Hearts and Clubs
For whatever reason, people, in general, will nosedive straight towards a person using bad grammar to tear him or her apart, like a shark with blood. It’s a little sad and a lot ridiculous that so many are self-styled (and often incorrect) grammar Nazis, but there is a benefit to this. If one could shape the aesthetics of grammar to his or her will and use excellent stylistic choices, then those same people will become intrigued by it. I know for me I tend to gravitate to uses of lists, or parallelism.
So here are my thoughts, bundled securely in a use of parallelism.
New ideas can be good (Netflix), new ideas can be bad (Betamax), but the greatest ideas are the ones that shave against the grain (Desegregation in schools). Also, one of these is not like the others.
The Bunker is a nightclub unlike so many others and, because of this, it’s having a tough time getting the attention it deserves. This isn’t to say it’s unsuccessful, plenty of people dive right into niche commodities likeJet Set Radio and Arrested Development, but it could be so much more. The Bunker is small as far as nightclubs go, barely a cupboard in comparison to others, but you know what? Harry Potter also got his start in a cupboard.
While the small size may be seen as a weakness by other clubs and clubgoers, it is utilized as a strength for The Bunker and a solid foundation for everything that it wants to be. It’s intimate and can sometimes feel like a large yet private party. Like in Cheers this is a place you can go to where everyone knows your name and will treat you as a friend, rather than just a patron. The owner doesn’t lounge about in a room isolated and above everybody else, he comes to the dance floor, spins music, interacts with everyone who walks in the door.
Yesterday was the birthday of two of The Bunker’s employees and I couldn’t have had a better time there. It’s the only club I’ve felt one-hundred comfortable in and this aura is no doubt worked on by everyone working there. The guys at the door, the ones inside to check you off, the bartenders, everybody is a friend and if they aren’t, they’re a potential friend. I actually had second thoughts about going last night. I was extremely sleepy and didn’t feel like taking the 30-40 drive to Koreatown but by the end of the night, I didn’t even want to leave. I only knew one of the guys whose birthday it was, but that was enough. We had our own little section of the club with a bottle shared between the lot of us. We took over the dance floor, the walls of which, by the way, have now been lined with mirrors so you can watch yourself sweating and grinding with whoever has low-enough pride to dance with you.
It was an amazing night with amazing people and amazing music, and it was my time there that showed me just what it is that clubs are missing: heart. Not every single one can afford to have it, but the ones that do will always be the most successful. Some may argue that it’s because the club has an obvious slant towards Electronic Dance Music, and PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect) is a large and identifying attribute of that culture. They’d be wrong. This isn’t a correlative event. It’s not “The Bunker has a lot of heart because they it plays EDM,” it’s “The Bunker has a lot of heart and plays EDM.” A single word makes all the difference and what a difference it is.
It’s an unfamiliar concept, to inject feelings of companionship into a place where damn near everybody gets sloppy, drunk, and sloppily drunk. But it can happen. And it has happened. And with the eventual success of The Bunker, it will continue to happen.