House Plug

Alex House.

I met this young man in grade school. I am not sure if it was fourth or fifth grade but Alex was like me. He was quiet, not much of a talker, but he managed to get by and be noticed among the rest of us of kids. Alex was a tall, slender white boy with long blonde hair. I don’t know why I became friends with him, but he just was. By the way, I was a short slender Mexican looking boy myself. I wasn’t too dark skinned. I was more light skinned on average for a Mexican kid. Alex and I used to play together at recess and we’d do a lot of mischievous things while playing too. One of those things was sneaking to the back restrooms during recess. The back restrooms were not the closet restrooms to the playground area. The back restrooms were on the other side of the school. There was no significant purpose to sneak out to the back restrooms, but it was just something to do. Alex and I thought we were so slick in sneaking to the back restrooms. We even monitored and observed the campus supervisor and waited for the right moment to mill our way across this small elementary school to the other side of the school just for fun. Alex and I would go in short intervals, peering through the different buildings undetected until we both reached the back restrooms. None of us got caught on the way to the back restrooms. We acted as if we were on a covet James Bond type mission. For what? I have no idea.

When we reached the back restrooms, we went into the boy’s restroom only. If we were caught in the girl’s restroom, we both knew we would be seeing the principal for disciplinary action and have our parents called too. When we both appeared in the back restrooms, we looked around the semi-clean restroom, looked at each, and realized there was no action here so we casually exited. We then returned back to the playground in the same fashion; undetected. Safe. The coast was clear.

Alex was a great classmate. I met his mother at a school function or something like that. I didn’t notice it then but now I could see that she was a single mother. He had a younger brother just like me. The younger brother was small, short, timid and looked nothing like Alex. I guess that’s what made us attached to each other in friendship.

There was a distinct spirit about Alex that connected us, but I can not recall today. As time passed, his name became a permanent fixture in my mind. Just the name Alex House was unique. His name now reminds me of the name of a House DJ from the world of Electronic Dance Music DJs and a DJ I would follow on facebook, instagram or twitter. I did attempt a google search for Alex, but google only provided me with the most popular searches for Alex House. I know for a fact he is no Canadian actor or minor league baseball player from the Tri-City Valley Cats. There are too many Alex House’s listed on facebook and now that it has been over 40 years, I would not be able to identify him. I hope he is still around.

I’ve always wanted a DJ name just like Alex’s that was already his natural name. But with a name like Paul Perez, how do you get creative with that? I was called polliwog in grade school for many years. I hated that name. It was so annoying and even though I was a short boy at school I still didn’t understand why I was called that name. I certainly do not resemble a polliwog in any shape or form. My head is relatively normal in comparison with a polliwog, but I do admit I was a short boy during my elementary school days. At least Alex didn’t get the laughter and teasing for his name, otherwise I would get furious and try my best to defend him. A last name like House was valuable and it would one day be worth millions, at least in the world of EDM.

When I got into DJing and the House music scene, I eventually brought turntables, vinyl records and mastered the basic DJ techniques and I came up with a unique DJ name for myself. I even considered Alex’s name in the creation of my own DJ name and with all the teasing I received in grade school as well. I liked DJs who had singular or catchy names like Deadmau5 and Kaskade, Moby or even Frankie Knuckles. I didn’t like the title “DJ” in front of it because it made it seem like you were a radio DJ and the whole concept of one name DJ was fascinating to me. After researching DJ names on the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs, several restaurant napkins, and yellow legal pad sheets of paper, I came up with a DJ name. This process was a year or so in the making and I didn’t want to go with just Paul Perez any more or DJ Prez or something or other. Are you ready for it?

pauleyplug.

I originally had the name in two parts: pauley and plug, but realized if I am a plug, then wouldn’t I need to connect the two names. It makes sense, right? Now, I am a DJ and now I am a plug.

Dear Alex,

Thank you for that moment in my life when I needed a friend. You had a cool name too. I probably would have teamed up with you as a DJ duo with the name House Plugs. Maybe you never got into House music like me and your taste is in Alternative Rock. If that is the case, we can still form a group and use the name anyways.

Your friend,

Paul