautiful and talented ladies..and they all had their dancin’ shoes on too. Woo hooo! DJ Tanner had the full house she knows and loves…only her house is not in San Francisco. She rocks Chicago, and she rocks it hard. Really hard (GUNTHER AND HIS TRA LA LA KNOW WHAT DJ TANNER IS TALKING ABOUT). She showed her ladies that she loved them (not to mention that she had to dance even harder because her number one lady was missing JB). We started the night out with Hey Baby. It was a way to say, “hey, I”m here, and I’m ready to dance my heart out”. We ended the night with Bitter Sweet Symphony because it was bitter when the dancing was over.

Are you kidding, THE DANCING IS NEVER OVER. We’ll see you in a couple of days or next week! Thanks ladies!!

Tasty Apple Pietunes

Oh dark under lord of the ipod universe? Why doth thou curse dear Lauri with your glitches and ticks and song skips and overall brutality? Why doth thou take our emotions and heart rates on a roller coaster without seat belts? Dark under lord – why do your armpits smell of turpentine? BE GONE UNDER LORD! STAND DOWN! WE ARE TOO STRONG! WE WILL NOT LET YOU WIN!

So…DJ Lauri Apple Pietunes served up her second piping hot sweet mix… and for the second time, the evil dark lord of technology tried getting it’s long grody fingers on a slice. But no no no! We wouldn’t have it! Our enthusiasm, chanting and sage burning rituals drove these spirits of the dark side out of the studio. One woman even broke out her leather and whip to chase these demon spirits from 4057 N Damen forevermore! (thank you for that extra protection!) So below, please find the playlist DJ Apple Pietunes wanted us to hear in its entirety. And much, much, much further below, please find that techno under lord of the dark universe and give him a kick in the shins for us. We thank you.

It’s Not Unusual To Have Fun With Everyone…

Do do do do, do do do do, do do do do do do do do … you wanna dance? Yes my friend, you certainly do. And so did everyone at the packed house of DDPP last night! DJ Jilly Bean brought us a magic bag of goodies with the perfect flavor for everyone! Soul, funk, rock, pop – she blended old classics, B-sides and crowd favorites. The Jenns were quite lucky Serge Gainsbourg wasn’t in attendance – they certainly would have been under arrest for their lava projector antics. Woah – and here’s a picture of Serge Gainsbourg after he tried their shenanigans in front of a lava projector! Ok – it was in front of a nice old lady. But still!?! We gotta be more careful!

So yes! Onto Jilly Bean’s fantastic play list! Check it out!

And FYI – Were DJ Jilly Bean to be a Jelly Bean, she would be a black one.

Introducing…THE CHICAGO DDPP SONG DATABASE (!!!)

Are you the type who wants to make sure NONE of your songs have ever been heard at Chicago DDPP before? Or are you the type looking for inspiration for your upcoming setlist? Or or or – are you just curious to see how many *$#!*& songs have been rocked in Chicago? Any way you cut it – we’ve got just the thing for you… ENTER THE DDPP SONG DATABASE

You can view it just like an excel file! Search alphabetically! By song title! Check out your favorite DJ!

Infinite love and gratitude to Karen Kane and Megan Krejny for coming up with the idea, typing in EVERY SINGLE SONG and TITLE and DJ and DATE and designing and upkeeping an online database for everyone to enjoy! BIG UPS. Thank you ladies!

FOR DJ’s: WANT TO ENTER IN YOUR SONGS? YES YOU DO!

DIRECTIONS:

To enter in songs, click the link on the left that reads, “DDPP_Chicago_Database Form”. You can enter the Playlist Date (a handy calendar will come up, just click the date), track number, song title, etc. Unless there’s something special you should add, leave notes field blank.

A word to ladies only submitting their screenshots: make sure that ALL of the song title and artist are showing! Some of my entries have … in them because iTunes cut them off.

For those just browsing, you can sort by Playlist date, Song Title, Artist, and/or DJ simply by clicking at the top of the appropriate column. There are also some filters that allow you to look at all of the playlists for a particular month.

Finally, you can export the data to a pdf, Excel spreadsheet, etc, just by clicking the ‘Export Data’ button. Have fun and THANK YOU!

Chromeo, Chromeo Wherefore Art Thou Chromeo?

Chromeo is right where he oughtta be – at DDPP…thanks to DJ Dinosaur. She ripped our sweat glands out of their sockets tonight and shook them till they bubbled over. If that sounds gross or painful, I assure you it was quite the opposite. Her mix was electro-hip-hop-ageous and we two-stepped our buns into the full afternoon sunlight with smiles all around. We took joy in the weekend, we found fun in the moves, but most of all – we celebrated the first proper Spring Sunday like it was the last we’ll ever see again. Tricky Chicago – we never feel safe now, do we?

So yes – you can blame it on the sunshine for my delirium/mania of the moment. Sunshine or exhaustion? Whatever the case – please forgive me. Music and sunshine are my anti-drugs, and I nearly overdosed today.

Thanks DJ Dinosaur – for rocking us out of the Stone Age and into the Spring of Our Big Content. Much love ladies – nice moves out there today.

She Wears Short Shorts

And her DJ name does, too! Caitlin – DJ Shorty Shorts – might have been at a loss for fabric, but she was long on hits. We had a great crowd last night despite the weather being closer to bearable than it’s been in oh…7 months or something. So thanks for not going out to find that one place with the outdoor patio bar open and instead getting your dance on. I’m sure your body was thanking you for it this morning.

Here’s the mix that made it 100 degrees in the studio…and made us all wish we had on short shorts, too.