I've been known for making some not great choices in life.
Take, for instance, the year I spent at the University of Maryland back around the turn of the millenium. I transferred in, all full of piss and vinegar, ready to "forge my own path" by moving from north of Baltimore to north of DC. I broke up with a girl who I think genuinely loved me, left a town where I could probably be described as a big fish, and moved to a place where I knew no one...all because they had a college radio station where I could DJ at 6 in the morning. In retrospect, it's a miracle I made it 9 months before crawling back to Bel Air.
I did meet a bunch of cool people, though. Like Dave Villegas, who was in a couple of great punk bands when I met him and was as close to a welcome wagon during my time in College Park. We'd run into each other on the regular even after I moved back above Charm City, whether at house shows or at the record store or in clubs in Baltimore. We'd clink beers and share stories and play catch up. Eventually, I'd get married and move back to the suburbs, while I saw Dave getting more into DJing clubs; not just parties, but bona-fide nightclubs, where people came to spend money to dance. He was running with the likes of Diplo, forging his own path with this mix of house music and reggaeton he called moombahton. And then fuckin' Justin Bieber adopted the sound for "Sorry", which, I'M SORRY, is definitely a straight up bop, and a helluva Lydia Loveless cover.
Flash foward to a couple weeks ago, when this came up for bid on the Electronic Bay for a penny, and of course I had to cop it. When it arrived, it had Dave's signature on the front, just above the left boob. It was a nice bonus, a kind reminder that success doesn't elude us all, and the forebearer of some righteous jams.
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