• Seven and a half years and we're still here!

• We had a whole bunch of shows.

• Bootie is still an unstoppable juggernaut.

• We added the Absinthe bar.

• The video webcast is available in Flash form as well as RealVideo.

• After two and a half years of fighting (or seven, depending on how you count), we succeeded in negotiating the conversion of our liquor license to one that allows us to do all ages shows.

• We won Best Dance Club in the SF Bay Guardian Best of the Bay readers poll, and a bunch of our regular events and alumni won as well.

And now some bad things. I haven't posted about most of these before, since I am surrounded by people who consider any exchange of information to be the giving of power to the enemy. So, the following is only ever so slightly redacted:

• We hired a booker / talent buyer in order to get more live shows in here, and actually take advantage of our all ages license. The fellow we hired didn't work out, and that experiment cost a fortune. Now we're looking for a new person in order to try again. (We have some hopeful prospects, but we haven't hired anyone yet.)

• Attendance is down around 30% this year. It's not just us; the whole industry is suffering. Blame the economy? Blame gas prices? Who knows. What I know is, it's hard to pay my staff.

• A couple years ago, we used to do this party called ______. You may remember it as ______ _____ ______. Well, one night, _______ ___ _______. __ ________, __________, but that was the end of that party. I kicked those promoters out that night, and we haven't done an event with them since.

  What does that 2006 incident have to do with 2008, you're wondering? Well, years later, ___ ___ ___ ___ _______ is suing us. We don't even know how much they're fishing for yet.

• Last year, we let someone put on a rather repulsive event called __________ _____ __________. ___ ________ ____ __, ___ __ _ ______ ____, ______ __ ____ _________, ___ ___ _ _____ __ _____ __ _______ __ ____ ______. It was gross. Even grosser, though, is that ___ ________ ______ ___ ______ ____ ____ ________ ____ __ _____... ___ __ __________ ____ ___ __ ___ _____ _____ ____ ____ ___ ___ __ ___ ____, ___ ___ __ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___ __ __.

  What does that 2007 incident have do with 2008, you're wondering? I'll bet you can guess: she's suing us. Why isn't she suing ___ ________, ___ ___ who actually caused ___ ______? That's a very good question.

• Earlier this year, someone said to me, "I just had to fill out a police report, because some guy lost his ear." I asked, "How does that even happen?" The answer: "He fell down. And tore his ear off. I saw his skull."

  WTF, man.

• Regarding both of the aforementioned suits, our insurance broker advised us that whatever we do, we shouldn't submit a claim to our insurance company, but instead should litigate on our own, because as soon as you submit a claim they raise your rates and then drop you at the end of the term. This obviously raises the question of what exactly we're paying them for. I think that what this really means is that our insurance broker is _ ____ ___ _ _____, so we submitted the claims anyway. (Trying to find non-extortionate insurance for a nightclub? Not easy.)

• ___ __________ __ ___ ______ _______ __ _____ ___ ____ _____ ___ ________ __ _____ ____, ___ __ ______ ________ ___ ___ ______ _____ __________. But what we did get in late July was _ ________ ____ ___ _____ __ ____________ _________ ________ _______ _____ __________ ___ ________ _ __________ ______! _______, __ _ ______ ______ __ ___ ____ ____ __ ___ _____ __ ______ _____ _________ __ ___ ___________ __ ______ ___ _______, ___ ___ ____ _______ __________ ______ ____ ___ ____ for months _______ ___ ____. ____, ____ _____ ____. __ ____ __ __ ____ _____ ______ _________, ____ _ ___ _____ ____ _____, ___ __________ _____ ____ ___ _________ __ _______ _____ _____ __ _____ _____. __ _____ ___ ______ ( ____________ ____ __________, _ _____ ___) ____ __ _ ___ ____ __ ___ _________ and are shocked, shocked at ___ ________ ____ ___.

  You're probably laughing, thinking "oh, how silly", and wondering if _______ _____ __ ___ ___ ____ __ ___ _ ____ __ _ ___ _______ _____ __ _________.

  Guess again. They're trying to ______ __ ______ _______ ____ ____. ____ ___ _____ _________ __ ___ ____ ____ ABC ___ ____ _______ __ ____, ___ _______ ______ __ ___ __ ___ __ ________ _______ _______ ___ _ ____ __ _ ____ ____ __ ___ ___. And my lawyer is telling me ____ ____ ____ _ ______ ____ ______ __ __________.

Every Thursday afternoon, we have our staff meeting.

Every week, the meeting fills me with dread. My stomach is in knots before this meeting, in anticipation of all the unsatisfying answers I will get to my questions to the henchmen, and of all the bad news they will bring me. Sometimes these knots begin ten minutes after I wake up on Thursday. Sometimes they begin on Tuesday. After the meeting, I sit at home for hours vibrating, trying to distract myself from the absurdity I've just absorbed.

So, uh. That's how my year was. How was yours?

Happy New Year.]]> http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2008/12.html#26 Photos are up of the Hubba Hubba Revue Christmas Show, and also Meat, featuring Santa Pig.

I think RealVideo is working again. That was harder than it should have been... Please let me know if you see it behaving weirdly in any ways it didn't behave weirdly before. I think it requires at least RealPlayer 10 now instead of RealPlayer 8, but I doubt anyone is still using v8.

You will be joining us on New Year's Eve and January 2nd, yes?]]> http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2008/12.html#22 The RealVideo version of the webcast has been down for a couple of days, because the folks who have been generously providing RealVideo hosting for us for free for all these years just upgraded their end to Helix 11.1, and apparently it doesn't like talking to RealProducer 8.5. I downloaded the Linux version of RealProducer Basic 11.1, but all the command-line arguments have changed, and so far I can't make it go.

Anyone know how to use this thing?

I wonder if anyone is actually watching the Real stream any more, now that there's a Flash version via Justin.tv. I think the Real version is better quality, but it's certainly less convenient. (I don't have access to any server logs that could answer this question for me.)]]> http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2008/12.html#16 On Sunday we had twenty-seven bands play here, from noon until midnight. That's definitely a record. And, as it turns out, one of those bands -- the third one, Emilia's Rose -- is the 600th band to play at DNA Lounge since we re-opened in 2001! That's somewhat approximate, of course, since it's based on what's on our calendar, and there are sometimes last-minute lineup changes that I don't know about. And we quibble about the distinction between "band" and "dj". But hey, 600 bands, that's kind of a lot.

I didn't realize this before the show because I didn't actually get the lineup of the bands who would be playing until halfway through the event...

It was also our youngest event to date: something like 87% of the people who attended were under 21. (We track this by counting the wristbands we give to drinkers, so it is also somewhat approximate.)]]> http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2008/12.html#08 I was noticing some weirdness, so I finally "upgraded" the RSS feeds of the DNA calendar and blog from RSS 0.92 to RSS 2.0. They validate, so let me know if you see any new weirdness.

I considered switching to Atom instead, but as far as I can tell, all of the purported advantages of Atom over RSS 2.0 are theoretical and pedantic, and don't make a difference in the real world (except that fewer things accept Atom than RSS 2.0). And providing both just seems a waste of time.]]> http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2008/12.html#06 This week's Guardian cover story is about Bohemian Carnival and friends! I haven't seen the paper version, but I'm told it has a lot more pictures. Their next event here is While You Were Sleeping on Dec 12, by the way, plug plug.

Tonight's New Wave City 16 year anniversary got a nice plug in the Guardian's music blog too.

]]> http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2008/12.html#02 Photos are up of Nachtmahr, Alter der Ruine, Nolongerhuman, & Diabolic Disciple, and also of Bohemian Carnival.

Are you aware that this Friday is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition? So hooray for that. Raise a glass, my fellow citizens.]]>