Good riddance: The Village Voice this week has a story about the exodus of DJs from New York, who are ending up in Berlin and other Euro cities such as Barcelona. The jocks, most of whom I've never heard of, complain that there's too many DJs in New York and not enough decent-paying gigs. (Huh, I'm thinking to myself, I've been spinning since the mid-'80s, and I've never had a decent paying gig. What do these Johnny-come-latelies expect out of DJing, a career?). Anyway, the kicker is that one of the expatriots, Danny Wang, is already griping about how there's -- you guessed it -- too much competition in Berlin. "There are too many DJs here," he says.

Here's a thought: Get a friggin' life! It's just DJing. It's not rocket science. Anyone who's making anything more than a pittance off this stuff is absolutely astonished, including the world's top jocks. They can't believe it. They're making dough to spin other people's music! But those slots are few and far between. So do this: Work on a real life. Then DJ for fun, and for the love of music. Don't take it too serious, or you'll end up like the sour-puss down at the record shop -- you know, Burned-Out-Never-Was-Been-Every-Recod-Sucks Guy. Okay?

Left coast and back: Back from the DNC in Boston. For you political news hounds, I have a more local, L.A. take on the convention this week and next in L.A. CityBeat. Not a lot of dance music was heard during my four days in Boston (Rock The Vote took over the local Avalon but booked more mainstream music), but I did see a pedi-cab rider bumping some house music just outside the entrance to FleetCenter, the site of the convention.