Who is Elona? Such an exotic, interesting name surely deserves a bit of explanation. From what I have learned, she is a multi-faceted, multi-talented Russian-American who lives in Chicago. She enjoys traveling, top 40 music, and Batman, to name a few. Most of all, she is a fantastic wife and mother of three energetic, well-raised children. With her 35th birthday celebration arriving soon, her personal assistant (and our client) Natalie chose Fig to digitally document and provide the music for her upcoming 35th birthday celebration. Were we ready to party? Do read on.
The first encounter with Elona occurred at her rtizy high-rise condominium in downtown Chicago. Four members of the Fig team—myself, my partner Emily, editor/videographer Melissa, and our producer Tim—visited with Elona and Natalie to talk about the big evening. To be perfectly honest, this young woman was certainly blessed with a sincere gift of gab: while I was planning to have a 45-minute meeting, she kept us going for over two hours! Seriously, I have never had so much enjoyment in a final meeting before. I knew that she was a rather wealthy, hard-working individual, but it was in this space where I got a sense of Elona's interior qualities: warm, down-to-earth, friendly, caring, and giving. It is not everyday that I meet people like this (but it would be great if it was!). For her big birthday party, we were responsible for live video recording, a Fig-produced Liquid History presentation, and a night of fun dancing music and karaoke. I could not be any more pleased to perform at this event.
The second day of December arrived in all its snowy, slushy splendor. I went into this gig excited. The South Gallery (dining room) of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum was decorated to the nines—and maybe tens—by the skilled team of Kehoe Design. Imagine walking into a predominantly purple landscape complete with bold lighting, translucent chairs, and flowers abound. "I feel like
shagging," I joked to my partner Emily, which was immediately followed by a exuberant "I'm just kidding!"
Teh-heh. Dinner stations provided by Limelight Catering were being set-up in the Gallery as well, where guests could satisfy their palate with potatoes, sushi, or freshly carved meat. We were set-up in the back of the room, complete with our screen, projector, deejay rig, and other equipment. The peculiarity of it all is that every single elecric device we had was running off multiple power strips powered by a single outlet. My goodness! Quick—what's the Russian word for "
oy vey?" Thankfully, everything powered on and no fuses were tripped.
Soh-lid, baby. Before the evening began, we all did a quick pep session with one another to clear our minds and get ourselves ready to perform. I was slightly anxious, as I wanted things to go super-well for Elona. It was her birthday, after all, and I did not want her to regret having us as a part of our celebration. I was sure that we were going to be stellar.
My nervousness shook off after a while. It was 15 minutes past seven in the evening, and there were not that many people downstairs. My ears and eyes focused towards the cocktail area, where I tried to see if people were enjoying my happy, jazzy mix that I compiled. Minutes continued to fly by like the little winged residents of the butterfly garden. At this time, the birthday girl was not present. When she arrived at twenty 'til eight, the team and I were ready. As soon as everyone entered the room and sat at their psychedelic rectangular tables, we introduced Elona and her husband-slash-escort Dmitry in with the butt-jiggling hit of yesteryear, Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious." That was so cool! Emily and I worked on the introduction together to make it as impactful as possible. Unfortunately, I did not inform lead videographer Melissa of her entrance, but she managed to get her on tape.
Le whew. It is unpleasant forgetting such an important factor—especially when it is one that I know not to forget.
Progressing forward, Elona and Dmitry stated their thank-you's to the audience and moved to their seats so that they and the entire room could enjoy the Liquid History (a short documentary on a person's life) that Melissa, Tim, and various other members of Fig created. Simply put, it was the highlight of the night. The team did an amazing job in composing this project, which featured Elona's husband and her three children engaging in their favorite activities, talking about what makes Elona special, and projecting their birthday wishes. My favorite part was a staged attempt of one of her daughters who walked out of the Michigan Avenue Van Cleef & Arpels with a small fortune of jewelry before being caught "little-red-handed" by a store guard. She ended her mini-skit with the line, "Whoops! Oh, well, mommy, I tried!" Precious to the max!
It was after the video that things were slightly going downhill for me. I was having a fun time playing lively jazz music, mostly selections from the
Cowboy Bebop soundtracks and such vocal greats like Mel Tormé and Kurt Elling. Our party coordinator for the evening, Angela, notified me that it was time to move into speeches. The first one was introduced well, but then I missed informing the first speech-giver instructions to pass the microphone to the next speaker (as I mistakenly thought that Angela was going to do it). That caused a very noticeable pause in the celebration. Eek. The rest of the speeches went very well, thankfully.
Afterwards, it was time for the "interim dance portion" of the night. In other words, this was the dance break that would come before the main dance period. It was tough for me to get the crowd moving, as the music I was playing was either "too old," "not upbeat" or "not modern enough." I tried everything from standards to Motown to a splash of 80s, but none of my selections seemed to work. I was asked to change the music about two or three times. The only people on the floor were Elona's precious children, who were doing a combination of running, dancing, and chasing each other. Later on, I figured out that the reason that the flowery floor was not full was for the reason that people were still eating and talking to one another. In other words, no one was ready to dance. Elementary, quite! I often get in that sticky trap of of starting dance music upon command instead of feeling out the crowd. The scene was discouraging, but I continued on.
The time came to bring out the cake and have Elona take her initial slice. It just so happened that people were on the dance floor before this event! Emily was a poly-energetic phenom, using her attractive personality trying to literally lift people out of their seats to dance. Rose Royce's "Car Wash" was her selection, and it generated a nicely-sized dance floor. I wanted to keep this going, but I could see Angela in the back of the room, giving me multiple signals to change the music so that the cake-cutting ceremony could begin. I did not feel right doing so, but I had to stay on the agenda. I faded out "Car Wash" and faded in Elona's choice for her cake song, 50 Cent's "In Da Club." It was almost like throwing a wrench to the gears of the ever-moving dance floor, but it had to be done. Elona came in behind her cake and danced as the music progressed. She prepared her slice, took her bite, and then grabbed the microphone to give her thanks to everyone. At that point, I knew it was now or never to get dancing going. I put on OutKast's "The Way You Move," and that kept Elona, Natalie, and a few other people on the floor…for a little while. I then went into a period when I would play a few songs in a genre and then move into another genre if something didn't work. The only thought that was going through my mind was, "What do these people want to hear?" I couldn't pull a
Ghost in the Shell and start talking to people within their minds—I had to keep playing. Once again, I did not notice that the crowd was focusing on their food and not the tunes. Another chance to give the crowd a nudge was when Elona's daughters wanted to present a special dance and birthday message to their mom. Yes! This would be a great chance to get a floor going. The girls performed a small dance routine to Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" that was quite adorable and well-lauded. Afterwards, they said a rather giggly message on the microphone, to which their mother came up and started to say another thank-you to her audience for coming to her party. I then moved into Fergie's "Fergalicious," which Elona enjoyed. Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man" followed, with a few other songs. That kept Elona on the floor for a while, before she left to go talk with her friends and loved ones some more. Everyone else was still in their seats, either eating, talking, or otherwise.
Well, maybe everyone's shoemarks were not imprinted on the smooth white dance floor, but there were some moments where I felt rather rewarded. I played Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" three times for Elona's children. Three. Whole. Times. To tell you the truth, that was actually enjoyable! I felt that I was catering to the kids well by letting them hear their favorite song. I also played a really nice steppin' set that included another Timberlake hit, "Rock Your Body," R. Kelly's "Step in the Name of Love," and the remix of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On." That actually got a few people up for a little while, which pleased me.
Sadly, there was no karaoke. I felt like getting on the mike and bawling out my deejay swan song as more people began to leave the room. As midnight struck, the party ended. I took time out to thank Dmitry, the kids, and Natalie for having us at their event. The birthday girl herself, Elona, was downstairs, and by the time we would be packed up and ready to go, I was sure that we would probably not have a chance to see her before we left. I felt great that the event had come to a close, but the fact that I did not have a chance to greet or even hold a small conversation with the person of honor did not put a restful feeling in my heart. Still, I packed up and kept a smile on my face, knowing that I did the best I could.
Overall, this was a very challenging gig for me. There was a very weird vibe that surrounded us all, emanating from a source I just could not identify. Whatever that was, it effected my performance and musical choices—that is, I kinda allowed it to. When I arrived home that night, I thought about all the things that I could have done better. For one thing, I could have done a better job being an emcee and making sure announcements were completed and people were informed about the events to come. I could have pushed for more dance music before cake cutting, and I could have also avoided the little gaps here and there by either getting on the microphone or doing something to keep the audience's interest. One of the things I am most proud of is my spirit: Throughout all the negativity that went on, I kept playing music and stayed the entire night all the way to the end. Anyone else would have given up, but I did not. That's the mark of a true deejay, not to mention a strong person. I felt I did a good job under quite dire circumstances, and I use this experience as a huge milestone-slash-learning point in my career. There will be more parties to come, and I'll surely be my best in the future. Maybe, if I'm lucky enough, "SexyBack" will be played
four times.
– Brent Rolland, resident deejay
Special thanks to Rick Aguilar, Limelight Catering, Kehoe Designs, and everyone at the Notebaert for their hard work and hospitality. Thank you for being a part of this night!
