Chances Dances

If there’s one thing that DJ Lady KStud knows how to do, it’s make a room full of ladies feel like a million dollar bill. She apparently also knows how to undersell herself. Like how she tried to tell us that she took a bunch of chances with this playlist and wasn’t sure anyone was going to like the sweet, sweet jams that she just, oh, I don’t know…happenedtothrowtogether.

Just one chance? KStud tried to tell us that she had ripped off that whole bottom row. But guess what her playlist REALLY turned out to be? A solid hour of slam dunks, that’s what! She ain’t foolin’ nobody! Any playlist that makes me remember how much I love Ja Rule and his raspy-ass voice is golden in my book.

Uhhhh…yeah. That’s right. Ja Rule just schooled you in how to live it up: wear a bathrobe at inappropriate times, regularly get champagne massages, and always keep a few extra condoms in your do rag. And to think that DJ Lady KStud tried to tell us she didn’t know exactly what she was doing…

KStud even took me back in time with her playlist by including a song that was played at the very first DDPP I ever attended! So allow me to take a moment and shed a single nostalgic tear…DDPP has changed my life. I feel so lucky to not only be a part of it, but also be one of the den mothers! And DJ Lady KStud, it’s all because of you. Thanks for bringing me along to that studio over 4 years ago. And thanks for continuing to always blow our eardrums out with your world-class mixes.

Less Than 4 Minutes to Save the World

I gotta say, DDPP-verse, I’ve really been loving the things that DJs have to say about their playlists lately. Wednesday night, when we asked our illustrious DJ OrangeCakeMix if she had any words for us, she made sure to let us know every single song was no longer than 4 minutes. (She also added that if we didn’t like a song, we wouldn’t have to endure it for long, but…come on. Let’s be real. I was wishing most of those songs were LONGER!)

DJ OrangeCakeMix was personally taking my brain and my body to all of my musical happy places…Beck…90′s Michael Jackson…THE VERONICA MARS THEME SONG!

Heaven really IS a place on Earth. And its name is DDPP.  But it didn’t stop there!! I can’t even begin to tell you how long I’ve been waiting for someone, anyone, to play Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” again so I could hit you all with these 2 nuggets of goodness. Exhibit A:

Aaaaaaaand Exhibit B.

I think we all know the lessons that we learned on Wednesday night.

1. DJ OrangeCakeMix puts together one hell of a playlist. (Even little girls dressed in sparkly neon clothes approve!)

2.  Veronica Mars never should have ended when it did. RIP.

3.. Hallo? HALLO? You must learn to love again!!! (AKA The Hairpin is hilarious.)

4. Seriously. DJ OrangeCakeMix puts together one hell of a playlist.

Thanks for the killer tunes!

We All Feel Good!!!!

When DJ Cake or Death said her playlist consisted of songs about feelings, it reminded us of those charts, the ones with pictures of faces and corresponding emotions.  They look something like this:

Poster available for purchase at http://www.feelingfacescards.com

There was one feeling that’s not on this chart.  That’s the feeling we all had after a sweaty hour with DJ Cake or Death’s mix.  Here it is:

What we were all feeling was GOOD!  As in, I FEEL GOOD!

I wish I could dance like that!  We all felt like we were in Heaven, Feeling Better than ever!  By the way, I was thrilled when everyone shouted “LEONARD BERNSTEIN!” during “It’s The End of the World As We Know It”!  I was afraid I was the only one waiting for that part of the song, but we were all *NSYNC.  OK, now I’m pushing it a bit, but you get the idea.

Thank you, DJ Cake or Death!  Because of this awesome mix, the next time someone asks me how I’m feeling, I’ll say, “I Feel…So…GOOD!”

You can’t stop the dancing…YOU JUST CAN’T!

First off, you ladies are amazing—simply & utterly amazing.  You will not let some minor electrical hiccups stop your need to move it, shake it & drop it.  It was amazing to see you all pitch in & sing the lyrics to a song while we den mothers tried to figure what was happening to the sound….thanks!  I bow down to your awesomeness…

Dj Amazing grace treated us to an evening of non-stop dance action…well, ok we had to stop a little to deal with the equipment, but otherwise it was non-stop.  Our lady up to bat says she likes to dabble in djing & that is her hobby…well, LIES I say…LIES!  She not only dabbles in it…she is great at it.  Dj Amazing Grace…indeed!

Don’t believe me?  Check the playlist here:

1. Im into you                                     Jennifer Lopez

2. Heartbeat                                       Childish Gambino

3. Someone Like You                      Adele ( remixed )

4.Proper Education                         Pink Floyd ( remixed)

5.Kryptonite                                       Three Doors Down

6.Closer                                                 Neyo

7.Loca People                                   Sak Noel

8.El Trago                                             2 in a Room

9. Schiebe                                           Lady Gaga

10. Shake it up                                    Selena Gomez

11.You make me feel good          Cobra Starship

12.Idealistic                                         Digitalism

13.Pause                                               Pit Bull

14. When I grow up                          Pussy Cat Dolls

15.Till the world ends                      Britney Spears

16. Like a Star                                     Corrine Ray Bailey

 

Screw Bella…Katniss 4 EVA!

Not:

YES: 

Come on let’s face the facts, if Bella Swan was selected for the Hunger Games…she’d be the 1st to go (you know that’s right).  When our new dj (what up dj LONESTAR!) said a little something about her mix…it went a little like this: “this is my playlist if Katniss was my girlfriend”.  Trust me it was a veritable love letter to one miss Katniss Everdeen.  From the beginning to the end to was beat after beat of declaring LoneStar’s undying love for one badass heroine and who can blame our dj?!?!  Cause check out the Girl on Fire…Oh & you want to talk about girls on fire?!?!?  It was like Bikram DDPP in the studio for this session (I don’t think I have ever sweat that much in my life–YOWZA!).  As we moved, shaked, jumped, jived & danced our butts off we generated so much heat that I am SHOCKED that the smoke detectors did not go off…thank you dj LoneStar.  Never before in DDPP history has literature & music been so perfectly blended…I mean every song harkened to Katniss & the Hunger Games–pure awesomeness.  Don’t believe me…check it here:

Now just for fun, try singing the Rihanna song this way:

Fun-fun-fun!

Oh, Internets, how do I begin to explain what happened on Wednesday night? Let’s start with a multiple choice question: Which of the following did NOT make an appearance during DJ U.N.I.T.Y.’s playlist? Was it a) a whisk, b) cherry flavored Jello, c) a superhero’s cape, or d) a straight jacket?

That’s right, Little Girl I’m Using to Represent The Internets in This Example, you SHOULD look confused, because the answer is actually e) NONE OF THE ABOVE!

 
Our beloved Den Mother Unity was determined to bring the fun on Wednesday, so she decided to bring it with her in the form of a bag of a props. Her “bag of fun,” she called it (because fun bags are something else entirely–yes I went there, sorrynotsorry). The woman we’ve come to count on to turn a wastebasket into a drum or a broom into a dance partner came ready to go with odds and ends to help her act out every song on her playlist. She did prop comedy, people! Just call her DJ Carrot Top!

 

 

(Because I definitely did–like five times–when I was hysterical with laughter watching her wave a flashlight around the room or march around like a superhero.)

 

 

And her list of props:

#1 Xylophone / #2 Post-it hearts / #3 Ukulele / #4 Bridal Veil & fake microphone / #5 Bowl & Whisk / #6 Friends DVD / #7 Lollipop / #8 Tutu / #9 Dice / #10 Board game LIFE / #11 Flashlight / #12 White shirt to act as straight jacket / #13 Jell-O / #14 Pom Poms / #15 Red cape & Wonder Woman doll

 

Unity, you ALWAYS bring the fun to DDPP, but if your goal was to make us dance just that much crazier, sweat that much harder and smile that much brighter, you should really give yourself a pat on the back. Here, I’ve even got the designs for a prop to help you with that!

 

 

Wack Ass Beats

Sometimes us den mothers ask the DJ if there’s anything they want to tell us about their playlist before we start dancing. I personally can almost never come up with anything at all. But our TWO DJs last Wednesday were more than ready with their intro: “We got wack ass beats!” I loved the short, sweet, and sassy endorsement- and while their mix proved to be long on sass as well, it was anything but short and sweet! First-time duo DJ Cookie Jugs and DJ Buttsy Deluxe gave us our first-ever Spotify playlist and left us no choice but to get down n’ dirty for the whooooole hour!

Artist's rendering of our DJs

The dazzling DJ duo showed up what  playlist teamwork can accomplish, and we showed them our fancy footwork AND how to do the humpty dance…maybe…if it involves looking like a horny zombie. You don’t have to ask US twice if we wanna dance! And here’s the playlist that inspired it all:

Brazilian Girls – Don’t Stop
Chromeo – Fancy Footwork
Mayer Hawthorne – No Strings (DJ Jazzy Jeff Roller Boogie Remix)
Ramones – Do You Wanna Dance – Remastered Album Version
Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance
Jamiroquai – Cosmic Girl
Robyn – Dancing On My Own
Missy Elliott – Shake Your Pom Pom
Crystal Waters – 100% Pure Love
Janet Jackson – Rhythm Nation – Single Edit with Pledge
Electric Light Orchestra – Turn To Stone
KC & The Sunshine Band – Boogie Shoes
Marvin Gaye – Got To Give It Up – Album Edit
Toots and the Maytals – Pressure Drop – Original

I know whenever I hear “Shake Your Pom Pom,” I immediately think of one of the greatest movies of all time, “Step Up 2: The Streets.” Duh. And since the dance practice montage that features that very song doesn’t exist on YouTube (trust me, I TRIED), I leave you all with the final dance scene instead:

DJs Cookie Jugs and Buttsy Deluxe, you served us a deluxe helping of mid-week happiness!

Dirty Dancing with DJ VulGeraghty

As a DDPP Den Mother, I sometimes feel the added pressure to really keep the party hyped and make sure everyone in the room is having a good time. It’s like being the hostess of a party, or a little bit like in Dirty Dancing when Johnny and Penny come out and do the Mambo at the club, to make sure everyone’s up and dancing.

Today, however, it was me who was trying to keep up with all of you INCREDIBLE gals! I mean, WOW, I was overwhelmed by your enthusiasm, spirit, and freaking amazing moves!!! We were certainly not at the resort anymore, this was full on staff cabin dancing! You all know the scene I’m talking about, but I’ll post it here anyway… watch me now!

I looked around during this song and not a single person looked like they were carrying a watermelon. You know a playlist is good when a newbie “tumbles to the ground” on purpose during I Think We’re Alone Now and we see some sweet Kid ‘n Play footwork during Motownphilly. It was awesome!

Thanks for this fantastic mix DJ VulGeraghty! I…. wait for it…. waaaaaaaait for it…….. had the time of my life!

The Dream of the 90′s…

…is alive in DDPP, you guys! Thanks to DJ White Castle, we all spent last Wednesday night enjoying a stroll down Memory Lane–addresses 1990 to 1999, to be exact.

Although I think “stroll” is probably a bit too casual a term for what we were doing that night, as our DJ seemed bound and determined to have us heading to the left, to the left, and then to the right, and the right, and then to the front, to the front, the back, the back…you get the idea. She Tootsie Rolled us, you guys! Surely we can make that a new Internet meme at LEAST as popular as, you know, that other one.

But that was hardly the only trick DJ White Castle had up her sleeve. Before 60 minutes were up, she’d made us feel too sexy for our shirts, taught us that the Humpty Dance is something not too dissimilar from a dance-seizure, and ensured that we would all have the Perculator stuck in our head for the next several days. If it takes two to make a thing go right, DJ, I guess we have THESE GUYS to thank for your awesome mix.

Can’t wait to see you do it again real soon!

DJ Medusa will turn you to the opposite of stone!

We all know the legend of Medussssssssssssa, (see what I did there, extra s’s for all those ssssssssnakes) take one look into her eyes and you’ll be turned to stone. Yipes! So when DJ Medusa unveiled her playlist on Sunday, we had cause to worry. Would these be statue-inducing dirges? Would we be smote if we did dance? Would the studio be filled with a menagerie of statuettes as we gazed upon our DJ?

Thankfully, the answer to those questions was no, no, and NO! HOORAY! Turns out the lovely DJ Medusa didn’t bring any snakes in her hair, though their may have been a few in her arms.

shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers… it’s mesmerizing…

Also, it was her birthday! And she made us the OPPOSITE of statues with her inspiring playlist. Yea, I said inspiring. Lots of “you go girl!” moments in the mix, Fiona Apple and Destiny’s Child will do that to you.

Thanks for an awesome Sunday, DJ Medusa! Thanks for spending your birthday with us! (Oh, and not turning us into stone!)