Tuesday, March 3, 2015

LAST CALL

            It is a dark and stormy night…
            I’m not kidding. I’m looking outside the window, hearing the pelting orchestra of a March ice storm in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. Of A. against the glass window of my bedroom.  
            The shadows scurry around, bundled silhouettes, faces wrapped with scarves, moving through the slush and the snow, on their way home, on their way to work. Some are coming home to lovers, some, to their children. Some come home to an empty room, some to half full bottle of Spanish red wine.
            There’s a million stories walking by my window today. A million emotions, a million dreams. And the only words that keep running through my head are:
            Do you have what it takes?
            It’s a strange phrase: do you have what it takes.
            I mean we’ve heard this line in a thousand ‘heroic’ films. You know that moment when our protagonist is down and out, lost all their money, and now sits, alone, doubting both their talents and their destiny.
            There is a mentor figure that appears, somewhat older, with much more experience, someone who has seen all the fire and the strife before. This mentor figure walks alone in the darkness, seeking out our hero.
            Now debauched, nursing a glass of whiskey, their fifth, our hero stares bleakly at the wall. We know in the audience what this scene means, it’s ‘the talk.’
            The mentor stands proud, staring down at the broken man before him. The mentor explains:
            “You know what you must do. You know what happens next in the story. You are just afraid of this step. But you must take this step. You have no choice. But you must ask yourself: Do You Have What It Takes?
            Such an odd phrase.
I press my palm against the windowpane, staring out into the darkness of the streets. It’s cold on the glass, out past the frame, the world, full of its triumphs and its tragedies.
I think about all the people I served drinks to over the years. All of their smiles. All of their tears. I’ve watched men weep at the bar, alone, with no one but me and some free shots of whiskey to pass the hours by. I’ve seen a reunited couple make out so hard as if their lips would part it would crack the fabric of the universe itself.
I’ve worked fine dining, the dive bars, waited on thousands of tables, slung millions of drinks, spinning the church key with one finger and taking a well whiskey shot down hard with the other hand.
But the whole time, the world was passing right along without me. The bartender stands, stationary, like some stone in the middle of a rushing river, as all the events, up and down, good or evil, pass by, all with some slurry blur of slightly recognizable Fates.
Not my own, however. You see, the bartender stands there, surely a conductor of their own deranged choir, stands alone. Yes, are they the Kings and Queens of their world?: Abso-fucking-lutley. But there is a catch.  
I’ve exalted the bartender in these spun all too fast four years, this now 100th entry into the service industry canon. But one of the ideas we have never discussed was how the bartender is separate from the rest of the world, standing on rubber mats behind 3 feet of old elbow-grooved wood. The world, literally, is passing them by. So after all the laughter and the cheers and the drunks falling into each other, the bartender is now left alone with only the echo of the lives that had passed before him.
Do You Have What It Takes?
Again, the words are projected on the inside of my skull like some early century picture show.
The sentence stipulates two things. Do you ‘have’ what ‘it’ ‘takes’? The question asks that this mysterious thing, the ‘it’ portion of the sentence, will reach into you and pull this mysterious elixir out. So both at the same time, it says:
To do this thing you want to do, you must possess something as a kind of barter. One must be willing to trade something to receive some other unspecified creation. Does this mean a soul? Like some pact with Papa Legba?
Whatever this thing is seems to me like a great sacrifice. Do you have what it takes. So, in other words, you must possess the exact thing that will, at the same time, be taken away from you. In the end, it begets another question:
What are you willing to give up to get what you want?
Because to get somewhere, one must sacrifice a part of themselves, sometimes some of the most cherished parts, to set foot onto that unknown terrain.
I’ve received countless fan mail from all of you, some angry, some sad, most pleasant and supportive, asking repeatedly:
“Matthew, what are you doing? Why are you walking away?”
I turn away from the darkened night, slip on my jacket, zip it all the way up to my neck. I wrap my own scarf around my neck and pull the boots over my feet. The ice spit down like gunfire on the chilled window. I lock the door behind me, walk down the hall, step by step over the shitty 70’s linoleum. The night air hits my face. It is a dark and stormy night. People pass, huddled against one another in a frenzied pace to avoid the cold.
I don’t feel a goddamn thing.
Do you have what it takes?
Ask yourself. When you think of your truest dreams, what do you see? I’ve watched thousand of mouths explain to me why things can or can’t be done, why certain things are useless and why things must be fought for with all ones might.
I think to the poem that ended my only published book “Rivals Of Morning”. (BUY IT HERE AND AMAZON WILL DRONE IT TO YOUR HOUSE) It’s called ‘Finale’, and it goes something like this:

finale

the music from
the radio sings out
late on a midnight
hours back

it asks
with each note:

how do you feel
tonight
about your life?

I don’t think that’s the right question
I tell back
to the empty speakers

for
each day is a dollar
spent
and most of the time
there isn’t any proof
of what you paid for

so as the next one too
goes away
like the last and
and the birthdays come
left with yesterday’s
pitter-patter
heartbeats

my message for this night

is

sleep well with the life
you had yesterday
and ask for
nothing more
than
what you are willing to do
about it
tomorrow.


Do you have what it takes? That’s the question.
We have been great friends, dear readers, for a long, long time. We’ve traveled to New Orleans together, across the Atlantic to Paris and Berlin. I’ve been 86’d from bars because of this blog. I’ve fought with countless women about the contents of these pages. I’ve received hundred of emails from across the world, all proclaiming: “You come to my bar, Matthew, and the drinks are on us!”
I’ve spent thousands of nights behind the 3 feet of wood, watching, learning, studying, all to bring you, what I thought, the bartender truly knew.
I suppose there are a couple things I learned along the way.
I see up ahead, through the frozen trees and the moonlight above, a subtle glow down the street. As I move closer, the form appears:
A bar.
I make my way through the raining ice, eyes squinting and firm on my target. The door creeks open, and I saddle up to the bar, my elbows tucked nicely into the grooves. The bar is empty, of course, except for a few hunched faceless figures down the bar bathed in red light.  
The bartender, a young man, much like me when I started this fine profession 13 years ago, strides up confidently, a smirk across his face.
“Cold night?" He says.
“Oh, yes,” I say. “Beer and a shot please.”
“Any preference?” He asks.
“God no,” I say.
“Good man,” he says. I watch him flip around a pint glass and pour a domestic. He, with firm skill, pours the well whiskey into the glass. “Here you go, buddy.”
I raise my glass. “To you, young man,” I say. We are mirrors of each other. 
He grins and pours himself one as well.
“I can’t very well let you drink alone,” he says.
“A good bartender never should,” I say, sliding a 20 dollar bill across the wood bar.  
We drink together in the darkness. He walks back to the register.
“Keep it man,” I say.
I sit for a moment. The words pass through my head again, quietly, like some beacon of light.
Do you have what it takes?
I take a long pull from my beer and answer, all to myself.


You’re goddamn right I do.





OUT IN THE DARK AND STORMY NIGHT...






THE LONE BAR...MY LAST CHURCH...
      






AND THAT'S THAT, MY FRIENDS. DON'T WORRY. THE DRINKS ARE ON ME...

Sunday, March 1, 2015

SHOULD YOU BECOME A BARTENDER?

            There a lot of things we can choose to do in life. We could study hard and finish medical school. Then you could save the lives of hundreds of people; car crash victims, cancer patients, and the knife wounded mugged, you literally could bring these human being back from the edge of death.
            What about becoming a lawyer? Right? That’s sounds fun. Work really hard saving the little man from the heinous crimes of large corporations, like in some Grisham novel, granting ovations to the jury and carrying the day?
            What about the sweater-donning University Professor? Now that might be up our alley. Talk about existential reality and Dostoyevsky all day long to the hungry minds of the world? Giving hope and knowledge to our next generation inheriting a troubled and corrupt world. Now there is a mission I could get on board with.
            My Mother (whose a big fan of this blog, although it does worry her from time to time) once said:
            “Be careful what you do part-time because it could end up what you do full-time.”
            And look at that. She was right. I am a bartender. I have been a bartender. I could have been a thousand things. I do have a brain that still works (sort of). But as all of you have been reading for over four years now, there is a question you may have to ask yourself:
            Should you become a bartender?
            It’s an honest question. Maybe you already have a stellar job, making a shit load of money, making your own hours, and running the roost.
Maybe not. Maybe you are working a mediocre job, coming home, night after night, slightly depressed, tired, only finding respite in some sort of episodic television series you watch to forget your life.
Then become a bartender. After all, one of our most loyal readers, Matthew P., became a bartender after reading these blogs. No joke people, he actually stalked me out, hung out at my bar for a couple weeks, and then finally broke the news that he, was truly, The Bartender Knows biggest fan. He could quote blogs years old, repeat back to me lines I’ve totally forgotten were mine (and really good for that matter), and told me, quite honestly, he became a bartender from the wit and wisdom found in these pages.
But there are warnings that I have to share with you guys about this illustrious profession (so listen up Matthew P.), just in case it really does get that bad and you find yourself, beer-stained, covered in tax free money, and sliding cocktails down the bar like a boss.

1.
Tax Free Money.

No one, I mean, no one, is going to argue about this one (except maybe the IRS).
Everyone knows that bartending is where the money is. How many other jobs (other than waiting tables, another job I can handle with grace and ease) do you get paid that day? In cash. I’ll list them.
Day laborer.
Stripper.
Drug Dealer.
Bootleg DVD Salesman.
Waiter.
Nude Model.
Porn Star.
Street Vendor.
Prostitute.
Live Musician.
Thief.
Bartender.

Do we see a pattern here? First of all, most of my friends work at least in two or more of these professions listed above. Right then, you have to ask yourself, “do I want to only associate myself with these types of people?”
If the answer is yes, and a resounding yes is, then it’s time for you to man up, don’t go to bartending school, and buy yourself a church key.
(Special Note: I dare anyone to tell me where to buy church keys. They are harder to come by than you imagine.)
It is now time for you to join the ranks.

2.
You Hate The Sun.

Peak mornings, full of brisk air, and birds chirping. The friendly faces you pass on the street, nodding to you (even in big cities) as you pass by them. The smell of fresh bread and espresso. The morning stretch, yoga, and the obligatory jog.
Any or all of these things sound good to you? Then do not, I repeat, do not join the vampiric darkness that is the closing bartenders lifestyle. You will never see the sun again, and if you do, you will slink around the sidewalks of your town in hoodies and Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses. You probably will be pale. You will probably only wear black.
Like in any kind of Gothic Romance from the 19th Century, you and Goethe will walk, hand in hand, around the world, together. Why do you think this blog was so successful?
We are out there.
We are legion.

3.
Healthy Relationships.

Do you hope to find that special person you can share you deep and personal wishes, fears, hopes, and dreams? You will not find it as a bartender.
STIPULATION!
Not that you won’t find that special someone in a bar. Don’t believe that absolutely shitty myth that good relationships never start out in bars. The only relationships that are actually working that I know personally have exactly started in bars. That’s where people go to drink. That’s where people go to unwind.
In my 13 years of bartending, 90% of relationships I have seen come to fruition (again, whatever that means) have started by some chance and star-crossed meeting in a dark bar.
My point specifically about bartenders not being able to have healthy relationships stems from one reason and one reason only:
Options.
You just meet to many people in the bar world. Everyone who walks in the door, if they want a drink, is going to have to go through you to get one. This means meetings, name exchanges, jokes told, stories unfurled, future plans made. Over and over again, people from all walks of life (especially in New York Fucking City) walk into the bar. I have gotten jobs, drugs, girlfriends, travel opportunities, sexual encounters and truly lovely and talented friends from standing behind the 3 feet of wood.
But a healthy relationship?
Not once.
“You are only as single as your options,” to quote the Greek existential philosopher Chris Rock.

Look at your watch. It’s already 2:30a.m. The bars in New York City close at 4.am. I’ve been talking so much you almost forgot what time it is.
You look at your drink. It’s almost finished. I come over a place a nice pint of German beer and a Bullet Rye Whiskey neat in front of you.
“It’s almost closing time,” I say, with a bit of sadness behind my eyes.
You nod, finish your other pint, and place it down softly.
The next blog is the last one kids. As I said before: 99 entries, 4 years, over 100,000 hits, readers all over the world.
What more could a humble blogger want? I’ve made friends, created enemies, and gotten free drinks all over the world from this blog. And now it’s almost over. 
But like I said. It’s not closing time left. Not last call at all. There’s still time for a couple drinks.

So.
What’ll it be?






CASH, FUCKING, MONEY...






SAY SO LONG TO THIS BALL OF LIGHT...




NOT.
GOING.
TO.
HAPPEN.