We're pathologically social. We're professional leisurists. We're burrito lovers, bar flies, art whores and music nerds. We dish the good dirt, and we'll risk a parking ticket for a cheap sample sale. Sometimes, we blog drunk.
Geek love
Nerd
isn’t the word that pops to mind when you think about Loyal Pennings, the
nightclub entrepreneur behind LAX. So
when I learned he invented the "Wickler," a wireless clicker that stores
accurate head-counts, not to mention demo information about clubbers, he had me
geeking out with him. Here's what he had to say about it….
"Nightclub 101 is you have a clicker at the front door and a clicker at the back door. In 1997, this was a nominal problem … but when I moved up to Hollywood from Hermosa, it became a real big issue. The fire marshal got in my face: ‘What's your clicker count?’ I wrote a letter to myself in 1997, 1998 detailing my intentions; kind of like the poor man's patent. One [idea] was the digital clicker, but that would have been 'The Dickler.' I didn't think that would really go over too well."
Pennings is opening a second club with DJ AM—slated to open "sometime between now and April." So while I had his ear, I asked him about that, too.
"Construction is nearing its completion. It's a big space and it's really delicate in respect of how it looks. [Because] it's in between the Kodak and the Chinese Theatre, we [can't] do it wrong. I mean LAX was free standing, so it would be like if you had to figure out your outfit. If you had to figure out your outfit for your wedding that's one thing; then [you have] all your bridesmaids too. You have seven people you have to deal with—and this is a large building with a bunch of different angles—so it's a lot more complicated."
That didn't quite answer my question about what the space will look like, but given that it's a Loyal Pennings' club, it's bound to be a celebrity-magnet. I hope geeks can get in!
—Alexandra Le Tellier
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