October 22, 2004
Ich Bin Nicht Dieser Ich!
This is him! The dude in the Bono glasses. This is him:
The other Jason Bentley.
I've known he's been out there since I was in high school back in Detroit. I used to hang out at a used CD store called the Record Exchange in Southgate and would occasionally see his name - most notably, and prophetically, on a techno compilation CD called "California Dreamin'." Production was credited to "Jason Bentley and Neil Harris." Cool, I thought. I'm in California making techno with Doogie Howser - and now as I blog this, I realize that Doogie was a blogger too. Long before any of us. Even before Carrie on Sex and the City. Ah, the precient minutae of retrospection.
Anyway, the story, in gross understatement: I share my name with a DJ at a college radio station in LA.
Now, if yer in a red-state Clear Channel hell hole like Omaha - (beat) - this is probably a big shrug. In your part of the country, college radio stations are low-wattage low-end dial scraps that barely exist and probably wouldn't if it weren't from some ancient endowment by a long dead benefactor that had the foresight to see an expiration date on the liberal ideas that founded America. You may even share your name with a radio personality and grin every time that *other* Daryl Sinclair comes on after ABC news-on-the-hour to read Ag news and the day's birthdays to the tri-county area. The sweet girl up at Perkins might even rib ya about it now 'n again when she catches you at the breakfast buffet. But this is California, and when the rest of the country complains about the incessant thump-thump-thump of bass coming from somewhere in the neighborhood at 4AM -- it's us. And the guy spinning the beats is Jason Bentley.
Like most DJ's, Bentley's street recognition drops significantly outside LA and California (come to think of it, I can't think of any contemporary nationally known DJ - and I mean DJ, not "radio personality" a la Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity or any of the other drug addicts and pantywaist Irish louts). But in California, a lot of people know the name.
Jason Bentley isn't famous so much as he is connected. Here's a guy who spent the late 80's and early 90's fueling a musical revolution straight at the source: the Los Angeles club culture. He's behind not one, but two regular programs on two equally influential radio stations. The first is KROQ - the biggest of the big, an anthema to college radio stations everywhere. The second is a college radio sation - KCRW in Santa Monica - which may be the biggest, most popular college radio station ever. And LA being LA, he soon got calls from the studios and wound up as music supervisor on the three Matrixes, got a gig at Maverick Records, et cetera. The kind of guy that's good to know in certain circles.
Back in Michigan, being Jason Bentley was fairly free of the crap that poor blokes named, oh, Howard Stern, would have to face. It was only when I came to California when I got to know the" look." I understand now how celebrities know when they're about to be recognized - they've seen the thought processes a thousand times. Is it? Nah, I can't be. I says it right here. It could be him. Oh my god. This could be him. Ohmygodohmygod. Oh...my...god.
Now I don't want to give the impression that me or any other Jason Bentley get DiCaprio treatment down at Hollywood Video....but the rest later. I got stuff to do. :-)
The other Jason Bentley.
I've known he's been out there since I was in high school back in Detroit. I used to hang out at a used CD store called the Record Exchange in Southgate and would occasionally see his name - most notably, and prophetically, on a techno compilation CD called "California Dreamin'." Production was credited to "Jason Bentley and Neil Harris." Cool, I thought. I'm in California making techno with Doogie Howser - and now as I blog this, I realize that Doogie was a blogger too. Long before any of us. Even before Carrie on Sex and the City. Ah, the precient minutae of retrospection.
Anyway, the story, in gross understatement: I share my name with a DJ at a college radio station in LA.
Now, if yer in a red-state Clear Channel hell hole like Omaha - (beat) - this is probably a big shrug. In your part of the country, college radio stations are low-wattage low-end dial scraps that barely exist and probably wouldn't if it weren't from some ancient endowment by a long dead benefactor that had the foresight to see an expiration date on the liberal ideas that founded America. You may even share your name with a radio personality and grin every time that *other* Daryl Sinclair comes on after ABC news-on-the-hour to read Ag news and the day's birthdays to the tri-county area. The sweet girl up at Perkins might even rib ya about it now 'n again when she catches you at the breakfast buffet. But this is California, and when the rest of the country complains about the incessant thump-thump-thump of bass coming from somewhere in the neighborhood at 4AM -- it's us. And the guy spinning the beats is Jason Bentley.
Like most DJ's, Bentley's street recognition drops significantly outside LA and California (come to think of it, I can't think of any contemporary nationally known DJ - and I mean DJ, not "radio personality" a la Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity or any of the other drug addicts and pantywaist Irish louts). But in California, a lot of people know the name.
Jason Bentley isn't famous so much as he is connected. Here's a guy who spent the late 80's and early 90's fueling a musical revolution straight at the source: the Los Angeles club culture. He's behind not one, but two regular programs on two equally influential radio stations. The first is KROQ - the biggest of the big, an anthema to college radio stations everywhere. The second is a college radio sation - KCRW in Santa Monica - which may be the biggest, most popular college radio station ever. And LA being LA, he soon got calls from the studios and wound up as music supervisor on the three Matrixes, got a gig at Maverick Records, et cetera. The kind of guy that's good to know in certain circles.
Back in Michigan, being Jason Bentley was fairly free of the crap that poor blokes named, oh, Howard Stern, would have to face. It was only when I came to California when I got to know the" look." I understand now how celebrities know when they're about to be recognized - they've seen the thought processes a thousand times. Is it? Nah, I can't be. I says it right here. It could be him. Oh my god. This could be him. Ohmygodohmygod. Oh...my...god.
Now I don't want to give the impression that me or any other Jason Bentley get DiCaprio treatment down at Hollywood Video....but the rest later. I got stuff to do. :-)
