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Brett and Ben’s Dance Party - Carnitas Snack Shack Wedding

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Whoops forgot to smile. Ben and Brett are the coolest. Our shoes are even cooler. 

This was a wedding celebration I was looking forward to for several months. I would say it had to do with the location, the popular San Diego eatery, Carnitas Snack Shack, but it really was the couple ... Ben and Brett.

I met Brett in early 2015 when I DJ'd the Lululemon La Jolla store she managed. That moment led to more gigs for Lululemon all over San Diego, then Vancouver and Palm Desert when she opened the Lulu outlet store in Cabazon. So DJing just for her, her new hubs, family and friends was a great alternative to all those other events.

Brett and Ben's celebration on May 27, 2016 was truly "local San Diego." From the venue (the aforementioned Carnitas Snack Shack), local beers and even delicious sugary sweet Craft Donuts.

I adore this couple. Brett has been an amazing supporter of my "second career" and this party was the best!

Here's the setlist:

Cocktail Hour/Dinner

  • Daughter - Get Lucky (Daft Punk Cover) (Holtoug Deep House House Edit)
  • COMA - Lora (Robag's Fandara Qualv NB)  
  • Guy J - Nirvana  
  • Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance (Promo Only Intro Edit)
  • Colbie Caillat - I Do
  • Chachi & Paige - Land Down Under  
  • Tori Kelly - Should've Been Us (Lost Kings Remix)  
  • Ed Sheeran - Photograph (Westphal & Whyman Remix)  
  • Kygo ft Maty Noyes - Stay  
  • DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air (Le Boeuf Remix)  
  • Coldplay - Adventure Of A Lifetime
  • Avicii ft Zac Brown Band - Broken Arrows
  • Chainsmokers ft ROZES - Roses (Adam Foster Remix)  
  • Corona ft AObeats - Rhythm Of the Night (Hotel Garuda Remix)  
  • Ellie Goulding - Lights
  • Drake ft Majid Jordan - Hold On We're Going Home (Panic City Remix)
  • Mariah Carey - Emotions (Select Mix Remix)
  • Hall & Oates - Private Eyes (Select Mix Remix)
  • Wham! - Everything She Wants
  • Seinabo Sey - Younger (Kygo Remix)  
  • Gwen Stefani - Make Me Like You (Select Mix Remix)
  • Warren G ft Nate Dogg - Regulate (Destructo & Wax Motif Remix)
  • Pharrell ft Jay-Z - Frontin (Disclosure Mix)
  • Sam Feldt & Kimberly Anne - Show Me Love (EDX Remix)  
  • Janet Jackson - No Sleeep (Strobe Insomnia Bootleg)  
  • Wish I Was ft Cameron Walker - Cutting Ties  
  • Disclosure ft Lion Babe - Hourglass  
  • Ellie Goulding - On My Mind
  • Zendaya f./Chris Brown - Something New
  • TLC - Creep (Remix)
  • Disclosure ft Sam Smith - Latch (G Duppy Reggae Remix)
  • Who Is Fancy f./Ariana Grande & Meghan Trainor - Boys Like You
  • Timeflies f./Natalie La Rose - Worse Things Than Love


Open Dancing

  • Mark Morrison - Return Of The Mack (Select Mix Remix)
  • Brandy - Sittin Up In My Room (Select Mix Remix)
  • Queen - Under Pressure
  • Evelyn Champagne King - Love Come Down (Hot Classics Remix)
  • Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam - Head To Toe (Hot Classics Remix)
  • Discotron - Disco Ballin'  
  • The Spinners - I'll Be Around (70s Classics)  
  • Luther Vandross - Never Too Much
  • Jackson 5 - ABC / I Want You Back
  • Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
  • Katy Perry - Birthday
  • Beyonce - Crazy In Love
  • Fifth Harmony - Work From Home (Select Mix Remix)
  • Usher - Yeah (Wedding Crasherz Break)
  • Montel Jordan - This Is How We Do It
  • Mariah Carey - Dreamlover
  • Taylor Swift vs Lauryn Hill - Blank Space (DJ Skillz Throwback Blend)
  • Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
  • Ariana Grande f./Iggy Azalea - Problem
  • Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling!
  • Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
  • Boyz II Men - Motownphilly
  • Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (Select Mix Remix)
  • Beyonce - Formation (Promo Only Clean Edit)
  • Beyonce - Naughty Girl
  • Jay Z ft. Kanye West - N***** In Paris
  • Fetty Wap - Trap Queen (Promo Only Clean Edit)
  • Rihanna ft Drake - Work (Lost Kings Remix)
  • Fat Joe & Remy Ma f./French Montana - All The Way Up
  • The Game - How We Do
  • Too Short - Blow The Whistle
  • Chainsmokers, Ashanti - Only U vs Roses (J. Espinosa Jumpoff Edit)
  • Drake f./Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance (Promo Only Intro Edit)
  • Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance
  • Meghan Trainor f./John Legend - Like I'm Gonna Lose You
  • Al Green - Let's Stay Together
  • Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
  • DNCE - Cake By The Ocean (Promo Only Clean Edit)
  • Justin Bieber - Love Yourself (RENAIR Uptempo ReDrum Edit)  
  • Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe
  • Taylor Swift - New Romantics (Promo Only Quick Edit)
  • Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
  • Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance
  • Icona Pop - I Love It (Select Mix Remix)
  • Clean Bandit, Jess Glynne - Rather Be (Select Mix Remix)
  • Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch - Good Vibrations (Select Mix Remix)
  • C&C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat
  • Rob Base, DJ E-Z Rock - Joy & Pain (Select Mix Remix)
  • Usher Mixalot - OMG Baby Got Back
  • Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean? (Promo Only Intro Edit)
  • Warren G - Regulate
  • A Tribe Called Quest - Bonita Applebum
  • DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - Summertime
  • Paperboy - Ditty
  • Naughty By Nature - Jamboree
  • Omarion ft Chris Brown & Jhene Aiko - Post To Be (Dennis Blaze Remix)
  • Blackstreet - No Diggity (Mayeda Twerk Remix)
  • Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix)  
  • Major Lazer & DJ Snake feat. MO - Lean On (Yaldah Remix) (Audio1 Edit)
  • Selena Gomez ft ASAP Rocky - Good For You (Caked Up Remix)
  • Nicki Minaj ft Drake - Truffle Butter (Jester Remix)  
  • Otis Redding - Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay (ReDrum)  
  • Bob Marley - Three Little Birds


Last Dance
Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning

 

Vendor Team
DJ/Master of Ceremonies: Justin Kanoya, DJ Kanoya Productions
Venue: Carnitas Snack Shack
Photographer: Venture and Vine

 

 

 

Other weddings hosted by DJ Kanoya Productions

Five Dance Songs To Get You Pumped For Summer

The sounds of summer are often punctuated with fast beats and fast feet (on a dance floor). To listen, click on the Spotify playlist below, and subscribe to the DJ Kanoya 5 playlist.

Justin Kanoya is a wedding DJ based in San Diego. He has served as a DJ and host of more than 300 weddings over the past decade and is a recommended vendor at some of San Diego's finest wedding venues, including the Hotel del Coronado and the Lodge at Torrey Pines. 

Ten Scary Seconds: We Almost Died In An Auto Accident

Me, daughter Marissa, wife Sheila and Rinny.

Me, daughter Marissa, wife Sheila and Rinny.

My family (me, my wife Sheila, daughter Marissa and dog Rinny) was involved in a car accident and we almost died.

UPDATE: We are fine. No blood. Didn't get taken away in an ambulance. 

Since we literally walked away from the crash unscathed and the damage to my car is merely a busted back end with the rest of the car looking pretty normal, it might seem a bit melodramatic to say we almost died. But maybe an inch one way or the other, and things would be drastically different.

What I do know, is the experience was enough for me to think about some things. Most of all, it made me think about the phrase “giving up.”  It made me think about the many times we have in life to give up or persevere.

There was a moment during the accident when I decided to not give up. It probably saved our lives.

The Accident
Driving south on I-15 on a Saturday night just after 7 p.m., I looked up in my rear view mirror and saw a brown pick-up truck coming toward me at a high rate of speed. It was like a guided missile headed straight toward its target.

In a matter of seconds I felt an impact, which forced my vehicle into the lane to my right. I was struck a second time, saw the truck flying off the freeway into the grass, my car fishtailed out of control and was headed directly toward a barrier made of solid concrete.

I remember thinking it’s going to suck to hit this wall head on. I heard Sheila screaming. But I also felt a sense of calm.

I gripped that steering wheel so hard. I turned it to the right. Turned it to the left. And as fast as it had all started, we were no longer headed toward that wall. My car was on the shoulder, slowing down and safely coming to a stop out of harm's way.

Our daughter was on the verge of tears, our dog was shaking like a massage chair. We were all fine … well at least physically.

In the next 24-48 hours Sheila and I had opportunities to discuss and hypothesize what happened. Everything took place behind us, so we were not entirely certain what unfolded. The whole incident lasted maybe 10 seconds. She recalled as we were sliding toward that wall and thinking her life was about to end.

In our discussion, I also reflected on that moment and discovered my thoughts were different. I didn’t feel as though I was going to die. Like I said earlier, I had this sense of calm. I didn’t have time to think about dying. My priority at that moment was to survive … to ensure everyone in my car would survive. And I was the one person, with control of that steering wheel that was going to make that happen.

That is the beauty of being in control. Whether it is being in control of your career choices, a bicycle you are riding or your car careening toward a slab of concrete. We have the ability to control the outcome. Or at least die trying.

But the moment we give up that control, when we decide the struggle is not worth it, is the moment a part of you or maybe all of you dies.

This past year for me, May ’15 to May ’16 has been amazing. But it hasn’t been perfect. While it’s wrong for me to assume that many of you think it is has been, I’m here to tell you not everything is as awesome as it looks through Instagram filters and Facebook posts.

Sure, I’ve been traveling all over the country, playing music at yoga parties for Fitbit, grand openings for Lululemon, running races with November Project, eating amazing meals and hanging with wonderfuls friends and family.

But here is what hasn’t gone all that great:

  • This accident was my second in my entire life. My first was four weeks ago and it was while I was driving my “work van.” That van is still driveable, but I cannot open the liftgate, which makes removing large speakers and turntables road cases difficult.
     
  • For the year 2016, I have had 25 inquiries to DJ a wedding that have not closed with a signed contract. That is well over $30,000 in lost business. That sucks. So contrary to what you may think. I'm not booked "all the time."
     
  • Our rental property tenants just gave their 30-day notice.
     
  • Paydays are not every two weeks for me. That means bill pay isn’t the most fun activity and is sometimes painful.
     
  • I’ve had ill-timed illnesses, like right around the ramp up to training for races I was looking forward to doing.
     
  • I’ve had a few social media ad campaigns that have fallen flat, which means wasted marketing dollars.

And despite all of those missteps and struggles, I’m not giving up. Those things that haven’t gone as planned are opportunities to understand what I can do better. They give me perspective on how I can approach things differently.

When faced with the choice, you decide whether you give up or not. Throughout life you will find yourself headed toward cement walls all the time. It’s what you choose to do in the moment you are about to make contact with that wall. Will you give up? Will you choose life or will you choose certain doom?

Navigating life is hard. Finding success is hard. But neither will have a positive outcome if giving up becomes your norm.

I look at those 10 seconds of that accident as a microcosm of my life right now. A jarring hit, frantic stressful moments, fishtailing toward that wall … but then dodging the obstacle and coming to a stop.

Life brings us days filled with stress and obstacles to hurdle. But we deal with it directly and then take a pause to breathe, reflect and restore.

Those 10 seconds were likely the scariest of my life. But they just might prove to be the most important.

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I Went To The Beyonce Concert and Discovered What Girl Power Is

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Beyonce brought all of her flawless fierceness and slaying to San Diego when her Formation Tour stopped in to say hello on May 12, 2016. I, along with my family and 50,000 others were in the crowd.

I never know what to expect when I go to these massive stadium shows. The beauty of attending a live music act is to share a space with an artist and others around you that share the same love for that artist. It’s the ability to connect with someone who we may only know through a computer screen, an Instagram account or sounds of the radio.

But in a stadium, the connection is so physically difficult. The artist is yards away, appearing no larger than a postage stamp. I’m more connected to the men’s bathroom -- which was about 5 paces away -- than I am to the Queen Bey.

But this is Beyonce. Sasha Fierce. One of a short list of entertainers who can stand out in a sea of dancers, a collection of a million LED lights and a stage filled with production technology that I can only imagine must be equivalent to the cost of several acres of coastal property in La Jolla, Calif.

I mean, no joke, part of her stage -- which I’m guessing took up slightly over ⅓ of the Qualcomm Stadium field -- LITERALLY TURNED INTO WATER. The Queen and her dancers walked/danced on water. WTF??!!

If there is a way to connect with an audience in the same way you would during an acoustic set at coffee shop, Beyonce somehow finds a way to do it.

Here I was being blasted with a setlist of songs, of which just a handful I was familiar with, yet I was so engaged.

And just past the halfway point, I realized what was drawing me in. After about the 37th time of Bey asking for the ladies to give themselves a shout out. For being okay for “waking up like this.” For being okay with being independent. For being okay with empowerment.

If the Spice Girls were about girl power, then Beyonce is girl powerized.

You see, I have a daughter.  And everyday I watch as she continues to grow into her own self. Realizing what self worth is and why positive self worth is the thing that will help define her. It is that strong spirit I am most proud to see her nurture within herself.

Raising a girl puts me more in tune with examples of strong, take no BS women. Because my daughter, nor Beyonce, seems to be those type of females.

My daughter is a little ball of girl power. 

My daughter is a little ball of girl power. 

On this night, through music, sound and visual, Beyonce connected with me and exemplified what it means to be strong.

I realize I don’t know a whole lot about her outside of the music world. In fact, most of her music that really “speaks” to women naturally never spoke to me.  Yet, I still enjoy the music, I mean who doesn’t bounce to “Love On Top?”

If Beyonce is going to be one -- not the sole one -- but one example of a strong women that my daughter looks up to then I’m good with it.

Beyonce is a women that stands tall, with flawless hair whipping so perfectly as a strategically placed fan blows wind through it while executing perfect booty shakes and dance moves in ankle deep water. She is a woman who is a working mother, a business woman and a philanthropist.

Beyonce certainly is a controversial figure to many ... but, then again most shit disturbers are.

Five Songs That Are Candidates For The ‘Song of Summer’

When June rolls around I am always excited about what is in store for pop music during the warm summer months. This weeks DJ Kanoya 5 looks into a crystal ball to consider what might be THE song of summer 2016. Comment below if you think it is one of these or maybe something else.

To listen, click on the Spotify playlist below, and subscribe to the DJ Kanoya 5 playlist.