Ophidia Studio is owned and ran by my friends Allison and James. They have classes in Pole dancing, Zumba, burlesque dancing and others with an emphasis on fitness. The event was to show off the dancing skills of their instructors and students. Plus, they used this opportunity to announce the new class they’re offering, Aerial Yoga.

I mixed some house music before, after and between dancing events. Everything went very smoothly and I believe it was a great success. All of the dancers were really awesome and we all had a great time. I would like to thanks Allison, James and everyone else at Ophidia Studio for giving me this great opportunity.

The idea is, as described by the originator and co-choreographer of the dance, Janelle Wilson: What if a bunch of people get together and suddenly start doing the same dance, like they do in musicals.

Janelle also created the music mix, which includes popular 90′s songs Vogue (Madonna), Everybody Dance Now (C+C Music Factory), Ice Ice Baby (Vanilla Ice) and Rhythm Nation (Janet Jackson). We have been rehearsing for this for about a month now. I am so glad I got involved with this and this will be a happy memory for me for a long time to come.

Thanks to Janelle, the  Modern Hotel and Bar and everyone else who came together to make this thing happen.

A couple of  highlights:

• A great version of the Fratellis’ Henrietta. This is one case where I have become interested in a band based on a listening to the Naughties.
• A medelly of the Teddybears’ Punkrocker and Dead Kennedys’ Too Drunk to Fuck.

It’s astounding how people are so surprised at my age when I tell them. However, it is true that I am 40 as of yesterday.

To celebrate, I went to my favorite bar on Sunday night, Club 44 for some karaoke with a few of my friends. I sang some songs and had a great time. When midnight came around, I was treated to the 44′s birthday tradition. That is to say, a blow job shot held between the legs of…well…someone. In my case, my friend Kristal graciously volunteered. The idea is to grab the shot glass with your mouth without using your hands at all. I’ve seen many people fail at this, so I was a little concerned when it was my turn. I didn’t want to spill the shot all over Kristal.

However, I got my mouth around the shot glass and drank it down like a champ! I stayed out a little too late, but I really enjoyed myself that night and was only mildly tired at work the next day.

After work, I came home for a quick dinner and then went to rehearsal for the dance Flash Mob I’m going to participate in. This rehearsal was at the Eagle Performing Arts Center in Eagle, Idaho. I was a little late getting there, because my phone’s navigation wasn’t being very nice to me. I finally found the place and had a good rehearsal. It was really hot in the rehearsal space, so I got a good sweat going.

After that, I spent the rest of my birthday relaxing at home.

The real party is going to happen next Sunday. We’re combining my birthday celebration with my friends Larz, Jeran and Chris who were all born around the same time.

Also, coming up this week:

Tomorrow: Chaos Contest at Fatty’s. This is an improv game show hosted by my friend Janelle. I have decided to be a contestant, so it should be fun. I’m not sure what to expect, so I’m a little nervous but excited.

Thursday: The usual. The Naughties performing at Tom Graineys. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again! I love this band. They always provide a great time and I have fun whenever I go to their shows.

To leave you, here is the latest mix my boy Apollo Lee recorded for my birthday. It is a great mix. If you look closely at the tracklist, you might see a secret message.

So, I get dressed and drive to DT Boise as quickly as possible. Some of my friends were already there, so I pull up a chair and we hang around. Before too long, the band sets up and they start playing. It was a short 6 or 7 song set. The highlight of the set was the final song which he freestyled. The drummer asked Donald what he wanted, and he started beatboxing a beat, and the band just joins in. Donald then drops an awesome freestyle. Afterword, I got the chance to to say Hi and tell him that it was awesome.

I love that this happened. This is exactly what makes Twitter such an awesome social tool. Before I had Twitter, I would never have noticed that something like this was happening.

Last week, I started taking a hip hop dance class taught by my friend @Triana33. The class is held every Thursday at 7PM MST at Heirloom Dance Studio. The cost of each lesson is a very reasonable $10.  I’m not particularly good at it yet, but it is a lot of fun and good exercise.

The above video is the combo we learned yesterday.  It is difficult, but a lot of fun. The song is Pro Nails (Rusko Remix) by Kid Sister.

I hurt today.

This is the first track I have completed since I upgraded to Reason 5.0/Record 1.5 last year.  It took me a while to get a handle on the new workflow.

The Propellerheads created a thing they call “Blocks”.  Each block is essentially a loop in which you build all of the sections of your song (drums, synth, FX, etc.) You can create as many blocks as you need and name them to remind you what they are.

Then when you build out your track, it’s a matter of just drawing in each block section where you want it to start and finish.  Now here’s the good part.  You can use the mute tool to mute parts of each section within the block.  You can also add a different loop right over the part within the block.  This is very handy for when you want to make quick changes.

So, for example, you’ve created the main body section of your track.  In it, you have a synth that runs throughout.  You decide you want to mute that synth for a measure, then drop in a solo using the same instrument. You simply mute that synth where you don’t want to hear it, then drop a loop on top of the muted section with your solo.

Now that I’ve had a chance to work with it, it is a very efficient way of building up a track.  It makes working with Reason a lot more fun (and I found it fun to begin with).

Genre: Electro-House
Tempo: 131 BPM

I wrote this track this evening. The name was inspired by a series of zombie apocalypse dreams I’ve periodically had over the last couple of years. I had one of them last night, so I thought it was appropriate. Special thanks to @brandiglam for helping me get past my songwriters-block.