2) Le Dives

It helps to have a back up routine, one that you can fall back on once the rehearsals are over...You get done with work, why not grab a beer?

Maybe catch a game while you're at it. Maybe flirt with the bartender, if she's cute and amenable. If not, shoot the shit with the guy bartender, and the other regulars lined up at the bar.

Maybe one of the regulars is carrying some merchandise with him, and if that's the case, you just step out and around the corner. Twenty minutes later, you're ready for whatever the evening will bring to you.

And if that bar happens to be a dive? All the better.

Yuppies and meat market monkeys have no appreciation for the dive bar. It's really simple: You don't go there to flirt, you don't go there to shmooze, you don't go there because the latest local It band will be playing. No, you go there because everyone else there just wants to hang out, drink (or just get drunk), and do nothing but talk bullshit with other like minded individuals.

I love dive bars. Sadly, they are a dying breed here in the town of Sea.

For the last ten years, old, funky, charming portions of town have been developed in much the same manner Joan Rivers gets facelifts. Yeah, yeah, it's progress and all that crap, but what these neighborhoods are being replaced with are nesting areas for the young and rich.

Does this town really need that many ugly faux-brick and glass monstrosities?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about density. I've been ranting that this town needs to accept its impending big-city-dom, for eons now. But at this price? If you've ever been to the Fremont neighborhood before the year 2000, you wouldn't recognize what has become of that place now.

Right. Okay. One of the unfortunate side-effects of all this development is that the dive bars tend to evaporate along with the neighborhood. Businesses run on the model of catering to the local population usually have to deal with an unearthly drag in cash flow as the locals are forced to move.

It's not as if dive bars don't have enough challenges as it is.

The Nightlight had to adapt to the moneyed youths that were suddenly pouring into their place. The Frontier Room and the Rendezvous both remodeled for the same reason. The Family Affair (probably the standard for dive bars in Seattle) was forced to shut down due to the economic depression that took place in the aftermath of 9/11. Marsbar/Cafe Venus (which partially took over a dive bar legendary in the Punk scene: The Storeroom), remodeled. Hell, even Targy's, the only dive bar on top of Queen Anne Hill, remodeled and stopped serving swill. Jade Pagoda, gone. Ernie Steele's, aka Eileen's, gone. Sorry Charlie's, gone.

That's only a small sampling...

3) RIP - Lobo Saloon

Now, those places that adapted are still open. Bully for them. Really, you can't blame the owners for deciding to make more money. It's understandable.

Witness the latest dive bar casualty: The Lobo. Established in 1972 (or 1974, depending on 1)who you talk to, and 2)their level of sobriety at the moment), The Lobo shut its doors for the final time on March 31st, 2007.

Yes, the neighborhood that surrounds it is changing drastically. Really, though, it was the smoking ban that killed the place dead.

Used to be (god, I'm old), you showed up at around 6:30 and the early evening crowd would be lingering on, and the switch to night crew was about to begin. This was my niche. The 'tween.

I'd come in, relax, and then get ready to do whatever was next on the agenda: date, rehearsal, performance, being an audience member, whatever.

Then came that fateful, cold, December night.

The effect on the Lobo was immediate. Weekday nights were barren of clientele. Bartenders who were once fairly busy, were now watching the M's lose in typically bored fashion. The cute women bartenders were replaced with increasingly humonculous males.

The Lobo didn't even make it 18 months after the ban was enacted.

The majority owner has been bought out, the new head (who has successfully turned a couple of other bars around) is turning it into a sports bar. The place will be named Victory, for pete's sake.

Will I still go? Likely. It's not like there's much they could do to the place, but still...I'm going to have to get used to a lot more "brah" from well intentioned frats/yuppies...

That is, unless I find some other place to go to.

Cherish the Canterbury. Cherish The Comet. The Streamline Tavern. Honeyhole. Bus Stop. REbar. The Zoo.

Yes, even cherish Targy's.

S'long, Lobo.