Karl Marx was a 19th century socialist revolutionary and economist from Germany. DJ Karl Bindig and DJ Mark Holman were the two primary DJs at Mettler's. Both had worked there many years by the time I arrived.

Mettler's had a policy that banned most music with misogynist language, such as referring to women as “bitch.” For the most part, Mettler's banned rap and hip-hop. There was also a supposed ban on heavy metal and hard rock music, but heavy metal and hard rock music were played at Mettler's all the time. The owners of Mettler's had a list of songs they wanted the DJs to integrate into the dancers playlists throughout the night. Most of these songs were enjoyable classic rock hits, but a lot of them were god awful Nickleback songs.

Mettler's did not have a digital sound system. They had a large collection of CDs for their CD system. Unless a dancer brought in her own CDs and had the DJ pre-approve the songs, she generally had to select songs from the Mettler's CDs. Only certain songs on each Mettler's CD was allowed. DJ Mark also had his own personal collection of CDs that he brought in and allowed dancers to sift through to make song requests. Most of Mark's music was 80's and 90's gothic/industrial/rock.

Karl and Mark generally did not ask for tips or bully dancers for their lunch money like most DJs do. Mettler's paid their staff a living wage. I usually tipped Mark a few bucks because I liked him. I tipped DJ Karl less often. When I first started working there, Karl said to me that he only plays good music for dancers who tip him. However, I rarely tipped him and still demanded that he play songs from my list. Karl was an irritable man who used to throw around CD cases within his booth.

The DJs determined set length, which was usually 1-3 songs. This was misclassification. DJ Karl repeatedly sent dancers home if they arrived at 5:30 PM rather than the mandatory 5:00 PM. This was an instance of misclassification. Legally I could point out that the musical restrictions were very much misclassifying, that Mettler's was engaging in a certain politically incorrect filtering of music genres, in order to avoid attracting certain kinds of customers. I could point those true things out.

I could also tell you that I loved working with Karl and Mark, because I did. Karl and Mark are both squares, not interested in being cool, not interested in being hip, not interested in any of the usual douchebag DJ elements. Karl and Mark never trolled dancers with Song Wars that I was aware of. DJ Mark was physically attractive in a gothic/industrial rural Minnesota way. He was a decent human being who never engaged in any abusive behaviors that I know of. I was happy to be in a club with so much gothic/industrial/new wave/indie/grunge/rock music. I was happy to be relieved from the abundance of twerking and poop chute themed songs found in Minneapolis. I was relieved to be surrounded by so much flannel, cammo, beards, and patrons that reminded me of my early years dancing in Oregon. I was relieved to be surrounded by people who didn't body shame me for being svelte. It was a relief, OK. Karl and Mark's gen-X stubbornness was like frolicking through Boulder, Colorado in the 90's, like skateboarding down Burnside in Portland, Oregon before it was gentrified, like taking a backwoods drive through the Smoky Mountains and stumbling upon a hillbilly hippie encampment. You do not find strip clubs like this very often.

Keeping a timely and orderly stage rotation was mandatory at Mettler's, so customers could be entertained. It was definitely misclassification. The stage at Mettler's was my all time favorite. It wasn't too big or too little. The front pole spun, was the perfect circumference, metal and length. I never had a dance lesson in my life. I have never taken a dance class in my life. I have no previous experience in any type of dance besides needing to go to work to pay for my existence. Everyone at Mettler's stopped what they were doing when I went on stage, to watch my stunning spinning.