Cyndi Lauper Mike Ruiz & Diane Warren

Com i ng Jan. 2012: OMG! TRAVEL MAGAZI N E

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EN ROUTE ON A TWO WEEK TOUR OF EUROPE, NASHVILLE’S DJ RON TALKS TRAVEL, MUSIC, AND CHRISTIAN SLATER’S MIND CONTROL.

Soaring over the Atlantic, Ron Slomowicz is looking forward to his two-week stay in Europe. A mix of business and pleasure, the trip will include stops in Paris, London, and Amsterdam.

“My main reason for going is the Amsterdam Dance Event,”

Slomowicz says. “It’s the ultimate conference for electronic music industry people which also has an amazing nighttime program. Where else can you meet Armin van Buuren, Benny Benassi, David Guetta, Boy George, and Paul van Dyk on the same day and in the same building?”

A trip he’s taken every year since 2005, the confer-ence held at the Felix Meritus building is always the highlight of Slomowicz’s year. This time, however, he is starting in Paris to explore his secret obsession with fragrance, planning to hit a lot of boutiques to try scents that do not make it to the United States. Then, he will make stop in London to visit with some British producers and management before partying at G-A-Y, Vauxhall Tavern, and Horsemeat Disco. Finally, he wraps everything up with the main event in Amsterdam.

The youngest of three boys born in Long Island, New York, Slomowicz always envisioned himself a suc-cessful DJ when he grew up. “I started going to teen clubs in Orlando when I was thirteen,” he says, of the

He frequented the all-age Goth, industrial, alterna-tive nights at Visage on Fridays, before attending the Saturday night showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; both formed his love of dance music.

“The movie Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater inspired me to get into radio with its idea of a

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mowicz remained in Orlando until his acceptance to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University.

“When I got to Vanderbilt I, I signed up to be on

Student Conference in Delaware, and it inspired the LGBT radio show. The dance show naturally

exposure to the rave scene and with styles ranging from euro and happy house to trance and electro, it is no wonder he has been on the air for nineteen years and has added dual residencies at Nashville’s Tribe and Play.

“I learned to mix while spinning on the radio and

in after-hours clubs Ohm, Zone, eXceSs, and Velvet, in 1996, before landing the primetime spots at Tribe and Play where he was been voted Best Club DJ for three years and has secured a nomination as Best Resident VJ in the Club World Awards.

“I’ve always harnessed technology to put on a unique show,” he says of his CWA nomination. “Cur-rently, I use two laptops to mix music, video, visuals

video into a seamless journey. I export the video stream to a second laptop where I use the visual

on top. It’s not just playing videos - its a multidimen-sional experience that adds a lot to an evening.”

The depth of Slomowicz’s VJing knowledge feeds heav-ily into his work as the guide for dancemusic.about.com and a panelist for Billboard Magazine’s Club Chart. Both of which have brought him opportunities to work with some of the biggest names in the business.“I’ve interviewed Katherine Ellis twice for dance-music.about.com, and we’ve hung out and partied several times,” he says. “She is a natural energy

source. From her incredibly powerful voice to her insatiable personality, there is no one in the world quite like her.

celebrity that I met. She often calls and asks for advice on remixers and producers, and it’s an incred-ible honor that she respects my opinion so much. Both Kristine and Katherine performed with me at my Winter Music Conference debut at Mova in 2011, and it was easily one of the best nights of my life.”

Having that amazing club life also provides its own challenges, however, Slomowicz says, as he has often had to balance it with his personal ethics. “I worked at after-hours clubs for many years,” he explains, “and was often exposed to massive drug use. I personally choose not to do drugs and that worked against me in the beginning as many thought I wouldn’t be able to feel the music unless I was on something. Being clean, I’ve managed to blend a style that appeals to everyone: program-ming aggression and edge for those who like things harder, balanced by accessible music that everyone enjoys.”

That is what he advises those aspiring to be a DJ like himself: do it for the love of the music. “Embrace a variety of electronic dance music,” he says, “and don’t limit yourself to one genre. Learn

and playing for your crowd. Lead to the future and learn from the past. For you to understand the music that is coming out now, delve into the legacy of dance music.

“If you want to be a superstar, study the big names and see how they got there,” he concludes, “but do what you love and love what you do.”

VIP

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SEE THE WORLD THROUGH URIBE’S EYES

Federico Uribe isn’t a gay artist. He is an artist who happens to be gay. “I don’t make statements about being gay through my work,” says the Miami-based

everyday objects into something extraordinary. That is not to say, however, that he didn’t have his own battles growing up. As he says, he had a hell of a childhood and has sort of a peaceful adulthood now.

Born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1962, Uribe not only struggled with the omni-present oppressiveness of the country’s social atmosphere and the fear of violence and kidnapping prevalent at the time, but he was also burdened

“I was bullied a lot as a boy,” he says, “so I spent a lot of time alone changing reality in my head. I would wonder what I would see if this table was lying down or what that window would look like if it wasn’t a window.”

With this imposed shyness as a driving factor behind his childhood creativity, Uribe spent his time collecting paper candy wrappers and

creating �ower arrangements with them. “I liked changing things,” he says, “changing the way things were made to make them something

else, something beautiful. I didn’t know that was art until I grew up.”

Now, Uribe takes ordinary objects, such as nails, screws, pencils and shoes, and creates sculptures that are more constructed that sculpted.

“It’s like children playing with clouds,” he says. “Every object, I look and see something di�erent. The object is not what it is meant to be. There is

always another way to see it.”

In his latest exhibition “The World According to Federico Uribe” at Florida’s Boca Raton Museum of Art, Uribe invites his patrons to see a bull transformed

from a shoe sole, a �ock of birds made of pliers and a life-sized farmer family made of colored pencils.

galleries, the exhibit features his reminiscences of his family farm featured in 2008’s

debuts some of Uribe’s latest works - several life-sized palm trees made from the spines and fanned pages of books and gardens constructed from gardening tools.

ART

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“I’m not a sculptor by training,” Uribe says of his craft. “I made things up, learn-ing as I went.”

After studying art at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Uribe left Colom-

Miami, Fla.; however, it was in Mexico he learned the most about his craft and began to deal with his inner turmoil.

“I received grants from each country,” he says. “Toward the end of one grant, I applied for another and moved there. I kept moving until I got to Mexico where I met my boyfriend and stayed with him.”

subjects of religion and sex and the darkness and pain often associated with them. Then he fell in love, came out of the closet, and lost his

collected objects from the markets in Mexico and began practicing handicraft with the local artisans.

“Handicraft is incorporated into everything in Mexico,” Uribe said of the more traditional method of making everyday, useful items by hand or with simple tools. I trained in sculpture by working with all these craftsmen.”

Uribe re-envisions the world around us by assembling his collection of ob--

texture, like his upcoming series of landscapes “painted” with wire and cables in a way similar to his Shoe Laces series. His is a labor-intensive work that is both

repetitive and compulsive, but Uribe feels lucky that he can spend most of his time in his studio doing what he loves most.

who handle everything for me while I live in the studio and work a lot of hours. I do my work and listen to books all day while working.”

When he does need to escape, Uribe still surrounds himself with art and creativity, attending movies, the theater and the ballet. He also returns to Colombia once a year

to visit his brothers and sisters.

Uribe has come a long way as an artist hailing from a country that has been at war for almost half a century. “I have very much moved on from struggling with myself, and

“The World According to Federico Uribe” is on display at the Boca Raton Museum of Art now through December 3. For more on Federico Uribe, check out

www.federicouribe.com.

Miami-based artist Federico Uribe turns everyday objects into things of extraordinary beauty.

ART

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