The Blight - Photography by Neil Girling   

Serpentine bellydance from Portland, Oregon

With Saturday’s passage came too the end of Orbis Nex, one of the bastions of Bay Area underground venues. Though the reasons were different than budget and economy, it follows a long list of other recently closed venues that will also be missed: the Xenodrome, the first underground I called a second home; Ace Auto, where Death Guild set up Thunderdome and Cookie Mongoloid growled out his ode to cookies; and the Parkway, which I only recently rediscovered several months ago after first being dragged to a Rocky Horror Picture Show there some five years prior.

Final rites at Orbis Nex

Being the last night of a space so infused with the heart and soul of its curators, it was steeped with ritual and ceremony. And from Portland, the world-class Tuvan throat-singer Enriqué, performing as Soriah and joined by Serpentine delivered a staggering performance.

The Tuvan throat-singer Soriah

Orbis Nes is dead and buried, and she will be missed.

Please find a small gallery of the final turn of Orbis Nex here.

Orbis Nex was fronted by Patricia Cram of the darkly beautiful Vial Magizine.

Gravity Plays Favorites at Bohemian Carnival

Photos from February’s Bohemian Carnival and Hubba Hubba Revue Mardi Gras are online!

Madame Chartreuse at Hubba Hubba Revue

You may have noticed by now that a very large portion of my photo galleries come from events at the DNA Lounge, the staple of independent underground performance and live music in San Francisco’s SoMa district.  You also may have noticed that they recently received an all-ages license, which is important as concert-goers are usually in the age group of 16-25, a large portion of whom are under 21. The DNA Lounge was originally denied the license, but won it on appeal. That’s when the funny business started.

The DNA Lounge has been accused of running a “disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals,” and are trying to permanently revoke their liquor license (essentially shutting them down). Besides the obvious “wtf?” such a statement should elicit from any thinking individual (“what right do they have legislating and enforcing morals,” I hear you ask) it appears they’re doing so not only in retaliation for appealing and winning the all-ages permit, but doing so by specifically targeting the gay and lesbian club nights.

From the DNA Lounge blog :

• Though it is clear to me that ABC’s investigation of our gay events is retaliation for our successful conversion to an all-ages venue, the events they are citing us for were 21+ events.
• The majority of the offenses they are charging us with were dancers flashing for just a few seconds. We’re talking about some guy mooning the audience for three seconds. That’s the level of these offenses.
• The people doing these things were not DNA employees.
• The ABC considers “several” fully clothed pelvic thrusts, as a part of a comedy routine, to be an illegal “simulated sex act”. There’s hardly a music video in the world that would pass their standard.

posted by Jamie Zawinski, owner. Read the full post to learn more.

The DNA Lounge employs people, and is a second-home for many of us. This petulant gesture by the ABC reeks of discrimination and retaliation, and is an utter waste of our tax dollars.

What you can do.

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