09/29/2022
๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ช๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ก ๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ข
๐๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ค๐๐๐ฎ๐โฆ
I moved to San Francisco in 1998 to start a new life after suffering a series of traumatic events & tragic losses in my family. I fell in love with San Francisco for the artistic, eclectic, eccentric, free-spirited & nonjudgmental people it attracted. I felt like I finally found "my people". I fell in love with San Francisco for its foreign world of electronic music I never heard before. I fell in love with San Francisco for its one-of-a-kind nightlife with endless possibilities I never knew existed. The city was my oyster. And I had a young, voracious, unquenchable appetite to experience anything & everything this beautiful city had to offer. What was supposed to be a 6 month "escape from reality" for a suburban boy to temporarily โlive the city lifeโ turned into 23 years. I think I lived San Francisco ten lifetimes worth. I milked this city for all itโs worth and then some.
I lived through many city transformations, witnessing the ends of eras & the births of new ones. I lived the cityโs rise & fall of the Dot Com in the late 90โs. I rode the the storm of the cityโs Great Recession in the late 00โs. I witnessed the 2nd Tech Takeover of our city in the mid 10โs, its gentrification of the Mission District, the explosion of city housing & living costs, and the mass exile of San Franciscoโs artist community to Oakland. I watched our city become polarized in the late 10's by politics caused by sensationalism & rabble-rousing of the media (on both sides). And most recently, at the beginning of a new 20's decade, I suffered through the utter destruction & devastation of the cityโs hospitality & entertainment industries by the government shutdowns in response to Covid.
I lived through the glory days of San Francisco deep house of the late 90โs. I witnessed the rise of DJ AM & the โMash Upโ scene in the mid 00โs that torpedoed San Franciscoโs predominant electronic music culture. I lived the commercial boom of EDM in the 10โs where San Francisco house music DJs like Kaskade became world-famous and their music began playing on mainstream radio stations and in famous movies. I witnessed the explosion of electronic music festivals that catalyzed the skyrocketing costs of world-famous DJs, ultimately hurting our cityโs nightlife because nightclubs could no longer afford to book them.
Back in the late 90โs, I remember a very different city where dot-com millionaires hung out with struggling broke artists. People were not judged by their job title, the company they worked for, what kind of car they drove, how much money they made or what their net worth was. It was only about your personality, your character and whether you were fun to hang out with. There were no political talks or debates. Nobody asked who you voted for. Nobody cared if you were a Republican or Democrat.
The Marina Kids partied with the Underground Kids. The G**s partied with the Straights. The Whites partied with the Asians. Everyone partied โTogetherโ as one big dysfunctional, melting-pot family. It was a beautiful time to live in San Francisco.
Like anything in life, things inevitably change. The city I fell in love with and I moved to over 20 years ago is no longer that city. Its transformation over the years reflect the changing interests & ideologies of new generations of transients that have come to San Francisco after me. Everyday throughout the city, you see one moving truck unloading a new transplant and another moving truck removing an old one. The DNA of this city was, is and will always be in constant flux.
After 22 years, I was long overdue for a new chapter and a new beginning. And what better place to continue my life adventure, express my creativity and grow my events business than in the entertainment capital of the world:
๐๐๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ฆ
Rebecca & I bought our dream home in Vegas last summer and we have been building our new life here.
For the past year, I have continued to work on projects in San Francisco & the Bay Area while working remotely from Las Vegas. I have every intention to continue producing events for San Francisco & Bay Area, Iโm just expanding my business operations to the Las Vegas market (and already have several Vegas projects in the works). San Francisco is a hop, skip and a jump from Vegas. I make day trips to the Bay Area all the time. I call them "๐ฎ๐บ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ"! While " ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ" are up the stairs to my new Las Vegas home office!
๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐บ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐บ๐ ๐ต๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ.
The famous Tony Bennett song โ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ต ๐๐บ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ค๐ฐโ and Journey song "๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด" have all new profound meaning to me because this City by the Bay will always own a piece of my heart.
Thank you San Francisco for 22 years of incredible memories. We had one hell of a run together.
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