Bars are too loud, cafés are too quiet

[Waitman]

It's always gratifying to see one's prejudices confirmed -- that cranking the music to 11 is annoying; that a cafe full of keyboard drones is disconcertingly Stepford-like --  in a respected on-line journal. 

The shift in both scenes amounts to more than just a loss for conversationalists. For centuries, bars and cafés around the world have fostered dissent and bottom-up political action. Cafés, especially, have bedeviled the authorities as long as they've existed.

The author may be on to something -- I seem to recall rebellion against a certain authoritarian food website being fomented at Mt. Pleasant's Tonic.

[DaveO]

That article proposes a very expansive concept of social theory based on being able to chat, connive, and plan in bars or cafes.  It seems like a sort of romantic concept for creating social movements over time.  I suppose there is truth to it.

Interesting that the article features The Saloon on U Street as a bar that encourages conversation.  Its also a remarkable example of non marketing in today's world.  It doesn't have a website and its facebook page is virtually dead.  yet it could be a busy neighborhood place.

Wow...its an example of the "good old days".

The Saloon does have a thread here.

[Barbara]

The author may be on to something -- I seem to recall rebellion against a certain authoritarian food website being fomented at Mt. Pleasant's Tonic.

Ah, yes.  I remember it well.

[hillvalley]

The author may be on to something -- I seem to recall rebellion against a certain authoritarian food website being fomented at Mt. Pleasant's Tonic.

Ah, yes.  I remember it well.

We were so rebellious in our younger days.