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Curried Goat in a paper cup ([personal profile] derien) wrote2009-08-23 08:36 pm
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random factoids

I read the other day that Maine has the fewest churchs per person of any state in the union. The article I was reading referred to Maine as 'under-churched.' I was... bemused. I thought this seemed like something to be proud of, personally. :) We also have more restaurants per capita than any other state, so one of my coworkers claimed. I'm not sure that's so great! :) But I do love food.
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[identity profile] kryptyd.livejournal.com 2009-08-24 10:02 am (UTC)(link)
In my town churches are closing down at a prodigious rate. Mostly it makes me happy, but it's a shame that the lovely buildings often aren't used for anything after their life as a church is over. There is a small church that was abandoned for years that is now beautifully restored and being used by a dance company. Unfortunately there aren't many photos of it on thier site, and the ones that are don't do it justice.
http://www.daghdha.ie/005/001.htm

This one is directly across the road from my workplace

I always imagine cool nightclubs getting started up there, but unfortunately it's probably way too big and will probably just stay empty.

This one is now an office building. Note the modern skylight!


This one sits empty. This is the only one I felt slightly sad for reasons other than lovely buidlings going to waste when it closed a year or two ago, because it was a Franciscan church and I have slight soft spot for them because of St. Francis's kindness to animals and because that order take their vow of poverty very seriously and give everything to poor people

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[identity profile] derien.livejournal.com 2009-08-24 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
Man, these are LOVELY buildings. It does hurt to see them just sit and not get used for anything, but that, for me, is because they're lovely buildings, not because I think people should be worshiping in them. It seems a shame that a nightclub can't exist in that one you like... what if it shared the space with other things? There's certainly a lot of space. Do you think a coffee shop/breakfast/lunch place could use the same space during the day? I have had this dream of starting an actual club, with rooms to crash in if you needed to, so that drunk members wouldn't have to drive home, but I guess that's a bit farfetched these days. One would need to find enough people who wanted to own a share of this club idea so that they could band together and finance buying it, and then there'd be arguments about how to do everything. People who aren't going to actually do any work would have Ideas and want to live there. Yeah. A lot of headaches. Still...

[identity profile] kryptyd.livejournal.com 2009-08-24 11:19 am (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, I don't want people worshipping in them either, except maybe at the alter of rock! The problem with setting up anything at all in this country is that public liability insurance would be cripplingly expensive. We also have extremely severe licensing laws which cost a lot of money to sort out as well. If you want to set up a nightclub you need a bar license, a dance license, if there is going to live music you need a music and singing license, as well as public liability insurance and proper (licensed) security personnel and for every single night you want to stay open a little bit longer than normal pub times (Open at 10:30 on any day, Monday through Wednesday closing time is 11:30; Thursday through Saturday, it's 12:30; on Sunday, it's 11:00. ) you need to apply for a "special exemption" which costs €410.00 a pop, not including legal costs. And you have to pay off the fire officer and the environmental department. It's a pain! There is no such thing as drinking/dancing all night here, unless you do it at home.
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[identity profile] derien.livejournal.com 2009-08-24 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
If it were a private club (only open to members and guests) would it be different? I know here we have rules against smoking in any public place, but the Veterans clubs allow smoking because they're private - the door is always locked and you only get in if a member vouches for you.

[identity profile] kryptyd.livejournal.com 2009-08-24 12:49 pm (UTC)(link)
There are certain things a private club can do without a license. If there was booze and/or music there you wouldn't get away with not having all the various licenses though. I know a guy who ran a big festival once and avoided the licensing issues by pretending it was a birthday party and that worked. I don't think it would work on anything long term though.

Seriously, hardly anyone tries to set up any kind of club/space for the love of it here. It's impossible! Every other country I've been to in Europe, including really poor ones have a better set up for doing-it-yourself than here. I know some kids in Dublin are trying to set something up (http://www.facebook.com/exchangedublin?v=info), but they're already on their third or fourth building, and it gets kind of disspiriting when you've put a load of work into one place, only to get thrown out of there because of fire regulations or some other non-reason.
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