7: LA Meetup at the Strip Club May 2, 2007 8:06 AM   Subscribe

Episode 7 of the MetaFilter podcast, recorded last friday, April 27, 2007

posted by mathowie (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 8:06 AM (49 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite



I cannot believe LA Mefi had a meetup at Jumbo's Clown Room and I did not show up. All I can say is - fuck me.
posted by phaedon at 8:40 AM on May 2, 2007


Running commentary:

What's Gel? Ted?

This is getting dangerously blogospheric. I have no idea who these people are! Yes, I realize you linked to them, but it's like listening to someone else's conversation about people you've never met. Like I've walked into a room, and am waiting for them to notice me so I can ask a quick question then get back to what I was doing.

I wonder if the internet archive's usability isn't part of what keeps it alive. If it were easy to use, they'd never be able to manage the insane traffic they'd get.

lol NPR

Thanks for hilighting so much AskMe content. It's a great way to read it without reading it. I never would have seen the Harley question.

Folks who like the MeFi swap should check out MetaChat's Mixsion Impossible. We upload instead of mail (more music faster, but without the cool liner notes or joy of getting stuff in the mail). I'll be restarting it in earnest as soon as my job situation is sorted out.

Awesome White Lines cover!

Thanks, Matt and Jess!
posted by Eideteker at 9:40 AM on May 2, 2007


This is getting dangerously blogospheric.

It's a podcast about a blog, dude. We try to define things as we go if they're un-Googleable (GEL is defined later on, for example) but just the fact that you're here on MeFi means you have access to the internets. I felt like I got a little "too much coffee girl" in the AskMe part but there was just So Much Good Stuff to talk about. Thanks for doing the lion's share of the editing/linking mathowie!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:50 AM on May 2, 2007


Can I be in the studio audience next time?
posted by Dizzy at 10:03 AM on May 2, 2007


Yeah, but it was a bit more like a gossip show for that little bit in there. "You know who I saw at X? Y!" Imagine if your two favorite radio hosts took five minutes at the beginning of the show to talk about people they ran into at the supermarket. Not very interesting to those who don't know that person. And yes, I could look them up in the internet or a phonebook, but I'm here to hear about MetaFilter!

Rest of the podcast was awesome. And yes, I realize this is just one man's opinion. One callow, tactless man.
posted by Eideteker at 10:04 AM on May 2, 2007


MATT WANTS MORE YOUTUBE
posted by grobstein at 10:11 AM on May 2, 2007


MORE SWEARING PLEASE!

seriously, I haven't gotten my "verbal drunk sailor" quotient for the week, and the way I currently feel the more swearing the better.
posted by edgeways at 10:34 AM on May 2, 2007


I love Alison Headley/bluishorange and have been following her journey around the country with great interest! Can't access the podcast from here but I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks for the goodness!
posted by onlyconnect at 11:03 AM on May 2, 2007


Re: Erin McKean, the talk linked in this post is most excellent
posted by Rhomboid at 11:07 AM on May 2, 2007


onlyconnect: Alison will be in DC in a few days (this weekend), so drop her an email.

I have been reading her blog since 1999 and it was cool to finally meet her.
posted by terrapin at 11:52 AM on May 2, 2007


jessamyn, did you go to Hampshire? F89 dude!
posted by gwint at 12:00 PM on May 2, 2007


jessamyn, did you go to Hampshire? F89 dude!

F86! I lived in Prescott my last year (your first year) in Mod 87, the bridge Mod. I ran the Screech Videos in the new CSS building. I'll look for you in the Frog Book. </insidebaseball>
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:42 PM on May 2, 2007


Can't you use CD-Text for track info in your mix cds and the player will read it?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 1:14 PM on May 2, 2007


Total shame on me for not following Jess & scody to the strip club after the meetup. It turns out I'm super-gay or something.
posted by jonson at 1:50 PM on May 2, 2007


Can't you use CD-Text for track info in your mix cds and the player will read it?

As I understand it, CD text is very poorly supported by CD players and will cause some to be unable to read the CD. The mastering house I recently worked with discourages clients from bothering with CD text. Generally CDs are identified by ISRC code.
posted by ludwig_van at 2:00 PM on May 2, 2007


Generally CDs are identified by ISRC code.

Yeah, but that doesn't help a player identify its tracks unless it's net-connected. I had hoped that most modern hardware and software players supported CD-Text by default, even if it's not often used, so as to solve the cd/track identification problem. I do think most of the software players I've used read the CD-Text. Really, the lookup online of a db by using various various metrics of a CD and using user-contributed data is an awful way to provide this information.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:21 PM on May 2, 2007


What?
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:25 PM on May 2, 2007


F99, where you at?!

How many of us Hampsters are there out here in the wilds?
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:42 PM on May 2, 2007


I'll have to wait until I listen to the podcast because I have no idea what's being discussed in this thread.
posted by tellurian at 4:06 PM on May 2, 2007


Another great one, thanks Matt and Jess!

Does anyone else think that jessamyn sounds remarkably like the actress Christa Miller?

And I mean that as a compliment.

posted by quin at 4:12 PM on May 2, 2007


Oh my god stop talking about your hearing!
posted by ND¢ at 4:23 PM on May 2, 2007


And now I've just fucked up the player by commenting and I have to start over. Shit.
posted by ND¢ at 4:24 PM on May 2, 2007


I listened to this on the iPod on my way into work this morning. It's another good one, guys*. The term 'digital doritos' has now enetered my lexicon.

One thing I will say however is that my attention span started to drift a bit in the middle. A full length music track ripped from MeFi Music would make for a nice break from all the talking.

Actually, more music from MeFi Music in general, plus the same amount of you guys* chatting, would be kewl.

Gals, just for jessamyn.
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:56 PM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


"Tommy Gnosis" is from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, by the way. And I feel bad that I always cringe very slightly at his username just because the kid in the movie was such a wussy little smear. Sorry, TG.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:07 PM on May 2, 2007


Yeah, Effigy2000, I got kinda tired last night editing stuff (we had 1 hour, 15 minutes recorded, which I chopped down to about 32 minutes, which takes several hours listening and re-listening to edit) and I left too much of the banter about hearing stuff. Usually I just find a nice stopping point a couple minutes into a discussion and just cut.

Next one won't be so rushed, so I'll get to keep things tighter.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:17 PM on May 2, 2007


Hey, I'm in the podcast!

I vote for not really a strip club. Do you remember the weird dancer who had all the bruises on her legs, and kept chatting us up?
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 5:57 PM on May 2, 2007


Was it near LAX though? Because then, I'd have to say it was a strip club.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:38 PM on May 2, 2007


Naw, not too close to LAX.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 7:09 PM on May 2, 2007


See, that's what I was saying. It was a titty bar, really.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:18 PM on May 2, 2007


Super Gay.
posted by jonson at 7:21 PM on May 2, 2007


Apparently I read a bizarro-Metafilter completely different than the one the moderators see. I don't recall seeing any of those threads, despite the stupid amounts of time I spend here.

Which is good, I guess, 'cause I'll probably go look at them now. Objective: achieved!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:18 PM on May 2, 2007


I vote for not really a strip club. Do you remember the weird dancer who had all the bruises on her legs, and kept chatting us up?

Dude, totally not really a strip-club. Not even a titty bar. (Neither is Cheetah's, down the street, for that matter.) A couple of years back, Hollywood passed a law that forced strippers to wear pasties, and sometime after that, they upgraded it to bikini tops. It's a testament to something-i-don't-know-what-exactly that Jumbo's has managed to stay alive during this recent cycle of in-with-the-new-out-with-the-old, one that has seen famous, old school bars be shut down by the city by eminent domain (see Daddy's on Vine) as well as just poor business (see The Lava Lounge on La Brea). It brings a tear in my eye just thinking of you guys there.
posted by phaedon at 9:57 PM on May 2, 2007


I've never heard of these fine distinction between, um, female erotic dancing clubs/shows before. The only real distinction I can think of that people commonly make is between strip clubs and burlesque shows. Not that there are many burlesque shows, comparatively. Unless it's a burlesque show—and the pole-dancing indicates it wasn't—then the dancers were wearing pasties because that was a legal requirement in that jurisdiction. Possibly that is the greatest nudity allowed or there are restrictions relating to an alcohol license and degree of nudity. And, really, the facts that a) jessamyn and scody were the only females there other than the dancers; and b) the dancers were taking tips for dancing mean that this was a strip club.

I guess that I've gone to strip clubs of any type about seven or so times in my life. Those have spanned the range from pasties to fully nude. I think all of them have been informally called "strip clubs", though usually there are euphemistic terms used in ads and media and elsewhere. I've not been to a fully nude club that served any alcoholic beverages, that always being a requirement for such clubs in those jurisdictions, which has always caused me to wonder what the lawmakers expect might happen were alcohol consumed. Because there's complete nudity and drinking the men would go crazy, or what?

In December I went to a fully nude club here in Albuquerque. I know that when I lived here seventeen years ago and earlier there weren't any fully nude clubs. Seems like maybe they're more common these days. Personally, I sort of feel like it's all or nothing; particularly pasties seem silly to me. Anyway, I had a fascinating conversation with a dancer. She's pre-med and she asked me a number of informed questions about my joint disease. One thing that surprised me and seemed sort of weird was that here in ABQ, because the all-nude clubs (if there are more than one, I'm not sure) don't serve alcohol the minimum age is only 18 where the conventional strip-clubs require 21 and over because of alcohol. So the university students all go to the all-nude club. They're usually broke, this woman said, and don't tip very much and just sit at the stage and do the minimal, or even less and the bouncers let them get away with it.

As in my other experiences in these places, I found myself deeply ambivalent. Almost all the other men in these places really creep me out. They don't interact with the dancers, they don't smile, they are just fixated on genitalia in an almost deadened way that is really disturbing. I've only gone to these places a few times in the 25 years of my adult life—and I think three of the seven times were with my current wife/SO. The other times I've gone it was because I was a bit horny and lonely. Like most men, I'm visually-oriented. Moreso, possibly, and to have a really attractive nude woman erotically dance just for me is a heady experience. I understand well enough what it's like for sex workers and so I don't try to breach their professional barrier which makes it comfortable for them to work; but within that constraint I try interact with them in the friendliest, person-to-person, honest and open way. For me, part of the eroticism is the fantasy that this might be someone I could get to know. So I've usually had interesting conversations and the women have relaxed and enjoyed dancing with me. In fact, this last time I talked with the dancer about my conflicted feelings about these clubs—that there were undercurrents of bad things and the attitudes of many of the men were predatory and such, but that at the same time I believe that eroticism and the body and sex in general are all good things and that ideally these clubs could be happy, life affirming places that aren't demeaning to the dancers or women in general—and when I left she hesitated and then told me that I had a really good attitude about it.

So, all in all, these places are right at the intersection of all our culture's issues about sexuality and sexism and eroticism and some other things besides.

It's interesting that scody and jessamyn went. How common is it for straight (or mostly straight) women to go to these clubs? I've known a number of women who have, including the two SOs of mine that I mentioned. In both their cases, they're 90% straight I suppose, but both times we paid for a dancer to give a lap dance. Both of them found it mildly enjoyable and erotic and also, interestingly, a shoe-on-the-other foot perspective which they enjoyed. They also weren't as skeeved at how other men acted—in retrospect it occurs to me that this might be because it's only an exaggerated version of what they see and experience of male behavior on a daily basis. I don't notice the daily stuff so the more extreme version which I do notice is more disturbing because of it.

On Preview: “Dude, totally not really a strip-club. Not even a titty bar.

I've never heard anyone make these kinds of distinctions before. I still contend that if it's almost nothing but men who pay a cover and tip women who dance on stages in some degree of nudity—and especially if they lap/table dance—then it's a strip club, even if they wear pasties.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:00 PM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Wow! This was awesome. Thanks, Matt!

(I would personally call Jumbo's more of a "burlesque joint" than a "strip club." I'm still kind of bummed that I had to get up super-early the next day and couldn't in good conscience go)
posted by the_bone at 10:04 PM on May 2, 2007


I think of "burlesque" acts as hipster, revival choreographed show type places that are appearing in a number of cities.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:12 PM on May 2, 2007


Ok, Ethereal, I totally road the back of that distinction that was suggested earlier, but then again i can totally understand given my personal history of going to titty bars.

I mean, I grew up in chicago and when I turned eighteen we all decided, fuck it, let's go to the Admiral in korea-town (just less than an hour drive from the south side) and when we got there, there was a 20 dollar cover charge and two big guys in black tuxedos. We walk inside and the first thing you notice is a huge stage, not a burlesque feeling kind of stage, mind you, but a stage of a theater, nonetheless. When we told one of the waitresses it was our friend's birthday, they plunked a crown on his head and carried him off to the big brass throne that emerged on stage, along with three hand-selected girls. Man, that shit set me back a pretty penny.

Fast forward to the jumbo room, (were you there? i can't tell, anyway i'll continue) a shithole of a bar stuck in between like, a liquor store and a thai restaurant, and like many places in hollywood, doesn't take credit cards (not that this is a dealbreaker by any means). the comment earlier about the bruises on the thighs, well that comes from pole-dancing, but goddamn if it isn't the best way to describe the surreality of bars like that. i've seen all kind of girls go through that place, and i prefer the craziness of the girls that work in east hollywood. strip clubs on sunset, i never get. i will tell you this one though. i'll be damned if i wasn't driving down sunset the other day, right by the coach and horses on gardner, looking for a friend of mine's house that i had never been to yet, and some woman with a blonde wig comes up to my passenger door while my car is moving and tries to get in. i laughed my ass off.

burlesque is totally not what jumbo's is, and i can say that comfortably because, a. my neighbor was an incredibly talent burlesque dancer and b. there are great burlesque spots in hollywood near to jumbo's, the first that comes to mind is the Forty Deuce on Melrose. There's a place you gotta check out.

the last strip club i went to was crazy horse in vegas, which basically, blew the socks off of anything that i have ever been to in my life. just pure, caligulan debauchery. im not even going to get into that. the point i'm trying to make here is that there may be some distinction to be made here. i would never call some places titty bars. other places are definitely strip clubs.
posted by phaedon at 10:34 PM on May 2, 2007


man, i wrote all that, and didn't even bring up tijuana once!
posted by phaedon at 10:39 PM on May 2, 2007


What happened in Tijuana stays in Tijauna.
Except the burning sensation.
Had that for days after I got home.
posted by Dizzy at 12:38 AM on May 3, 2007


No fuckin' way, Dude!

I like it that Mathowie and Jessamyn say "Dude!" and variations of the word "Fuck", as much as me.
posted by chillmost at 4:32 AM on May 3, 2007


Metafilter: I can't hear you over the smugness!

Love it.
posted by juv3nal at 10:18 AM on May 3, 2007


I don't know who's responsible for all the sniffs, but let me know and I'll mail you a set of hankies.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:05 PM on May 3, 2007


Current hampshire student here, F04.
posted by Arturus at 2:54 PM on May 3, 2007


It's interesting that scody and jessamyn went. How common is it for straight (or mostly straight) women to go to these clubs?

It's common for women to go to Jumbo's (I've been a couple of times since going with Jess, and there are always plenty of women there), but I don't know how common it is at other clubs. Jumbo's has a sort of woman-friendly reputation that I suspect stems in part from its cachet as a hipster dive bar (whether said cachet is warranted or not is another issue), which doesn't really seem to be the case with other (faux) titty bars/strip clubs in L.A., at least not as far as I'm aware. (Burlesque clubs like the Forty-Deuce, as mentioned upthread, are indeed a different thing, and seem to be pretty popular with the ladies and the gentlemen alike.)
posted by scody at 3:11 PM on May 3, 2007


Hmmm...next meetup at the Forty-Deuce?

So did we decide what Jumbo's is? Burlesque show isn't right, but I maintain that strip bar/titty bar doesn't really cut it either. I've been to three clubs with varying degrees of nudity; Jumbo's with none, some topless bar in Lake Forest, and some fully-nude joint in Vegas. Skeeviness of the male clientele seemed strongly correlated to increasing nudity, and Jumbo's seemed so....harmless when compared to Vegas that I have a hard time calling them by the same name. So I suppose that it's a really artificial distinction, but it seems to make sense to me.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 10:11 PM on May 3, 2007


I forgot to come in here and say thanks for the podcast mention. Thanks for the podcast mention!
posted by chrismear at 3:09 AM on May 5, 2007


How many of us Hampsters?

+1: F93.
posted by sudama at 11:00 AM on May 7, 2007


So we've got at least five hampsters here. If any of you are still watching this thread, I'm curious: What was your Div III?

As I'm going to be a div III next year, I'm thinking about this sort of thing a lot.
posted by Arturus at 12:40 PM on May 10, 2007


What chrismear said. Thanks for the shoutout to me and turtlegirl :)
posted by terrapin at 8:53 AM on May 16, 2007


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