FAQ
FAQ
How do I become a member?
You can become a member at the venue that evening or via email. You just have to sign a membership form at the door.
When are you open?
We are open every Friday and Saturday, 8pm till the rooster crows three times and the first BART train runs in the morning(6:04am). We are also open Sundays starting June 12th, from 1-4pm for Latin Jazz/Jazz Jam alternating Sundays(Free Community Chicken and Waffle Brunch, yum yum). We are often short on volunteers so we don’t want to tire out the door dogs, Pinky and Hershcel, who both have union contracts with Birdland.
How do i become a volunteer?
Just email the birdman at paparayno@gmail.com or call at 510-827-5414. The duties are fairly straight forward: work the door, the grill, and help clean up that evening or the following morning for an hour. Most of the time, Birdland can run on one volunteer and one door dog but it would be great having another volunteer to work the second bbq grill in the backyard. Just volunteer when you get to the venue and become a regular. Just fall into your role as a jazzista.
Do you serve alcohol?
No, we do not serve alcohol. It’s bring your own beverage. If we have beer, we only share it to our close friends and jazzistas we know very very well.
How much are the donations?
The donations gives you the right to hang out with the jazzistas to eat, talk, smoke hookah, and pet the dog, Pinky. There is no cover charge. This is just a private party for members who are part of the Jazzista family, friends, and acquaintances.
What is your business model?
Our business model is to lose money every bbq/jazz event; and we are very good at it; so good at it that we have expanded bbq/music programming to three days a week and will soon add Thursday nights when we get another neighborhood dog to volunteer to clean up after rib bones in the venue. We are not for profit nor are we non-profit. We are a for loss social venture. It is based on an old Northwestern Native American tradition of competitive wealth destruction called Potlatch where members of the tribe or community destroy their wealth occasionally and shower the entire community with food and gifts; in our case we shower our members with food and music three times a week. Even if that means the week’s sponsor eats Top Ramen or sardines in a can the entire week to pay for the weekend’s bbq, our sponsors in the neighborhood will do it.
How can I support Birdland?
1. Sponsorship: Don’t eat for a week or eat top ramen and sardines, save that money and pay for the bbq that weekend.
2. Weekly Funraisers: Jazzistas are all about raising the level of fun, hence fun raisers, get it? So bring your positive vibe and fun energy to Birdland. Come to Birdland not to wind down from the week’s beatdown from work but to wind up and energize the folks around you.
3. Donation: Support the musicians at the door with your donation while you eat free bbq for 10 hours(8pm-6am, look at our menu–it’s straight, no chaser comfort food) and drink non alcoholic drinks, usually aqua frescas. You don’t need to bring food since it’s a POTLATCH, not potluck. BYOB to share with other jazzistas. If you don’t share your beer or wine, jazzistas will gossip about you and will call you all sorts of names behind your back and look at you like you just stole from their mothers.
4. Email List: Pinky, the beagle and Herschel, the black lab/mastiff mix have not learned how to type or use the internet; they are too busy eating leftover ribs on the sidewalk, the backyard, and the park so good luck getting an email from both of them. You know where Birdland is and when the party is going on and the websites: we have an alternative website:http://jazzista.org/
5. Wish List:
- Jazzistas should take their naps so they can stay up later in the night…ideal time to go home is 3am, at least.
- Jazzistas should have a voracious appetite for BBQ, music, and conversation.
- Jazzistas should be generous with other human beings and throw their plates and beer bottles in the right container and give their rib bones to the neighborhood dogs that attend.
- Jazzistas have 30 minute(that usually means it takes one hour to say goodbye at Birdland)goodbye conversations; Jazzistas don’t leave without saying goodbye to the new friends they met at Birdland.
- Jazzistas leave the last piece of meat for someone else who might be hungry or offer their last beer to some other stranger even if they really need another drink.
- If all else fails, go back to grandmother; she’ll put some common sense into your head. As my grandma used to tell me, “Use your common sense, boy!!!!!”
6. Volunteer: Clean up after yourself at the social club. Didn’t your momma train you right that you treat somebody else’s house like you treat your own house? Take two minutes before you leave each time you come to clean up after yourself, your friends, and other Jazzistas.
7. Sponsor a bbq because sometimes the bbq sponsors in the neighborhood are broke on that weekend too. But give from the heart without expecting something in return. We can always party with hot dogs and hamburgers but we prefer our seafood and ribs, chicken, and hot links. Either way, the party will continue with or without new bbq sponsors, but it sure would be nice. We had one new one this year in 2011, yayayayyyy.
8. Funders: (key players in raising the level of fun at Birdland Jazzista Social Club)
North Berkeley Federation of Dogs, Local 1733
Bread Workshop(Donated bread from Bill’s bakery..thanks Bill, we really appreciate all the bread)
Spaun Drum Co.(Thanks Brian, Dave, Mark, Gabe, and Robbie at Spaun for hooking us up with a drum kit)
Canopus Drums(Japan)(Domo Arigato, Taxi at Canopus for the Neo Vintage 1 drum kit)
Jazzkat Amps(Thank you Marti for hooking us up with amplifiers for our guitarists and keyboardists)
James Gorman, Brent Williamson, and Rick Baehr for hooking us up with their used Fender Super Reverb, Roland JCS-120, and Fender Blues Deluxe Amplifiers. Thank you guys.
Bay Area Jazz/Blues/Latin Musicians(Thank you for always giving us your best performances even when there’s only one person and two dogs left watching you on the second set of the late set..ie Vince Khoe Trio around 2am, thank you Vince Khoe)
All the Jazzista members and Jazzistas who have yet to be born.