Da High

For about a year, the buildup to the final boys basketball game between the Saginaw High Trojans (The High) and Arthur Hill Lumberjacks (The Hill) had been approaching. For some reason I never contemplated that The High could lose the game. As I checked in on FB live streams to get score updates and it was clear that we would lose to our cross-town rival, I was able to shrug it off without much feeling, taking the opportunity to lament the eternal bragging rights yielded to my many friends who attended Arthur Hill. Having repressed the pettiness I felt over the loss, I was over the moon to find out that the two schools would meet again for ultimate final bragging rights… ending the season of the other team and advancing to the regional finals of the playoffs.

Of course I’m hoping that The High avenges its last loss to The Hill and the tide shifts to eternal bragging rights on our side. Yet, the feeling of sadness that the rivalry is coming to an end has finally set in. In 1996, we won the state championship with a full-court pressing, three point shooting David slaying Goliath team, led by Coach Marshall Thomas. Arthur Hill had us down by three with seconds left, and a missed free throw opened the door to the tournament run. I’ve played sports at the highest level and I still declare that was the greatest team I ever played on.

Interestingly, when I double click on the emotions that this final game is bringing up, it’s more about everything EXCEPT the actual game that made it special. Let me explain.

To attend a Saginaw High basketball game was like a concert, pep rally, fashion fair, Def Comedy Jam and a Yay Area sideshow with some hoops in the middle. You could get the best tacos in town out of a little closet in the hallway closest to the home bench. It was damn near 100 degrees in the gym with people packed in shoulder to shoulder, and every single shot that left a player’s hand made the crowd go, “aaaaaahh oooop!” I hope that energy stands with the new combined school.

I hopped on the turntables to do a quick ode to the the atmosphere that prepped me for the big stage.

Da High.mp3

The first three songs are a tribute to the Mighty Marchin’ Trojans. They would always get us hyped up for the layup line. These are three songs that I’d want to hear them play to show their skills, and get me warmed up.

The next short track is an interlude to shout out the cheerleaders from The High. This was not your average “Go-Team-Fight” squad. They were like a train of line-sisters strolling the courtside giving props to our team while dissing the competition.

The next three tracks are an homage to the crowd at the games. They are songs from three different eras, but the scene is very vivid (in my head) how the Trojan crowd would have danced to each one of these songs during their respective eras.

The last track is the song for the strip. This one would have been bumping out of a chromed-out box-Chevy with rims bigger than the wheel wells.

Regardless of the outcome of the game, YOU SHOULDA BEEN A TROJAN!

Pursuit of Happy(i)ness

This is a picture from my first ever live club gig.  Up until this point, I had only spun in my dorm room and at a handful of house parties.  To make this milestone even more tricky, I had never actually felt a vinyl record slide across my fingers outside of a few tutorials from DJ Pete Avila (I taught myself to DJ on Pioneer CDJs) and I was now tasked with setting the vibe in the front room of a Big Game after-party (see flyer below).

Let’s hop back to the day leading up to this event.  On Friday, November 30th, 2007 at around 4pm I was ready to get my weekend started.  I was eager to attend Big Game, reunite with friends and cheer my team on as they attempted to reclaim The Axe from our rival UC Berkeley.  As I packed up my bags, a VP peeked into my office and informed me of a deal that we were bidding on and noted that he wanted me to be the associate on the deal team.  We needed to perform due diligence and make a competitive bid within the week; and so started the longest month of my entire life. 

On Saturday, December 1st, I roll out of my Oakland apartment and get geared up in my alma mater’s swag, but I’m not heading to Palo Alto.  I’m heading into the office to learn everything I can about the US coal industry.  I proceeded to work from close to 9am - 3pm doing research, typing memos, making charts, etc.  A friend scoops me up from the office on his way down to Palo Alto where I proceed to watch all but the final five minutes of the game…why? Because, I had to get on the train back to SF to open my set for the after party.  But first, I spent about 45 minutes in the office trying to bang out my portion of an investment thesis on Powder River Basin coal.

Once showtime hit I was nervous as all hell…more nervous that I had ever been playing football in front of tens of thousands of people.  I was not the main DJ, but was commissioned to set the vibe for the front room.  I hadn’t yet figured out how to record my live sets, but a few of the transitions I made that evening can be found in this mix I recorded about a month later - 

Front Room Vibe Mix

The feedback from this gig was all the motivation I needed to continue to pursue DJing and started a consistent run of gigs in SF bars and clubs through the mid-late ‘00s.

After collecting my fee, I arrived back home in the East Bay at close to 4am, slept for three hours, and proceeded back to the office in SF.  Up until the week of Christmas, I stayed in the office until 2am daily and earned a right of passage for sleeping under my desk rather than returning home one evening, which led me to the conclusion that this was not the life I wanted to lead.  Having a job that provided me with the flexibility to enjoy additional pursuits had proven to be very important to me, and after Dec 1st it was confirmed that I LOVED to DJ in front of live audiences.  

Fast forward to today as I carted my turntables and mixer down to a basement storage locker, my priorities have obviously changed.  I have changed to a job that affords me with time for a life outside of the office, but the beat-matching, cutting and scratching has been replaced with diaper changes, picnics and weekend planning.  I can honestly say that I’ve never been more happy and I owe that to my lovely wife and our amazing son.  

Child Development

The first time I saw this, I thought of some people my own age that might not be able to read these cards. 

Kudos to this mom and the lil guy for the reminder that reading is fundamental. Lil man also has some mean dexterity when it comes to flipping through cards and rearranging them right-side-up! Being parents who both graduated from Stanford, we fully expect that our child will be in the right tail of the intelligence normal distribution, but this kid may be performing surgery by the time he’s in middle school.  

Raising a family in the San Francisco Bay Area there are definitely a lot of comparisons of children among parents. Whether it’s what college they got into, how many goals they scored in their travel soccer leagues, or even early child development (like when they started walking), parents love to assign self-attribution their their kids successes/milestones.  Though I can only aspire not get caught up in the child-accolades arms race, I do vow to pepper any children in our house with some real life teachings, Cliff Huxtable-style.

For now, I’m looking forward to enjoying my son’s milestones whether they are “on time” or a little behind.  To make things fun, I dropped a mix that I hope will inspire him to learn to count.  I hope my true music-heads can identify the songs and their significance (Shazam allowed).

                                             COUNT TO TEN MIX

We’ll follow this one up with multivariable calculus ;-)