One reason I’ve been more MIA than normal from the site is that I’ve spent the last few weeks readying the final version of my book, Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews of the San Francisco Bay Area. I don’t talk much about my academic career on this site, mostly because I like to keep things somewhat compartmentalized, but the book and its attendant research has been a labor of love now since 2001.
I recently took a trip up to the Bay Area over Memorial Day weekend to collect artwork for the book, all generously loaned to me by the folks I’ve interviewed. If you go to my book’s Facebook page, you can view the various collections in greater detail but here’s just a few of my favorites:
(Cosmix Sounds, out of San Jose. Courtesy of Suzie Racho, who’s in front, rocking the shoulder pads.)
(Staging blueprints for Unique Musique, a Daly City crew. Courtesy of Henry Geronimo.)
(Flier for a 1982 DJ battle featuring mostly San Francisco crews including the all-female crew, The Go-Go’s. Courtesy of Daphnie Gambol Anies.)
(Unused party flier for Fremont’s Images Inc. Design by Bobby Dale. Courtesy of Francisco Pardorla.)
(Vinyl sticker for the Legion of Boom, an alliance between several different crews from across the Bay. Obviously, the inspiration for my book title and these guys were decades ahead of the Seattle Seahawks! Courtesy of Francisco Pardorla).
Legions of Boom will be published in Spring 2015 on Duke University Press. I’ll be sure to update folks here as to when it finally drops but in the meantime, you can follow its progress on that Facebook page.
(Photo at top comes courtesy of Unique Musique’s Henry Geronimo)
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