My Country, Right Or Wrong

There is a country and western bar in Burbank which friends of mine like to patronize from time to time. Actually, it used to be that all of this particular group of friends went there until a grievance formed with one, and now he won't be caught dead there. I guess that life's too short to go to bars which make you mad.  In any event, that person's attendance being out of the question on one particular night, we returned. It was our second bar of the night, but we had just been bolstered by the arrival of another friend (who had not yet been known to me personally).

This bar had live music, and the dance floor was happening. Rather, I should say that it was as happening as such an aged collection of dancers could make it. The place looked like a retirement home in El Paso. I also noticed that there was some apparent difference of opinion as to what the dancing should be like. No group of more than three or so was on the same page. The largest group was attemping some out-of-sync line dancing. Others were engaged in two person dances of a non-descript nature. I myself was content with tapping my toe and bobbing my head when a good enough song came on, which was more often when the band finished and we turned to the jukebox. I picked songs by Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. A friend picked 'Whip My Hair' by Willow Smith.

It's quite a big place with a lot of woodwork and plenty of things to look at. They have a painting of various famous entertainment industry luminaries on the wall. Without exception, they do not resemble the people they are supposed to be. Their Bob Dylan looks precisely like Jeff Goldblum, and few of them are any better a likeness than that. It's a fun guessing game. Really the selection of stars makes it somewhat out of place, because outside of Johnny Cash, I don't know that very many of them fit in at such a bar.

I do want to stress that I like this place well enough, although I haven't forgotten the ill treatment that pained our friend. I don't do things out of irony. I go where I want to be and do what I want to do, and if I want something only because someone else wants it, that's enough for me. I'm not going to go to a bar for the expressed purpose of making fun or sneering at people earnestly enjoying it. Life is too short for that. Country bars are fun. For the new year before this most recent one, I spent part of the evening at just such a place back home, and it was a very good time. They had an outdoor music stage and good food served out of a bar building of the kind that is covered on the inside with dollar bills and detritus. Support your local country bar, won't you?