On a Saturday night in May I drove to Ventura to see the opening exhibit by photographer friend Schaf at the new temporary location of the Museum of Ventura County. Great new location and great inrared photographs. All film and wet darkroom stuff of legend. I myself was carrying a new digital infrared Canon G9. The streets were packed so I parked in the parking structure. I had to drive to the very top to find a spot. As I walked down the steps heard and saw a group of digital DJs playing in the lot in back of Wild Planet. It must have been the end of their set as I was the only person standing in front of their laptops and turntable. I got listening and talking to the person I photographed above. Deafender (aka DNG) I have been listening to all kinds of digital music for a while but do not get out to see any of it performed live. I was rapt. Three guys were hunched over their laptops and one was scratching an old ska album on the Monument label. He was cross fading beats with his other hand. I started asking questions and Deafender helped me out with some tips. He gave me the address of his web site. I asked where the beats were coming from and he told me that all of the laptopists were using Ableton Live. I visited their site and downloaded the trial version. I’m having fun with it. I’ll lend up buying the full version after I return from my trip to Cuba and start working on learning it on my Mac G4.
