Karaoke Forums

Once again, the future doesn't look very promising for us KJ's. First it was the pandemic that kept people away and now it's going to be the high gas prices.

People can't afford to pay 4 to 5 dollars (depending on where you live) for a gallon of gas, unless you're rich. The only place people are going to be going is to the grocery store and the pharmacy. For some people, especially those who have at least an hour commute to work, will end up paying more for gas each week than what they would bring home in their paycheck. This is not good.

Entertainment, as well as going out for dinner, is going to take a back seat, since that money now has to be used for gas. And if people stop coming out to our shows, bar owners may cut karaoke since it wouldn't be feasible, and they'd be losing money.

So, once again... our future as a KJ working at a bar or club doesn't look very good. I can only hope that the gas situation doesn't last for very long but from everything I've read says it's only going to get worse and be with us for quite a while.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Well I just had a silver or should I say gold lining to it all. I'm doing a private party for St.Patrick, which will be a Marathon lasting from afternoon to probably late evening, and yes Alan I'm being paid, Five Large.

The news this morning is not good concerning oil prices. Due to the expanding European War prices of bench mark North Sea Crude which is around 109.00 a barrel, will increase to 175 to 200 or more per barrel, this is according to energy experts. This situation could continue for quite sometime, helping to fuel inflation, making the cost of everything higher. The only reason I'm staying ahead of inflation, is because my real estate holdings keep going up in value. My home has in the last month gone up another 7,000.00 dollars. I have a reverse mortgage, which I keep pulling the money out of the home, then investing it in municipal bonds, just in case at some point real estate crashes again, then the bank is on the hook.

Around here, it doesn't seem that it's changed much, crowd-wise, as of yet, but that is definitely a concern.

That said, I don't know if it's only the rich who are having less issues with it, or that it's necessarily that dire. If you figure a commute of 50 miles (so, 100 both ways), and an average of 24.2 miles per gallon of vehicles on the road, you're looking at a $20 - $40 weekly increase in gasoline consumption. Longer road trips to do things, that I can see dropping off sooner than people going out locally.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

I'm in Florida, and most of my frequenters are on vacation for the six winter months. Vacationers are not overly concerned about 40 or 50 dollars extra. I had a massive turn out for my venue, which has a capacity of around 120.

We had a standing room only (150 people) and including just 25 singers. My listener to singer ratio is usually 2:1 to 3:1. Last Wednesday it was 4:1.

When I used to fly down there monthly (somewhat south of where you are), I would have have been happy if gas prices kept the snowbirds off the roads. A 45 minute commute in the morning would turn into an hour to an hour and a half. Hah.

Glad to see you're having great turnouts!

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

Yeah, down here in Florida the only thing that has slowed down is the traffic. Its busier than its ever been and the roads are packed with vacationers, spring breakers, and even year rounders. Our venues are packed to the hilt with people all the time.
People have severe entitlement issues these days so making sacrifices like staying home or eating at home don't apply like they used to. I'm sure credit cards are being used like mad.

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

Here in southwest Ontario, we are at the equivalent of $8.42 per Imperial gallon. I can remember when it was 29 cents.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

Yeah and you used to get a candy bar this bigggggggggggggggggggg, for a nickel.

Saudi Arabia is cutting oil prices, and the China lock downs are freeing up supplies, since they aren't using as much oil. All of this combined might start to bring prices down. I don't know if this is going to bring prices down here, we will just have to see.

nothing will change, remember, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Marathon all got caught on tape saying they will not increase production because it would lower profits.
but look at the plus side, we get to pay more for gas because the government is not regulating them at all.
that's how you make America great, remove regulations so big business can screw the people however they like.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

This proves Capitalism devours Democracy, when left unchecked.

Laughing My Patukus Off

GASOLINE Price? I don't understand why people are so upset at the price of GAS. You A R E happy that all the "MEAN" Tweets have stopped, right? I mean, my car runs on, "NOT MY GASOLINE PRICE" A L L-D A Y-L O N G. giggle giggle giggle

What are you talking about??????

he thinks the president sets gas prices and not the private gas companies

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Markets determine the price of gas, the old supply and demand push and pull. Oil is a commodity, just like wheat, iron ore, or rubber. It is a raw material and not the finished product that goes into your gas tank. The more demand the higher the price of the raw material, it adds to the cost of the finished product. The President has little or no input in determining the cost of the finished product, unless it is the Federal Gas Tax levied on each gallon of gas pumped into a vehicle.

Oil suppliers in the U.S. are in the process of bringing down the cost of a barrel of Shale Oil to under 40.00 a barrel, once this is done we will not need foreign oil, since our reserves of shale exceed Saudi Arabia's proven reserves. If the U.S. were to cease oil exports we could become energy self sufficient. If we were to continue to pay high prices, after the cost of the raw material is brought down, it would be due to price fixing of the finished product by private gas companies, not the President. Thanks for the translation Paradigm.


P.S. Since energy is used by everyone in one way or another, if large oil companies continue to conspire to keep prices high, they run the risk of the oil industry being nationalized, and government administered for the good of all citizens. This will become even more pressing if we stop all oil exports, and become an Autarky.

How much distance can you travel without recharge? Is it difficult to find recharging stations on the road?

We're getting so far afield here, but I have to ask--how's the driving experience? The acceleration? The only full electric I've ever been in was a Tesla, and that packed some serious punch. But maybe my next car should be all electric and not a hybrid.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

No EV's for this boy!! There is no way that I could even begin to justify getting an electric car,,, maybe a hybrid, but definitely not an EV.

Here is why:

In my opinion, the long term investment of an electric car is definitely not worth it. After just a few years, the resale value of those cars will be next to nothing. Battery replacements are too expensive. And also IMO, the battery production causes just as much damage to the environment than a fossil fuel driven car does. To be honest, I have not truly looked into the actual numbers of the comparison of the effects on the environment, but it appears to me that it still takes fossil fuels (from coal fired power plants) to create the electricity needed to charge them.

To use Bob's example of his car, the Chevy Bolt, to start with, I can't even fit into that car to start with, it's just plainly too small. My son owns the gas powered version of that same car (Chevy Spark) and I cannot for the life of me even get through the door. And it's too small to do any serious amount of shopping or hauling of anything of "size".

If the Bolt only has a 278 mile range, as Bob claims, that car would not even make the trip to the city and back for me, before it would need a recharge. This is not uncommon for people of Utah, since the vast majority the states area (not residents tho) is very rural.One way for me to the big city is over a hundred miles. Then you add the running around time and distance, it is usually over a 300 mile trip up and back to get my errands done. That means, I would have to figure out a way to charge the battery somewhere along the way, and that would cost too much time. There are many towns here that literally are hours away from the nearest major city or shopping area. I happen to be in one of those. My current car is a 2017 Mazda 6. It gets almost 40 mpg on the open highway. It has almost a 600 mile range, and only takes minutes to refill the 14 gallon fuel tank.

What happens when winter hits and you are stopped and stranded in a blizzard somewhere and not able to go anywhere? This isn't common, but it definitely does happen. At least in my current car, I would have hours (maybe overnight even) of time at idle to keep warm inside the car. Compare that to the time frame of an electric car. I bet everyone has seen the meme's of the EV car that has ran out of power, only to be charged with a gas powered generator....kind of defeats the purpose of an EV car doesn't it?

I am not against moving away from our dependency on fossil fuels, but I don't think we are to the point of abandoning it altogether either. Electric cars are nice commuters, but they are not good for everything yet. I can't imagine being able to pull my horse trailer, or vacationing with all 7 of my kids, or go cut and haul firewood using an electric vehicle. It's just not a choice.

I'll toss this out also.

Ethanol added to gasoline is a boondoggle.
Ethanol is 30% oxygen by weight.
This means the mileage is reduced due to the reduced power of the diluted mix.
The absolute worst is the cluster called E85.
I fail to figure how elected representatives fail to know this is a boondoggle.