The Last in a Line

All of my titles have had a direct song reference in them.

True story.

I've worked downtown for over two years now. I left my last crappy job which was a replacement for the crappy job before that and I couldn't be happier.

There is a stigma that will always be attached to bars that can't be shaken and a lot of times, people reinforce that idea. Its almost like fraternities working hard to shake that Animal House image, only to have one guy screw it up for everyone.

Yes, I was a frat boy too.

The bars are winding down the college time of the year and are going into the lean summer months. Usually, bars gear up for the school year and cut down on some of the features, but this year seems different.

The downtown bars that are part of the Felix Street Experience made a push for the "Pass the Hat" campaign which raised money for Camp Quality and was part of Oprahs big give. Over $10,000 was raised for the Camp and the bars were part of that. In May, the downtown bars put money and effort into the Appleblossom Parade that is enjoyed by local residents year round. In August, Trails West! will be heavily helped out by downtown merchants including the bars.

So yes, the image and stereotypes exist, but there is so much that is done for the community that people arent aware of.

Can you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Somewhere along the line, I became really good at my job.

I am not a DJ in the typical sense. I dont spin vinyl anymore. That habit became too expensive for me to keep up with the demand of what people want to hear. Today, im going to give a rundown on my setup for entertainment as it is a similar setup for what other professional DJs use downtown.

First and foremost is my computer. I own an Acer 5920 which is a core2duo pentium setup with 2 gigs of ram. This is my headpiece for everything I do and it controls several programs at once, including my actual DJ program.

From that machine, I control an external mixing board which does most of my sound tweaking. The Hercules MK II is a solid choice for any starting dj and can really show you the hands on approach that changes a cd player into a real DJ.

I also control lights via a DMX out program that I worked on labeling and converting scene for it for about a month solid.

This is a basic run down of what I use to entertain.

St Patty Day

Im going to preface this with the fact that I hate the so called "drinking holiday" since I began working in a bar.

Drunken holidays are to bars what Valentine's day is to Hallmark. Yeah, I said it. They are holidays in the sense that they have some root in a real thing to celebrate, but Im sure St. Patrick didn't head to the pub to drink green beer, no matter how Irish he was.

He drank whiskey!

All kidding aside, there are certain dangers that surround these type of days. Im a huge supporter of finding a sober driver if you have had too much to drink. Ten bucks and the life you save may be your own. If you can't get a cap, find a cute girl and get her number and a ride home.

See, everyone wins!

Remembering a Promoter

I was driving around today listening to an old Grateful Dead show and they made mention of Billy Graham and it took me a second to let me remember who they were talking about.

Most americans think of the televison friendly evangelist, but Jerry Garcia was talking about this guy. Graham changed the face of modern music promotion and he paved the way for smaller bands to be able to tour and have venues accross the country. He had bi-coastal major venues and made sure that people got to hear music that they loved.

I bring this up for two reason. The first is to give ackowledgement to a guy that lived with little fanfare outside of the industry. The other is the fact that we dont have a dedicated music venue in town and I think it's high time for it to be changed.

The venues around here are poor places to hold shows because everything would have to be retrofitted to provide a venue. The Shaft is having Blue Oyster Culture Club and Dolewite playing this weekend on a stage on top of a dance floor; hardly a good setup for a show. The closest dedicated music venues are located in Kansas City, most notably the El Torean which has hosted and promoted a local and national scene for over 20 years.

Since the Bone closed last winter, the scene is strugging to fill a void. It takes dedicated people to organize and promote shows. I played in a band for a long time and we did our own booking and promoting, which was like another job on top of the one I had already.

Billy Graham (aka Wolfgang Grajonca) I salute you and I wish we had someone with an iota of your talent here. We could use some live music.

UEFA Champions League + Mid-day drinking = hooligans!

Live blogging for the win!

Legends has wireless internet and I'm here to watch the UEFA Champions League. Im an American Kid and my favorite sport is.... soccer?

I love this game and Ive watched it as much as I can. Most of the time, I am pressed to go to a bar to watch the games since most of them are carried on satalite and not by our local cable company. That's just too bad. Being stuck in a bar... with a soccer game... and lots of beer. I have NO clue how all those fights in Europe start over soccer. No clue what so ever.

Ive been coming here for the past few months to watch games on Thursdays. Game days happen live overseas and we get to see them live too. At this time of day, most people are at work. I get to have fun and watch soccer.

Im here today to watch the second leg of the knockout stages. My favorite team, The Arsenal, are playing against Inter-Milan from the Italian Serie A.

Sports bars are usually full of cheese and you have to fight meatheads who want to watch NASCAR all day. I've been coming down here long enough that some of the day regulars now actually watch the games with me, along with some of my friends. The linked photos show us all together.

Im on my first pitcher and by the time this game is over, Ill be calling the fiancee to pick me up because I wont be able to drive away from this game. I guess its the Englishman in me coming out to shine :-)

All in for Fun

I've been playing poker since I was a teenager. I learned from my dad playing stud and other variants including the recently popular texas hold'em.

About five years ago, hold em became one of the hottest things going. Right behind the national exposure of Chris Moneymaker who won the 2003 World Series of Poker. It was also the first year that ESPN dedicated extreme coverage on it. After that, it spread like wild fire, including bars accross the country.

Several bars including Uncle D's, Legends and The Felix Street Pub started hosting their own free poker nights. Five years later, the only one left still hosting is the Pub. I wrote an article on it at the beginning of the semester for the Griffon News which highlighted it, but at this time of going towards the final table, i have to give props out to the people playing and the people hosting.

It is important to remember that to some its gambling, but to others its entertainment. It's a free and fun way to promote your establishment and a quick way to build comradere and atmosphere.

All things considered, in drag

Snow, snow everywhere. Two parter too!

Im a straight guy and I DJ in a gay bar. Gay in the sense that the owners are gay, the place is gay friendly; but its not like every cliche you see running through every television show. Most of the time, the patrons are straight. On most nights, we run at a 80/20 straight split. Get the pun... haha.

Im not trying to make any political statement here. My blog is about bars, drinking, and the atmosphere created down here, but i have always felt that this needed to be addressed. I think having a gay bar in a pretty conservative town is a good thing that probably gets people to get out of their 70s laden stereotypes.

Everynight that I work, I dont see gay, lesbian or straight. When Im in the booth, its people dancing and having fun and thats what makes this job worth it. There is a lineage of bars downtown and there has always been a place in town for everyone who wants a piece.

I consider myself lucky to be a part of this.

I brought this whole spiel up because we are hosting a regional competiton for the Miss Gay Missouri. The club actually supports two competitions, which sends winners to the state competition on their way to the national competition. Its men, dressed in womens clothing, who perform dance numbers.

Only in St Joseph eh? This thursday night will see the crowning of a new Miss Gay Northwest.

I say hello, you say goodbye

One opening and one closing.

Technically, two... but who is counting?

It's not quite a Kansas City shuffle, but its close enough. The downtown is losing two bars and is opening a new one. The owner of Mirrors, Tracy Myers, is closing the popular establishment located on the corner of 4th and Felix. The mainstay has been controversial, but packed on a regular basis for the better part of eight years. Tracy is using the building to move one of her other bars, The Buffalo Club, into the building. She is also concentrating on her

The new bar opening up downtown is Lost and Found, which is aiming to add spice as a new dance club. The work on the club started in December and is scheduled to open within the next couple of weeks.

I work at a competing bar and while most people would see it as competition, We dont. Business downtown is built upon all of us doing well as most of the customers float between the different entertainment options. Things will keep going and business will be better because of it.

Mirrors, we hardly knew ye.

Its the first of the mooooooonth.

Being a DJ downtown is fun... sort of. You're underpaid, you're main customers are usually drunk, and the hours are terrible. Regardless, it is a stepping stone for many people into a *gasp* career.

Dan Michaels, known around town as DJ Dan, was the person who got me started on a live radio show called the Nova Pimp show. Dan is a graduate of Kansas State and has worked for Eagle Communications for almost 15 years. He is now a director there which has led him into several other events into town including mc'ing for regional events and to lead him into his own self-made business of nightly dj'ing for the local scene.

Whats the point? It doesnt seem like a lot, but jobs in this industry can be a stepping stone. I doubt that Ill do this job for the rest of my days, but its something that I excel at and something thats going to let me build on everything else I do, regardless of my career.

The convergence of all the clubs, bars, martini joints and dives has finally happend downtown.

The Felix Street Experience is a loose confederation of the bars downtown to work towards a common goal. The downtown area has had millions of dollars pumped into it by the city over the last 20 years with arguable returns. The aim of the FSE is to work towards a common goal of promotion to build a customer base.

The idea came out of an after hours discussion between bar owners Jimmy Root (Felix Street Pub) and Dustin Matthews (co owner of the Shaft). Both took the idea and ran with it.

"We are in the business of entertainment," Root said. "We may not always have the financial backing of the city [the attention], but we can bring the money to them."

Their first major plan is to bring the Mardi Gras celebration back to Felix Street. As a group, they are planning a full weeks of events to promote downtown awareness and advertise their new confederation.