Our friend Anthony moved to New York from Oakland a little while ago. To kick off the first day of projects for Ghostings Anthony will commondear the jukebox of the Nancy Whiskey Pub.

About DJ Parasite -

A jukebox, as a machine, serves a function that is diametrically opposed to that of, say, a voting booth. Anyone with a few small bills and an inclination can become an auditory dictator, deciding for the masses what they will be listening to for the duration of his monetary contribution. Only a coup of loud boos and hisses or the bartender’s personal distaste for the music can overthrow a person’s musical commands. Often, the form of this dictatorship comes as an oligarchy, as friends gather together in order to decide what will be played. The jukebox, then, is a strange and rare form of device in our democratic culture.

It is this very nature of a jukebox that also holds its charm: who hasn’t been pleasantly surprised by the sudden arrival of an obscure but loved song, or glanced around in annoyance trying to ascertain the party guilty for playing the crap you’re being subjected to? Regardless of your feelings regarding the musical selections, that person had their reasons for putting those tracks on and sharing them with everyone else.

Although stopping short of bringing democracy to the jukebox, DJ Parasite seeks to put a human face on the “dictatorship”. In each instant of the event, we have found one person to assume the title of “DJ Parasite”. This person has selected a bar, and has selected ten to twelve songs off of the bars jukebox. DJ Parasite then creates a flyer, listing each track that will be played, and the reasons why they have selected those tracks. The reasons could range anywhere from being that person’s favorite song in fourth grade, a song that makes them remember someone else, a song that triggers memory of an event, anything. We make many copies of the flyer, and on the selected night, DJ Parasite and Red76 will go to the chosen bar, the track list will be selected, and we’ll hand the flyers out to the entire bar when the songs come on the jukebox. We explain, “this is about the songs that are playing right now, and why they were chosen. So and so over there picked them out.”

We’d like you to join us on the following nights, so you can be a part of the music and the conversations it inspires. Plus, if a song comes on that you really love or really hate, at least you’ll know who put it on and why.