strictly bee's knees

FROM November 16, 2004

I love Dave Tompkins. For one, cause he dropped a Folkways "NYC Jumprope Songs of the '70s" record midway thru a bass set, with no warning. He did this whilst DJing a party in Ft Greene, for someone who shared a birthday with Dave Chappelle, and where folx were so drunx, nobody thought to cut into the cake. It just sat there on the counter, melting red velvet, and getting drunx cigarettes mushed out in its icing rosebuds. The drunk people were dancing 45-degree-angle booty dances, but were thrown off when the deep-Florida synth bombs gave way to rhyming kids' voices and the rhythm of rope thwapping pavement. They stopped moving for a moment, and aimed puzzled gazes on the turntables, which were set-up precariously on the kitchen counter. But Dave kept it going, grinning and oblivious; clearly in love with every note of every record... (Ever? Possibly ever. Every record at that party? Definitely.) The dancers looked over, puzzled... then they just started dancing again.

Dave DJs like Jonas Mekas films, I think. He documents, and lets your synapses fire away; it's interactive and you fill in the blanks. (There are actual blanks, cause Dave doesn't mix, either. Spots of silence between songs; good for reflection.) I want to write my EMP paper about Dave Tompkins.

I also love Dave Tompkins cause he's like, the only non-Christgau I've seen who can drop Voice-standard dense pomo stylee and still be this funny and alive!

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