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 Greetings from Cottonwood, Arizona. I’m here with Captain as we decided to meet and spend a week in the Sedona area before starting a road trip back to Portland to celebrate New Year’s.
I really enjoy meeting in a neutral place, aka not my place and not his. I guess you could call it a vacation – though we are both working. But mainly, it’s a treat to get away together, in a space that becomes our shared (temporary) home without the attachments and responsibilities that our regular individual localities often bring.
While we strive to bring a sense of normalcy when each of us visits the other and continue on with our regular schedules (for the most part), it’s nice to get away and just have some special time for us. I think it keeps us in balance and in check. Not to mention, it just feels good to get away.
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  DJ Kid Amiga Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
Kid Amiga is another out of towner who is excited to play for our music and dance-lovin’ city. He takes the decks this Christmas Eve at the indomitable Blow Pony.
When and how did you get started DJing?
Back in middle school, around 93 or 94, I started listening to dance music on my macintosh that i’d found online. They were called “MODs” which were the precursor to MIDI files. (Okay, a little dorky there, but it needs to be said!). It was a lot of music mostly from Finland where that kind of music-making was popular. I fell in love with dance music then and just segued into playing dance music with CDJs some years later.
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  DJ Rockaway Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
This week’s DJ is a Cali resident but she’s in town for the recently re-branded Inferno dances that happen in an early Saturday time slot monthly at the Cuda Beach Club. Formerly targeted at the 35+ crowd, this barely 30 year old has seen plenty of peers and had a great time. And, apparently, if you’re butch all you have to do to get the ladies’ attention is lean against a wall.
When and how did you get started DJing? I’ve always been fascinated by music, the sounds, the blends, the lyrics and the emotion behind it. Music has been a big part of my life since I was a child. In 2000, I decided to go out and buy equipment without knowing anything about being a DJ. It was at that time that I discovered, DJ’ing came natural to me.
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 All things change.
I know, deep right? But it’s true. And it’s especially true when you are in a relationship with someone who lives across the country.
And sometimes it presents challenges.
For one, sometimes your financial situation changes. When I met Captain, I was working a full-time corporate job (not making much money) but I was gainfully employed and had the basics covered even though I was miserable. At some point, after we became more serious, I went from full-time to telecommuting so I could travel and visit him. This was both my ticket out of cube culture and a way for me to support my budding romance. But now, a year out of leaving my job and a year into my freelance life, my finances have changed and while I have way more flexibility on my hands, freelancing doesn’t always equate to steady work, which means less money in the pocket. And less money in the pocket sadly means less funds to pay for those airline tickets. We’ve been lucky, however, and have always managed to have the resources we’ve needed to make a visit happen. And a large part of that has been to planning.
Secondly, long distance relationships go through the same stages as geographically intimate relationships – they just take longer to get there and adjust. We had a great honeymoon stage – full of passion, sexy whispers and future plans. That’s not to say those plans and passion don’t exist now that the shine has worn off a bit, but let’s just say we are more realistic. We are also settling into our respective homes (in our respective cities) a bit more.
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 Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
 DJ Jodi Bon Jodi helms this Friday's Bent Bent is clearly one of my favorite parties and it is the lovechild of this week’s DJ of the Week Jodi Bon Jodi, along with partner Roy-G-Biv. And now that JBJ is no longer a regular at Blow Pony it’s one of the few places to catch her. So you won’t want to miss this Friday’s edition, which also features Mr. Charming and a photobooth by Bloodhound’s Ally Picard.
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The second installment of New Yorker Liz Gold’s recurring column on maintaining a long distance relationship with a Portlander. And it’s just in time for Thanksgiving when many of us are thinking about those we care about far away.
The nature of being in a long-distance relationship is that at some point you have to say good-bye.
Good-bye for right now, that is, not good-bye forever.
But sometimes it can feel that way.
In my last column I talked about the “amp up” or that time right before seeing my partner, Captain. It’s the 48-hour window of adrenaline, excitement (and yes, anxiety) that happens as I gear up to head cross country to Portland to visit him – or on the flip side, the juice that I feel getting ready for his arrival to Brooklyn.
But of course with the amp up, comes the descend and it starts for me about two days before I know we are going to part. My emotions start working overtime, my senses are heightened and I tend to cry. It’s not pretty and I work on it and Captain is patient with me, but it can be trying because it catapults me into the future taking me out of the present moment.
The point is to enjoy the time we have with each other. And that should be the point for all relationships regardless of whether one is long distance or not. Am I right?
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  DJ Linoleum. Photo by Manny Reyes Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
Today’s profile of DJ Linoleum aka Andrea K comes a day early. It’s a holiday week so why not squish more into the front of it so we can enjoy our time off. And, while Linoleum plays at various events around town her only upcoming gig presently schedule it tomorrow night, Wednesday the 23rd at Aalto Lounge (3356 Southeast Belmont Street) as well as an appearance Superfresh Festival in February. (Plus, a new update first Thursdays at Tube Fast Weapons night starting Dec 1.
When and how did you get started DJing?
I think it was in early 2003. My roommate’s friend told me about this open turntable night that happened every week at Beulahland and was like, “You have lot’s of records! You have to do it!” So, we went down there and there was this great little community of people that simply loved to share music. Super fun and supportive. They showed me how the turntables and mixer worked and then I was hooked!
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  Matthew Kenneth aka DJ Tigerstripes Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
So I’m starting to get to the ends of my personal arsenal of local queer DJs but I noticed a name pop up on several queer nights, including a brand-spankin’ new one starting this weekend that looks pretty good, Yes. So I asked one of the DJs on the bill if he’d like to participate and he said, unfortunately, he was straight. And it’s interesting, because my focus is definitely on promoting queer members of our community. But DJ Tigerstripes has been a name I’ve seen associated with queer parties for awhile. Yes bills itself as one, and the other two residents are most certainly queer, as well as being previous DJs of the week. So I asked Tigerstripes, aka Matthew Kenneth to participate anyway and include why he likes working with queer people and their awesome parties.
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  Brendan Scott aka DJ Pocket Rock-it. Photo by Dan Ostergren Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
DJ Pocket Rock-it may have taken a break from residencies at clubs such as Red Cap but he’s certainly been popping up all over the place as a guest at queer parties, club nights and fundraisers. This weekend you can catch him at Bent, North Portland’s biggest queer/dyke night. This Friday’s edition features all kinds of interesting guests on the decks in addition to the Rock-it such as Mr. Charming (Gaycation), Kasio Smashio (Deep Cuts), DJ Bender (Crave/Sluts N’ Squares) and, of course the lady killers Roy-G-Biv and Jodi Bon Jodi.
When and how did you get started DJing?
I was interested in the concept and decided to buy a book on the subject. Later, I bought some turntables and started practicing. After a couple of months of practicing, I made a mix and took it to different venues trying to get a night. The rest is history.
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  L Train concentrating hard in the DJ booth Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
DJ L Train has an irreverent outlook to getting behind the decks, as you can tell from both her name and her pictures. This laid back and fun attitude serves her well as regular nights at the gayish venues of the P Club and Aalto Lounge. But the Train likes to make some scheduled stops at other party stations such as this Friday’s Deep Cuts, which stars two former DJs of the Week, Bruce LaBruiser and Kasio Smashio.
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