12-Jul-2005 (Tue)
Wherein we wish ourselves a happy birthday.
Tomorrow is our fourth anniversary. Yay.
|
I haven't written here in a while because there's been almost nothing interesting going on, I'm afraid to say. Let's see, what has been going on?
- Remedy, our weekly Friday event, finally called it quits after 148 events over two and a half years. It looks like we'll be doing one-off events on Fridays for the forseeable future, and if history is to be any guide, those will probably be hiphop. This undermines our usual "we've got both kinds of music, house and hiphop" gag.
- Recently, Lift (or as we all call it, "Pukey Asian Night") broke their own record, with 24 confirmed pukings. The previous record was 16, set way back in May 2003. Please note: this only counts confirmed pukings. A confirmed puking is one that requires clean-up. If someone does it in toilet bowl, or a trash can, or three blocks away, it doesn't count.
- We got a ticket for littering. A gaggle of inspectors and cops came by at 1AM on a Saturday night and ticketted us because there were cigarette butts on our sidewalk. You know, underneath all of the people smoking, who were still standing there!
- We were instructed that we need to have a candle permit. Yes, apparently if you ever want to have those little restaurant candles out on tables, the city expects you to pay them for that.
- Oh, and of course, ______ _____ ____ _____, ____-_____ _______ __ ___ ___ ______, ___ ______ ____.
- We still haven't found a contractor for the Secret Construction Project. We've got the permits, but can't find anyone (licensed) who is willing to actually do the work.
- "Operation: Hang A Sign On The Building" is now entering the fourth year of its planning stage. Hey guys, no need to rush it!
Notably absent from that list are any bands. Looks like the last real band that played here was The Epoxies in May! (I'm not counting in my current definition of band "a dozen MCs and DJs plus one drummer", which is perhaps not completely fair, but whatever.)
Does Mark Jones still work for you?
So are you enjoying it? I get the sense you're a little disappointed that the SF clubgoing public doesn't share your taste in music... and yet I don't get the sense you're dying to return to The Industry, either.
It's a lot better to be frustrated in an industry you love than in one you hate. If only I had realized this 4 years ago, or with as much money as he did. :)
I guess I'd have to say "sucks less". And also, "no better ideas".
No VJ tally? Weeping! Weeping!
Come on, man -- it's like, "five." Don't make me count.
It's been more than that. Perhaps you mistook several VJs standing behind their laptops as bands and added them to the wrong tally. It's hard to tell sometimes.
Happy loungeday! I hope I get to get out there one day before CA falls into the Pacific.
"California tumbles into the sea..." ♫...
How exactly do the Crown City Rockers not count as a "real band"? They're one of the best acts in the Bay Area at the moment and they've played at the DNA twice in the last few weeks!
I just don't give a shit about "live" hiphop. Sorry. Maybe it makes me an old man, but it all sounds exactly the goddamn same to me.
That's fine, and I understand the frustration you're trying to express. What you mean to say is "the last live act I was interested in seeing was the Epoxies" Since its your club its a bummer you're not getting more live acts that interest you right now.
It's just that the way your saying it makes no sense. You're just adapting your normal complaint about backing-track-based bands and applying it to every band thats played at DNA for the last two months, whether you saw them or not. Crown City Rockers are just the most obvious example... 5 people on stage (3 of them classically trained at Berklee) playing live instruments. That's about as much of a "real band" as it gets.
I don't personally like classical music much but I wouldn't say the members of the SF symphony aren't "real musicians" just because they usually don't play music that interests me much.
So although you have a reasonable grievance of "I've put a lot of time and money into my dream of having a place with lots of live music I enjoy; I wish it were working out better right now" you're complaining about it in a nonsensical way.
Not-really-related aside: although I like some hiphop I normally don't usually get into the live-band-hiphop stuff either. Despite that I really enjoy Crown City Rockers because they do it so damn well. Kinda like how normally anything with a folksy-edge drives me up the wall but I can't not love New Model Army.
Yeah, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go ahead and give this a 9.7 on the "whatever" scale.
I made the same argument, and got the same \/\/ - just so you know. ;)
HA! i can only imagine, girl. you must be made of whateverrrr-deflecting teflon.
What's with the SPAN censoring?
Was there actually text there, but I was too slow to read it before you clipped it for some BS political reason?
(See also, May.)
See May 28
Doesn't help too much, I'm afraid. I must've missed the gag.
So lets see, my pattern is "Oh, and of course, 6 5 4 5, 4-5 7 2 3 3 6, 3 6 4."
Oh, and of course, people threw beer about, frat-tards ruining my big ass mirrors, par course here.
I'd think of something more clever but it's late, I'm tired, and I think I already adequately demonstrated that I have no life.
Oops, strike the S from mirrors.
I suspect there are laws against adulterating/diluting alcohol while it is still in the bottle (not that that stops other clubs). Short of advocating that, perhaps the bartenders could mix drinks a bit lighter on Lift nights?
If I had to clean up that much vomit, that's what I'd do. That and position some large, easy-to-puke-in trash cans near pathways.
You are making the assumption that the Lift kids do not intend to throw up. They seem to consider that the victory condition.
Lift at DNA got a mention on NPR's morning edition today.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4751394
How about that. The Wu Bai crowd were totally different than the usual Lift crowd, though. The Lift folks are young and predominantly English-speaking. The Wu Bai crowd seemed to be mostly middle-aged tourists or recent immigrants, and probably not regular club-goers.
Can someone please convert that stream to an MP3 file for me?
Live to serve. Linky to mp3 of stream.
Thanks!
What did you use to do that? I poked around a bit, but all options sounded like a pain in the ass.
On Windows I use Total Recorder. Mac OS X users might want to look into Soundflower or Audio Hijack. These packages act like virtual soundcards and route steamed audio to other applications or dump into a file (e.g. mp3).
steamed audio
Heh, food on the brain. Steamed audio may taste better but aurally I meant streamed.
Just heard the NPR story on Morning Edition about the DNALounge and Asian rock. Cool!
Just think, 3 whole new MTV channels of Pukey Asian Night! Or something.
I'm hoping for a spin off reality show.. Replete with the "Are you JWZ?" scene, and 15 employees all going "I am JWZ."
Is SFPD going to crucify jwz?
HAHAHA. Excellent reference, but I was actually going more for this...
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2005/04.html#29 (Apr-29)
Of course, he even mentioned Sparticus in that post.. I am teh douche. :o
Out of curiosity, is it a hard time for live bands all over San Francisco, or is it just your place (or some other subset) that has a hard time booking them? Or are there too many venues for too few bands?
Well, places that are all ages have a much easier time booking bands than places that are 21+ (like us).
Have you at least started turning a profit? There hasn't been any
mention of that for a while, but that could also mean losing money
has become the stead state.
The club mostly keeps itself afloat, but I'll never get a dime of my original investment back.
Ok, that's an exaggeration. I've gotten a couple thousand bucks of it back.
That's one damn expensive gift to the world. Too bad we're such a bunch of whiny ingrates.
I've always wondered what the finances of a club that size would look like. In the teeny tiny currency trading group I'm in right now, we blow through about $4000 a day in fixed costs, most of which is salary and benefits. That's not counting our variable trading expenses. I shudder to think what it costs to keep the DNA doors open.
Remind me not to go starting any businesses till I've recovered from the induced insanity from this one.
I'm in the process of getting investors for a bar/restaurant concept now. To just break even means doing $60,000 a month in sales. Just to break even!
The hospitality business isn't recommended for the squeamish or lazy.
happy birthday/anniversary, jamie.
and: THANK YOU.
it's been a really fun 4 years for me, and i'm glad you're all there.