Jesus De Jesus aka DJ J Peso is a good friend of mine and one of my favorite local DJs.  With the most votes in Commune featured local history, I was excited to congratulate him on winning Commune’s featured local for December and find out what he has going on.

The name is a nickname my best friend Norm gave me when we lived in NY together.  I’m Dominican and our currency is pesos. When we would go out and pay for something I would say that’s x amount of pesos, even though they were dollars. So, that’s how the name came about.  When it came time to to pick a DJ name that was the default. Not a very exiting story, I know.

I can go about this for hours. Music is my outlet and the soundtrack of my life. I get inspired by all types of music like Jay-Z, CCR, Stevie, Dio, Cash, Chromeo, Black Keys, and the list keeps going, but, i’m a huge hip hop nerd. It’s my go to genre of music. It all started when I was about 11.  I walked into an HMV and I went straight to the hip hop section. I picked up A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders on cassette and put that tape in my walkman and was hooked.  I like DJing because I like seeing people have fun.  A couple of weeks ago I had this big crowd of people dancing. Every one looked like they were having so much fun.  I looked at the crowd and out of nowhere some dude pulled his pants down. No one even noticed! Now, that’s crowd control. For those few hours i’m up in the booth I’m having fun and so are they. That’s enough inspiration for me to DJ.

Last Wednesday Commune hit up the Soda Bar for it’s second pre-thanksgiving bash. We had another all-star lineup and couldn’t have asked for better company to party with.  Cats of Japan rocked the stage, DJ Groundfloor kept the party going, and Yonder Biology filled the walls with DNA portraits from people around San Diego.  Cash Crop Clothing was also there featuring their 100% organic and recycled clothing line.

Thanks to everyone who spent their pre-thanksgiving night with us.  Commune will be taking December off, but you can find us back at it in January at the Whistlestop.  It will be Commune’s 21^st event and Dan from Whistle’s last shift.  You definitely don’t want to miss it.

To see pictures from last Wednesday night’s event click on the events tab at the top of the page.

If you would like to be a part of Commune, please email me @ jointhecommune.com.

Cities like the rest of things in this world change.  They sway back and forth over many decades, some from good to bad, others from bad to good, and lots from bad to worse. North Park has always been a place of change, of acceptance, and free expression. Where the different, artistic, and edgy come to play, lay and stay. Many of us have seen our city streets change, the signs from our favorite bars and restaurants stripped away and replaced with glitz, glamour, maybe a little pizazz. Some of us have expressed out distaste for these changes, many feel the soul of town steadily being drained away with no replenishment in sight.

This isn’t a blog about pointing fingers, or dropping names, it’s about reclaiming a positive stance to these changes. As the bars and restaurants that still claim our souls, memories, and allegiance in North Park remain, let’s fill them up. The local music and art scene that still exists is waiting for the old faces to come back, fueled with a resurgence of living and playing the way you want to. Here are a couple of examples. Every time I walk into the Bluefoot Lounge, I get that NP feeling back. You know the door guy, the beers, and you know you’re gonna run into someone you know; the art on the wall isn’t cookie cutter, the photographs aren’t always pretty, but music is chill and it just flows. Even though Bar Pink has changed it’s name and owner in the past few years, I still love that I can stroll in and never know what I’m going to find. From a mariachi band to a head banging punk show, the scene is real and it’s ours.

As our small slice of neighborhood utopia changes even more, we as a collective-indie spirit need to lace up the chucks and throw on some pieces by your favorite local designer (who is possibly your roommate) and get out there and check out the music scene, enjoy some beats by our local DJs or thrash around at the next good show. Our town might change, but we don’t have to.

Keep A Breast will be at U-31 tonight as part of our Music For Awareness campaign. We have developed a unique avenue for musicians, DJs, clubs or just plain awesome people to donate their time and influence the lives of others. This campaign allows anyone to play a role with KAB and throw his or her very own benefit show in support of the cause. Keep A Breast acknowledges and enables the fact that young people do want to be activists, to play a part of a bigger and better good and inspire people to better themselves and their communities. See you there!!

Check out more from Keep a Breast at : http://www.keep-a-breast.org

Commune Wednesday rocked again and we couldn’t have done it with out YOU.  Thanks to everyone who made it out Wednesday night for Commune’s first event at U-31.  The night was filled with cute people, good drinks, awesome art, sweet accessories, and some rockin’ good music.

DJ Erick Diaz started the night out right and got people moving and shakin’. Tocayo’s art filled the walls and his limited edition Commune tees and posters were a hit. Mimi and Red  tempted the ladies with cute accessories and a rack of amazing pieces.  Apes of Wrath hit the stage around 11 and showed the crowd exactly why they are San Diego’s Best Alternative Band (SDMA).

Hope to see everyone out November 25th for Commune @ the Soda Bar.  Featuring: Cats from Japan, DJ Groundfloor, trunk show by Cash Crop Clothing and art and limited edition Commune poster and tee by Yonder Biology.

If you would like to be a part of Commune, please email me at jointhecommune@gmail.com.

Brian is no stranger to Commune and has been to almost every Commune Wednesday event. You would probably recognize his contagious smile or maybe even his Commune tees scattered among beautiful people in the neighborhood, but if you haven’t, Brian is definitely a talent to be seen.   I met up with Brian to congratulate him and see what he has going on.

1.Where are you from? What made you move to San Diego?

I am from a small town in Virginia called Abingdon.  I was going to school in Virginia and needed a change of pace.  Skateboarding is a big part of my life and I knew California was the place to be for skateboarding.  All of the artists I was following at the time were artists and designers in California so it just made sense to be here.  I love California.

2. How would you describe your art and what inspires you?

I guess the term for my art would be mixed media.  Using different mediums like spray paint, acrylic, oil sticks, collage, pen and ink.  Most of the themes are about commercialism.  How we look at things in culture.  The images I create have multiple layers so from afar it might look like just one image, but when you get up close you see more of what is going on.  What inspires me is just the people around me the most.

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I can honestly count on one hand the number of friends I have who DON’T smoke. Most of them started when they were in high school so, now in their twenties, they’re coming up on a decade of tobacco dependence — not the sort of occasion that calls for an ice cream cake.

A few months back, while having a few beers at a pub in North County (we, of course, had to sit outside so they could smoke), I looked around the table and realized that not only were we all getting older but that my friends had been roped in by tobacco for nearly one-third of their lives. What was once edgy and cool and potentially led to a prom date in high school, was now causing my friends to be banished outside like dogs, where the only women that came our way were working on their 4th Cosmo, their 5th marriage and their 2nd pack.

Although I was never mesmerized by it, I think my friends all came to the realization that night that the glamor of the cigarette had worn off. Older, addicted and generally unhappy with the effects, they had all separately expressed their desire to quit to me on multiple occasions. So this night, I decided to address them as a group and call them out on their bullsh-t proclamations of wanting to stop.

All in all, it went well. They all agreed that they wanted to quit and they agreed to finally take action.

Fast forward about 3 months… (more…)