Bar Pigalle- a photojournal type thing.

[Scott]

Both have decided that we're a strip club and a potential source of major issues. Trying to explain to both that this is an Arts space. A home for outcasts and wierdos. Not a house to chug beer for punters after a day at the football. It's an uphill battle.

Jesus. Good luck with it all. Trying to talk to regular folk about art is like pulling teeth. I've stopped telling most people what I do for a living because their response invariably leads to them exclaiming, "You should be a tattoo artist" or "You should paint faces for kids parties" or "You should do caricatures at the State Fair!" Because every single person is an inbred redneck and and that is the extent of their art knowledge.

sigh.

I can only imagine what trying to talk to rubes about an art venue could be like. Tell them it's an art spot where you can come and get your kid's faces painted by a caricature artist while being tattooed. Art.

[agent999]

My cousin and her husband were hoping to go to Melbourne this year to visit his brother (who has been refused entry into the UK for reasons I shouldn't go into), but that's not going to happen for a while now. Shame, I was going to get them to check it out, it definitely looks like their sort of thing.

[Dom D]

My cousin and her husband were hoping to go to Melbourne this year to visit his brother (who has been refused entry into the UK for reasons I shouldn't go into), but that's not going to happen for a while now. Shame, I was going to get them to check it out, it definitely looks like their sort of thing.

No good! I can't see Australia letting any non-Kiwi foriegners in for a long time at this point. Apparently even if people are vaccinated we will still be maintaining our Hermit Kingdom status.

Jesus. Good luck with it all. Trying to talk to regular folk about art is like pulling teeth. I've stopped telling most people what I do for a living because their response invariably leads to them exclaiming, "You should be a tattoo artist" or "You should paint faces for kids parties" or "You should do caricatures at the State Fair!" Because every single person is an inbred redneck and and that is the extent of their art knowledge.

It is hard to get people who haven't seen it before to understand the concept of burlesque. Most seem to see it as what it was originally, a way to get around nudity laws while still having women undressing on stage. I get a lot of dubious looks when I telll people that it's for a primarily female audience.

Sorry you're running into gov't issues, that's lame, but it sounds like the good is outweighing the bad so far. Take some pride in that!

I have an idealised vision of it in a years time in my head. If we survive that long it will definitely be worth it.

[Dom D]

Got a fluff piece in the paper. It's the Murdoch rag and they misspelled Pigalle and called Maison Burlesque "La Maison Burlesque" and they totally failed to mention me but, hey, it's still a good fluffing. Though it's from the hated Murdochs it is the most read paper in these parts so I guess one can't be too choosy. The quote at the end cracks me up. Poppy is a filthy mouthed realist. There is no way in the world she said that and used a word like sumptious. Still it's a good enough line I guess.

155416952_10160880759922907_3461000715938222072_o by Dominic Deacon, on Flickr

[Scott]

That's fantastic, congrats! Hopefully they got the address right.

[Dom D]

The thing about this business that is terrifying- wake up in middle of the night, stomach clenched, shit your pants scary- is the turnover. I've always been kind of been hand to mouth when it comes to finances. I think up until I was 35 I never had as much as $5k in my bank account. It's probably why shoving all my money into this venture was so easy. I'm used to seeing zero in my account.



What I'm not used to is seeing huge amounts of money come in and go out at dizzying speed. One day you look at the accounts and theres $10k in there. Check them shortly after and there's $32k. The day after that there's $4k. The swings are fucking terrifying. It has its upside because it shows we're running a business that can make real money. But I also know that if it turns properly against us there's no way to make up the shortfall. The numbers are just too high and money can disappear into a black hole in this thing in way that can't be repaid by the like of us. It's definitely enough to keep one awake at night particularly now there's plenty of peoples jobs on line, a VISA application for our chef and all sorts of people relying on us.



On the other hand we have so far been sold out for every night. We're not open enough yet for that to really pay itself back but at least there appears to be a market for us out there. There was no quarantee of that going in.

[Dom D]

Still fighting the good fight on this place. Negotiations on the $23,000 insurance bill broke down and now we have a hearing in 6 weeks or so. Our agent is a real pig fucker but I think we will win this one. Just got to channel some Cary Grant karma.



Currently we've only been open as a restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays because we've needed the bar space to double as a dance studio during the week. This week though the second dance studio gets renovated and from next week we're open Monday to Saturday. Get to see if it works as a resaurant... How many people want largely vegan tapas? Hard to say but Melbourne is a very hipster city. I have hopes.

We never did find a reasonable solution to get the safe out of the second studio... There's only one company in the state who will touch it and they want $4k up front and would be drilling holes in floors and walls to get it out. Apparentlky OHS laws were very different when it was moved in. In the end we figured fuck it. It stays. We'll paint it gold and pretend it's a piece of interior decoration.





I love clocking the expressions on peoples faces as I edit these photos.

I think we're starting to make this place make sense though. The Fear is still very real. We don't pay rent yet but those monthly $16k bills are waiting in the wings. But I look back over the last month and see that we've paid out $30k in renovations over this month in addition to regular expenses and still, basically, broken even so I figure we'll be in reasonable shape to face those bills when they come. Just got to hope the public stays interested.

[Scott]

Great photos as always, Dom. Especially the second and fourth one. Glad to here things are working out after all the hard work you and your crew put into it. It looks like a real fun place!