I think when i was 18 years old i was start some work.
http://www.healthproductreviewers.com/lean-muscle-x-review.html

i've been collecting records all my life. i own the original copies of many of my favorites including aretha franklin's amazing grace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EGcG9mMJgo&feature=related ,
parliament's mothership connection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1Y-XZ3Jl5Q ,
and marvin gaye's ' what's goin on'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4xQ6StnIFg. bought when they were first released. i've always loved sharing music with people. watching people in the dance is one of the deepest pleasures of my life.i used to make mixed tapes in the early 80's with one turntable and a tape deck with a pause button. a good friend would play them in the virginia inn when he worked there. i believe my first formal dj gig was for a party at billy king studio in 1985
http://billyking.com/studio.html
the next year my friend elaine wondered if you could throw a party centered around one artist, playing nothing but their music. james brown was the first themed party of that kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLzdW3iu9qk
in 1989 i was working at orpheum records don yates was msuic director at kcmu. he'd visit the store tracking record sales and i struck up a friendship with him. he encouraged me to volunteer at the station and after initially turning him down ( i hated the sound of my own voice ) i took his invitation. i think it barely a week later when paula the swedish housewife contacted me at the record store and said she was starting a night at the newly opened rebar. she wanted host a night that revolved around black music, r&b, funk and most importantly, hip hop. i told her it was a great idea, but i wasn't a dj and hadn't any club experience. she said 'perfect. we don't want dj's with experience'. i accepted her invitation and learned to mix, beat match, and blend as i went along, learning mostly by watching the crowd.i din't own my first pair of turntables until 3 or 4 years later.
the dj i admired most was ramon wells. ramon had a reggae night,an african night, and a weekend variety dance residency at tugs in bellmont in the 80's. he was the first dj i ever heard played every genre of music i liked, often in the same set. and his sets were always 5 hours long.. with no breaks.i practically lived there, dancing 3 to 5 times a week. i remember the night i first heard prince's when doves cry' on the radio in a car then going into tugs and hearing ramon throw it in a set...the same night. the man was a demi-god a friend and my biggest inspiration

i'm a very aural person, so i hear music all the time. i can be impressed with ambient incidental sound as the deliberate effort of selecting and investigating music , so the gear choices vary. on the other hand i confess that i'm suspicous of new technology.i've owned my turntables ( technics 1200) for 20 plus years. never broken down, never needed to have them serviced. my husband has a pair (..of turntables y'all )15 years maybe , no problems. we don't know how much vinyl we own, but dream of a day that we can house of of it in the space we live in. which means we'd have to get a house...a BIG house. i don't know how many cd's we own,thousands probably.i've been using cd's for gigs mostly because i'm not 25 and can't haul 3 crates of records around anymore. hell ..people give me the side eye if i show up at a gig with a 25 year old carrying my gear...so ..it's mostly cd's.
i'm a 'johnny come very lately' to digital media. i doubt that any of the current crop of mp3 players last a fraction of that time i had a zune given to me when they first appeared but didn't begin to use it until last fall. friends 'tsk tsk' me because they're almost obsolete. i don't own a laptop, my home computer, while not slap dash, is built piecemeal from old and recycled bits that my husband has assembled. i can't remember the last time i bought new gear.my latest love have been the system we just put together with refurbished gear from hawthorne stereo. a marantz ampliflier ( model 1060..you might be a buff and know what that means) with mid sized speakers made by canton. the sound is incredibly warm.
as far as live settings go. i don't hear as much live music because, more often than not, live settings aren't as hospitable to live music. sometimes live settings seem hostile to 'listening' to music. i've almost gotten into fistfights in venues ( nina simone at the pier a few years back,shirley horn at jazz alley, low at neumo's ) where the audience is doing everything but listening to what's going on..and wtf is up with talking, texting, and snapping pictures at shows ? and on the dancefloor. the dancefloor is for dancing..

.. uh oh.. i confess i don't know 'soundcloud' works.i'm scared of posting things because of the copyright police. but i used to record all my shows at kcmu on cassette tapes. i have boxes and boxes of cassettes in storage. (one has an interview i did with nirvana the week before 'nevermind' came out). i have a few on cd as well. if i didn't think i'd get sued or end up in jail i might do it. jail is a young man's game. i am no longer young

i am ALWAYS planning ahead sets. as soon as i accept a club date music rushes into my head
( which was why i was listening to the aforementioned dimitri from paris. i 'm playing a party friday night and i know they like some philly disco flavor). i could be in a coffee shop or gettin my feets painted at the local 'nails' shop ( boyboy salon doesn't do feets anymore *sigh* , watching a film or buying collard greens at red apple on 23rd near jackson , vailable music is EVERYwhere.. seriously last night it was rufus ' do you love what you feel?' at the grocery store. i've never played that in a set but it'd be perfect at 'trust'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWAdn9zCil4a.. other times dj's play music that trigger ideas for other tunes.. dave segal (some piece he wrote a few weeks ago made me think of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQK_r9vA9VM ) and larry mizell jr ( i came up with this after reading a line out blurb a few months ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xosLvDxbdhspieces ) trigger ideas .
at the radio station , i'll get there anywhere between 4 hours before a variety show and at least six hours before 'expansions' to preview music and get familiar with breaks, and textures..
but really by the time it's time to play a set.. well.. it's like cooking, i'll have all the ingredients ready to go, but i'm not sure how the stew is gonna turn out until after it's done.

Thom Bell produced acts from Philly is my shit. The Stylistics were produced by Bell off of the back of his success with the Delfonics, whose first three albums you should own (they are very easy to find). 'Hey Love' from the fourth Delfonics album is a personal favorite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1BgCjnELSc). I just recently heard this tune for the first time this past week, another Bell production for a lesser known artist called Ronnie Dyson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee4Q1PrHuHY - that chorus is magic).

I have this compilation and it's quite good:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Train-Sound-Philadelphia-Various/dp/B001F290GM

It's a decent overview of Philly Soul, though it misses a few standards. What I really like about the compilation is the last disc spans through the disco phase into the early reaches of quiet storm R&B, touching on 'Love TKO' by Teddy Pendergrass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV9VuPkIIv4).

Fnarf, could you name a few of the more popular songs by these artists to help us get a handle on what you're looking for? Thanks.

WHAT !
i was just listening to harold melvin..in fact i was listening to french dj dmitri from paris edit's of the blue notes, the jacksons, eddie kendricks and teddy. off the beaten track but try some lonnie liston smith & the cosmic echoes the album 'expansions' ( the title inspiration for my radio show)and 'visions of a new world ' are solid. maybe dexter wansel for starters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNqi85Mfk4
that's from his 'life on mars' lp
and of course the delfonics and the chi lites and 'nem from chi town..and for good measure.. how's about the ladies..
here's a re-edit of an emotions tune i'm feeling
earth wind and fire's best effort outside of themselves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCjbOM65Zu8
( ..note a local sex columnists husband is looking to bring the remixer toddterje to town this summer )
gotta run.. i'm broiling salmon for the hubby's lunch today..
..more later..

i'm originally from chicago which i found to be too cold, then too hot. plus whatever the weather people weren't very nice to me. they didn't even pretendto be nice. i moved to salem oregon in the late 70's, tired of that after a couple of years and decided i need a more urban environment . i considered moving to sf but had just come out and worried i might end up barefoot and pregnant in sf. i usually think the weather here is just right and everybody is nice to me, even when they don't mean it.

I didn't move here, I was born here. I'm a 4th Generation Washingtonian, born in Seattle. My grandparents on one side moved here because Uncle Sam asked them to work on the Manhattan Project, you may have heard of that. On the other side my great grandfather worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad. And my grandpa on that side was involved in building the Boeing 747.

Some of us were born here, and have roots that run deep. Be nice to us, and we'll tell you the good places to fish, where to go on vacation, and the best parts of the state to visit when you want to "get away from it all."

In return, could you please relax about the fact that some of us still fish and hunt and drive pickup trucks? That would be rad.

I know this is a tangent answer, thank you for indulging my gut reaction response, and welcome to the Pacific Northwest. :)

Born here. Doctor's Hospital, now part of Swedish. I moved BACK here because my sweetie wasn't interested in living in my shoebox apartment in New York with my psychotic roommate.

I was living in Santa Barbara. Nice town--beautiful, great weather, but a hard place to make a living. It's mostly super-rich people, and the people who clean their pools, and not a lot in between. Then I fell for somebody who lived here. My chances of getting a job up here were a lot better then his chances of getting one in Santa Barbara.

Plus, I work in human services, and on the income I could expect to make for the foreseeable future, I was never going to do more than barely scrape by in most parts of California. Here, salaries weren't much lower, and I could live almost comfortably, maybe buy a house eventually.

Eighteen years later: still with the guy, bought the house, never looked back.

Because it has mountains on two sides.

Because it's surrounded by water. Amazing views, and it's easy to meet someone who sails.

Because it has great restaurants at all almost all price levels (cheap street food is still lacking).

Because people here are relatively nice and laid back, regardless of what regional character flaws may exist.

Because there's great skiing an hour away but there's very little snow in the city.

Because it's affordable compared to most coastal cities.

Because there's relatively little crime.

Because the women here wear awesome coats and boots and many of them have great legs and butts.

Because the sky is regularly glorious enough to grant moments that you can tie off and let float away without a twinge of remorse.

Because it's better than California, including the wine country.