Club scans bring questions about tattoo trends and answers about what DJs are really doing
Here are two things to think about when you go dayclubbing this season.
1. If you are a lady, go get yourself a side tattoo, similar to the one I saw scrawled upside a woman (“PISTOL” in pretty script) who was dancing Monday to Deadmau5 at Encore Beach Club.
“Side tattoos are the new tramp stamp,” my female dayclub-cohort (who is 20-something) informed me.
Then I looked around, and sure enough, there were women, well not everywhere, but here and there, whose big tats sagged down their sides, located in between their bikini tops and bottoms (or if you prefer, in between their briskets and shanks).
One woman’s side tattoo was the image of a big giant fork.
What the fork?
My friend pointed to a tramp stamp on the lower back of a woman in her 30s, who was standing next to a woman in her 20s, who was wearing a side tat.
In other words, is that the divide? Women in their 30s wear tramp stamps while women in their 20s cover their sides? I’ll go ask Darwin and let you know.
2. For you confused older people who don’t know this: DJs actually work and have musical talent.
Here, let me give it you in a FAQ answer. The most frequently asked question I field from people older than 25 is: How do fans differentiate DJs, since DJs don’t record original music but, rather, spin other people’s music?
OK, look, if that’s your question, you’re thinking about the DJ in “Saturday Night Fever,” the guy who spun records, and who (his name is Monte Rock III) lives in Vegas.
Things have changed.
People call them DJs because they do spin/program/modulate music from a DJ booth. Yes.
But DJs become famous for spending a lot of time recording their own hit songs and electronic dance music albums.
That is why I call them DJ-producers. (I coined that, right? I’m pretty sure I did. I don’t know. Maybe not. Who cares.)
I explained “DJ-producers” to my dad, and he asked why I don’t call them “composers.” Answer: Because we do not live in France circa Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 1993 film “Trois Couleurs: Bleu.”
No. We live in increasingly vapid and Daft Punk America, where the term “composer” lives locally at UNLV, The Smith Center, public radio and, ironically, the Daft Punk electro-orchestral soundtrack to “Tron: Legacy,” which is damn good.
But yes, DJ-producers compose music. Not only that, but many were classically trained pianists as kids. They produce their own songs. So like Quincy Jones (or like David Guetta, who started a new performance residency at Encore Beach Club last weekend), they write and produce very catchy hit songs.
But if it makes you feel better about yourself to badmouth talented DJs who make millions of people happy, knock yourself out. What’s America without a little willful ignorance?
Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com.
He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.