Do you need a great name for your web site? BarType.com could be yours…I’m willing to sell it.
Possible uses for a site with this short, easy-to-spell, highly memorable name include:
A directory of taverns, bars and watering holes
A social network for people who go out to bars
An industry site that explores emerging trends in the on-premise space
A literary ‘zine where bartenders and other front-of-the-house staff publish their writing and artworks
I’m sure there are countless other big ideas waiting to happen. If you’re ready to jump on the opportunity, and buy this seven-letter dot com, let me know (email: contentmachine@gmail.com).
It’s Friday after work and there’s one picnic table left at the bar.
But it’s not really open, because a guy is sitting there, talking to people at the next table over.
I ask him if we can sit there too.
He gets up and moves to the other table.
I say, “Let me buy you a beer.”
He says, “I’m not gay.”
I come back with his I.P.A. and the show begins.
Bobby Joe O’Reilly has fine features and pale, almost translucent skin which he covers up with lots of ink.
But there’s no ink on his face.
What’s on his face is a war movie that will not stop playing.
It stars, oddly enough, Sargent O’Reilly himself, although he’s a younger man in the movie.
The more O’Reilly drinks the louder and more obnoxious his movie gets.
“Take those damn sunglasses off, they’re bothering me,” O’Reilly barks.
Here’s a man ready for hand-to-hand combat.
“I was in Kosovo,” he says.
He pauses for dramatic effect, a habit he picked up by watching late night Westerns.
“I watched four friends die right in front of me.
A sniper pinned us down and then a ‘bowling Betty’ came rolling down the narrow street.
Boom, my friend turned to ketchup right in front of me.
Splat, another friend turned to ketchup.
Bang, another.
Shit, another.
And I told that dumb ass Lieutantant we had no business in there, but he didn’t listen.
And you know what else?
I had one fucking bullet in my chamber.
One fucking bullet thanks to the U.N.
I fired that bullet and so did my men and the sniper died by our bullets.
I went to see his body and he was a kid.
A 13 year old kid!”
“You did what you had to do,” I say.
“A 13 year old kid!” screams O’Reilly.
Later, a cab pulls up for O’Reilly.
He stumbles and falls to the concrete.
I think, “Man down!”
But he makes it.
He survives.
Again.
Bruno Pieroni is an art director originally from Brazil. He now works for Leo Burnett in Chicago, but he used to work in Kansas City and that’s where the idea for K City took root.
Pieroni says, “95% of all his K City strips were written in bars, on post-it notes and napkins, and then later on dried up, transcribed and translated into cartoon form.”
“I still get letters in the mail, mostly from cracked-up
men in tiny rooms with factory jobs or no jobs who are
living with whores or no women at all, no hope, just
booze and madness.” -Charles Bukowski
“The barstools built for dreamers.” -John Bell & Michael Houser
BarType is the place for writers, artists, actors and musicians who work in the service industry (or once did) to share their stories. Stories from con men, lumberjacks and merchant marines also considered on a case by case basis.
Please submit poems, short stories, essays, reviews, photos, drawings and other inspiring scribbles and/or multimedia masterpieces to David Burn.
While the subject matter herein is not limited to any one theme or area of interest, if you do have bar-inspired creations, we’re particularly interested in showcasing them.
