quoted 354 lines Subject: [nyc-raves] Lunatarium stuff
> Subject: [nyc-raves] Lunatarium stuff
>
> Lunatarium Lunacy: Why is the city's most
> promising independent venue closed? Will it be
> back?
> When? And if so, will it be any good?
>
>
> The hardest thing about throwing events in New
> York City is finding the space for them. That
> means
> the most successful independent
> promoters are the ones who either have access
> to
> a regular venue, or the ones who can turn out
> the rare
> new space.
>
> While new clubs like Luxx, Northsix, and Warsaw
> open all over Williamsburg and Greenpoint,
> independents still have a hard time
> finding venues, much less good ones. In the
> past
> year, the search for a regular space -- or even
> large
> rooms for one-off events -- has
> led some groups into filthy basement
> warehouses,
> still-sweaty meat-packing plants, or big
> buildings
> with shady landlords.
>
> All of this is why the massive Dumbo space
> known
> as the Lunatarium seems so extraordinary. The
> breathtaking 18,000 square-foot venue,
> with its 30-foot ceilings and its perfect East
> River skyline view, opened with two events in
> July
> 2001. Eventually it became a regular
> weekend venue, and it was used by a small group
> of Dumbo promoters working with independents
> like
> Blackkat, SEAL, and DJ Spooky.
>
> That was until three weeks ago, on January 11,
> when a small fire started on the sixth floor of
> the
> building during an ambient party
> called Airport. The fire department came, put
> out the small trashcan blaze, and left. Two
> hours
> later, representatives from the New York
> City Social Club Task Force arrived and started
> writing violations.
>
> Several fines later -- for alcohol, for
> dancing,
> for occupancy -- the party was shut down.
> (Irony
> alert: Yes, fined for dancing at an
> *ambient* event; apparently there were about 20
> people grooving to a
> DJ spinning jungle in the small room, while
> approximately 800 in the
> main space were standing, sitting, and
> talking.)
> The Lunatarium is now closed and scheduled
> events --
> except for a Run-DMC gig that
> happened last week -- have been cancelled. Now
> its bookers are scrambling to get the permits
> they
> need to open up again. It's not
> an easy task, and it's not cheap either.
>
> *****
>
> Back in July, the Lunatarium was a completely
> raw space, all brick columns and shoddy
> electricity,
> nine floors up and served by a
> large, temperamental freight elevator. It had
> hosted an art show, but it was mostly being
> used for
> storage.
>
> It was first rented for parties by two groups,
> including Complacent.org and a small group of
> promoters who had been throwing
> regular parties in their Dumbo lofts. That
> second group, Dumboluna (after the name of
> their first
> event in the Lunatarium) now includes
> Sebastian Holzmeister, Mark Winkel, and Carlos
> Granda.
>
> Dumboluna worked out a deal with the landlord
> of
> the Lunatarium and began to have regular
> parties in
> the space.
> Eventually, they got the landlord to agree to
> rent it
> to them for a month at a time and they
> began booking events. They would either put
> together their own line-ups of DJs and artists,
> or
> they would let a group come in and
> take over the space for a night. Sometimes they
> did "co-productions," which were often
> essentially
> the same thing as letting a group come in and
> take
> over the space -- or at least the
> creative aspect of it.
>
> All of this was being done on the down low.
> There were permits for wine and beer, and some
> for
> assembly, but the place was far from
> legal; they didn't have the rare New York
> cabaret permit that allows dancing, for
> instance.
>
> Mark Winkel says that this wasn't by design.
> "The only reason we were throwing the outlaws
> was
> because none of us had money. We were
> trying to get the money to be legit," he says.
>
> To some extent, the space was working. By all
> accounts, the New York Decompression party --
> thrown
> by the group of New York Burning Man
> aficionados who call themselves the Society for
> Experimental Arts and Learning (SEAL) -- was a
> massive
> creative and commercial
> success. It featured fire spinners, large-scale
> inflatables, propane sculpture, bands, DJs, and
> hundreds of costumed partygoers.
>
> Blackkat also threw successful events in the
> space, including the carnival-themed Fabulon
> and the
> Mythos Halloween party. Both parties
> made full use of the venue in a way that
> couldn't happen in a club,bringing in large
> metal
> sculpture and rides, big games, and
> pyrotechnic shows.
>
> Not all of the events worked. DJ Spooky booked
> and performed at a string of Friday-night shows
> that
> had problems with sound and attendance,
> especially at
> the start. And Winkel says a show with DJ
> Hell and the witchy string band Rasputina was a
> near disaster.
>
> In general, though, things were going well. It
> was, if nothing else, a venue -- an option.
> Parties
> like Airport, which was organized by
> Shel Kimen to showcase ambient musicians and
> cozy,conversation-oriented sculptural
> environments,
> were just beginning to hint at what could be
> done with
> the space.
>
> *****
>
> Winkel thinks it will take about two months to
> get the Lunatarium up and running again, but
> his
> estimate seems low. It's extremely
> difficult to get the kinds of permits the
> Lunatarium would require.
> First, the building has to be brought up to
> code. Then, Dumboluna
> will have to obtain public assembly, liquor,
> and
> cabaret permits.
>
> (This article will skip over the larger issue
> of
> cabaret licenses
> and how absurd it is that you need a permit for
> people to dance.
> There are far better, and more informative
> articles gathered online at
> www.nodancingallowed.com.
> Suffice it to say that the entire issue
> is absolutely crazy, and hanging together by a
> racist, archaic law that was intended to keep
> white
> kids away from jazz.)
>
> Part of the difficulty is that the owner of a
> space has to wade through several state and
> city
> organizations in order to get all the
> right signatures. Adam Shore, who has worked
> extensively on cabaret laws with an umbrella
> anti-cabaret organization called Dance the
> Vote, points out that to get a cabaret license,
> you have to get the permit from the Department
> of
> Consumer Affairs, but it has to be
> signed by Department of Buildings (where some
> people have registered complaints), the Fire
> Department, the Police Department, the State
> Liquor Authority, and your community board.
>
> "Each one has very specific rules of what you
> need, and each one keeps passing the buck until
> you
> get the other one," he says. The
> process can take up to two years and cost
> $100,000, he says.
>
> "It's not impossible," says Shore. "It's just
> going to take a longtime, a lot of patience,
> and it's
> going to take money."
>
> *****
>
> The Lunatarium closing has brought up another
> question as well, and the one that everyone
> with even
> a tangential connection to the space
> is talking about. The best thing about the
> venue
> is that so far its bookers have been remarkably
> open
> to the New York underground (a word you have to
> use
> here even if it makes you uncomfortable). The
> question, then, is even if the space can get up
> and running again, can it possibly maintain the
> shambling aesthetic and the openness
> that allowed flaming beds, trash sculptors,
> relatively low prices, pyrotechnic shows,
> dancing past
> sunrise, and even a huge ambient-music event?
>
> Not everyone was happy with the old Lunatarium.
> There were murmurs that Dumboluna was taking
> too large
> a cut from the door and the bar, or that they
> weren't
> following through with promises, or that they
> were taking advantage of volunteer labor. Not
> one critic was willing to talk for attribution
> here,
> but you could find public hints of this in
> discussions
> on the New York Burning Man listserve and in
> other
> online forums.
>
> (For the record, Cory Mervis, the executive
> director of SEAL, says that Dumboluna played
> fair. And
> Jason Blackkat, of Blackkat, concurs, pointing
> out
> that Blackkat, after some negotiation,
> eventually
> worked out an equitable deal.)
>
> A constant issue, of course, is that there was
> a
> lot of money involved. Most of the parties were
> drawing 800 to 1500 a night, says Winkel, and
> one
> thousand people at $10 a head adds up fast --
> even
> faster when wine is selling at $4 a cup.
>
> But Winkel insists that no one at Dumboluna is
> getting rich. Forstarters, the rent on the
> space is
> astronomical.
> Winkel wouldn't say exactly how much the space
> goes
> for, but he said that it is"significantly more"
> than
> the rumored $20,000 a month. (The landlord
> is letting Dumboluna slide while the space is
> closed.) There are
> also four-color flyers being printed, sound
> systems, and a growing staff of professional
> security
> guards to take a cut.
>
> "I think that we've gotten some bad press from
> what we've been doing," says Winkel. "Some
> people
> don't know what we're trying to do. But forget
> about
> the time or intention -- we have no money. I'm
> eating peanut butter and jelly and grilled
> cheese. When I hear us being demonized, when I
> hear
> how much money we're [supposedly]
> making, it just hurts."
>
> One of the reasons Winkel is upset is that few
> seem to understand exactly what Dumboluna is
> trying to
> do with the space. "Our goal is
> really to make this an art space that has a
> nightclub element of dancing," he says. "The
> art
> element is crucial. We've been featuring
> local musical talent. It's nice to have big
> names, but the idea is to showcase new talent,
> to give
> musicians and artists a place to
> work."
>
> When the space is not being used for parties,
> Dumboluna has provided a large space for fire
> spinners
> to practice, sets to be built, and
> photos to be shot. Winkel wants to continue
> these kind of things, eventually opening up for
> lectures, workshops, art-making lessons,
> and gallery space. Even so, the Lunatarium will
> have
> to make money, and most understand. "It's a
> business,"
> says SEAL's Mervis. "As much as they
> want to make it a community space, it isn't. If
> they don't pay the rent they lose the space."
>
> And that's the problem. If Dumboluna can go
> legit at all, can it go legit and be a
> successful art
> space at the same time?
>
> "I think they have some genuine interest in the
> creative potential of the space," adds Jason
> Blackkat.
> "Hopefully there is some line
> between being a commercial club and a raw
> space.
> It looked like they were getting there."
>
>
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