The turnout at Hydra was a bit on the low side, but I think this is a combination of a) it being freezing outside and b) we are still getting organized as far as the promotion side of things goes.  The nice thing was though that the people who did come stayed practically from the beginning to the end, so it still felt busy for all intensive purposes.

One amusing moment:

Me: "So did you hear that I called that one guy an alcoholic asshole and told him to get the fuck out of my conversation?"
The barmaid: "I think we all heard that."
It's amusing having a rant-voice that is that loud even over club music.

Anyway, all in all a good night.  I'm glad I had the guest DJs, as due to a menstrual-migraine I had to take drugs the night before and then couldn't sleep, so having been up for 36 hours or something I wouldn't have been real thrilled to have to DJ if it was the whole night. 

Thanks to:

• arden_drake, cadredlight, diss_tress, electrohead242, jesse_fantastic and mauler for helping out on the door.  I don't know who all was actually on, as I have a feeling it was more than the two people who actually wrote their names down on the time sheet, but my thanks regardless to everyone for being available.
• DJs Darkenstein and Metalmaester for putting on a great show.
• The staff at Soda.
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night.

Here is the playlist:

Edit: the issue mentioned in this post has now been resolved. I'm just keeping the post so that I have a record for myself.

* * *

Chimera this last Thursday was really busy.  While the numbers were slightly lower than some other events, I think those who came showed up earlier and stayed longer.

There were a few frustrating sound problems, but I think I have now fixed them:

1. Skipping CDs on my right deck: I've now cleaned the lens and so far nothing that was skipping that night is skipping now.  I guess the moral of the story is "always carry a lens cleaner."
   


2. Distortion on the line-in on the right deck: some switch on the back was on "phono" rather than "line."  I assume this fucks up the level of pre-amp, hence why the sound was so fucked up for the guest DJ when we tried putting her on the line-in on the right deck, whereas her sound had been great on the left.  I never thought to check this at the time because given my DJing habits, there is no reason whatsoever why that switch should have ever been touched to begin with.  Oh well, we know now.  And incidentally, this may also explain some of the other guest DJs' sound problems in the past, as I seem to recall they were also putting their sound through my right deck.

So I think everything is fine now.  Had it not been, I do have back-up decks (more specifically diss_tress has them right now), and darkenstein just bought the next-model from my current decks.  But even better than having back-up plans is not having the problem to begin with.   In any case, thanks to hindmost for offering input that led to a solution for #1, and Z for bringing up the question of pre-amp and thereby making me think that I should check the switch mentioned in #2.

And as always, thanks also to:

• arden_drake, darkenstein, electrohead242, jesse_fantastic, and mauler for helping out on the door
• DJ Science for being a great guest DJ and helping save my ass when my sound wasn't working
• The staff at Soda
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night

And here is the playlist:

It's been a busy few days on the events front.  I didn't get around to posting the Hydra playlist yesterday because I went to the Mannequin Depressives / Hydraulic Empire / MindKontrolUltra show at the Republic that night. 

I always like seeing Hydraulic Empire in concert, as I think their stageshow is better than most.  (Which is really basically saying that the lead singer is more expressive than most, since the other two guys are hunched over equipment most of the time, but still, the point stands.)  I thought the sound was not the best as compared to past Hydraulic Empire or Mannequin Depressives shows, but it was still a fun time.

As for Hydra though: definitely a more satisfactory turnout than Pandaemonium was having, and also better than past times that Promonium Jesters have come to town.  I always like seeing them, but I was also really blown away by the other band, Nanochrist. 

Furthermore, it turns out that one of the guys from Nanochrist DJs in Toronto, and I have to say that given the legendary snobbery of Toronto it is pretty ego-boosting to hear a Toronto DJ say that he thinks my DJing is way better than he'd have expected from Calgary, and/or be generally complimentary and enthusiastic about the music selection.

All in all then the night went well.  There were a few "wrath of Jinx" instances, but nobody got maimed and/or kicked out so I won't dwell on it here.  Suffice to say that I hope the bar benefited from the individuals in question, because if such is not the case, I can't say as I'd exactly miss them at future events...

Thanks to:

• cadredlight, darkenstein and mauler for helping out on the door
• Promonium Jesters and Nanochrist for putting on a great show
• The awesome staff at Soda (incidentally they built a new DJing stage now, along the side of the dance floor rather than in the corner - I'll be curious to hear what people think of it when Chimera rolls around)
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night

Here is the playlist from between when the bands were playing:

I was torn between "spookiness" and "for fucksakes" for the category of this entry, but since it relates to things gothy that I may well come back to in the next few months, I'll go with the former.  Even if it does clearly turn into the latter toward the end...

I haven't felt really inspired with my research the last few days, for various reasons.  (e.g. random sleep disturbance, pressure change headaches, hangover - with regard to today specifically - and other such lameness.)  So I've been trying to do some lighter but equally necessary work on preparing for my teaching in the fall.

As some of you know, one of the courses I will be teaching is a general education course about the meaning of the term "gothic."  The intent of the course is that, by analyzing novels, music and other works with similar dark themes, one will have opportunities to improve one's writing and critical thinking skills.  It differs from an English course though, in that I also want to bring in concepts from philosophy, religious studies, psychology and the other social sciences, and use these concepts to deepen analysis of the texts, music, etc. in question.

While (re-)reading the novels that I've chosen for the course (e.g. "The Castle of Otranto" is what I've been reading the last couple days), I'm trying to take note of common themes and recurring motifs that will make for interesting in-class discussion. 

It's interesting to me that one such common motif seems to be "people haunted by their pasts who mysteriously do the same thing over and over without any hope or capability for saving themselves, thereby marching inevitably onward into self-destruction."

It seems to me that this is clearly a point where the definition of gothic literature and that of contemporary gothic subculture have an unfortunate alignment.  Both seem, in my opinion, to contain a disproportionate number of these kinds of people.

Yet at the same time, an important difference seems worthy of note:

Such behaviour in a novel is the centerpiece of tragedy, and can be portrayed in such a light as to be fascinating, moving, etc.

Whereas, by contrast, such behaviour in real life more often has all the charm of a dog returning to eat its own vomit.

Point being: (and this is the part where it turns into a 'For Fucksakes' entry...)

I was too tired to do this yesterday.  Seems like the day after just gets more and more brutal the longer I've been a DJ.  Makes sense maybe from a "getting older" standpoint, but no sense at all in light of how little I drink (i.e. 1 alcoholic beverage at max if I'm working).  Oh well.

Anyway, I had a great time at Chimera.  It's definitely nice to get out of the booth thanks to a guest DJ in the summer, and to meet a few new people as a result.  Also nice to catch up with a few people who I haven't seen in years.  (Nothing says "winner" like "I'm sorry I didn't recognize you: it didn't occur to me that it was you because I thought you were in jail."  And no, it wasn't one of my exes: this one was smart enough to shoot me down in flames like ten years ago, albeit apparently not smart enough to keep himself out of trouble subsequently. )

I'm thinking I may look for a guest DJ next month also, not only for this reason, but also because during some points in the evening I was finding it so hot inside as to have trouble breathing.  I found this somewhat perplexing as it's never happened before that it bothered me in that particular way.  Maybe that's what I get for bitching about it raining whenever I was DJing for a few months back there.

In other news, I'm somewhat amused that it took me this long to find a gothy cover of Thriller.  It was kinda slow for when I played it, but I figured everyone was going to run for beverages after Rasputin anyway, so really I was happy that anyone stayed and danced to it at all.

Thanks to:

• arden_drake, cadredlight, darkenstein, diss_tress and mauler for helping out on the door
• DJ Metalmaester for guest DJing
• The awesome staff at Soda
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night

And here is the playlist:

Conspiracy and Discordia both had great turn-outs, much better for a first event than either Chimera (whose first event was way back in 2006) or Pandaemonium.  All-told we had about 100 people in total.

For me, it was definitely a fun day but also a very long one.  Once 9 o'clock hit and the kids were kicked out of the club, I could not get my jagerbomb fast enough.

That helped me stay awake, but even more helpful on that front was the number of amusing moments that Discordia had.  For example, the bit where I went on the megaphone to say "this is a request, so I don't want to hear any bitching about how I played rap," only to have the dance floor get completely packed for... House of Pain (?!). 

See, I wasn't sure going into this whether my idea of "retro that I want to hear" (as opposed to "retro that I never want to hear again") matched that of the audience, so it was nice to see that there's apparently a fair bit more alignment there than I'd anticipated.  It's reassuring to know that the years of the Warehouse that I remember most fondly are not the "lame" years in the minds of those coming to Discordia.  I was all ready to adapt if so, and there is definitely still experimentation to be done on this front in the future.  But it's always nice to get a positive reaction right from the get-go.

Thanks to:

• arden_drake, cadredlight, darkenstein, diss_tress and mauler for helping out on the door, i.e. sharing this super-long day with me
• DJ Chameleon for guest DJing at Conspiracy
• Heroes and Villains for providing the piercing-and-tattoo-info-table at Conspiracy
• The awesome staff at Soda
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night

Here are the playlists for both events:

Before this month's Pandaemonium I had no idea that there was a Cannibal Corpse song I could tolerate, nor a Mayhem song that I actually like... let alone that the title of the song by Mayhem is "Chimera." I like how Pandaemonium has expanded my metal horizons.

That said, the turnout last night... left something to be desired.  I am increasingly thinking that this event is not passing the test of the market.  I haven't decided what to do about it yet, but something is going to need to be done, whether it is more promotion or a totally different event concept.  I'll make announcements once I decide exactly what to do next, but I doubt I'll have any news on this front until after Conspiracy / Discordia.  So if you hear any rumors before then, please disregard them.

Thanks to:

• cadredlight, darkenstein, diss_tress and mauler for helping out on the door
• Each of the several people who was at one point so enthusiastically rocking out on the dance floor
• The awesome staff at Soda
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night

Here is the playlist:

While shopping around online for goth/industrial stores that might want to advertise with Chimera or other events of mine, I noticed that Art of Adornment posted a discount code - ADORNMENT15 - for ChicStar Retro Clothing. 

The latter store I think is going to cause some problems for me inasmuch as I want a good half of the jackets, skirts, dresses, etc. that they are selling.  Particularly since pretty much everything there is under $100, and a lot of it is even under $50.  Shipping looks reasonable too.

So perhaps some of the local dark-inclined ladies in the audience could help me narrow it down by taking a look and telling me if you get anything, so that we don't all show up wearing the same thing at some future point? I'm already curious to see whether the one choker I bought from Art of Adornment turns out to be something that diss_tress already has...

I also noticed that ChicStar has some sort of seemingly-ongoing thing, where they are wanting people to send them fashion designs with the possibility that these may be produced and sold to the public (with the designer name displayed on their website) at some time in the future.  I could think of a few of you who might be interested in that.

Had a fun time at Chimera last night.  It was also certainly a night with a few surprises to it. 

Primary among these was that, on the bad side, Metalmaester ended up having equipment problems and thus was not able to play, so initially it seemed I had no guest DJ afterall.  (Metalmaester will probably now guest DJ in July instead, but we'll see how things go.)

But then, on the good side, it turned out that DJ Dervish from Edmonton was in town (since he is playing tonight as iVardensphere at Rasp), so he ended up doing a surprise guest DJ set.  This, understandably, got an awesome crowd reaction.  And so I ended up being able to get out of the booth for a little while after all.  (Not that I don't like DJing for the whole night, as everybody knows, but I'd been in the mood to socialize + show off a sexy corset+tutu outfit I was wearing on this particular evening, so it was good to get to do that.)

The second surprise was the whole "wow, that guy has the most awesome costume ever... oh no wait, that is a real SWAT team who apparently is here for someone living in the upstairs apartments, how exciting!!" incident.  I didn't get to see it myself, but there was quite a buzz about it in the early evening.

The third surprise I had was that this is the first night I can remember where someone got pushy about requesting "more bagpipes," as opposed to pushy about requesting "more stompy."  Now, this was entertaining inasmuch as it was novel, and I do appreciate that people have their pet genres that they get enthusiastic about.  But when you've got a bar full of other people requesting all kinds of different things, and a surprise guest DJ, it gets kind of annoying when someone keeps requesting the same genre change over and over, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are not the only person here in the bar. 

Whatever though... I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume this had more to do with enthusiasm + social awkwardness on the person's part rather than sense of entitlement.  But I would still like to point out that: if you request something and the DJ says they are "working on it" because they have a lot of other requests, and you can look around and see that the bar is indeed busy, the polite thing to do is to say thank you and go away, not stand there with a look on your face like they are breaking your heart by not indulging you. 

Also, please do not write things of the form "play ____ for godsakes!!!" on the playlist.  Yeah, I like to play to the crowd, but if you make it sound like your head is going to explode if I don't do what you are asking, my peculiar psychology is such that it makes me want to just make your head explode.

Anyway though, overall it was a great time as always, and if you didn't make it then I really do think you missed out on even more than usual.

Thanks to:

• arden_drake, cadredlight, darkenstein, diss_tress, kaye and mauler for helping out on the door.
• Metalmaester for making a valiant effort to go through with guest DJing, even though we ended up having to give up on it for this month in the end.
• Dervish for doing an awesome job with zero advance notice.
• That group who "just moved here" who said that there are people living 16 hours away who are saying good things about Chimera.  I always like having my ego stroked.
• The awesome staff at Soda.
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night.

And here is the playlist: