DNA Lounge: What's New

6-May-2008 (tue)

Prepare yourselves for a shock -- our ABC hearing has been postponed again! After submitting our request for a hearing in November, it was originally scheduled for mid-April, and got postponed to mid-May for unspecified "scheduling problems". Now, after seeing the discovery on our expert witnesses, ABC's attorney says that he couldn't possibly respond in time. And the next date we could get on the court's calendar is in July. So that's eight months' worth of speedy justice so far. Seventeen months if you start counting from when we filed our permit application in February 2007.

That part about "prepare yourself for a shock?" Naah, this should shock no one. I assume that this stalling tactic is just another part of their attempted war of attrition. It's the favorite tactic of every bureaucracy, since they're never in any hurry, and the longer they can stall, the more chance that we'll just go away, right?

Also:

Subject:		hi
Date:		Sat, 03 May 2008 21:21:18 -0700
From:		Kiosk User <guest05@dnalounge.net>
To:		kiosk-feedback@dnalounge.com

i love your club
excuse my beauty

30-Apr-2008 (wed)

Some things:

Thanks to the help of the fine folks at Justin.TV, the Flash-based webcast seems to be a lot more stable now, so I've made it a bit more obvious on the webcast page. Next time we're open and you're watching the webcast, give the Flash version a try instead of the RealVideo version, and let me know if it seems notably better or worse.

Also: FREE FOOD this Saturday at New Wave City! We're trying to build awareness of the fact that we have a kitchen now, so this Saturday starting at 11PM, we'll be serving up food for free from 11pm until supplies run out. Burritos, quesadillas, sausages, nachos, etc.

Come hungry!

Besides trying to make more people aware that our kitchen actually exists, the other reason we're doing this is that our appeal hearing for the under-21 permits is coming up, and one of the things we intend to do in court is rebut ABC's claim that our kitchen is somehow inadequate for serving a reasonable volume of food. So this Saturday, we're going to serve just as much food as we possibly can, to demonstrate beyond any doubt that when the demand is there, so is the supply. So please, come and eat!

Also, if you live within 100 feet of DNA Lounge, and you think that we are awesome, and are willing to testify in court to our awesomeness, please mail me. (At this time, we only need testimony from close neighbors.)

23-Apr-2008 (wed)

Photos of Rocket at Pop Roxx, and of Hubba Hubba Revue: Prison Edition are up now. Rocket were awesome, go buy their CD.

Hubba Hubba was also, but I will tell you about one awesome aspect in particular, and that is Pruno. If you have not read Eric Gillin's fine essay on Pruno, go read that now. I'll wait. ("Remember to feel the hate!")

Yeah, so. Jared wanted to do something prisony in the way of drink specials, so he was serving normal cocktails Pruno-style: in a zip-loc baggie, with a straw. In the hands of Inmate Kingfish in this photo is, if I'm not mistaken, a Mojito. A "prunojito" if you will.

Genius.

So remember those new bathroom signs I had made? Someone stole one already. They tore it right off the men's room door near the end of the last New Wave City.

Fortunately I had a spare (the original prototype) of that particular sign. But come on, what the fuck!

I just can't have nice things.

Photos are also up of Ignite SF. One of the talks was by John Adams on the topic of our erstwhile Snark-o-tron, the sign hanging below the DJ booth.

As you may have noticed, we turned off publing posting to it a few months ago, mostly due to rampant shitcockery. (There were too many people who don't know the difference between "funny" and "mean". Plus, we were tired having to explain to a band's manager why the audience just insulted the band in glowing lights, or having to explain to people who run competing events why spamming our sign with their own advertisements twice a minute was not cool.)

So John's talk was partly about the technical aspects of getting the thing working, but mostly about the aforementioned shitcockery.

He's giving the talk again at the Web 2.0 conference at Moscone on Friday at 10AM, for those of you who are into that sort of thing.

2-Apr-2008 (wed)

Please welcome DNA Lounge's new talent buyer, Gene Maze! He's going to be focusing on booking more live music here, and on getting those shows the promotion they deserve.

We're looking for an intern to assist him in this: please pass along our Craigslist job posting to anyone you think might be interested!

Intern: Booking and Promotions
Learn to work with local, regional and national acts to build successful concerts and events. Learn aspects ranging from ticketing, expense breakdowns, promotions, press releases, plus relations with tour management and performing artists.
You will be assisting the DNA talent buyer in researching acts and working up offers as well as the creation and management of information databases. You will be involved in handling press, marketing and publicity. Duties may include gathering contact information for members of the press, managing artist's promotional material, working one-on-one with artists as a stage manager, creating advertisements, maintaining DNA's social networking sites and many other small, detail-oriented tasks. Artist hospitality includes greeting performers and handling show guest lists. Some street promotion is also expected.
Ideal candidates are interested in a wide range of music styles, interested in working in a live music venue; they should be internet savvy and proficient with basic computer tasks. Graphic design skills are also helpful.

Don't forget about the New Model Army show tomorrow: they're great.

Also, photos of Alter der Ruine, W.A.S.T.E., Seabound, & Iris are up.

26-Mar-2008 (wed)

Every few years, I read another article about solar power, and how there's been some new technological breathrough in efficiency, or some new incentive program, and soon all the buildings will have solar panels on their roofs and everything will be sweetness and light. Well, a few times now, we've actually investigated installing solar at DNA, and each time it has gone exactly like it went this last time. It's pretty comical, so I'll share it with you now. We've had this same exact conversation three times over the last eight years:

They say, "Oh, it will totally save you money! Since you use power at night, you'll be feeding power into the grid during the day, and buying it back more cheaply off-peak! It makes so much sense for you. It's like you're the optimal case. Now, if you'll just write me a check for $20,000..."

"Whoa, hold up there, Sparky. How does me writing you a check for $20k save me money?", I ask.

"Well, it will pay for itself in only 20 to 25 years! Then you'll be totally in the black."

"Wow, you must be an investment banker, with a pitch like that."

"Oh, and also there are all these rebates and incentive programs. The Government will pay you to install the system! Also, you can do an operating lease with no money up front, or a Power Purchase Agreement, or this, or that, and it doesn't cost a thing!"

"Zero? Zero sounds great! Get back to us with some options."

"Ok, so the installation will cost $100,000 before incentives, and after the tax credit and five years of depreciation, the hardware only ends up costing you $13,000!"

"Is yours a hearing problem, or an understanding problem?"

"But it will pay for itself in only 25 years! Maybe 30."

"You are such a tool. Goodbye."

Honestly, I can't tell if the problem with the people pushing solar is that they are earnest-but-incompetent hippies, or are just straight-up scam-artists. Either way, it seems like it'd be more efficient to actually set paper money on fire and use that heat to drive a turbine.

24-Mar-2008 (mon)

Photos! We got photos.

SF Fetish Ball Gallery Show

Sunday Drivers at Pop Roxx

Bunny Meat

Hubba Hubba Revue

Bootie

Since it was the Hubba Hubba spy show, we got matching jumpsuits made for most of the staff and crew. The awesome thing about them, which unfortunately doesn't show up in the photos, is that they all had this image stenciled on the back:

VOLCANO FORTRESS
LOCAL 404
"Your 1st Choice in Henching!"

Now if only my minions could manage to get my hover-hive off the ground...

Also, our kitchen menu has changed slightly. Check it out. We've also been trying something new: we've been running food specials at the bar, so you can get certain items from the bartenders instead of having to go up to the kitchen window.