5 Fun Facts about Me Challenge - D-VINE ( Denise )

Hellooo Everyone !

@topkpop nominated me to the „Five Fun Facts About Me Challenge“.
I thought, why not tell you a little more about me.

1. Music Is My Life

People know me by the name DJ D-VINE / D-VINE.
To clarify, NO, I am not full of myself to call myself D-VINE. I am a joker, love to engage people, don’t judge at first glance!

I came up with this name because when I was 10 years old, I saw a video of the artist Divine, the track was „I Am So Beautiful“.
With taking the step to come forward, to stand up for what this human believes in & identifies with, even-though creating controversy & receiving a lot of hate. Divine is a hero to me!

Here a YouTube video of „I Am So Beautiful“ by Divine

I first set foot behind the decks in 1996, started out djing oldschool breakbeats / drum&bass & that is what I mainly focused on. Loving music like I do though, the fact I don’t like limitations, I started spinning other genres as well.
I began amateur producing around 1998, but my main focus was on djing, until about 8 years ago.
To really get into the depth of music production & mastering, I decided to get my certification as an audio engineer last year.

Here is a lil snippet of me djing @ Jungle Unchained in Karlsruhe.

DJ D-VINE @ "Jungle Unchained" from DJ D-VINE on Vimeo.

I djed in many places in Germany, on the Batofar a Boat-Club on the Seine in Paris ( one of the coolest locations btw ) & over the big sea in Japan.
When living in Okinawa, Japan, for 7 years, I became a Resident to the Raw Fusion Parties in the oldest electronic Club Hinotama Hall.
In 2016 I djed on the DJ-Stage at DAS FEST in Karlsruhe in 2016.
DAS FEST is one of the biggest open-air music festivals in Europe.

I’ve been featured & have played on radio shows in Brazil, Cairo, Lebanon, the U.K., the USA, Belgium & Germany, just to name a few.

2. I Love Dogs & Dogs Love Me

Believe it or not, I had 14 dogs in my house at one point, 8 of them were mine.
It started out with me adopting my moms dog Tristan back in 2007.
In January of 2008 we moved to Okinawa, bringing Tristan.
Tristan had to spend one night in a dog hotel / kennel for one night because our stay which allowed dog wasn’t free until the next day.
When we got to the kennel, our Tristan found his Isolde.

Do you know the „Celtic Legend of Tristan & Isolde“?

Tristan

Isolde

Little Isolde turned out to be very ill, she had the Parvo-Virus.
It was a real shock to me, 90% of all dogs that have this virus don’t make it.
I didn’t give up though., we will fight this!!
Isolde was in the hospital for three weeks, she was put on heavy medication, like Interferones.
I visited her every day & sang to her. It was so heartbreaking to see this little creature that hasn’t lived yet struggle with it’s life.
We were lucky to be in such a great clinic, the Animal Clinic 5, Dr Hayashi are my heroes, they saved my little Isolde.
So this was dog number two in our house.

In January of 2010, I had a rough time then, my mom had just passed away a half year earlier, I noticed that some people had put up a sign, Puppies For Free.
Me being me, I always had to make a trip past the house on our dog walk with Tristan & Isolde.
I wanted to make sure all was ok with them, people didn’t treat their dogs very nice. The puppies were removed from the mother dog way to early & she was going crazy.
The next day we walked past they were gone, just the mother left, tied up outside the house.
Hmm, I was hoping for the best.
When I got back that day from the dog walk I already had a few messages on my phone from my Japanese neighbor down the road.
When I called back she told me there where just a bunch of kids in her yard, with puppies, trying to sell her one. She was sure it was the lil ones I had my eye on the whole time.
I didn’t think twice, I went to go look for them in the streaming rain.
I found them in a box in the trash section of an apartment complex where the kids lived.
I grabbed the box & walked them home, five sick little munchkins.
Their names were 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 at the beginning. Because as you might understand, i did not want to keep them all!
I did though, haha. They were so sick & full of parasites, I just wanted to make sure they were healthy first before I gave them to someone.
The longer they stayed the more I grew attached & they became, Akio, Ella, Koa, Ryu & Kenta.

Akio

Ella

Koa

Ryu

Kenta

The news of my house being the dog house, hahaha, must have spread. In February of 2012, Mimi a stray dog from the neighborhood, decided to show up in my yard, carrying one of her puppies.

Mimi

I knew she must have more than just one because I’ve seen her around when she was pregnant.
I decided to let her go & followed her with Ryu & Isolde, calm dogs.
Mimi lead us to an abandoned house where I found five more lil fuzz-balls.



I found homes for 6 of them but couldn’t part from Lilia.

Lilia

All of my dogs were/ are well trained, I learned a lot from the & how to find inner peace in chaos lol!
What I mean with that is, to be able to bring the best out in wild animals, they all were street dogs, with only love, dedication, but consequence. Like with my son I never got / get physical or yell.
If that happens you lost, hehe.
People even always pointed out how the house din’t look like it was home to 8 dogs!

Sadly due to a divorce, these are fun facts here so I won’t go into detail, we split the dogs.
Ella & the twins, Ryu & Kenta are still with me.

3. I Love Children & Children Love Me

I don’t know what it is, as far as I can remember I've been a magnet to children, as well as dogs!
I’ve babysat countless kids & having two cute nephews in my life I continue doing so.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a kid I know or a stranger, I seem to be an attraction <3
Just the other day in the doctors office, this little boy after smiling at me as soon as I came in, slid from his mom’s lap to come & show me his book.
I love the innocence & blunt honesty of children. I see them as small people in a learning phase!

<3

4. Sport Activities

The first activity I’ve learned was horseback riding.
That was at a time where my parents were still together & we were living near Hanau then.
Being a military brat, we moved a lot.
I still love riding a horse & luckily my dad owns a few.

I took Judo & Taekwondo classes, but only to the blue belt.
I played volley ball, was in jazz dance & in the swim team, I made 2nd of our state one time.
After falling really badly I gave up skateboarding & started to ride BMX.
I never really hurt myself riding BMX, but I said „Hi“ to a wall once riding a regular bike, tsss.
When I was living in Okinawa & near the ocean you can imagine where I was a lot….

I like trying new things even if it’s in a ridiculous manner, like wakeboarding on my cousins wakeboard with my feet pointing backwards. I am goovy footed & he is regular.
But hey, I managed to do it ;P

5. Growing My Own Produce

Since I kicked cancer in it’s behind last year ( cancer-free 1 year exactly now ), we, @jeffleinwand & I started growing our own produce.
Our first attempt last year was funny. We used our own compost for fertilization, forgot to put another layer of sticks or a net in between the compost & the soil though.
You do that because otherwise if you have seeds in the compost, they will start growing, hahaha. Because we ate so much pumpkin we had an invasion of it.

All photos, except the ones I am in, are taken by me ;)

I hope you enjoyed the 5 Fun Facts about Me - D-VINE ( Denise )

I would like to thank @topkpop for nominating me. I love growing with a challenge, for me I did, this wasn't easy i tell ya!

I nominate, simply because I would like to read & find out more about them...
@jeffleinwand, @unicron, @onemedia, @seveaux & @mindseye-music

Ok, peeps I am finished here! Stay happy, keep smiling & stay creative <3