So the other night I was called over to the godfathers side of the room.

Toqer I'm not so sure I like 3 in queue anymore. We sell out early, people leave, and I have no crowd to sing to.

If anyone is an expert on how karaoke rule changes affect crowds it's me. This was something I predicted would happen at 3 in queue.  

Toqer we don't get to sing enough with 2 in cue.

So as regulars you have to ask yourself, "What do I want?"

The last few months we've seen attendance slowly drop down since we went back to 3 songs in queue.  Folks that once knew "Hey I can get to the 7b at 1pm, and still sing!!" are no longer coming in.  Folks that see the ominous "SOLD OUT!" at the top of the projector say to themselves "Fuck it, might as well go down to Jacks to drink if I can't sing". 

There's a lot of things I see regulars do that contribute to early sellouts; 

Reserving songs for folks not there. 
Queuing up "CUSTOM CDG" just to monopolize a slot they might not use later.
Aliasing to get past the max in queue rule.

A few months back some of you might remember me going to a secretive meeting in Baltimore to discuss something about karaoke's future.  Anyone remember a few years back when the recording industry sued a dead grandma for copyright infringement?  Karaoke has created its own corporate suing arm in the form of the KIAA.

The good news is they've taken a lot of toq's advice.   I talked with Steve Boone, creator of the organization for a good 45 minutes.  I think Zug originally made the analogy of cars to stolen karaoke, I told it to Steve, and Steve has used a little of that on the KIAA site.

 "Suppose you are an automobile dealer that knowingly sells stolen automobiles.  You might have two types of customers, a few unsuspecting customers who are unaware that the vehicles are stolen and think that they are just getting a great deal, or you may have the well-informed customers who either know, or strongly suspect that these vehicles are stolen"

Dear Obama,

Please look at the above slideshow. I could be traveling around alcatraz again, but today I'll be making sure every machine is fresh and rebooted for your fun-raiser tonight.

In addition to the Obama stuff going on tonight, we have an early party coming in (7ish). It's going to be pretty packed tonight. I hope everyone pays attention to the projector and knows when thier turns are tonight.

KARAOKE IS HARDCORE!!!

--toq

All I needed was more cowbell.. with discovery and a little guidance by the *real* Bruce Dickenson.. earlier in life.. when I was still young and studly.. and.. who knows?? Mebe I would've rated a groupie or two..

September 19th, is international talk like a pirate day.  Arrrrrr!

Announcement: Unofficial Yelp Event.. Obama Button & Sticker & Karaoke *FUN*draising Night: 8 p.m., September 26 Friday.

I've been playing with my amazing new miniaturized digital camera toy..

a Nikon CoolPix S210.. Trying to capture the *mood* of the 'Boo.. So that means not having such an intense flash that all the pretty colored lights and dark corners are drowned out and everything in the club looks like a brightly lit workplace.. but still maintaining a shutter speed that captures an image that is *sort of* recognizeable...after several dozen misfires.. I think I'm sort of acquiring the knack of inside the nightclub photography.. and where I plainly have *not*mastered the task.. I've learned to cheat with a little digital photolab coloring and such..

I am posting my presentable shots at two places:

The Seven Bamboo reviews page on Yelp

The Seven Bamboo's Facebook page..

Anyone can signup and upload their snapshots to these places.. so what are you waiting for?

So last night it was fairly slow.  Not the absolutely no customer at all slow, but the nice group of regulars slow.  The begining of the evening started off with pam showing up, followed by a guy I had never seen before in my life.  He was a tall, portly older caucasian guy, who seemed to have an air of professionalism about himself.  He happily wandered to the bar, purchased a few tickets and a beer, then sat down.  Then he happily handed me a disc and a ticket.  I looked at the disc, realized it was a home burned CDG, and said "I'm sorry, I can't play this, it's homeburned."

"WELL THE LADY LAST NIGHT DID!"

"Well, I'm not her, and she probably doesn't understand the issues surrounding why it's a liability to play homeburns." "I BOUGHT THESE SONGS FROM A LEGITIMATE SITE! WHY CAN'T YOU PLAY THESE?"

"Because sir, I've joined a trade group.  They don't want homeburns being played at the venue.  I've had this policy for a long before I joined"

So the last month i've stopped smoking cigarettes.  Last 2 weeks I've stopped chewing the gum.   Today I walked a good 5 miles in the 100 degree heat, forcing myself to hydrate quarts of water at a time, while pushing my baby in a stroller with the dog in tow via leash.

Change is never an easy thing.  You have to make a plan that leave things behind, and move forward almost with blinders on.  The effort to change can be painful and tedious at best.

I'm not comfortable with all the proposed changes to the karaoke industry that was proposed at this meeting in baltimore, but I know something has to be done about the rampant abuse of copyright and intellectual rights by KJ's and venues.  It's pretty scary.

Watching everyone in the industry *EXCEPT* us here at the 7b tear karaoke apart is a sad thing.  I share the karaoke companies frustrations,  but we need to *FIX* things guys.  Trying to take away consumer rights in the realm of computers is something you don't want to do.  I think *part* of the reason for the rampantness is your lack to fix the laws, and provide services similiar to what the piracy networks have created.