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they find themselves living in a bizarro world where creativity and commerce meet. By nature, they are anti-establishmentarian, yet they have become the establishment.
How, then, do Bourgeois Bohemians demonstrate to themselves that while climbing the social ladder they have not become all the things they hold in contempt? How do they convince the world they haven't completely sold out their ideals? They reconnect with the bohemian half of their Bobo selves . They call on the free spirits of Bukowksi and Burroughs for inspiration. They admonish the culture of newness, surrounding themselves with rootsy artifacts (see the roughly hewn Tibetan rug woven from obscure mountain grasses), distressed furniture and vintage clothing. "We prize old things whose virtues have been rendered timeless by their obsolescence," says Brooks, adding, "In our efforts to climb upwards, we have left something important behind." Something they can certainly find in a dive.
The fascination with dive bars has been around for at least ten years, and their popularity doesn't appear to be fading. And while there are a number of plausible theories to explain the phenomenon ranging from Bar Bars to Bobos, they all work their way back to the same conclusion: authenticity. People, especially those under the age of 40, are looking for an authentic experience in an over-marketed, over-stimulated, over-slick, and gentrified world. They yearn for something alive and vital that exists only in the darkened corners of our collective memory, whose ghosts can be found perched on Naugahyde barstools, throwing back shots of nostalgia with a Pampero chaser.
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