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I've always tried explaining to folks visiting Ireland the role a "Pub" plays within Irish society. Perhaps this has changed?  Pubs used to be the platform for social networks, in some locations that remains to be the story, the timeline, and in some locations there is a merge of the two.

 

Connectivity and the people profile are both key factors here. Those of us with children and different commitments connect virtually whilst having different operating times and locations. We still like to connect with mates when they are out and about. For those of us out on a night or even out for an hour, it's dead handy to suck our email through a fast straw or check our Facebook. We can bookmark our location and let our friends know about the great night we are having ;) AND it has free wifi. Two worlds are merging, that of the physical and virtual. The night out with Facebook and twitter...let’s say! 

Mobile operators are also ripping us off with data charges, they don't want you to have wifi phones, they never did, they know they lose the power over your bill when you start connecting to free wifi locations. This is a win for you and the publican.  

Free and open wifi should be everywhere, that's why we started FreeFi, you don't pay a penny to upload or download, you don't have a voucher with 26 digit keys to input, you don't even have advertising to watch first. It's a service, your publican pays for it, an extra service for you to avail of !.... tell your local publican it's what you want. If it's business as usual you're losing business Mr. Publican ... http://www.freefi.ie ! We're coming up to Christmas... how many of your mates are coming home and could benefit from a free WIFI connection... FreeFi on the door ? Ask your publican ;) Tourists coming to Ireland will look for Free Wifi ... and yes they might drink coffee only but what's the margin on coffee ? More than a pint ? I'd hazard a guess. 

 

The latest bar-book session I had was to finish off Chuck Klosterman's third book, "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of True Story".  It was my first time reading Klosterman. I had first heard (of) him on Bill Simmon's ESPN podcast, the B.S. Report. Based on that initial listening, I think Chuck would make an excellent, if not slightly deranged, police interrogator. Not Richard Belzer on Law & Order deranged...more like like way Mork from Ork would do the job. I especially liked the way he kept dry humping what ever topic he and Simmons were discussing. He came off like an obsessive compulsive who flicks the light on and off before entering or room or a little kid who can't help picking at his scabs.  

I found it entertaining. 

After reading the book, I am not sure what to think. He is talented for sure, but the book left me with a bad date feel.  You take a girl out, conversation picks up, you think it may be going some place and then...you hit quicksand. Halfway through the book I felt like I in quicksand [note: I have never actually been in or even seen quicksand, but this is how I imagined it would feel]. Chuck was there for me though. He kept offering me a branch to grab on to so he could pull me out. I kept reaching for the fucking branch and every time I was almost out of the quicksand, Chuck would lose his grip and back in I went. 

I am going to give his first book, "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" a read and see where that leads me.  As I said, I find Klosterman entertaining and I enjoyed his writing writer. His recent review of the Beatles re-issues was sardonic, funny and, oddly, right. Check it out HERE.

I finished the book at the bar. I usually know how engrossed I am in a book by how many beers I drink while reading. If I can get off my stool and not have to take a piss straight away, I didn't drink too much and was engrossed. If I put down the book and need to do my Usain Bolt impression to the toilet, I know I made many trips to the bar and wasn't all that into what was I reading.

As soon as I finished Chuck's book, I sprinted for the bathroom. In fact, I forgot to leave the book at the table. I got in there, tucked it up under my arm and did my business. When I was leaving, I decided this book needed a fitting resting place other than my Shelves of Cool.   I left the book atop the paper towel dispenser.  I figured if someone would actually want a book that was left in a Swine Flu, Ass Flu or Flu Du Jour filled London pub bathroom...they could have it. 

I would love to see their reaction when they got to the end of it and realised that I ripped out the second to last page. Maybe it will make sense after all...

Tune Tags (Chuck's Blues):