Mark Farina<\/p>\n
22:00<\/p>\n
On the final Saturday night of the year, the weather out doors is entirely too cold, too wet and too rainy.\u00a0 Mother Nature\u2019s dramatics is enough to keep people indoors, buried underneath blankets.\u00a0 However, there is one person who can command people, from across the city, out of town and even out of state, to brave the wintery bliss; to trek through puddles of water and be drenched in rain, to assemble together under one roof.\u00a0 The individual\u2026\u2026\u2026 will be revealed later.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If ever there is a house music, or funky house music, prohibition this will be the gathering place.\u00a0 A makeshift bookshelf in the back of pizzeria is strangely out of place.\u00a0 Truly, there is more than meets the eye.\u00a0 At the painted encasing one utters a password.\u00a0 A smart looking gatekeeper pushes up his framed spectacles against his shaved head.\u00a0 He carefully examines the guest list.\u00a0 Suddenly, he radiates a bright beam of whites that blind like a deer caught in headlights.\u00a0 His tatted sleeve leads to his hand which scratches off names on his clip board.\u00a0 The ecstatic guests are now permitted entry without cover charge.\u00a0 Step underneath the clandestine threshold.\u00a0 Be amazed by the backroom for guests to partake of beloved booze, spirited conversations and dirty dancing.\u00a0 Shoes are stepped on.\u00a0 The fur of wool jackets and bare shoulders are brushed against as the spirited journey towards the front of the room.\u00a0 Nothing says bar time like hearing the ringing of cash registers open and close.\u00a0 The liquor pours freely.\u00a0 The liquor pours frequently.\u00a0 The face of President Alexander Hamilton exchanges hands.\u00a0 A tweed vest and baby blue colored button-up dress shirt darts back and forth between liquor shelves.\u00a0 The bearded bartender is dressed damper enough to bartend at a five-star establishment.\u00a0 In the midst of several brunettes engaged in laughter, there he stands, at the rustic bar.\u00a0 The man who the people have come to see the legendary DJ, Mr\u2026\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Mark Farina is a world-renowned DJ\/producer who needs no introduction.\u00a0 The San Fran king of funky swing is no stranger to the city, having played in town a few months prior.\u00a0 However, the affable star has never played a secret show in the city, in a room that has a prohibition era feel with its hanging lamps, blue painted walls, and wooden floor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Mark, with drink in hand, breaks for the makeshift wood DJ compartment at the front of the room.\u00a0 Dressed in a black Gramaphone LTD 2843 N. Clark, Chicago, IL tee, he cues Chic\u2019s \u201cI Want Your Love.\u201d\u00a0 Nineteen seventy-nine disco morphs into \u201conze, onze, onze<\/i>,\u201d house music.\u00a0 The pulse of the party picks up pace.\u00a0 All are happy.\u00a0 Dancing feet rush center room for prime-real estate which is occupied by a blonde bombshell wearing black-rim glasses performing squats while a guy sporting black headphones hogs corner space.\u00a0 Someone should hang a no vacancy sign.\u00a0 However, everything is all good.\u00a0 Love is in the air.\u00a0 There is love for the dancers, music, the guest DJ and especially for the organizers of this rare treat.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Forty-eight hours earlier event promoter Lil\u2019 Steven, who lives and <\/span>is<\/i> in Santa Fe, created the last minute word-of-mouth soiree.\u00a0 The event was hushed.\u00a0 The location was hushed.\u00a0 There was absolutely to be no posting of the event on any Internet social networking sites.\u00a0 If so the exclusive\u00a0shindig\u00a0would be entirely cancelled.\u00a0 A glance around the room reveals the\u00a0darling machines that assisted Lil Steven\u2019s execution.\u00a0 There is Houseb4titties texting, \u201cA Okay.\u201d\u00a0 The Mrs. Rachel Pryor Hoffman provides hostess duties to Mark.\u00a0 Event coordinator, Jory Johnson, AKA DJ Sublime, is nowhere to be found but his presence is felt.\u00a0 Restaurateur Ryan Baker dances back and forth, playing hype man.\u00a0 From Macon, GA, Tim provided three CDJs for Mark to helm.\u00a0 Even former Twijit Recordings, Daniel Gresham shows face.\u00a0 DJs from old appear along side DJs of the new guard.\u00a0 Honestly, this many house alumni have not gathered in the same room for ages.\u00a0 This is a house head reunion.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Mark continues to show-off his Epicurean taste of the finest house.\u00a0 There is swing house with its gravitating push and pull.\u00a0 Sprinkled between funky house gems are diamonds like Teddy Pendergrass. \u00a0\u00a0But the party\u2019s spotlight falls on one Midwest metropolis.\u00a0 Chi-town\u2019s Peven Everett\u2019s \u201cStuck<\/a>\u201d kick starts vocal house.\u00a0\u00a0 The Windy City\u2019s Lil Louis, under the moniker of Black Magic, \u201cFreedom (Make It Funky)<\/a>,\u201d blows the house down.\u00a0 \u201cI have this record on vinyl.\u00a0 I brought this song at the record store that I used to work at over twenty years ago,\u201d testifies one native Chicago house head.\u00a0 Her pearly whites hang suspended from ear to ear as Jamie Principle\u2019s raps, \u201cBaby Wants To Ride<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The Frankie Knuckles produced classic is not only one of house music\u2019s early international hits but a Chicago house mainstay.\u00a0 \u201cIs It All Over My Face?\u201d\u00a0 The music disappears as the crowd yells, \u201cHell Yeah,\u201d just the way Chicago audiences sing.\u00a0 The Loose Joints classic has the crowd, \u201cLove Dancing.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Just as the hits keep coming, so do the drinks.\u00a0 Mark toasts a cheer.\u00a0 The bubbly must place Farina in x-rated mood.\u00a0 The room is smoking hot, and not just from the glowing amber of cancer sticks spewing a chocking stench into the air.\u00a0 The Mary Jane kicks into high gear.\u00a0 BT Express\u2019 \u201cPeace Pipe\u201d gets everyone so high people appear wanting to dance on the walls.\u00a0 By now everyone is playful and falling over one another.\u00a0 Handshakes, high-fives and hugs become norms. \u00a0Suddenly, Mark drops the bass, fades the mids and tweaks the highs.\u00a0 His ten fingers dance across the mixer\u2019s cues.\u00a0 The music builds to a heightened anticipation.\u00a0 The crowd stands on the edge of their toes.\u00a0 But, Mr. DJ takes his time.\u00a0 The crowd continues to wait with extreme eagerness.\u00a0 This one man show puts a hurt on the people.\u00a0 Ready and steady his right index finger and thumb slowly pulls the cross fader.\u00a0 And then he\u2026.BAMS!\u00a0 Mark smacks the crowd with the Nightcrawlers \u201cPush The Feeling On.\u201d\u00a0 The MK Dub with chopped vocals causes the crowd to go apeshit.\u00a0 Mark does it again.\u00a0 He has a knack for teasing the audience.\u00a0 Hands fist pump.\u00a0 Mouths sing the melody.\u00a0 Bodies burst into sporadic fits of dance rage.\u00a0 Even, a dance circle crops in the center of the room.\u00a0 B-boys turned B-men wearing ball caps and checkered plaids, hand spin and freeze.\u00a0 Their bodies, stuck in mid air.\u00a0 Spectators cheer on the acrobatic stunts.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 01:30<\/p>\n Sa<\/span>dly, the time has come to bid our great friend, adieu.\u00a0 He must move on to greener pastures and play his alterative guise for an eclectic crowd across town.\u00a0 Not before he leaves, he takes the microphone and utters a muffled thank you and a goodbye.\u00a0 If that is what he says.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>Nobody seems to mind; everyone must be wasted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This party was straight-up blue lights in the basement. The mushroom jazz curator paid homage to his Chicago roots. \u00a0The majority old school playlist would make Southside Chicago proud.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Suffice to say, seventies disco, eighties soul and early house music is the architect that has built Mark Farina\u2019s house.\u00a0 \u00a0After all, Mark Farina can move away from Chicago but you can\u2019t take the Chicago out of Mark Farina.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t\t