I was so happy, I went for a haircut. Can’t get much more exciting than that, which is one of the primary reasons I want out of Hollywood. As you get older, you don’t have to worry about temptation—after you are 50, it starts avoiding you.
As I’m rapidly running out of cash for the month, I biked directly home which takes me past Buddy’s Place. Hmmm, I wondered why I saw some of their regulars at the club last month. Turns out the premises is being “removated”. Pardon me, but the only renovation that would do West-of-Dixie any good involves a gigantic bulldozer and a week’s supply of dump trucks.
Time to run some numbers. That’s a third of the downtown bars closed up in three years, and the remainder are not user-friendly joints. Either the prices are astronomical or the staff grinds you for a buck tip for every move they make. There are two places left to drink on Dixie in all of south Broward. Boston Johnny’s and Jimbos. And I can’t take the people or the prices at Johnny’s. If Jimbos owned the building instead of leasing, I’d check the asking price. That huge blank white wall facing the southbound traffic only needs the right sign to pull in the after work crowd. Plenty of parking at Jimbos.
EVENING:
Later, after making inquiries, I see that a number local drinking establishments besides Buddy’s have gone under or changed hands. Oddly, and unlike restaurants, Broward bars are a resilient lot, often operating for years at a loss before closing shop. And since 2007, business has been bad. There is another new owner at the Octopus and rumor is Boston Johnny’s has been sold “for what the last owner spent replacing just the chairs”. (They are very nice chairs.)
I did a whirlwind tour in the early evening and found all the downtown pubs mostly deserted. And without entertainment. Like Jimbos, a few regulars each at what is prime time. There is no substantial late night crowd in the area. And like this trailer court, as the old clientele leaves or dies, nothing is coming in to replace them. Jimbos is the only example I can quote, but the crowd there has dropped from around 15 to maybe 4 or 5, and most of those are irregular, like me. I rarely stop unless I’m already on the north end.
The two big bars, Whiskey Tango and Blues (around the corner on 19th) are never full any more, but these are well-funded operations. What do I make of the situation? There is an opportunity in all this somewhere. Myself, I’d say the town needs a country music bar. Country fans are a minority, but they are by far the largest minority. I’ve studied this situation for years and there are roughly 45 solid fans in the area, three times as many as are needed to run a fantastic little Texas-style operation. In a twist, I found the closing of Buddy’s was a surprise to everyone, including a few people who had been interested in buying the business. (That spells to me the place was so far behind on the rent, the landlord finally gave the boot.)
Study today was the logistics of large ancient armies. Every empire, including the American financial one, needs agriculture to keep a large army in the field. So how did the ancient Chinese do it? I keep reading about all these Chinese inventions, but not a word about why they invented astronomy, or irrigation, or the compass. I put it to you that the motive was entirely military. The history of China is the history of internal warfare and not much else. They invented the printing press but to this day their artwork remains basically two dimensional without perspective.
While I’m reading all this, I keep encountering articles about how contemporary China is the colossus that will overtake the USA. But I’ve been in China and India and the Far East. Like my brother, they are expertly able to copy and adopt, but cannot conceive and adapt. Name me one thing these people have originated in the past 50 years. Once you draw the curtains, these people grind to a halt. One glance at “modern” China and it appears identical to the USA right down to the building materials and methods. Not one purely Chinese innovation in sight.
Ah, some say, there is still paper and gunpowder. True, but what about the ratio of genius to population? (In the USA today, it is around 1 in 10,000.) At the time of ancient Rome, there were 50,000,000 Chinese. Like India, their greatest “inventions” can be explained by the sheer odds that progress will be as much encountered as invented. Think about it. Even if the population was not growing, that’s still 50,000,000 people being born and 50,000,000 dying EVERY year. Sooner or later, something is going to get “invented”. Yet, there were about 60 Chinese “geniuses” in recorded history. Out of that huge population, that’s pitiful performance, the only place with a worse track record is India. Name me one famous thing invented in China or India in the last thousand years. What’s the hold up?
Okay, folks. The computer has to go into the shop. Be patient, as the next post or two may be delayed. However, we will return to keep up the momentum for those who live in Florida by proxy.
