Does this happen to everyone, or just to people whose job it is to write about nightlife?

The scenario: It's Saturday night. About 10, give or take 20 minutes. You're SO ready for ladies'-with-an-'80s-twist night at (insert your favorite club here).

You busted out your "Hard Rock Cafe Austin" T-shirt, (sans collar and sleeves, of course) and your super-duper skinny jeans, and you're ready to rock that club better than anyone could back in the '80s. Plus, there's no cover before 11, so you'll even save a few bucks.

You just make it. You've got about 10 minutes before the cover charge goes into effect and you're killing it in your perfectly retro gear, and you know the door guys knows it, too. But he still charges you $10.

Maybe you got your facts wrong, maybe this isn't the no-cover club. No matter. Ten bucks to party like it's 1999 is a still a great deal.

Now, it's almost midnight on the same Saturday night. It's been almost two hours and the closest thing here to the '80s is some guy's mullet and a Justin Timberlake song that JT thinks sounds sort of like Michael Jackson (whatever). You stay for another hour because who knows? Maybe this is the kind of rager that gets going at 1 a.m.

Then you're forced to admit it: Ladies'-with-an-'80s-twist night never happened.

IT'S A TOUGH JOB

One of the most difficult parts about this job is dealing with the constant flux of the nightlife scene. Club events come and go quicker than you can say "party like a rock star." And the worst part? Promoters rarely notify the public when an event gets canceled.

Experience tells me that that's probably never going to change, so it's up to clubgoers (and the people who write about them) to proactively seek out confirmation that events are still happening. And even then, there's no guarantee that you'll find any answers.

That opening scenario is based on a true story (minus the skinny jeans — nothing I wear is skinny). My assignment a few weeks ago was to cover Kama Sutra Saturdays, a weekly event at The O Lounge. Except for the week I went. I waited and waited for the Kama Sutra to show itself and ... nothing.

Uh-oh, I thought. I got my nights mixed up, and I'm going to have to explain myself to my editor. When I got home, I logged on to MySpace (where I had found the flier for the event), fingers crossed that I hadn't mistakenly shown up at The O Lounge a night too late. I hadn't. As far as the Internet was concerned, Kama Sutra Saturdays was still a weekly event, and there was no indication on MySpace or any other Web site that the event had been pre-empted. Oh, well. It was just one of those things, I thought.

It was more like a million of those things, because Kama Sutra Saturdays is just one of many club events that have gone MIA on the very night I show up.

According to The O Lounge and the promoters, Kama Sutra Saturdays is still a weekly event, but other recent events are gone for good. Choose '80s night at Mall Cafe (formerly Club Pauahi) had a short weekly Friday-night run before being canceled; and Supper Club, a bi-monthly Flash and Matty night at Doraku, was also discontinued a few weeks ago after making its debut Feb. 8. (I showed up for both events only to discover that they were no longer happening.)

The bottom line is, promoters will fill clubs regardless of their PR skills. But that doesn't make it any easier on the rest of us. Here are a few tips for navigating the fickle nightlife scene:

1. Check the Internet. Though online calendars and event listings aren't always up to date, it's still a good place to start. Besides The Advertiser's online listings, check these: www.dosomethingtonight.com and www.HNLnow.com.

2. Befriend MySpace. Even if you loathe social networking sites (guilty!), they're still the No. 1 place for promoters and clubs to publicize their events. A good place to start is at Indie Honolulu's MySpace page (www.myspace.com/indiehonolulu). There you'll find fliers and links to other MySpace pages that have been created solely to promote events.

3. Make contact. Don't be afraid to shoot an e-mail off to the creators of a MySpace (or other Web-based network) page. Say you'd like to join the party Saturday night and you're just confirming whether it's still on. Very often, the promoters will add you to the guest list just because you showed enough interest to e-mail them.

4. Have a Plan B. Sometimes, no matter how proactive you are, you're still going to show up for a canceled event. If that happens, go to a backup party. Some things never change — a drink at the Mai Tai Bar is always on the schedule.