First up, the happy news: for October, we have a bunch of new cocktails available for pick-up or delivery:- Essence of Newt: Herradera blanco, Cointreau, Tamarin simple syrup, and lime.
- Beetlejuice: Bulleit rye, pears, a splash of cognac, simple syrup, Absinthe, and Peychauds bitters.
- Dark Ectoplasm: Pumpkin horchata and Kraken dark rum.
- Light Ectoplasm: Pumpkin horchata, sweet, sweet DNA Lounge Brand Vodka, and a splash of Kahlua.
Delivered in a mason jar, 3 or 4 servings each, depending on how you drink. Order now from dnapizza.com!
Next up: Press! The future! Doooooom!
Here's a recent article about a number of San Francisco venues and our Independent Venue Alliance: The price of survival: What's the future of San Francisco's indie performance spaces? I have a few zingers in here:
When I broach the topic of opening his location to an in-person audience, DNA Lounge owner Jamie Zawinski rejects the "completely, utterly impractical" idea.
"For us to have a small enough audience, plus enough staff to ensure that they are behaving safely, would mean the ticket price would have to be so ridiculously high that nobody would pay it," Zawinski said. DNA Lounge -- which has always livestreamed shows from its two stages for free on its official website -- has averaged three-five weekly shows since the pandemic began, including Vice Reine's monthly Star Crash electronic dance party.
"We are in the business of putting on sweaty concerts that cost $8-$20," he says. "Asking us to 'pivot' to seated dinner theater at $1,000-a-head is just not realistic.
As Zawinski bluntly puts it, "We all need material support, by which I mean money -- from city, state and federal sources. That's it. It's obvious, and it's not complicated. Without that, there are no more independent venues by the end of the pandemic."
BTW, the fact that Cheeto Mussolini and Kentucky Palpatine petulantly decided to cancel the second Federal stimulus package means that the Save our Stages provisions that were on track to be included in it are not happening, so all of your favorite venues are fucked, and independent music is dead.
Next up: FUCK UBER.
I hope you've all received your mail-in ballot by now, but if you haven't turned it in yet, please make sure you vote NO ON PROP 22. Look, this is all you need to know: If Uber wants it, it is evil, and you definitely want the opposite. Uber and Lyft just spent $180 million dollars on a PR blitz to convince you that they can't afford to pay their employees a living wage:
Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Doordash wrote Proposition 22 to create a special exemption for themselves from California law that requires app-based companies to provide basic protections to their workers. Now they're spending more than $180 million on Prop 22, the most expensive ballot measure in US history, to boost their profits by denying their drivers' right to a minimum wage, paid sick leave and safety protections.
Also, Instacart is requiring their employees (sorry, "non-employee independent contractors") to distribute pro-Prop 22 propaganda:
It's like fast food workers telling you vote against minimum wage before ordering, or attendants required to announce support for anti union politicians before flight. If this isn't illegal, it should be.
For the other propositions and candidates, Broke-Ass Stuart has a good guide.
And I shouldn't need to say this, but if you don't vote for Biden, you're voting for Fascism and very likely for the United States never having free elections again, so fucking vote Biden. Hold your nose if you have to, but do it. The endgame of your "protest vote" is my friends in camps.
