Tag: ultra

February 27, 2014

MOX Minute Takeover

This February I moved into a new position at MOX, bringing you the latest news in the dance music world every Wednesday. Yes, Hump Day is my day… how fitting!

I’ve really enjoyed filling in at MOX over the past few months, so it’s great to be in the studio on a more regular basis. Plus, with festival season about to begin next month, there should be a lot of juicy scoops to report on.

With that said, here are a couple of my favorite episodes from this month.

And big thanks to Markkit for outfitting me in all the looks featured in this post!

December 31, 2013

10 Things I Did This Year

1. I Sold Beer… in Japan

I was in a Suntory beer commercial!! Yes, like THE Suntory, made famous from Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation. If that wasn’t cool enough, I starred alongside Ken Watanabe!!! (Inception, The Last Samurai) I played a reporter- shocking, I know- and made some funny faces. If you’ve seen any of my Key of Awesome stuff, you can probably guess where I got those from.

This was one of those moments where I thought, “I can’t wait to tell my grandkids about this”… which is also the first time I ever thought about having grand kids. Go figure.

2. Media Makeover

I upgraded with new headshots, website, demo reel, and boobs. I’m just kidding about the last part. These B’s are real.

3. And We’re LIVE

This was the year of performing on Live TV, which is basically an adrenaline rush equivalent to sky diving, but without all the potential bodily injury and stuff. I had major live projects for Ultra, SOS Island, and covering the Thor: The Dark World red carpet for Yahoo! and Marvel. It’s fun and I can’t wait to do more.

4. Call Me Feczko-pova

I learned how to play tennis! I went to Mexico, and after finding the perfect margarita, I decided to start taking tennis lessons! As one naturally does in such circumstances. Now this is a tequila decision I don’t regret, because now I play tennis a couple times a month with friends. Did you know LA has free tennis courts?! One more reason why I love LA… and the Nike Outlet store. I don’t know which came first: the desire to play tennis or the desire to have a place to wear a tennis skirt.

5. The Launch of How 2 Travelers

Since creating my YouTube channel in 2010, I had a vision for it to be an edgy, inspired, travel-based channel. This year, I finally made that vision into a reality by teaming up with travel expert Rachel Rudwall and re-branding as How 2 Travelers. H2T is a how to guide for everything travel: from tips, to adventures, to reviews of places you want to go. The response has thus far been amazing, with Vagabondish regularly featuring our videos.

6. We Broke Twitter… and some Records

We all knew Ultra Miami was going to be big for its 15th anniversary, but at UMF TV we didn’t realize just how much of an impact our livestream has on artists and the fans. Due to a 10 minute interview that was completely spontaneous thanks to technical difficulties (hey, it’s live TV!), we broke Goldfish Live’s website. Hardwell’s mainstage performance that aired on UMF TV was so insane that Twitter shut down his account, because, according to Robbert, his name was taking up 30% of the bandwidth! And, our finale, Swedish House Mafia’s last set as a group, brought in over 200,000 concurrent viewers, which is the most amount of viewers for a livestream of a North American music festival. I feel so blessed to be part of this awesome team. I must say, the Dutch do it better… with an American host. 😉

7. I’m Gold!

My frequent flyer status is officially 14K on both American and Delta airlines, which makes all the difference when it comes to flying: short lines for security AND customs, random upgrades, and your luggage is always the first to come down the carousel. Basically, I travel like a 45-year old male businessman. And if I must say so, I look good for a dude.

This is a huge thanks to Ultra, which has me traveling all over Asia, South America and Europe hosting the livestream of their music festivals. In 2014 we’ll be adding South Africa, Tokyo, and maybe other locations that haven’t been announced yet. Stay tuned…

8. Close Calls

2013 was the year of getting on the proverbial podium. I tested for a network game show for Freemantle (aka my dream job) and a Discovery travel series, made it to the top three for an NBC travel show, and was the runner-up in the nationwide search for FX’s DVD on TV replacement. In Hollywood, it’s usually considered a big accomplishment just to get a call back, but luckily for me, I was cast in other shows based on these auditions: SOS Island with Survivorman’s Les Stroud and FX’s Hershey’s Sweet Cinema.

9. I’m Home Alone

I put my big girl pants on this year and am now living in total freedom with my own place in the heart of Hollywood. You don’t want to know what goes down when a girl has a place to herself… or maybe you’re going to find out. My princess pad was decorated by Frugal but Fabulous‘ Georgie Smith. The Webisode on the Feczko Residence Makeover will arrive early 2014.

10. I fell more in love with Ibiza

I mean look at it! I went there for the second year in a row, which means this could just be the start of a serious relationship. And seriously, why can’t Ibiza be man? Because then he’d be blue and perfect… and things just got weird.

Can’t wait for what’s ahead in 2014. Looking forward to seeing your sexy selves in the new year!

October 24, 2013

Hardwell: The Path to #1 DJ in the World

There is a new #1 in town!

Hardwell has just surpassed the legendary Armin van Buuren, who has held the #1 spot for a record 5 times, from 2007-2010 and 2012, as the #1 DJ in the world, according to DJ Mag.

Hardwell, pictured above with myself and Damian “The Voice of Ultra” Pinto backstage at Ultra Buenos Aires, has had an incredible year. At that show in February 2013, Hardwell told me in an interview that he was taking his career to the next level. He didn’t put it in terms of “#1 DJ in the world”, but he was definitely putting in an amount of time and effort into sets that is somewhat unheard of in the DJ world. In BA, with Ultra Miami still a month away, he had already clocked in weeks on his one hour set. Some DJ’s just wing it for festivals! For those new to the DJ scene, Ultra Miami is a very important festival for the DJ community as it sets the stage for the rest of the year.

And what a stage Hardwell set.

With his mainstage performance on Day 2 of the two weekend festival, we at UMF TV had our highlight! Swedish House Mafia also had their last performance as a group at Ultra Miami 2013, but for myself, and many fans out there, this set was clearly something special. The first 20 minutes will leave your mind blown. Consider yourself warned.

I was on stage during that performance, and not even half way through the set, people were already starting to predict that this 25-year-old from the Netherlands would dethrone the seemingly invincible Armin van Buuren.

As you can see in this interview after his set, Hardwell clearly knew he had accomplished what he set out to do. It was hard to contain the enthusiasm, myself included. Yes, somehow “mystery” was “history” in my head.

Hardwell interview after UMF Miami 2013 set from Dis Guy on Vimeo.

Hardwell was one of my first interviews when I came on board as the live stream host for UMF TV. I have always been impressed by his enthusiasm as well as his willingness to collaborate. Live streaming music festivals is slowly becoming the norm, but when we first came on the scene just in 2012, no one was really doing it. Many of the DJ’s/managers were extremely skeptical and actually refused access to interviews as well as streaming their sets. Hardwell was always very open to it.

I have to think Hardwell’s attitude to embrace social media has only helped him, and help catapult him into the #1 spot. His set at Ultra Miami 2013 will go down as one of the best of all time, if not most definitely this year. And it was seen all around the world thanks to social media. He literally broke Twitter because 30% of Twitter’s bandwith was used for Hardwell after that set. This I heard directly from Robbert himself, who told me in disbelief about the email he received saying they were shutting his account down until the chatter quieted.

Hardwell’s rise is a great lesson for many people, regardless of your profession. Not only does he have talent, but he went above and beyond in his work ethic this year, to outstanding results. He’s also embraced social media, seeing it as what it is, a great promotional tool, instead of being afraid of it. Obviously, music and internet have not had the best relationship in the past, but it’s 2013 and the internet is not going anywhere.

Armin and Hardwell are consistently the two DJ’s who are most available, open, and easy to work with when it comes to live streaming and press coverage. The top guys are clearly on to something…

Congratulations Hardwell on becoming the #1 DJ in the world!

Photo credit: Alejandro Safdie

March 21, 2013

We Are Live Again from Miami for ULTRA 15!!

Our motto this year was ""Let's Make History Together"" - and we have already done that from Weekend 1. During Hardwell's set - who is set to become the #1 DJ if you believe the buzz in the Twitterverse - we concurrently streamed with close to 100,000 people worldwide AND broke his twitter! He received a letter from Twitter saying that he used 30% of the Twitter bandwith and subsequently shut his account down (temporarily of course). We also broke Goldfish Live's website after we did an in depth 10 minute interview with the South Africans, which included questions like ""What shampoo do they use?"" Have you seen their hair- then you will understand.

And then, of course, there is this weekend. It is Swedish House Mafia's final set EVER as a trio, and we are going to be airing it live. Let's see if we can make real history- and all come together for this special moment! I will try my best to hold back the tears.

Join me as I host the livestream at http://www.youtube.com/umftv from 4:30pm Eastern Time.

February 20, 2013

Top 3 Wine Tastings in Napa

For some, Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth. For me, it’s anywhere with excellent food and wine, which is why I make the pilgrimage to Napa twice a year to find happiness. In a bottle. Please don’t judge me.

After years of research, here are the best wine tastings in Napa Valley.

BEST WINE IN NAPA VALLEY

Ehlers Estate: To quote my video below, “Ehlers rose is better than a lot of my ex-boyfriends.” I did go through a date only-male-models-or-ex-professional-athletes phase so this is saying a lot… or maybe it’s not. Anyways, not only is the wine absolutely fantastic, but 100% of the proceeds go to cardiovascular research. The owner was saved by a cardiovascular surgeon, and so from the heart label to the names of the wines (120/80 Cabernet is especially divine- and named after perfect blood pressure) to the profit margins, Ehlers is all about heart. And I can cheers to that!

BEST AMBIANCE IN NAPA VALLEY

Von Strasser: Just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road from Ehlers, this place is the definition of picturesque. I swear I didn’t copy that from a brochure. It’s essentially two tables on a patio and you feel like you are at someone’s house, enjoying their award-winning vintages. They have literally the best Gruner Veltiner in the world. It’s super small so reservations are a necessity, but considering it’s also super hidden, it’s usually open. Oh, and that’s my niece making a pillow out of the Von Strasser dog.

THE MOST CHARMING SOMMELIER IN NAPA VALLEY

Jason at Signorello: I can appreciate someone who takes risks in the name of entertainment, and so I give you Jason. He was bizarre, made strange noises that were not English, and over poured. And that made him my new best friend. The wine was okay, but I would make the drive to Signorello just to have an ab workout in the form of laughter from him. (That’s the best workout IMO.) You definitely want to check out the video below to see what I’m talking about.

Check out the wineries for yourself in my video: