We gave that turkey the ``why are you trying to spoil it for
everyone?'' speech and sent him on his way, but I'm sure it didn't sink
in. Hopefully we've lost him as a customer. I keep telling people
that this is yet another problem that would have been solved by a
PVC-only dress code. That would cut down not only on the parka-wearing
hippies, but also on the baseball-cap-wearing post-frat date-rape jocks
and their fried-blonde fake-boobed girlfriends. We haven't been
getting too many of those, but they do tend to multiply like roaches.
Oh, here's a good one I can tell: at one of our events, the
promoter had a fashion show. Now, when it's getting near opening, the
security staff go through the building and check the IDs of everyone
who's there, so that the classic trick of ``I'm with the band'' doesn't
let under-age folks get in. So John, one of the security guys, says to
one of the models, ``can I see your ID?'' He hands it over. John
looks at it for two seconds and hands it back. ``Do you have ID?''
The guy produces his actual driver's license, which shows that
he's 20. John says, ``now see, you only need to be over 18 when you're
working in a club, you just can't drink. But now you've lied to
me. So you'll have to leave.''
That must have been a beautiful moment. I wish I could have seen
it.
_________________________________
We're finding that running a venue and promoting an event are both full
time jobs, so I'm afraid that we haven't been able to give our friday events
(N:CODE and
D:CODE) the
attention they need. The sensible business decision would be to farm
out fridays to an outside promoter like our other nights, but hey, what
would be the point of owning a nightclub and not having a night that
played the music you most wanted to hear? I'm totally loving
the music on fridays, but it's taking time for the word to get out. We
keep running in to people who don't even know DNA is open again!
Unfortunately, we're at a point in the evolution of the business
where we need to be making more money. We've still got construction
bills to pay... So I'm afraid that if fridays don't pick up, we might
need to cancel it and do something more mainstream. It would be fairly
easy to pack the place with a house music night, but I really want
fridays to be darker and more experimental: modern electronic dance
music, stuff that owes more to industrial than to disco.
We're also starting to look in to getting the live music part of
our business in gear, and we're finding that after all the damage that
the Internet boom did to this town, San Francisco doesn't really have
much of a live music scene left. We're looking around, and even the
most popular local live acts don't seem to be drawing crowds that would
fill our main room. That leaves us with national touring acts, which
is fine, except that most of those balk at the idea of playing a 21+
venue (and we're not ever allowed to be 18+ or all ages, even if we
chose not to sell alcohol that day: that's how the laws work here.)
Plus, we're expecting to meet resistance from the record labels
about our webcasts. We webcast everything we do here, and so far that
hasn't been a problem on our dance nights, even with
internationally-known djs. But when you're dealing with a band who is
signed to a label, they've usually signed away almost all of their
decision-making rights, and there are both label contracts and all
kinds of union rules to contend with; so even getting the ear of
the person who has the ability to say ``yes'' can be a major project.
That situation may make it impossible for us to do a webcast of many of
these bands, which to me means, those bands can't play here.
This idea infuriates me, because it means that the recording
industry has, in fact, managed to legislate progress out of
existence. Never underestimate the power of bureaucracy.
It would appear that Wa-Ha-Ka, the Mexican retaurant and bar at the
corner of 11th and Folsom, has closed. So not only does that further
reduce our lunch and dinner options here on 11th Street, but it marks
the closure of yet another late-night business on what was once one of
the busiest corners in town. Let's all hope and pray that it stays a
late-night restaurant of some kind, because if it doesn't, it will be
just another nail in the coffin of the city. ``Thank you for visiting
San Francisco. Our hours are 10AM-8PM daily. Please try again
tomorrow.''
Some dipshit decided to scribble her name on our floor
in permanent marker. Fortunately, she signed her little scrawl with
her first name and birth date, so she's spoiled it for everyone with
that name born on that day, because our security guys are now gleefully
looking forward to not letting her in again.
Some people leave their mark. Some people leave a smudge.
Other than that, no really good stories recently. We've been open,
the club's been full of happy people, and management and staff have
been under near-debilitating levels of stress.
