Karaoke Forums

I am a electrical engineer by trade. I think it stunted my growth, even though I hang out in bars every weekend I don't smoke. Now do not get me started lying about drinking.

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Life is Short Play Hard!!!!

How Clintonesque! Oh it has, but the numbers released are horsesh**t, and have been since the 90's. Remember them? Oh, look at '98, for example. Low unemployment as released, strong stock market, etc... The stock market was running on dot.coms. In other words- nothing. The low unemployment rate was based on early retirements at a record rate, with companies paying off employees to bail. These employees took the money, started new businesses, which added nothing to the economy, and eventually failed- but unemployment was LOW! Of course, they forgot to mention that bankruptcies broke a record that year, as did layoffs ( for instance, 38,000 at 3M).

The only reason it's come to the fore now is that credit has finally run out. I remember working a bar in 2004. Packed the house. They could BARELY pay me that night. It was ALL on plastic.

If you have access to actual indicators, you will find that the only time the economy has been worse was during the Great Depression. BTW, one of the triggers for that event was "government bailouts".

There is actually two things WORSE now than then. Back then there was no NAFTA, and overseas trading left us at surplus, not deficit. The dollar was a strong currency because it was based on hard goods instead of "faith in our government"- Meaning that now the dollar is only worth something if you BELIEVE it is...


Yes, even the media brown-noses are beginning to admid what's going on. The difference is, no one has a clue ( or maybe they do, but not the power or courage) to fix it.



















88

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I think attendance is down due to the economy. A bunch of my KJ friends are complaining about their attendance as well.

As far as being in a recession. Well, I am no economist but I can tell you that in my little area we have been loosing restaurants left and right because they are not getting the clientele they are used to getting. Just a few to shut their doors,
Uncle Joe's pasta - 2 locations
Ruby Tuesday's
TGI Friday's - 2 locations
Don Pablo's
Prairie Oyster bar
And a few others that I can't think of right now. It's getting ugly out there. It won't be long and we won't be able to go out to eat because there won't be any restaurants left.

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Of course with the Christmas season coming upon us, we expect to get even busier.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

You have a point there. I know I'll be busier because of holiday parties ect...

It will be the areas that are hardest hit by the economy that will stay home this holiday season.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

You have a point there. I know I'll be busier because of holiday parties ect...

It will be the areas that are hardest hit by the economy that will stay home this holiday season.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Every day I'm hearing of people getting laid off. I'm finding more and more people showing up to the bars without much to spend. Attendance is decent but slow on some occassions; tips the bartenders receive are definitely declining. We have a seven bars in a three block radius competing for patronage. The city clamped down on the live music venue that used to bring in hordes of people.

The economy and the holidays are certainly factors.

Here, at least 50 closures or changes in a 20 mile radius in the last year...... and ongoing.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

At the start of 08 Illinois no longer allowed smoking, so on crappy mid week weather nights things did get slow for the 1st quarter of the year.
Since late summer the economy has hurt mid week. In the Chicago Suburbs where I do business we have many new sportsbars, taverns all trying to get the dwindling dollar from patrons.
Also Bar Owners, and by the way I wouldn't want the Risk of being one, are cutting back on advertising. They also are busting balls on price. Many of my DJ/KJ friends who charged premium price are now without weekly gigs. I have lowered my price to stay busy but you can really feel the stress in the owners, who knows what kind of loans they settled for to keep these places running?
I have also thought that this Karaoke Hobby Window will not last for ever and I often how much longer however affordable, compared to live music, that we will have it in its present form?