I have traveled around the United States a decent amount. I’ve traveled some for work, some for play, some for my ill fated gay porn career (just kidding), but mostly to medium- to large-sized cities. My totally unscientific impression is that U.S. cities fall into 5 categories:
5) Total poo-poo cities whose suckitude should preclude anyone wanting to live there (e.g Fresno, Rochester)
4) Cities that have a bad rep, but aren’t actually that bad (e.g. Pittsburgh, Cleveland)
3) Normal run of the mill cities that have pros and cons (e.g. Atlanta, Charlotte, Denver, Tampa, Philadelphia)
2) Cities that are considered cool (but are often times overrated) and people might aspire to live there for specific reasons:
a) Boston (so they can learn talk like a “retahd”)
b) New Orleans or Miami (because they relish ball sweat with a side of tropical storms)
c) Chicago (because they enjoy their balls alternately sweating and freezing)
d) San Francisco (for those who long to have their balls fondled by other guys)
e) Seattle (so they can stand on street corners in the rain, drinking coffee and waiting for the “Don’t Walk” sign to change to “Walk” even though there are no cars in sight -- perhaps they have no balls)
f) Portland (because they like to tell their east coast friends how superior Portland is to Seattle).
1) Cities with their own mystique where lots of people DREAM about living there and will move there without even any job prospects (NY and LA).
I have never lived in either NYC or LA, but it seems to me that when people move there to act or model or conquer Wall Street or whatever their personal delusion of world conquest might be, they make a major commitment. But when they fail to become a runway model, new citizens of LA seem to stay there and work at Starbucks or fall to the bottom of the adult webcam industry.
DC, however, stands in a category by itself. In my experience, is people come to DC “change the world.” Recent college graduates arrive with their BA degrees willing to work for painfully little money for either a non-profit or on Capitol Hill, convinced that they can “make a difference.” However, when they learn that the world cannot be changed and/or $35K a year just doesn’t cut it in DC, they don’t stick around. They either go to law school or to business school elsewhere and then get a job in the private sector. Selling out is fun.
What this translates to, in terms of demographics of DC, is a high turnover rate of 20-somethings. Since 20-somethings generally are into drinking and casual sex, this makes DC a lot more fun that it should be on paper.
I enjoy socializing at bars. I go out, what us scientists call, “a lot.” I’m starting this blog in order to share some of the knowledge of DC’s social scene, which I have gleaned during my 5 year tenure here.
So here’s what you can expect from this blog: Washington DC bar and restaurant reviews of a nature that you can’t get anywhere else, postings about unique and/or can’t miss happenings around the area, and possibly* the occasional rant if someone does something stoopid** to piss me off.
Pull up a bar stool and call in sick for work tomorrow.
Cheers,
Dr. D
*and by “possibly” I mean “almost definitely”
** (Sic)
Monday, July 28, 2008
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