Dutch apple, huh? Planning any Denver visits anytime soon? My kitchen is yours! LOL

There is a certain mystique to “being underground,” and perhaps certain benefits to it as well I suppose. But you hit the nail straight-on when you mentioned creating a living from our bliss.

It’s the reality of our world that we need money to handle life needs, so for the majority of us who lack a sugar daddy, we’re following our bliss in our off hours and funding trips to Las Vegas for dance summits from the money we make at our day jobs.

It could be worse; I know some people who don’t seem to have identified a bliss in their lives to follow. But it pains me that talented and passionate people can rarely live it 24/7 without calling the local YMCA “home.”

But enough “identifying the problem” for now.

I’m intrigued by the idea of using a virtual world like Second Life to brainstorm and collaborate. Let me give this some additional thought, and circle-back directly. Interesting idea indeed.

Awesome to meet you in-person, finally… Keep following your bliss, baby, whenever and however you can.

Much love back at ya, Wes.

Phew…. What a read… what a reality check… such powerful words… yet we still are in need of more solutions! I make a delicious lemon meringue pie! Lol! Dutch apple and cherry too…

Egos can be large and overwhelming, and even as one who strives to release myself of such entrapments, I’ve been as catty as the rest of the girls when I’ve felt threatened. Definitely getting “our” music out there to as many ears as possible is an excellent solution to supporting the genre of popular dance music, yet there are those who would very much like to keep the underground sound just that… underground. How can we share our passion with others? Reach new listeners? Create our livings from our bliss? Certainly people who pride themselves in being “snobs” are not paving the way. There IS a lot of room on the bottom, but there is a heck of a lot more room on top!!!

I was grateful to have an excuse to come together and meet more fabulous, amazing, innovative and inspirational people such as your fine self, and am eagerly anticipating another opportunity for such meeting of minds. I look forward to it, wherever and whenever it may be! In the mean time, perhaps we can begin formulating our own Second Life conference… where we could organize different speakers from around the world to share there successes and also what their solutions may be to our taking over the world. Heh-heh-hee…
Just a thought…

Light and love
Miss Rikah

You nailed it dead-on… You and Jennifer, Jacinta, Ohsha Kai, the Perry Twins, Rikah, Cary August, and others are so passionate, so positive, and so upbeat. It’s a real treat to commune with people who seem to ooze that positive energy from their pores. I need more of that in my life, and way less of the pissing and moaning and infighting for every scrap of this or that.

Don’t get me wrong; I see the same industry challenges everyone else does, and I don’t have the magic bullet answer here beyond what we’ve both said… Focus, determination, lots of effort, and I think above all, cooperation. And as I sort of suggested in the original post, “cooperation” doesn’t necessarily have to be anything beyond a belief that just because “you win” doesn’t mean “I lose” (or vice-versa).

Something I didn’t mention is that outside of DJ’ing (which is generally to people who already appreciate the music), I work hard to expose other people to dance music day-to-day. It’s what I play on my iPod, it’s what I play on my PC at the office, it’s what I talk about, and it’s the subject when I say, “Hey, you’ve GOT to hear this!”

Not everyone is going to like it. Not everyone who does like it will like house; they may prefer trance or some other sub-genre (or vice-versa). That’s cool. But if commercial radio isn’t playing it, and you don’t have a satellite radio to hear it, and you don’t go to clubs, how else is it going to happen? I hate war metaphors, but for lack of anything more creative, this is hand-to-hand combat; it’s a lot of work, and the pay sucks. But like those road construction signs say, “Temporary inconvenience, long-term benefits.”

In the meantime, I’m cool with being a part of the underground as well, especially when I’m here with fine folk like you and the others I listed -– as well as countless others that I’m sure are out there and haven’t met yet. Together, let’s make it happen.

Thanks for the blog comment.

Wes.