So come by and caffinate. In fact, come by and caffinate the middle of the night or early in the morning -- we'll be open all night tonight, and will probably be open 24/7 for good starting this weekend or early next week!
Our architect had a good meeting with the planning department today, so "operation: knock a hole in the wall" is inching along at its predictably glacial pace. This meeting meant that the folks at planning tentatively believe that the story laid out in our blueprints makes sense and is legal. Next week, we have the same meeting with the fire department, and the department of building inspection. After that, we get to schedule an appointment to submit our plans to planning and building, which will be in about a month. Then, they will put us on the calendar for a hearing -- which will probably be two months after that. Assuming we get through that hearing with a "yes" from planning, then the department of building inspection takes our plans and ponders them... and it may take three months after that to get an answer from them.
And only then can we swing our first hammer.
It's really a wonder that anything gets done at all, ever.
If you haven't watched this video, you really should. The most amazing thing about this is that it was made by the San Francisco Planning Department.
Big government wants your ice-cream cones
That video would be funnier if it was not my life.
Also, photos are up of Blow Up, possibly the most photographically well-documented event that there has ever been, in the history of clubbing. Every month, those guys post thousands of photos, and they aren't even all near-duplicates of each other. I usually try to prune our galleries down to 50 or so, because I believe people suffer gallery-fatigue if there are more than that... They're mostly pretty decent photos, though, so it's hard!
Deep Below Park Avenue, a Monster at Rest