[PLUG] New venue for advanced topics

alan alan at clueserver.org
Thu Mar 16 16:53:11 UTC 2006


On Thu, 16 Mar 2006, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> I am hard of hearing.  I kludged up a PA and wireless microphone
> system for Advanced Topics at Jax so I could hear the speaker over
> the machine noises from the kitchen, with the side benefit that
> the people in the back of the room might hear, too.
>
> Jax has had "jazz nights" on thursday and friday for a while, and
> they are now doing it on wednesday across the hall, every wednesday
> for the forseeable future.  Every time the door opens between bar
> and meeting room, the music swamps the speaker and the questioners.
> So the arms race escalates, and it was more difficult for me to hear
> last night with the PA than without in the past.  Now that I have
> something to tap into, I can use headphones, but that doesn't help
> me hear the questions and it doesn't help anyone else.
>
> In a few months, TriMet will be rerouting transit onto 3rd and 4th
> street while they rebuild the mall.  It will be impossible to find
> parking nearby - hauling projector and PA will become very difficult.
>
> And Jax may decide that jazz night needs the big room on wednesdays.
> We may be "out on our ears" with little warning.  Especially if the
> acoustic competition reduces attendance for our meetings.

This might change in the summer when it is warm enough for them to move to 
the roof.  (That is a short term solution, at best.

> So - we should look for another place for Advanced Topics.  A new
> venue will need Beer, sufficient room for 20 to 40 people,  nearby
> parking, Beer, usable transit, food, and Beer.  This will be hard
> to find - Alan has looked.  Someplace between the west hills and
> east 39th would probably be sufficiently accessable. There are some
> restaurants with space up around 11th and Burnside, but they have
> inadequate Beer.  Bridgeport might work, if they have an appropriately
> sized room.  Unfortunately, the McMenamins want room rent, as does
> the Lab.  There are some small restaurants up near Lloyd Ccenter
> that might have space, but again the Beer situation might suck.
> Beer is important for many, because it makes unprepared speakers
> and nonsequitur questions tolerable.

Hard cider and/or hard alcohol are a plus as well.

Another round of the "Elliot drinking game"?

> Jax has been good for us, and I don't want to ditch them if we can
> work something out.  It might be possible to move to monday night
> now that football season is over, and that will give us search time
> until the fall.

Monday is about the only option left for us, as they have poker games on 
Tuesdays.  Glad to see them doing well, but it sucks for us.

Paddy's room is way too small.  (Which is why we moved to Jax in the first 
place.)

Might also check if any of the pizza places have beer and a meeting room. 
(They tend to have large rooms like that.)  The only places I have known 
with those sorts of rooms have gone under in the last few years.

-- 
"George W. Bush -- Bringing back the Sixties one Nixon at a time."



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