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[BACK TO HOME] | |
PHLOG: | |
2023-08-05 - Scratch the Beach | |
Going on our daily walk down to the beach, my | |
spouse and I happened upon an uncommon sight | |
today. Over at the picnic tables by the main | |
lifeguard station was a group of five or six | |
guys, all seemingly local, each with their own | |
single portable turntable in front of them. | |
All of them had same model of turntable. It was | |
small and compact, with a built in speaker and a | |
fader, clearly designed for the purpose of | |
developing scratching skills. And in the middle | |
of all of them on the picnic table was a wireless | |
speaker playing hip hop beats. Each of the guys | |
were taking turns showcasing their scratch skills | |
over the underlying beats. It was super cool to | |
see. | |
Another curious feature to the whole sight was | |
that they all had 7" records on their turntables. | |
Nobody was scratching a 12". Even more curious | |
was that these 7" records had classic scratch | |
sounds on them, like Fab 5 Freddy's "Ahhh Fresh!" | |
sample in the track entitled Change the Beat. | |
In all my 30 years of DJing I've never seen a 7" | |
DJ scratch tool, but I guess after today I now | |
know they they exist. | |
Anyway, we walked by and paused to watch for a | |
bit, saying nothing and just taking in the sight. | |
It was super cool to discover there's a local | |
crew of these guys that are way into scratch | |
culture. | |
Figuring that they might like to have copies of | |
some recent releases I did, which are all very | |
much in the same vein, I grabbed a few copies out | |
of inventory once we got home, hopped in the car, | |
and made my way back to the beach. | |
By the time I got back to the picnic tables, they | |
had all moved on. There was nobody to be found. | |
In hindsight, maybe it's for the better. Not | |
every guy in the group looked like a person of | |
upstanding character. Also, I've regretted | |
getting tangled up in scenes before. The last | |
thing I need is to get caught up with a group | |
that I couldn't escape from even if I wanted to, | |
because it's literally in my back yard. | |
Home is best kept private. | |
– BSTUF | |