DNA Lounge https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 08:14:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Wherein another artifact comes to light https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/15.html https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/15.html#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2026 06:10:06 +0000 https://dnalounge.com/b/AVCp D.O.A.'s final concert, live at DNA Lounge, in 1990.

]]> https://cdn.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/15.html/feed/ 2 Wherein we're twenty-five https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/13.html https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/13.html#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:06:00 +0000 https://dnalounge.com/b/AVCn
Twenty-five years ago today, on July 13th 2001, was the first event at DNA Lounge under current management. I am very old and I have been leaning on this bar for a very long time.

Typically we treat Nov 22 as our "real" anniversary (the club will be turning 41 this year) but 25 is kind of a shocking number, so I thought that was worth noting. Check out what used to pass for photo galleries two and a half decades ago.

Traditionally this is where I do the usual "if you'd like us to be around for another 25 years" blah blah panhandling. So yeah, this would be a great time for you to join our Patreon or up your contribution, or make a one-time donation. We have been getting absolutely obliterated financially this year, the last few months specifically. Attendance has been way down across the board. You people need to start showing up, ok?]]> https://cdn.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/13.html/feed/ 13 Wherein we are going hard on movie nights https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/05.html https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/05.html#comments Sun, 05 Jul 2026 09:51:13 +0000 https://dnalounge.com/b/AVCf "Cyberdelia" series has seen a bit of success at branching out from being only the "Hackers" party, we've decided to try and screen roughly one cult movie a month! I hope you will join us. Our bill through the rest of the year: Conan the Barbarian (this Sunday!), Evil Dead 2 + Army of Darkness double bill, Hackers (the main event), The Crow, and Batman Returns (the greatest Christmas movie).

Update: We just added Scott Pilgrim!

And you can get a discounted seated "Season Pass" ticket that gets you a seat at all five events through the end of the year!

You may be wondering what our criteria is for selecting movies for this odd mini-festival of ours. You probably think you have some great suggestions. I gotta say, it's a tough line to walk. First of all, just thematically with the Cyberdelia origins, my pitch is that they should be movies that Zero Cool and the gang would have watched over at Nikon's house. So: cyber, scifi, fantasy; not romcoms. Second, we're doing this in a bar, not a movie theatre, so they have to be heckle-able, movies you can gleefully and drunkenly yell at. We're not doing an "Alamo" thing here, no polite applause, no sensible chuckle; we want rowdy.

As just a few examples of "great movie, but bad fit": Aliens, Strange Days, The Thing. They're great movies! But they aren't party movies. They're too good.

On the other end of the scale is the obscurity problem: I'd love to do Barbarella, Danger Diabolik, Dr. Phibes, but nobody's heard of them. The 6 people who would show up (8, counting me and Kingfish) would love it, but it would be a flop.

Anyway, we've got a list, and if these next five movies go well and we start getting some regulars, maybe we'll be able to dip into the backstock as well. So if you want us to keep doing this kind of thing... vote by showing up.]]> https://cdn.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/05.html/feed/ 60 Wherein it's a series of tubes https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/01.html https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/01.html#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2026 19:13:47 +0000 https://dnalounge.com/b/AVCb

]]> https://cdn.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/01.html/feed/ 28 Wherein another artifact comes to light https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/06/27.html https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/06/27.html#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2026 19:57:25 +0000 https://dnalounge.com/b/AVCX Sluts a Go Go All Star Gang Bang, a drag and burlesque show which took place here at DNA Lounge back in the Twentieth Century, in the distant past of January 1990!

As with the Spencer archives, I hope this trend of people unearthing their 36-year-old VHS tapes continues...]]> https://cdn.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/06/27.html/feed/ 12 Wherein the Surveillance-Industrial Complex gains another foothold in SF https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/06/16.html https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/06/16.html#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2026 23:58:51 +0000 https://dnalounge.com/b/AVCM SF Gazetteer, Cydney Hayes: Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners?

The machine Owen encountered is called a Patronscan Guard+, a biometric and personal data collection device made by Servall Data Systems, a surveillance tech company headquartered in Alberta, Canada. Mix is one of at least three bars in the Castro, including Badlands and Toad Hall on 18th Street, that wheel out the Patronscan kiosk each night to collect the personal data of every customer that comes through the door, including names, addresses, genders, and even how they behave inside the bar. [...]

Management from Mix, Badlands, and Toad Hall did not respond to requests for comment about when or why they first started using the surveillance tech in their businesses, so I stopped by Mix last Thursday night to check things out for myself.

Like most private surveillance cameras, the Patronscan kiosk at Mix hides in plain sight. In the dim light of the bar, the black machine is easy to miss. I was also not instructed to face the camera when I handed my ID to the bouncer; when I asked if I would be photographed, the bouncer told me the camera had in fact already taken my picture. They said Mix bouncers are not required to verbally tell each patron that they're being photographed by the Patronscan device. Instead, they rely on a small informational plaque posted to the kiosk below eye level to inform customers what data is being collected and how it will be used.

"It's posted signage," the bouncer shrugged on Thursday, when I suggested tipsy customers might not read the fine print on their way inside. [...]

Owen, however, sees potential for serious privacy risks. In today's political climate, she said, "it's really not great to have lists of gay people."

(Gee, ya think?)

In 2023, Illinois residents filed a class action lawsuit against Patronscan for violating an Illinois biometrics privacy law by collecting biometric data from eventgoers without first obtaining their consent, calling the technology "Orwellian."

In 2019, when the Board of Supervisors banned the use of facial recognition software by city agencies, including the police, the measure was widely supported by locals and inspired similar policies nationwide. That policy does not apply to private businesses like the Castro bars, but the reception at the time signaled widespread distrust toward surveillance tech companies. But now as the technology grows more normalized and a new generation of AI boomers flood San Francisco, the attitude toward Big Brother is shifting in the city.

The morning after we chatted in the Castro, Gonzalez told me over Instagram DM that he was unaware Mix could share patron data with neighboring businesses but did not see a problem with it. "I think it's cute that they share it amongst other bars," he wrote. "It's like a little cybersecurity community."

Oh, how cute!

As George Orwell famously wrote, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a shrug emoji stamping on a human face -- forever."

This is so much worse than the usual techbro "disruption" of bars that features here so often; it's even worse than the company that tried to sell bars' security cameras back to them.

If you think these photos, videos and dossiers of personally-identifiable information won't be turned over to ICE at the drop of a hat by this Servall Data Systems, you have not been paying attention. ICE, I must remind you, now has a budget exceeding the entire military budgets of all but 15 countries. Bigger than Israel; almost as big as Canada and South Korea.

The Brownshirts will be in the Castro soon enough.]]> https://cdn.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/06/16.html/feed/ 20