Ryan Maguire’s | Cedar Local | The Full Schilling | Dancing in the Dark | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In the Dark was on in the background in one of these bars in New York City. We’ll switch things up and save it for the end.
#GuinnessChallengeSeason
@Kids don’t try this at home. Not just because you’re underage and will have plenty of pints to drink if that ends up being your thing when you’re older but also because Guinness is actually best served in a pint glass from a tap. A pint of Guinness varies depending on the drinking establishment. If the keg it sits in is rarely poured, it can lead to some underwhelming taste. Rather than stealing gimmicks, I’d like to start taking Notes while drinking Guinness. My grandfather from Connemara, who I never got the chance to meet, Thomas Davis, used to drink pints and by all accounts was a self-taught thinker. The one rule I’ve imposed on myself is that I will only have 1 pint per sitting from each establishment I review, so @AnyoneWorrying, don’t worry about my drinking habits. The Guinness Challenge is to “cut the G” on your first sip (more like a gulp and a half). If this is your first time hearing about it, I didn’t come up with the fun challenge @YouTheReader can try the next time you have a Guinness. The 0.0 to 10.0 scale will be extraordinarily nuanced but as a reference point, the only perfect 10.0 I plan ever to give out is at the Guinness Factory in Dublin one day.
Song On In The Background: Dancing In the Dark by Bruce Springsteen
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: Trivia Tuesdays at 8 PM. Happy Hour every day from 4 to 7 PM. Mighty fine pint, can tell the kegs here get good runs. Kayla is sitting next to me and she recommends their Espresso Martinis. The blackened chicken wrap and steak are recommended. Their shepherd’s pie is also very popular. Towards the back seating restaurant area they have pictures of the Wall Street and Broad Street corner from 1867. The bar is named after the owner, Ryan Maguire. They are from Leitrim County. The New York Times recently wrote a nice piece about the pub. I had a nice talk with Mrs. Maguire and she was an extremely nice lady!
Check out the NY Times article about Ryan Maguire’s Ale House called How the Ryan Meetup Became a Hot Ticket.” Trivia on Tuesdays is free to play and is every week presented by the NYC Trivia League. On Saturdays and Sundays, the pub does a bottomless brunch from 11 AM to 4 PM. As Ryan Maguire’s slogan puts it, “Come a customer, leave a friend!” I look forward to having another pint of Guinness at Ryan Maguire’s again soon!
Song On In The Background: Emily by Two Friends ft. James Delaney
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: Very modern vibe for a bar. Have I been here before? The Water Street boys used to live down here so maybe. Jonathan is the bartender. “My attitude is based on how you treat me” is a good one to have. He recommends the burger, chicken sandwich, and chicken dumplings. Cedar Local has a great cocktail menu that includes their Tiki Chalet which comes in a Tiki glass and is very popular here. They also have a Whiskey Rebellion and Rocky Sauce that Jonathan recommends. On the Cedar Local napkins they have a slogan as next big thing, love it! Jonathan also said I need to check out Zona de Cuba in the Bronx, I still have to but will make my way up there soon!
This initial post at the time was viewed by @TwoFriends and they have a link in their bio to “text them” so I figured I’d shoot my shot at getting a repost. They left me on read but I still get sent an automated text from the DJ Duo of Big Bootie Remix about their concert information for their next show, so I got that going for me! Jonathan behind the bar was a very nice guy. Between their food and drink menu, it is easy to tell why Cedar Local has the next big thing on their napkins! The bar is located on Cedar Street and it has a very local neighborhood feel to it. I look forward to grabbing another pint of Guinness at Cedar Local and checking out Zona de Cuba as well soon!
Song On In The Background: Bang the Drum All Day by Todd Rundgren
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: Tayto chips behind the bar, they got salt & vinegar, confirmed. Happy Hour from 4 to 7 p.m. A lot of attorney talk going in around me. Possible lawyer bar? Looks like one, white collar to say the least. They have a phenomenal pint of Guinness. The right amount of shtick and the Guinness head top was exactly the size of a quarter, which is ideal. It is their top-selling drink. They also have some very fancy Budweiser and Heineken draft taps as well. Josh next to me recommends the Cajun chicken sandwich, “it’s spicy but solid.” The Full Schilling has a very real clean feel to it but also has that perfect dim Irish pub atmosphere. One of @YouTheReader messaged me after I posted this story and said it was his favorite spot in the area. I can totally see why!
The bar interior itself is over 101 years old and was shipped directly from a pub in Belfast, so that explains why I felt like I was in Ireland. The Shilling has a real old-world ambiance with a modern Wall Street crowd. Established in 1999, the pub is located at 160 Pearl Street between Wall Street and Pine Street. Much like Ryan Maguire’s and Cedar Local, The Shilling is an awesome spot with a great Guinness. I look forward to having another pint at The Shilling again soon!
Dancing In the Dark by The Boss was released in the spring of 1984. This song was a single for his album Born in the U.S.A. Bruce Springsteen was already known as a songwriter who could make hits since the mid-70s, but this tune would become his biggest hit and send his album to Michael Jackson’s Thriller-level in terms of best-selling. It peaked at #2 for a month on the US Billboard Hot 100, as Prince’s “When Doves Cry” and Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” beat it out. I feel like everybody knows or has heard this song but I was surprised at how fascinating the backstory was to it.
Strong open. The first lines are relatable to blue-collar workers who work the night shift. Springsteen grew up in a working-class family of Dutch, Italian, and Irish descent, an American mutt if you will. Almost all of his music is based on working-class Americans, but this verse could also be about Springsteen’s rock star nocturnal lifestyle - sleeping all day, performing at night, not getting home until the morning, and then doing it all over again.
I can’t really relate firsthand to the blue-collar grind or rock star lifestyle, but yeah I’m tired and bored 24/7. Did you know that a young Courteney Cox was in this music video?
Without some spark of inspiration, you can’t achieve your fire goals. What is funny about this song is that legend has it that Springsteen had already finished his album Born in the USA and was told by his manager and producer Jon Landau that he still needed a single. The Boss was absolutely pissed off when he wrote this tune. He told the Rolling Stone, "It was much, much, much more produced. I didn't like that song when I first heard it. Much later I learned to like it."
Another thing I found fascinating when I heard this song was that in the years prior to this hit, Springsteen was in a very dark place. His previous album, Nebraska, came out in 1982 and had songs such as The River and Atlantic City, which are pretty bleak (but great songs). What is pretty wild to me is that Dancing in the Dark and Born in the USA are both known as very poppy and happy so we all tend to lose sight of the hidden messages in the lyrics. Brilliant songwriting.
While on the bus watching the music video, I saw this top comment…
…It didn’t choke me up. That didn’t happen. Who cares about hidden messages in lyrics, this is what it’s all about!
Verse 3 starts with more of the same about how he is in a rut described in Verse 2. “You gotta stay hungry” is usually what people tell others about what they have to do to become successful and here The Boss is saying he’s starved. Springsteen was already known as a music hitmaker which came with the pressure to make more hits. As mentioned when his manager/producer Jon Landau asked Springsteen to just come up with another song for the album, Springsteen’s response was “Look, I’ve written seventy songs. You want another one, you write it.” After the confrontation with Landau, Springsteen stayed up all night and wrote this tune in 1 night. (Source: Dave Marsh’s book Glory Days) What a f***** Boss.
6 months into Sophomore Slump, holy hell, just get me to Year 3!
All 3 choruses start with You can’t start a fire and then go with…
1) You can’t start a fire without a spark.
2) Sitting ‘round crying about a broken heart.
3) Worrying about your little world falling apart.
1) You can’t start something special without inspiration.
2) You can’t start something special without leaving the past behind, moving forward, etc.
3) You can’t start something special without taking chances and risks, we all live in our own little worlds.
Last but not least, each of the choruses finishes with this gun’s for hire, even if we’re just dancing in the dark, if you think that’s about sex, you are as perverted as Pats’ QB Mac Jones! C’mon readers, This Gun For Hire and Dancing In The Dark were names of films from the 1940s. Some of you are sick individuals, sheesh!
I’ve always thought this song was really good, holy hell, I love it now. Great tune, he’s The Boss for a reason.