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>There's pretty clearly something deeper here. IDK why there has to be something deeper. >public park's pristine full-courts I mean there's only so many cour
by Someguywhatever 8y ago
>There's pretty clearly something deeper here.
IDK why there has to be something deeper.
>public park's pristine full-courts
I mean there's only so many courts maybe you don't want to play with other people you just want to take shots, and it's convenient.
>Neither does it shed any light on the sad way in which suburban dads build rickety basement bars
They do it to hang out with their friends. Same way you order a pizza and eat it at home instead of at the restaurant. What are you after the pizza or "being at a restaurant". For most people it's the pizza. The phenomenon of rickety basement bars as you call them is just people hanging out at home drinking cheaper beer at a home built bar. They get some of that "I'm out of the house" vibe while getting all the "hanging out with my friends" that they really want.
I don't know what else you are implying could be operating here. So I'll have to assume you just hate improvised home bars.
- dionidium 8y agoPerhaps you think it’s a silly objection, but, yes, I think shoddy simulacrums in private basements miss the point of the “third place” entirely, and the desire to pull every aspect of the public sphere under one’s own roof betrays an impoverished worldview.
- Someguywhatever 8y agoI don't think it's a silly objection, but I feel it's too abstract, ignoring certain practical realities that aren't really attempting to do what you say "pull the public sphere under one's own roof". This feels like some kind of "plato's world of forms" type analysis of something that's more simple and practical than anything else and is motivated more by convenience and thrift more than something like an "impoverished world-view". Your comments feel to me a bit like you are looking down on the parochial plebs for their simple pleasures.
- dionidium 8y ago> Your comments feel to me a bit like you are looking down on the parochial plebs for their simple pleasures. No, no, no! The plebs will live happier and more fulfilling lives if they meet their friends at the bar for a pint (and stop pursuing the illusory control of their very-own basement bar). [0] This is about looking up, not down! [0] By the way, I'm just the kind of guy to want to build his own basement bar. These are message-board musings, not cultural edicts.
- c22 8y agoWhen I meet my friends at a public bar it is always very loud and I have trouble hearing them. Some of my friends zone out watching the sports on the tvs. Some of my friends are always trying to pick up a date. A couple of my friends completely detest the experience and wont even show up. At the end of the night I'm out $40-$50 and I have to figure out a way to get home. When I hang out with the same friends at their rickety basement bars more of them show up and we're all very engaged, we talk or play games and I drink more moderately. I'm only out $14 for a 12 pack and if I overdo myself I can just crash on the couch for a bit. Personally I find the basement bar more fulfilling.
- dionidium 8y agoWe're way off in the weeds now, but you've described a bad bar. There are more than 60 thousand of them in the U.S. Go to a better one.
- c22 8y agoI was generalizing for rhetorical effect. I've been to hundreds of bars and it's true that they don't all have sports on TV, or TVs at all, but they all have some feature that impacts my ability to enjoy myself in the company of my friends. I have had some enjoyable solo bar experiences, as well as visits with a singular friend.