14. July 2008 by Don Jose.

Attending the Latin Alternative Music Conference is always refreshing. Fresh music. Fresh faces. Musicians connect with fans and the media. Everybody gets crazy at New York City’s clubs and outdoor venues where the Latin Alternative music blares the underlying message: people want change. They want new riddims, new music business models, new ways to communicate, and new opportunities to be creative. It’s a positive vibe that recharges my batteries every time.

My only regret is that I did not have time to attend a single panel discussion during LAMC 2008. That’s where the latest information gets hashed out in a lively and entertaining chat fest. So if you were there and want to share, please do.

Although I missed out on the panels, I gained dozens of interviews with Latin Alternative musicians, artists, bands, and media people. Those will all be included in the weekly BTR Latin Worldwide at BreakThru Radio as well as the the corresponding music.

One of the things I hear from Latin Alternative artists is the importance of social networking. As a dual purpose, my conversations also provide valuable market research information for Don Jose Media’s development of new social media strategies for these extremely creative and energetic people. Your ideas and comments are always welcome.

To all the people I met during LAMC 2008, fue un gran placer, and I hope to continue the conversation con todos. Mi casa es su casa.

-DJ Don Jose

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12. July 2008 by Don Jose.

Welcome to Don Jose Way. This is the Don Jose Media blog. Don Jose Media is a micro-enterprise launched in 2003 as a business structure to handle my independent media endeavors. I’m Joe Cox. I produce and host a weekly, hour-long Latin Alternative music show at BreakThru Radio as DJ Don Jose.

I’m in New York, at City Hall Park. It’s Saturday, hazy sunshine, a nice breeze, and people are looking relaxed as they stroll by or stop to sit on the benches. I’m in the city to attend the Latin Alternative Music Conference. I’ve been busy with recorded audio interviews at the Roosevelt Hotel since I arrived on Wednesday. I interviewed Forro in the Dark band member Wednesday night at Nublu, actually, and then connected with more than thirty bands and artists at the hotel press room Thursday and Friday.

So I really should have had the first post in before I started handing out business cards with my blog address printed on them. I wonder what those people thought who dialed up Don Jose Way to find one of those lame “Hello World” posts the blog hosts slap in there when you set up the blog and just leave like that like a lame ass. They probably said to themselves, “Wow. DJ Don Jose gave me a business card with a blog address and when I go there all I see is ‘Hello World.’ What a lame-ass. Ay, pendejo!”

Alright, so they may still call me a pendejo, but I’m not a lame ass any more because now I’ve entered my first post.

I booked a cheap hotel room in Midtown only a few blocks from the Roosevelt. It’s not much like the Roosevelt. We’ll leave it at that. There is a TV room with internet access, but I’ve been in and out of there all week in the mornings and afternoons to check e-mail, etc. and I really wanted to get out. So I did a quick search and found this free WI-FI hotspot. Oh, yeah. You should know. I’m cheap. Well, I prefer the term “thrifty.” For example, I’m not taking cabs while I’m here, except for when I arrived, hauling a case of water bottles in my suitcase. (No, I’m not paying a buck apiece or more for water bottles in the city I told myself. I’ll buy a case at Sam’s Club and bring it with me and create a water stash in the hotel room fridge.) I opted for the $25 Metro Pass that let’s you ride for 7 days, unlimited. So I’m here for 5 days. That’s only 5 bucks a day to get around. Boy, what a cheap-ass.

Don’t worry. This blog isn’t going to be all about me. It’s about Don Jose Media. I guess the point is, when you’re operating a micro-enterprise, you really have to watch the bottom line. That’s any business, really.

The principal activity right now is BTR Latin Worldwide. I produce the show at my home studio. Yes, Don Jose Media is a home-based business. I have an office/studio in my house. I decide which tracks I’ll play, set them up in digital multitrack, cut my voice tracks, mix it down, and deliver it to BreakThru radio every week.

At LAMC 2007, I gathered fewer interviews than this year, after featuring an artist conversation every week, I ran out of material! So this year, I have nearly enough to get me through until next year. I’ll either gather more interviews one at a time to get enough for a full year of programs or I’m thinking about interviewing fans, you know, like a man-on-the-street thing (MOS). Certainly, women, too.

Years ago, when I first started a career in radio, I produced and hosted a nightly program broadcast on FM Yokohama. I was living in San Diego and I would interview young people about almost anything. The conversations were translated into Japanese and it helped young Japanese listeners to learn English. And each show featured a song from the CMJ chart, courtesy of the KCR collection at SDSU where I went to college. That was back in the the late 1980’s (when I was young!) Okay, so now I’m middle age but I still prefer Alternative music and Indie bands.

Maybe one of the things about writing a blog that is difficult for some is that it takes time. Yeah, so? “Now what’s your point, DJ Don Jose, you lame ass, cheap ass, pendejo?,” you may well ask. It’s nearly 1:00 pm now and the LAMC Summer Stage event featuring Julieta Venegas, DJ Bitman, and Plastilina Mosh begins at 3:00 pm. So I have to get my lame ass/cheap ass in gear and back on the the 4 train express to Grand Central, over to the cheap ass hotel, pack my cheap ass sandwich, crackers, and granola bars for lunch, dig up some sun screen, and jump on the subway again to get to the park.

The live shows are really the best thing about LAMC. I’ve been doing the crawl from club to club since Wednesday night and I’m still convinced, as I am again and again every time I come to New York, that the best variety of music venues are here.

So, what might I hope that you take away from this first Don Jose Way post? Well, Don Jose Media is a micro-enterprise run by Joe Cox. He’s a cheap-ass because it helps to keep the business profitable while it’s growing. What’s in ample supply is personalized service.

Right now, it’s all about DJ Don Jose and BTR Latin Worldwide. But I have a lot of fresh ideas for media creation that I’m working on accross a variety of digital platforms and I’ll be sharing them with you here at Don Jose Way.

-DJ Don Jose

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