On Jun 15, 2005, at 11:27 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
When ever I see a webpage like this I think how lucky we are to have
people
that have the love and are willing to take the time to assemble all the
info, mixes, pictures, etc.
So I see the original email...and I'm like "apparently"?!?
Then I remember.
Duane was hot. And when the radio stations began to segue away from
house and detroit techno towards other genres, when mojo was being
moved out, when Mills had left for Europe, Duane was still there. He
had a brief noontime set every weekday, and he'd lay it down. Hard to
do in only 20 minutes or so.
There's so many DJs who have either slipped into the fog of our
memories or
have passed on - I must commend those dedicated to immortalizing these
artists so that the next generation(s) can have some understanding of
and
appreciate the talent of these men and women.
There is a political component here that has been overlooked. Duane
didn't just "die before his time." Very few of the DJs do. In Duane's
case, I believe he was closeted, which produces a great deal of stress
above and beyond the stereotypical health risks.
I wrote a eulogy for a friend of mine...a true house head. Here:
http://www.visioncircle.org/archive/003485.html
In some ways it is probably very similar to the stuff some of us wrote
about Laura Gavoor a few years back.
But the heads, the djs, the producers, those associated with the
scene...I think very very few of them just happen to die before their
time. They don't have health insurance, and the health insurance they
do have is usually just enough to get by. So when they are beset by
troubles, WHEN THEY DECIDE TO TELL DOCTORS, these troubles become
significant complications.
same goes for those who take on the even bigger task of writing books
about
DJs passed.
there's a whole subaltern culture out there that deserves to be
captured, a subculture that can't simply be written off as "youth
culture."
i don't post as much as i used to... i store all the emails so when i
need something new to play while i write i can quickly find something.
but this email combined with me missing the demf has me thinking about
how much i missed, and how much work we have to do.
Dr. Lester K. Spence
Assistant Professor, Political Science, Afro-American Studies
Washington University
Kellogg Scholar in Health Disparities
