eh...

dont know what to tell ya. things been pretty rough. only open 3 nights a week now. do i suck that bad? doesnt matter what i play these days.. everyone who knew how to dance to country has gone across town to the other bar, and everyone else wants me to play more hip-hop and dance music. last weekend we lost almost 30 pple at once cause i didnt play it when they wanted. "i'll go tell frank to make you play it..." uh-huh.. he's the one who made the rule lady. and i like my paycheck better than i like you.

i dont want much.. just a few hundred more people a night...

fooked?

dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit.

if you want the rest of details see me at work.

first we've had a line at the door in months

wild country last night. people having a good time

wild country one week ago - hardly anyone there...

so who's comin to party now that you-know-who is gone?

on your marks.. get set... PARTY

its about time.

since march i've had to put up with one of the worst dj's in the area. no more. he's finally gone.

anyone wanna help me celebrate?

this weekend we gonna spread the news...

by next weekend... i hope to have people in my bar again!

ouch...

i would rather stay employed, but....

too many more nights like these and we wont be. its not that i didnt have people dancing. i had people dancing all night long mostly. unfortunatly it wasnt enough people to fill the stage for the night. i am at wits end about what to do, but there's gotta be some way of getting people in there that gets us enough people to stay alive.

i need a vacation.. but not like that.

concert wrap up.

okay so there weren't that many bryan white fans in the building. we started losing people right after he got on stage. not much of a shocker there. but even with that we still had more people dancing to the opener band than to either of the main acts. sure there were people dancing to some of their songs, but not that many. Hayes can get some good ones out there, and can sing without a monitor, but White NEEDED a monitor and had hecklers. (too many breaks to sign autographs between songs and losing his place while talking between songs.)

we didnt have anywhere near as many people for this concert as with Craig Morgan, but with any luck we'll do better on the next one. cant tell you who it is yet - legal crap - but this guy is good and has excellent concert reviews.

so after the show was over, the crowd really started leaving.. and the louder and more obnoxious he got.. the faster they left. WAKE UP BOSS... HE'S COSTING YOU YOUR BUSINESS! we closed with less than 10 people in the building at 3am on a saturday night after a concert. part of that was my fault for not turning off his microphone.. and being so tired i couldnt even see straight. driving home was an adventure.

there is a definite possibility i will be putting in my 2 week notice this week. depends on how willing they are to get rid of this idiot. i dont want to . really i DONT. but what choice am i going to have? i havent had this much job stress since i was in the marines...

would be nice to keep working there tho...

Bryan White on stage...

Bryan White took stage about 11:50. looks even younger in person. started off with "sittin on go" to get the crowd a little pumped up and they were out there dancin. let the crowd do a little singin on "rebecca lynn".

after signing a few autographs he's playin a new one from his soon to be released cd. "the hands of time" it's not too bad, and pretty upbeat.
just started another new one, kinda bouncy "let's get it together" got some people likin it enough to start dancin again.

"someone else's star" gets em out on the dance floor again, and he's lettin the crowd up front sing it. they're doin pretty good too.

a lot of autographing goin on...
just let us know that him and Wade Hayes are gonna do some tunes together... crowd LIKES that idea.

doing another new one, a ballad. sounds really good, but i didnt catch the title.

LMAO... the "charley brown - peanuts theme" sequeing into "so much for pretending".

bryan white and wade hayes on stage... started out with "livin on tulsa time" good and loud the crowd is likin this. there's some people gonna be kickin themselves for leaving early. technical problem.. acoustic guitar pickup died while Hayes was a pickin. but the show goes on... doin a steve wariner tune "linda do you wanna dance"
"workin man blues" done pretty darn good. didnt know brian white could sing bass...

shows over .. more later

live from the booth, Wade Hayes on stage...

11:ish
Wade Hayes on stage in a white stetson and white shirt showin off some buffed up arms that the ladies are really digging as i type this in. pretty damn good show so far, playin some of his classic hits, and a great cover of gary stewart's "she's actin single, i'm drinkin doubles" and even a new one that should be on his next cd project (great song! looking forward to playing it in the club when it comes out.) pretty good size crowd up front and people dancin. they'really like his ballads apparently - dance floor is filling up. its about 11:30 now, gonna enjoy some more of the show and will put in another post after Brian White takes the stage.

living for sunday

why am i having more fun on sunday that on the rest of the week?

is it the not having all the pressure to perform or the drunk-ass karaoke or just the fact that its my friday and dont have to work the next 2 days? probably a little of each combined with the fact that it means 4 days without some idiot chasing off more customers.

todays rant - customer relations. customer relations doesnt stop with being friendly and courteous when you're in this line of work. when a customer asks for a song and you have been announcing that you're playing requests (kinda odd since the only songs you announce as requested are ones you wanted to play - and its amazing how many people leave the dance floor EVERY DAMN TIME YOU PLAY THIS NON-COUNTRY BOY BAND CRAP- but i digress) where was i?.. oh yeah. requests. play them. period. if you dont know the song, then used the headphones to find out what it sounds like or, and i know this is a hard one, just ask. we lost a group of 15 customers on a night we really couldnt afford to cause they didnt hear their song.

lets do the math:

1. 15 customers x 4-5 drinks per hour@ a low end average of 2.75 (beer only not mixed drinks)
2. the 2.5 hours of time they asked for the song.
3. the approximate $400 plus dollars they would have spent not including tip
4. the chances of them ever coming back because you wont play their song

i dont know what your math says, but mine says you just cost the bar some steady customers, and about $800+ dollars for one night. figure in the nights that they wont be back and then add in all the other customers you've managed to chase off in the last few months and you come up with a staggering amount of money...

i'm surprised you havent noticed this already but... YOU ARE JUST PLAIN BAD FOR BUSINESS YOU IGNORANT IN-BRED HICK. no scratch that i wouldnt want to insult them. i actually know some in-bred hicks.

and while i'm at it...

why oh why, do you have to be "That Guy" every cheesy 70's & 80's club move in the book, every lame dj trick and schtick you ever heard and you use them ev

ery night. dude.. its embarassing to be seen in the booth.

by the way kids... ITS CONCERT TIME AGAIN!

SATURDAY AUGUST 5TH -

BRYAN WHITE, WADE HAYES,

AND OPENING ACT GREG CALDWELL AND CODE WEST.

i'll let ya know how it goes. or doesnt.

rumors..

rumors of the good old days...

apparently we still have that problem.

pardon me while i start job hunting again.

Houston, we have gotten rid of a problem...

in the words of Kool & The Gang - CELEBRATION TIME COME ON!

they finally took that idiots name off the schedule. i may just have me a drink today. sure now there's more pressure on me to perform... oh.. wait. WHO CARES! I CAN GO BACK TO HAVING FUN IN THAT BUILDING!!!!

And dont tell anyone... but next concert is august 5th

stay tuned

seems like old times...

so after many years, we've done our first concert in the club since rebuilding. Craig Morgan put on an excellent show for us, and after talking with the owner, apparently it wont be the last. the general idea is to do a concert every month.

in the last month, people who do the hiring and firing are finally starting to realize that they done made a couple of bad decisions. we're gonna try some new things, some old things, and some things that i'm really not too sure about. we'll see.

other than that, its been a stressful and hectic month. lots of stuff goin on at work that was aggravating, and some personal stuff that i had to take care of. feeling a bit better now, but still have some way to go.

stay tuned

W T F!!!!!

gettin round of the wrong one.

whats next?...

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

trends

notice a trend here?

i just havent got the energy or the will to keep up with this anymore. if things got better at the club then i might be able to stay current on this blog. as it is, we're supposed to start this concert thing up soon and we have less than a month to get it all together. if the loudmouth doesnt end up fired soon it wont matter. he's the main reason we have less than half the crowd we used to.

VENT...VENT....VENT....VENT....


yeah i know. but what else ya want me to do.

so...

i'm really crossing my fingers right about now.

not desperate, but might be soon. there's not much else i can do but wait.

just wish they'd listened to begin with.

stay tuned.

damn army....

as if things werent bad enough the army has sent yet another unit out to a training center. many more and ft. hood will be a ghost town, along with the rest of the business around here.

fighting a permanent battle against stupidity. dont think i'm winning at this point. this weekend better get better. if it doesnt, might be time to start up the panic machine. who knows.

"Rest is a weapon." if so, i'm unarmed. could use some rest. seems like i'm more stressed out now than before i had two dj's to "give me a break so i dont get too stressed out at work" now i just live on rolaids and mad. was so mad on saturday night i mixed the best set of my life. wish i'd recorded it.

last two nights sucked pretty bad. gotta find something to fix this shit pretty soon.

any ideas?

seems like it takes more and more effort to do this...

multiple reasons.

i just know right now that your vulcan logic is hurting my head. alot

we're trying something new, going back to the old school - .75 cent domestic longnecks and well drinks till 10. 1.75 till 2am on friday and saturday. didnt really make that much of a difference that i could see last night but then we did have some nasty weather that didnt help any. when you have multiple tornadoes, quarter to grapefruit sized hail, and winds @ 87 mph... you tend to worry about other things and stay home.

we'll see how it works tonight i guess.

once again - FUBAR!

tired of cleaning up his mess.

here we go again

time to start another week (although technically it started yesterday at 1130 in the freakin morning!) and time for more fun and games.

i'm not really sure what direction the club is going anymore, but it's getting harder and harder to give a rats ass. after a meeting that lasted 3 and a half hours, and really didnt accomplish much, all i came out with was a slight change in the dance set times (back to where they were - go figure!) and a serious need for rolaids.

pretty much on all the rest they didnt listen, to me or to the other employee who's been there longer than most of the others. pretty much par for the course. we've got tons of ideas, but the ones who sign the checks are gonna do it their way. their perogative, its their bar after all, but when you dont spend time in that bar looking for whats going on, and why you're losing customers, then dont act shocked when it tanks, and dont come barking at us cause your decisions didnt work.

i want this bar to work. this is what i've done, what i do, and what i live. like a bunch of employees, i've given blood (literally), sweat, tears, had relationship issues because of work, put up with the serious health risks of working in a bar for years on end, and dealt with people in a friendly manner who you would ordinarily cross the street to avoid. BUT I AM STILL HERE!
I STILL COME TO WORK, AND I STILL TRY!


there's alot of work to be done to get us back to normal. time to roll up our sleeves and git er done.

for sale: earplugs

i should jump on the bandwagon and sell earplugs cause apparently there was a run on them lately.

broke cranky people

havent had 2 fights in one night in quite a while, let alone 1 fight. those long drawn out pay periods the army keeps having are not having a positive effect.

last night was a monday-type wednesday. still managed to have wet t-shirt contest, but we managed to have yet another change thrown at us in the booth. sorry boss but i have yet to have ANY positive feedback from any of our customers about recent changes. the drop in business might be a clue. oh well.. if you wont listen to me, maybe you'll listen to the lighter sound the deposits make.

i gotta take a nap. its too early in the day for me to be awake.

later kids

FUBAR!

too mad and stressed to blog. i'd like to vent a little, but i just aint got the time.

stinky thumb

guess where it was all last night?

you want to pay me that much to do nothing all night?... ahhight then.


other than that, it was a broke ass friday. army aint gettin paid till next week. still gotta convince the old fart that there has got to be more energy in the building. too many left last night too early. stupid. the whole reason we shut down where he was the dj before was because we played the high energy music and kept the atmosphere the way we had it. dragin me down like this just makes me lose sleep. screw it. we'll see how it goes.

WTF...

i just dont know anymore.

things keep changing. not for the better. i can put my foot down, but i dont think it will do any good. i havent had this much work related stress since i was in the Marines. almost enough to get me drinkin again. and that friends is a really bad thing.

notice a theme yet?

seems like old times - the rant

yep... old times. more bullshit, more stress, and yet another reason to update my resume' and post it again.

see, what happened was, i was playin dis music.. new joints by tha hottest mutha fucka's out dey. the man come up an say he don' like it cause it too ghetto.

blow me. i'm the dj.

never piss me off that much when you have competition suddenly. just not a good idea. might be why the music has sucked all week and the night kept getting weaker. YOU FREAKIN DRAIN ON A PARTY!

i should be okay later. its a friday, and its a payday weekend.

more than made up for

fun? damn skippy.

i have GOT to do that again. often. every damn night.

not a spectacular start, but more than made up for it as the night went on. first dance set was back in the day retro/disco mostly, but then got kinda modern. the country was about what you'd expect, a little of this a little of that and enough dancing to make me feel okay. still got some work to do on my new guy. gotta get him out of radio mode and into high energy formula that will put them on the dancefloor.

second dance set FUN!!! got to top or equal that kind of energy every night and i'll be happy.. so will the customers. and again larry does something cool that just makes me wonder. killed the bar lights - made the club dark as all get out with just the dance floor lights on. da shiznit!

short country set after that got some really good floor response, then just got right into the oldies rock and roll. lotta fun.

last dance set - i was doin really good up till about 245... then the attack of the ying yang happened. dont remember how of their tunes i played.. but i could hear the rednecks goin YEEEAYAAAUH....

freakin sweet!

2 down - 3 to go

wednesday night was just plain damp. thunderstorms cut down on the crowd a bit and the mood in the building wasnt too cheerful till later. pool tourney and wet t-shirt were about what you would expect. but the fight on the floor around 1215 was kinda stupid and made me mad - so i had to talk about them. blah.

thursday was just stupid. with any luck tho its gonna get turned back - new drink specials for thursday - dollar night... other than that it was still a thursday.

tylenol time and then off to work.

No School like the Old School!

flashback to a few years ago... people dancing till 3am and still having 2-300 in the building when we close. nice.

was a pretty good start to the night, nice and gradual inflow of people that pretty much lasted through the bulk of the evening. i must've been doin something right for a change. it did help that the customers were pretty much in party mode. they just wanted to dance the night away.

i miss nights like that. i need to do it more often. they need to do it more often.

now if you'll excuse me - time to try and unwind.



good to be back.

WE'RE BAAAACK!

things back to normal again

they have money, they want to party, and they're here.

was definitly a good friday night, no fights, 1 argument that i could see but it didnt go anywhere
at least they were in a better mood to dance than they were the last few nights. hard to be in party mode when broke i guess. breakin in a "new" dj - welcome to the party eric...

Mr. Bell

Donald Bell
April 09, 1935 - January 12, 2006
Donald E. BellMr. Donald E. Bell, 70, of Nolanville. passed away Thursday, January 12th, 2006 at his residence. Mr. Bell was born in Donnellsville, PA on April 9, 1935, the son of William Edward and Helen (Haith) Bell.He served in the U.S. Army as a SFC in the Vietnam War. He is survived by his mother Margaret Bell of Pittsburgh, PA, 2 sons, 1 daughter, 1 brother, and 2 grandchildren.

Mr. Bell: You might not have known is first name, but you knew him if you were there. He taught, he lived, he laughed, he loved. AND BY GOD HE COULD FLOAT ON THAT DANCE FLOOR!

R.I.P. Mr. Bell

The man could float on that dance floor.

would someone please remind me to keep up with this???

for starters, we're getting the ball rolling on gettin some concerts put together. dunno who's gonna be first but we're workin on it.

the past weekend has been about what you would have expected with them being broke. late crowd, and not much of a crowd on sunday, although it was better than average for some reason or other. this weekend is a 4 day weekend / payday weekend so it oughta be good. will let you know one way or the other.

and i still hate thursdays - dont get me wrong... last night was good. would have been better if they had been in a mood to dance more. but they sure drank pretty good.

so where was i?

xmas day was fun, the week after was nice and new years eve?.. about what you would expect.
it was a blast. new years day was alot of fun too since most people had monday off. i was actually able to relax and have fun on a sunday for a change.

start of a new year - gonna have a few changes: more big screens maybe, definitely gonna do concerts again (just dont know who yet), adding more lights for effects and whatnot. should be interesting.

last night first wednesday of the year - decent wet t-shirt contest, some nice contestants, good 8 ball tourney, and people generally having fun all night.

maybe i could keep goin like this...

almost recovered

hang in there - i'm almost recovered from last week....