In control of the crowds, DJ twirls dials as educator

Image: A characteristic disco bass rhythm from Wikimedia Commons.

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THE fascinating history of a social phenomenon that makes the lips of the young and the old curl in opposing directions has reflected under the 'Musical' heading in recent editions of the Classifieds. Attraction to the partytime atmosphere of the disco must be one of the human traits that fades with age. The flashing lights, the pounding beat, the feeling that, with all that adrenaline, grog and who knows what else pumping through the veins, something could flip out of control ... Nah – some of us would rather watch another rerun of Inspector Morse.

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Francis De Cruz's notice asked a question that could at least make the young smile: Want to be a DJ? Francis, a highly accomplished DJ who won Brisbane's inthemix open decks DJ competition in 2011, is offering a 10-week course for "anyone wanting to learn the basics ". With the stage name, DJ De Cruz, European-born Francis says he has been "in control of the crowds" at some big gigs in the United Kingdom and Australia. He says his enjoyment comes from seeing the crowd energised by music, "keeping the crowd on the dance floor all night and wanting more". While most would relate the disco image to post-1960s culture, online students of the phenomenon trace its origins to the early 1900s in the US, with working class people dancing around apparently gramophonic jukeboxes.

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Disco is short for 'discotheque' and the French references included wartime gatherings of resistors to the Nazi rule. "The true art of today's club DJing, mixing/playing multiple songs at the same time – or beat matching – has its origin debated by some," Francis says. "Some say Paris at discotheques was the home of club DJing and some say true DJing took off in the US with Brooklyn House and house music being the true originator of mixing music seamlessly. "Today, much of the true art form is lost with computer technology mastering the art of beat matching/mixing."

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Francis says vinyl, CDs and mp3 format computer systems all "give the same result to the listener but a truly skilled DJ will use his talents rather than a computer to mix the tracks and music". He sees his course as a way "to give back to music what it has given me – the many years of travel, meeting great people and playing quality dance music". DJ De Cruz's favourite dance album is Tri State and favourite songs are Can't Sleep and Good for Me. He says Above & Beyond's melodic ability is seldom matched in today's trance and progressive dance scene.

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This column has appeared in The Redland Times.

Forget cyberspace and get down to business on ground

Image: Bob Platz's notice seeking a tenant.

THE recent focus has been on telecommunication and internet services as essential for Redlands business growth but cyberspace surely comes second to useful, efficient and comfortable space in a good location on the ground. That premise led me to chat this week with Bob Platz who advertised a 155 square metre building for rent in Russell Street, Cleveland, touting its suitability for retail, wholesale, workshop or storage. Bob has had a long association with the Redlands as the proprietor of Bayside Air Conditioning after he drove down from Dalby in 1990 with his wife Lorna and their teenage children Martin and Angela to settle at Cleveland. Bob wasn't unhappy about the shift as his earliest memories of the bayside suburbs included his grandfather, Sam Clelland, then running a boarding house on the site of the existing Manly Hotel, giving him an half-penny to buy a sherbert from a nearby shop. This time, a lot more than a lolly prompted the trip. Bob had taken up a major contract with the Queensland Railways and more big jobs were to follow.

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Eventually Bob sold his longtime Dalby business, Darling Downs Air Conditioning, to centralise his equipment on the bayside and since 2007 he has operated from the Russell Street complex which includes the advertised rental space. Bob says he often visited the complex over the years as one of his component manufacturers was based there. "I dropped in one day after there was a fire in one of the sheds," he said. "The gentleman who owned the place was waiting for the plumbers to measure the roof because it had to be replaced. "I walked over to say 'gooday' and had a chat; I gave him my card and said to give me a call if he ever wanted to sell." Less than two months later the deal was finalised, Bob says. On the day after they had met, the owner had fallen from a ladder while inspecting the roof, and decided to sell the property.

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There's a lot of activity around the complex at present as Bob said Bayside Air Conditioning was gearing up for two big jobs – a chiller installation for a Pinkenba warehouse and another system for the National Archives at Cannon Hill. Although Longreach-born Bob Platz enjoys the bayside lifestyle, he says Dalby still drags on his heartstrings, mainly because of the friendliness of Queensland country people. "You don't just have one friend in the country," he says. "You live there for 50 years and you have 50 friends or more." Bob gets back to Dalby at least "a couple of times a year".

This column has appeared in The Redland Times.

Stuck on a stick in the eye

Image: A poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

SCREAMS of 'My eye, my eye ...' echoed down suburban Wolsely Street, Buranda, Brisbane, after a sharp branch on a footpath tree impaled a man, pinning him to the spot and striking him into panic. That man was me, forever to remember the sickening feelings of the sharp end of a dead branch in my eye socket and the pressure with just one millimetre of movement. A few minutes earlier I had parked my car and, running late for an appointment at the hospital, hurriedly fed the meter for a two-hour stay. Then I had turned hastily. One quick step put me on a 'collision course' with the tree, and the unforgettable burst of pain, which soon turned to hysteria as I realised the branch was stuck in the eye socket The branch was pressing hard on the bony bridge of my nose and I don't think I'll ever forget the disgusting feeling of its penetration into the socket.

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Rightly or wrongly, I felt I had to get free of the tree as quickly as possible and pressed with one hand over the closed eye as with the other I tried to break off the branch. However, the branch was springy and obviously would not break easily. I took a deep breath and pulled my head away for yet another sickening feeling, that of the branch's actual exit with a distinct sliminess that I feared was the eyeball fluid. As I sank to crouch on the footpath, moaning and wondering what to do two passers-by and a woman from a nearby private hotel rushed to help. One of the passers-by, a woman, asked to see my eye to check for damage but I refused to remove my hand as I could only think the worst and said I would open it only in hospital.

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A man who had heard my screams immediately took preventive action, breaking off the offending branch and then, seeing blood run down my cheek, giving me a handkerchief to place over the bloodied eye. The hotel manager, Jennifer, called the ambulance on her mobile, and I began to calm down. The man, Sukhi, took a picture, using my smartphone. I called my wife, Jenny, to warn her that she may have to make a trip to move the car because it was anyone's guess how I would come through it all and to ask her to call the council about the accident. A crew of three paramedics arrived to take me on the one block trip to the PA Hospital. They asked to inspect the eye but I refused to open it, saying the confirmation of blindness would freak me out too much. I had already peeked with my good eye at the handkerchief and seen blood in a watery mess. Was it eye fluid?

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During the short wait for the doctor to take me to the special eye room, fear finally started to fade. I opened the eye just a little and could see light through the gauze. With the advice, 'Buy a lottery ticket – you are very lucky today,' the emergency dept doctor announced my all-clear of any serious injury. No apparent eyeball, nerve or muscle damage, just a graze between the eyes. So that's the story behind that hysteria in Wolsely Street just after 10am on Tuesday, March 4, 2014.

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My thanks to Jennifer; Sukhi; the other passer-by; Brendan and the rest of the ambulance crew; the PA doctor; and the Brisbane Council officers who immediately trimmed the tree and followed up with a call to my home yesterday. A mate counselled: "Don't rush to do anything – that's when accidents happen." But it's not that easy: When you've got to get there, you've got to get there. But thankfully trees don't always get in the way.