Wastin' Away Again on 7th Avenue
August 30, 2021 10:52 AM Subscribe
"[T]he whole ethos behind the resort is acknowledging that work sucks and no one wants to do it, but that ethos can only thrive in relation to work. If work didn’t suck, no one would be there. [...] I thought of what Margaritaville might look like if we acknowledged we had enough resources to go around, that no one has to work as hard as they do for as little as they get. What would a vacation, a nice meal, or a rooftop cocktail look like if it didn’t have to carry so much weight?" Jaya Saxena writes about the Times Square Margaritaville resort for Eater.
Related: In Feb 2020, just before COVID went professional, I stayed a week at the Margaritaville Resort Hotel in Key West, FL. It was a surprisingly great hotel in a great location. It has since been sold to Opal, and I hope it stays great.
posted by bz at 11:04 AM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by bz at 11:04 AM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
conversely the Margaritaville in Hollywood, FL is where hope goes to drink itself to death on well tequila.
posted by logicpunk at 11:27 AM on August 30, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by logicpunk at 11:27 AM on August 30, 2021 [13 favorites]
Wow I really enjoyed reading that, thank you for posting! I am still digesting but am looking forward to seeing other people's thoughts as I figure out my own.
posted by an octopus IRL at 11:38 AM on August 30, 2021
posted by an octopus IRL at 11:38 AM on August 30, 2021
The article is written well, as far as I'm a judge of that sort of thing. I'm finding this (and a lot of things lately) to be interesting-but-late.. What is described here, the pictures on display.. this stuff is the impression left behind from a fever dream of a dying crazy person in their final moment. What is shown here is over, and even the most interesting way to look at this thing is still looking at something gross and dead. I should say my mood lately has been "marvel: I turn on my tap and drinkable water comes out of it. I touch this light switch and a dark room is no longer dark."
posted by elkevelvet at 11:45 AM on August 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 11:45 AM on August 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
I do like the giant broken flip-flop and pop-top. Do you suppose that anyone under 50 knows what a pop-top is though?
posted by octothorpe at 11:49 AM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 11:49 AM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
The article touches on this, but who was this place built to attract? No one who lives in NYC would go there, and who wants to visit NYC but also wants to go to a fake pseudo-beach resort while there? Utterly baffling, yet the idea got many many millions poured into it. I guess the investors believe in the strength of the Buffett name by itself?
Do you suppose that anyone under 50 knows what a pop-top is though?
Your question prompted me to look it up and realize that a "pop-top" is not some kind of stinging jellyfish as I had always thought, so not this under-50 at least.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:02 PM on August 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
Do you suppose that anyone under 50 knows what a pop-top is though?
Your question prompted me to look it up and realize that a "pop-top" is not some kind of stinging jellyfish as I had always thought, so not this under-50 at least.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:02 PM on August 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
I think "pop-top"is meant to represent "drinking beer" in the same way that a typewriter is used to represent "writing". It's the Buffett-world equivalent to the telephone handset icon that you use to make a call; a half-remembered but functionally obsolete symbol.
posted by phooky at 12:09 PM on August 30, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by phooky at 12:09 PM on August 30, 2021 [7 favorites]
I am still digesting but am looking forward to seeing other people's thoughts as I figure out my own.
For me, I don't understand who this is for. The "resort" ecosystem just seems so ill-suited to the middle of a "destination" city. People come to New York to go to museums or see shows or even just walk through Central Park. What kind of tourist, what subset of traveler, is paying Times Square room rates, plus resort fees, I'm sure, and ignoring either the resort's or the city's amenities? It's madness.
But, generally-speaking, I do see how the idea of precious leisure time that needs to be spent in the most intense way possible -- by being ensconced in a womb of luxury that insulates you from the "real world" and pretending it makes the tedium of labor worthwhile -- makes the resort experience attractive. Just not in the middle of New York City.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:11 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
For me, I don't understand who this is for. The "resort" ecosystem just seems so ill-suited to the middle of a "destination" city. People come to New York to go to museums or see shows or even just walk through Central Park. What kind of tourist, what subset of traveler, is paying Times Square room rates, plus resort fees, I'm sure, and ignoring either the resort's or the city's amenities? It's madness.
But, generally-speaking, I do see how the idea of precious leisure time that needs to be spent in the most intense way possible -- by being ensconced in a womb of luxury that insulates you from the "real world" and pretending it makes the tedium of labor worthwhile -- makes the resort experience attractive. Just not in the middle of New York City.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:11 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
No one who lives in NYC would go there, and who wants to visit NYC but also wants to go to a fake pseudo-beach resort while there?
Tourists. Tourists want this. It's fun, it's an experience, it's safe in the sense that it doesn't challenge you - it's not New York, for sure, but for a certain kind of tourist, this is a home run.
posted by punchtothehead at 12:16 PM on August 30, 2021 [14 favorites]
Tourists. Tourists want this. It's fun, it's an experience, it's safe in the sense that it doesn't challenge you - it's not New York, for sure, but for a certain kind of tourist, this is a home run.
posted by punchtothehead at 12:16 PM on August 30, 2021 [14 favorites]
These kind of aesthetics are pleasing to me too because I associate them with the societal permission to be carefree in this context. Here's where you're allowed to relax. If I still lived in the suburbs around NYC, which by the way are huge, and house millions of people in several states, I might enjoy a day trip like this, if it wasn't too crowded or too crazy.
posted by bleep at 12:16 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by bleep at 12:16 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
who wants to visit NYC but also wants to go to a fake pseudo-beach resort while there?
Who wants to visit NYC, in the immediate vicinity of any number of small, charming, reasonably-priced restaurants easily identifiable on Yelp and go to Olive Garden or Red Lobster? Plenty of people, apparently.
posted by praemunire at 12:35 PM on August 30, 2021 [19 favorites]
Who wants to visit NYC, in the immediate vicinity of any number of small, charming, reasonably-priced restaurants easily identifiable on Yelp and go to Olive Garden or Red Lobster? Plenty of people, apparently.
posted by praemunire at 12:35 PM on August 30, 2021 [19 favorites]
I'm not usually a blockquote-a-whole-paragraph kind of person, but this one just murdered me:
It’s a specific type of fun, though. Jimmy Buffett made his name with “gulf and western music,” a style that combines American country and rock with instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean. But while his songs are full of steel drums, lyrically they are mostly about being a white American man dreaming of a Bahamas without Bahamians. It’s an overworked man in a bar, imagining moving to an island paradise, without all the pesky stuff that’s already on the island. There are now more than 60 Margaritaville bars and restaurants across the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean, selling this fantasy of “island” drinks and American foods with coconut or pineapple added to them, sometimes on top of the very places those flavors were taken from. It’s a shame, but not a surprise, how popular a sell that is.posted by box at 12:38 PM on August 30, 2021 [19 favorites]
Seems like it would be a good entry in the museum of late-stage capitalism, because "happiness is, after all, a consumption ethic." (didion)
posted by Word_Salad at 12:42 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Word_Salad at 12:42 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
Your question prompted me to look it up and realize that a "pop-top" is not some kind of stinging jellyfish as I had always thought, so not this under-50 at least.
I think "pop-top"is meant to represent "drinking beer" in the same way that a typewriter is used to represent "writing". It's the Buffett-world equivalent to the telephone handset icon that you use to make a call; a half-remembered but functionally obsolete symbol.
You whippersnappers need to get off my lawn RIGHT NOW (glowers in Gen X)
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:42 PM on August 30, 2021 [17 favorites]
I think "pop-top"is meant to represent "drinking beer" in the same way that a typewriter is used to represent "writing". It's the Buffett-world equivalent to the telephone handset icon that you use to make a call; a half-remembered but functionally obsolete symbol.
You whippersnappers need to get off my lawn RIGHT NOW (glowers in Gen X)
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:42 PM on August 30, 2021 [17 favorites]
The Statue of Liberty light show actually looks fun. Hopefully I can catch a glimpse of it when I hit NYC for a concert next year, God willing and COVID rates don't rise.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:43 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:43 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
... You have this rare opportunity for nonproductive time, something to be scrimped and saved for, so you must chill out. You cannot waste this.
This explains a lot. I was about to post about how baffling I found the Margaritaville in Key West, which is Margaritaville and is perfectly easy to relax in, but then I realized that this was the missing perspective.
It's not like I'm too good for this kind of thing. Hell, I was planning to go to Disney World before the pandemic, plus I love the saminess of certain chain hotels. I just don't get going to the simulacrum when the real thing is immediately adjacent -- here, the "real thing" being Times Square, which is crappy and touristy but is also its own self (whatever that means after Giuliani) and has things to do and see that you won't find anywhere else.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:52 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
This explains a lot. I was about to post about how baffling I found the Margaritaville in Key West, which is Margaritaville and is perfectly easy to relax in, but then I realized that this was the missing perspective.
It's not like I'm too good for this kind of thing. Hell, I was planning to go to Disney World before the pandemic, plus I love the saminess of certain chain hotels. I just don't get going to the simulacrum when the real thing is immediately adjacent -- here, the "real thing" being Times Square, which is crappy and touristy but is also its own self (whatever that means after Giuliani) and has things to do and see that you won't find anywhere else.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:52 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
I just don't get going to the simulacrum when the real thing is immediately adjacent -- here, the "real thing" being Times Square, which is crappy and touristy but is also its own self (whatever that means after Giuliani) and has things to do and see that you won't find anywhere else.
There are some people for whom "things to do and see that you won't find anywhere else" is actually frightening.
I am strangely reminded of the main character in the book and film "The Accidental Tourist" - he is a travel writer whose schtick is that he seeks out the most boring, generic, ubiquitous-feeling restaurants and hotels in every town, because his market is tourists who don't actually want to travel but have to for some reason; business travelers, people who are being dragged somewhere because of a family obligation, etc. He's basically writing the travel guides for people who swore they never wanted to leave East Passamurdy, Iowa, but their boss sent them to Chicago for some kind of sales convention - and since they were now stuck in Chicago, they just wanted to go out and get something to eat and go back into their hotel while feeling as much like they were still in East Passamurdy as possible. Chicago is scary; East Passamurdy is home, and home is comforting. So they go to the Olive Garden in Chicago because at least they have heard of Olive Garden and they'll know what they're getting into, they'll be able to get the same thing they get every other Thursday at the Olive Garden over in West Passamurdy where they go for their special "I got paid" treat.
Maybe here there's an element of "beach = vacation, I am on vacation, therefore if I stay here in this hotel with a beach theme I will feel more in a 'vacation mode' than if I were to venture into New York City proper".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:04 PM on August 30, 2021 [15 favorites]
There are some people for whom "things to do and see that you won't find anywhere else" is actually frightening.
I am strangely reminded of the main character in the book and film "The Accidental Tourist" - he is a travel writer whose schtick is that he seeks out the most boring, generic, ubiquitous-feeling restaurants and hotels in every town, because his market is tourists who don't actually want to travel but have to for some reason; business travelers, people who are being dragged somewhere because of a family obligation, etc. He's basically writing the travel guides for people who swore they never wanted to leave East Passamurdy, Iowa, but their boss sent them to Chicago for some kind of sales convention - and since they were now stuck in Chicago, they just wanted to go out and get something to eat and go back into their hotel while feeling as much like they were still in East Passamurdy as possible. Chicago is scary; East Passamurdy is home, and home is comforting. So they go to the Olive Garden in Chicago because at least they have heard of Olive Garden and they'll know what they're getting into, they'll be able to get the same thing they get every other Thursday at the Olive Garden over in West Passamurdy where they go for their special "I got paid" treat.
Maybe here there's an element of "beach = vacation, I am on vacation, therefore if I stay here in this hotel with a beach theme I will feel more in a 'vacation mode' than if I were to venture into New York City proper".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:04 PM on August 30, 2021 [15 favorites]
The only time - and I mean only time - the music of Jimmy Buffet has ever made sense to me is when I was on my honeymoon, in the Caribbean, on a catamaran, drinking a rum drink, and it was playing over some speakers lashed to the rigging. In that context, sure, I get it, just get a buzz on and let it wash over you. It's not good music, per se, but it is effective music.
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:32 PM on August 30, 2021
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:32 PM on August 30, 2021
Maybe here there's an element of "beach = vacation, I am on vacation, therefore if I stay here in this hotel with a beach theme I will feel more in a 'vacation mode' than if I were to venture into New York City proper".
But then I don't understand why you would choose to go on vacation to NYC, one of the most expensive and stressful cities in the country. Like, why not go to an actual beach, which would be cheaper! Or build one of these complexes out in the suburbs, where there will be parking and no crowds! So is the Times Square Margaritaville for disgruntled business travellers forced to go to NYC against their will? But then staying in "resort" while you're actually working seems to be at odds with each other?
posted by airmail at 1:40 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
But then I don't understand why you would choose to go on vacation to NYC, one of the most expensive and stressful cities in the country. Like, why not go to an actual beach, which would be cheaper! Or build one of these complexes out in the suburbs, where there will be parking and no crowds! So is the Times Square Margaritaville for disgruntled business travellers forced to go to NYC against their will? But then staying in "resort" while you're actually working seems to be at odds with each other?
posted by airmail at 1:40 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I am a staunch advocate of universal basic income and housing as a human right, but occasionally wonder: what would tourism become, if everyone involved - from the tourists themselves, to the chefs and wait staff to the groundskeepers, plumbers, everyone actually... had a choice, and wanted to be there?
posted by mhoye at 1:43 PM on August 30, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 1:43 PM on August 30, 2021 [7 favorites]
What kind of tourist, what subset of traveler, is paying Times Square room rates, plus resort fees, I'm sure, and ignoring either the resort's or the city's amenities?
I'm not that sort of tourist at all but I do have kind of a morbid fascination with people who do this kind* of "travel, but not too much." Mostly I'm exasperated with them when they're in DC because it's weird to encounter an Ugly American who's a stranger in a strange land within the borders of our mutual country. If being able to retreat to some place that feels more familiar is going to make timid travelers more open to the experiences they're having outside that space, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. I fear, though, that the distance between "people who would stay at the Margaritaville" and "people who can't see past their own expectations and don't want to be challenged on that fact" has to be approaching zero. I don't get why you'd go to New York or DC and then be upset that it's not just like your home town, but people do it every single day.
* By the same token I don't get all-inclusive resorts or cruises, because the mediated experience curated for minimally curious outsiders with little or no escape from that is very much not the way I travel. But that's not what this article is about.
posted by fedward at 1:44 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm not that sort of tourist at all but I do have kind of a morbid fascination with people who do this kind* of "travel, but not too much." Mostly I'm exasperated with them when they're in DC because it's weird to encounter an Ugly American who's a stranger in a strange land within the borders of our mutual country. If being able to retreat to some place that feels more familiar is going to make timid travelers more open to the experiences they're having outside that space, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. I fear, though, that the distance between "people who would stay at the Margaritaville" and "people who can't see past their own expectations and don't want to be challenged on that fact" has to be approaching zero. I don't get why you'd go to New York or DC and then be upset that it's not just like your home town, but people do it every single day.
* By the same token I don't get all-inclusive resorts or cruises, because the mediated experience curated for minimally curious outsiders with little or no escape from that is very much not the way I travel. But that's not what this article is about.
posted by fedward at 1:44 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Do we really think they build these things because they think there's a legit demand? This is just business people ginning up business things for themselves to do and the rest of us can either enjoy it and give them a profit or not enjoy it and give them a tax write off. Just because they do these things doesn't mean anyone wants them. See also advertisements for chemotherapy and knee replacements on tv, and every other part of our culture.
posted by bleep at 1:48 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by bleep at 1:48 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen outlines the concept of conspicuous leisure — essentially being nonproductive in order to brag about it, rather than for your own rest and self-betterment.
I must admit that I do this on Instagram sometimes because I only work 35 hours a week, have four (soon to be five, God willing) weeks of paid vacation every year, and I show off all this free time I have like someone waving $100 bills around in a rap video.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:49 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
I must admit that I do this on Instagram sometimes because I only work 35 hours a week, have four (soon to be five, God willing) weeks of paid vacation every year, and I show off all this free time I have like someone waving $100 bills around in a rap video.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:49 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
People who think "Margaritaville" is a happy vacation anthem are probably the same people who think that covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" belong on Christmas compilation albums. Like, did you not listen to the rest of the words? No, of course you didn't.
posted by Daily Alice at 1:50 PM on August 30, 2021 [24 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 1:50 PM on August 30, 2021 [24 favorites]
Oh I’d so go if there was a David Foster Wallace convention at this hotel.
posted by geoff. at 1:50 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by geoff. at 1:50 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
> Maybe here there's an element of "beach = vacation, I am on vacation, therefore if I stay here in this hotel with a beach theme I will feel more in a 'vacation mode' than if I were to venture into New York City proper".
But then I don't understand why you would choose to go on vacation to NYC, one of the most expensive and stressful cities in the country. Like, why not go to an actual beach, which would be cheaper!
A flash of resolve to "do something different" when they were making their vacation plans? Or a sense of obligation that they "should", or a teenage theater fan who's been whining about how they "always go to the beach we should do something different"?
Some people feel more secure when surrounded by the familiar.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:53 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
But then I don't understand why you would choose to go on vacation to NYC, one of the most expensive and stressful cities in the country. Like, why not go to an actual beach, which would be cheaper!
A flash of resolve to "do something different" when they were making their vacation plans? Or a sense of obligation that they "should", or a teenage theater fan who's been whining about how they "always go to the beach we should do something different"?
Some people feel more secure when surrounded by the familiar.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:53 PM on August 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Daily Alice, you're not wrong.. and if we take the position that you're right, what exactly does that mean? I submit: the cultural impact of the song is not about who is right or wrong.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:00 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by elkevelvet at 2:00 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
The funny thing to me about "Margaritaville" (the song, as opposed to the resort concept) is like, I'm familiar with the concept of sad drinking songs, but they're supposed to be about whiskey. Or gin. Or even tequila itself. But frozen margaritas? (There's booze in the blender/and soon it will render/that frozen concoction that helps me go on.) I have long experience as a boozehound and can't really imagine being in semi-drunken despair but still bothering to haul out the blender and mix myself a nice tall frosty glass of Slurpee with a tad of tequila in it. He's not in a bar where someone else is whipping them up. He's on his front porch swing, strumming his six-string. Maybe this guy isn't as far gone as he thinks he is. Maybe it really is a happy vacation anthem after all.
posted by Daily Alice at 2:02 PM on August 30, 2021 [21 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 2:02 PM on August 30, 2021 [21 favorites]
^ welp, I will take any opportunity to remind folks of this comedy nugget
posted by elkevelvet at 2:07 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 2:07 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
Oh and if you think a "Margaritaville"-themed resort is depressing, well here in Florida there's a whole fricking 55-plus retirement subdivision with a "Margaritaville" theme. The advertisement (like all advertisements for such subdivisions) shows active early-60s types frolicking in the pool and playing pickleball, but you can just imagine them sitting down to watch "Wheel of Fortune" at the end of the day and thinking, "You know, it's my own damn fault."
posted by Daily Alice at 2:07 PM on August 30, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 2:07 PM on August 30, 2021 [9 favorites]
I to was confused by the term pop-top (barely under 50 here) until I looked it up - we called them pull tabs (I always associated them with Hi-C). Hilariously, I just had to explain them to my son on the weekend after buying a can of Mirinda from the Indian grocery store.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:10 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:10 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
Then, suddenly, the lights went out. From behind me, music started blaring even louder than it already had been. Something was happening with the giant Statue of Liberty. Dan and I jumped out of our seats and ran to see a light show projecting onto her majestic margarita, choreographed in time to the music. There were neon dolphins, erupting coral reefs, flames giving way to ice cubes fading into a shimmering mirror ball. It was overwhelming like Times Square is overwhelming, and for the first time I understood how this level of light and noise could be awe-inspiring rather than just annoying. It forced all other concerns and worries out of my head and replaced them with the phrase DISCO MARGARITA. It was aggressive, it sent me to the edge of my joy and had me teetering on panic, but I couldn’t think of anything else — the taco-induced, work-is-killing-me crisis of moments before was gone. No thoughts, just Buffett.
I'm not telling anyone how to live their life, but this sounds like it's roughly one DMT vape pen away from a pretty good Hunter S. Thompson piece, and all without actually having to leave Manhattan.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:15 PM on August 30, 2021 [14 favorites]
I'm not telling anyone how to live their life, but this sounds like it's roughly one DMT vape pen away from a pretty good Hunter S. Thompson piece, and all without actually having to leave Manhattan.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:15 PM on August 30, 2021 [14 favorites]
A flash of resolve to "do something different" when they were making their vacation plans? Or a sense of obligation that they "should", or a teenage theater fan who's been whining about how they "always go to the beach we should do something different"?
As an example/parallel/extension of these groups, I know someone who went to NYC for the ball drop on New Year's Eve, and wanted to eat every meal at the Times Square Bubba Gump Shrimp. He likes the familiar when he travels, but the NYC NYE party is literally only possible at one location. (He's gone back to NYC for sports as well, but I'm sure there's concert-going equivalents.)
I've also realized that the myth of the pushy and rude New Yorker comes from two places. One I think is reasonably well understood -- that people in a busy city don't have time to fuck around (even pedestrian walking speed is higher in larger cities) and this directness is mistaken for rudeness.
The other I realized the time I went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty -- there are a small handful of Key New York Attractions (the Empire State building is the other main one) that this sort of tourist flocks to. But these tourists don't have the learned skill of taking cultural cues from an unfamiliar situation because they've never been out of East Passamurdy and they don't know how to pay attention to what is appropriate in a situation, even if there's clear directions. Because they've strenuously avoided different situations their entire lives. So the people who run these attractions have to continuously and constantly yell at people very clear directions because that's the only way the unattentive mass will actually do the correct (and safe) thing.
And if six of the eight New Yorkers you interact with are the herders at the Statue of Liberty and Empire State building, then you'll come back home and say that most New Yorkers are rude, that your server at the Times Square Olive Garden was friendly and then probably say something racist about your cabbie.
posted by Superilla at 2:26 PM on August 30, 2021 [10 favorites]
As an example/parallel/extension of these groups, I know someone who went to NYC for the ball drop on New Year's Eve, and wanted to eat every meal at the Times Square Bubba Gump Shrimp. He likes the familiar when he travels, but the NYC NYE party is literally only possible at one location. (He's gone back to NYC for sports as well, but I'm sure there's concert-going equivalents.)
I've also realized that the myth of the pushy and rude New Yorker comes from two places. One I think is reasonably well understood -- that people in a busy city don't have time to fuck around (even pedestrian walking speed is higher in larger cities) and this directness is mistaken for rudeness.
The other I realized the time I went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty -- there are a small handful of Key New York Attractions (the Empire State building is the other main one) that this sort of tourist flocks to. But these tourists don't have the learned skill of taking cultural cues from an unfamiliar situation because they've never been out of East Passamurdy and they don't know how to pay attention to what is appropriate in a situation, even if there's clear directions. Because they've strenuously avoided different situations their entire lives. So the people who run these attractions have to continuously and constantly yell at people very clear directions because that's the only way the unattentive mass will actually do the correct (and safe) thing.
And if six of the eight New Yorkers you interact with are the herders at the Statue of Liberty and Empire State building, then you'll come back home and say that most New Yorkers are rude, that your server at the Times Square Olive Garden was friendly and then probably say something racist about your cabbie.
posted by Superilla at 2:26 PM on August 30, 2021 [10 favorites]
50 here. I remember them as "pop-top cans" where you removed the "pull-tab." But I always knew what the song was referring to.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:34 PM on August 30, 2021
posted by SoberHighland at 2:34 PM on August 30, 2021
It’s a pity the article didn’t do any journalism to find out why other people were there or what they wanted. Even finding out what the staff thought might have been interesting. What makes a Margaritaville visitor happy? Are all the employees locals or is there a Margaritaville circuit for experts? Etc.
posted by clew at 2:38 PM on August 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by clew at 2:38 PM on August 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
Haven't read the article, but felt the need to chime in.
"People who think "Margaritaville" is a happy vacation anthem are probably the same people who think that covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" belong on Christmas compilation albums. "
Well, Buffett leaned into 'happy vacation anthem', even by the late 70's. (Citation: You Had To Be There, 1978 double album). Even in the late 80s, when he only had a couple of the restaurants, he pitched his concerts as being like a summer carnival where people could forget the day-to-day blues and pretend they were somewhere warm and tropical for a couple hours. (Citation: way too many Buffett newspaper articles I have stashed away in the spare room.) Heck, it took me until my mid-twenties to realize the song described a downward trajectory.
(My Buffett fandom years were about 1986 - 1996 - high school, college, post-college. Never went to a concert. Only went to a Margaritaville in Las Vegas, out of a sense of nostalgia, and because it was connected to the Flamingo, where I was staying. Pop-tops were phased out of soft drinks and beers while I was in elementary school.)
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 2:41 PM on August 30, 2021
"People who think "Margaritaville" is a happy vacation anthem are probably the same people who think that covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" belong on Christmas compilation albums. "
Well, Buffett leaned into 'happy vacation anthem', even by the late 70's. (Citation: You Had To Be There, 1978 double album). Even in the late 80s, when he only had a couple of the restaurants, he pitched his concerts as being like a summer carnival where people could forget the day-to-day blues and pretend they were somewhere warm and tropical for a couple hours. (Citation: way too many Buffett newspaper articles I have stashed away in the spare room.) Heck, it took me until my mid-twenties to realize the song described a downward trajectory.
(My Buffett fandom years were about 1986 - 1996 - high school, college, post-college. Never went to a concert. Only went to a Margaritaville in Las Vegas, out of a sense of nostalgia, and because it was connected to the Flamingo, where I was staying. Pop-tops were phased out of soft drinks and beers while I was in elementary school.)
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 2:41 PM on August 30, 2021
I forwarded this article to my cousin who played saxophone in Jimmy Buffett's band for fourteen years and has many and deep thoughts on the significance of Jimmy Buffett as a man, an employer, and a cultural phenomenon.
Here is his immediate reaction to the article: "Oh man, was that excellent. She said it all. Enough and enough and enough!"
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 2:48 PM on August 30, 2021 [18 favorites]
Here is his immediate reaction to the article: "Oh man, was that excellent. She said it all. Enough and enough and enough!"
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 2:48 PM on August 30, 2021 [18 favorites]
what would tourism become, if everyone involved - from the tourists themselves, to the chefs and wait staff to the groundskeepers, plumbers, everyone actually... had a choice, and wanted to be there?
Whistler, BC, Canada? At big ski resorts, a significant percentage of the waitstaff are young people who are working to fund their own skiing. Some employers offer discounted lift tickets as part of the compensation package. At Whistler specifically, the workers are overwhelmingly young Australians.
Mind you, the resort "town" at Whistler is a Disneyfied parody of a real community, so I have not answered your question.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:48 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Whistler, BC, Canada? At big ski resorts, a significant percentage of the waitstaff are young people who are working to fund their own skiing. Some employers offer discounted lift tickets as part of the compensation package. At Whistler specifically, the workers are overwhelmingly young Australians.
Mind you, the resort "town" at Whistler is a Disneyfied parody of a real community, so I have not answered your question.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:48 PM on August 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm not telling anyone how to live their life, but this sounds like it's roughly one DMT vape pen
til kids these days just invented concealed carry nuclear weapons, but for their minds
posted by lalochezia at 2:58 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
One additional comment from my cousin the erstwhile Coral Reefer band member:
"I’ve been to a couple of MVilles and found them pleasant enough. The problem with them being the realization that the music I signed up to play had nothing to do with what the people who build MVilles think that they are all about... and ultimately they’re right."
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 2:59 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
"I’ve been to a couple of MVilles and found them pleasant enough. The problem with them being the realization that the music I signed up to play had nothing to do with what the people who build MVilles think that they are all about... and ultimately they’re right."
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 2:59 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
THE FUTURE OF AGING JUST MIGHT BE IN MARGARITAVILLE
Consequently, our concept of senior housing is often dystopic: a quarantining of those who can no longer care for themselves and are of no “use” to society. To purchase a home in Margaritaville, on the other hand, is to aggressively reimagine the aging process as a ticket to an island paradise, which may prove to be willfully naïve or ingeniously farsighted — or both.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:03 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
Consequently, our concept of senior housing is often dystopic: a quarantining of those who can no longer care for themselves and are of no “use” to society. To purchase a home in Margaritaville, on the other hand, is to aggressively reimagine the aging process as a ticket to an island paradise, which may prove to be willfully naïve or ingeniously farsighted — or both.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:03 PM on August 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
Do you suppose that anyone under 50 knows what a pop-top is though?
No, but I also doubt that anyone under 50 would be likely pay their own way to a Margaritaville resort.
This is a great article but overall does not sound like fun to me. I've spent a little time in all-inclusive resorts, and while the people-watching can be wonderful, that totalizing experience is a different style of leisure from what I've preferred.
That said, after a year and half of pandemic, I can really see the appeal of a sweaty buffet line and the swim-up bar. So maybe I should change my tune.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:39 PM on August 30, 2021
No, but I also doubt that anyone under 50 would be likely pay their own way to a Margaritaville resort.
This is a great article but overall does not sound like fun to me. I've spent a little time in all-inclusive resorts, and while the people-watching can be wonderful, that totalizing experience is a different style of leisure from what I've preferred.
That said, after a year and half of pandemic, I can really see the appeal of a sweaty buffet line and the swim-up bar. So maybe I should change my tune.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:39 PM on August 30, 2021
People who think "Margaritaville" is a happy vacation anthem are probably the same people who think that covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" belong on Christmas compilation albums.
They're just having a Perfect Day. They've got a real Lust for Life.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:49 PM on August 30, 2021 [18 favorites]
They're just having a Perfect Day. They've got a real Lust for Life.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:49 PM on August 30, 2021 [18 favorites]
There used to be a bar in Atlanta, at iirc Spring and 10th Street, named Margaritaville. They had bands. Punk kids hung out in the parking lot in huge numbers.
posted by thelonius at 5:24 PM on August 30, 2021
posted by thelonius at 5:24 PM on August 30, 2021
WRT "who would want to go to a Margaritaville in Manhattan", my pull-quote of choice from the article is: "the patrons looked like they were all meeting for a 10-year business school reunion." Also: "I was reminded of a time my spouse chatted up a tourist on his way back to LaGuardia airport while they were both on the bus. The tourist said he loved the city, but complained of the food being too expensive. My spouse said that’s quite possible, but that there was plenty of amazing, affordable food to be found, and asked where he had eaten. The tourist said he and his daughter went to the Times Square Red Lobster." Finding the amazing, affordable food might require a little bit of digging, and who knows, maybe for some tourists, they're freaked out enough by how different the city is--even from other big cities--that their choice of restaurant or bar is, intentionally or not, meant to be more of a breather from the strange than a continuation of the exploration.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:34 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:34 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
Interestingly, I could see this concept working in the middle of NYC, but they'd have to take it to a Disney World level of immersion. If you could book a few days in a convincing simulacrum of Key West without having to get on a plane, it might be worthwhile.
Doesn't seem at all like this is immersive enough though.
I don't understand Margaritaville places in actual tropical places, other than for the unimaginative tourists.
posted by Ickster at 5:39 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
Doesn't seem at all like this is immersive enough though.
I don't understand Margaritaville places in actual tropical places, other than for the unimaginative tourists.
posted by Ickster at 5:39 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
I feel like a lot of the Why Does This Thing, Which Does Not Appeal To Me, Appeal To Others discourse sort of overcomplicates the fact that many people have a relatively low need for novelty and, especially when figuring out where to grab dinner last-minute or in large groups, a somewhat haphazard approach to making decisions. Having to find the perfect adventurous hole-in-the-wall place is its own version of putting a lot of weight on a meal or experience, just for a different social milieu.
posted by eponym at 5:44 PM on August 30, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by eponym at 5:44 PM on August 30, 2021 [9 favorites]
I had the opportunity to visit a Cheeseburger in Paradise before they were all rebranded into Fuddruckers. Don't remember it being very memorable, but the resorts have tried to up their food game, like licensing Doe's Eat Place in Mississippi. The resorts cater to families, so there's a bigger focus on game rooms and pools than tequila bars.
I'd really like to hear an updated version of his post-9/11 talking blues. On second thought, maybe I'll just order some boat drinks...
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:14 PM on August 30, 2021
I'd really like to hear an updated version of his post-9/11 talking blues. On second thought, maybe I'll just order some boat drinks...
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:14 PM on August 30, 2021
wait, have they licensed Doe's? The entire point of that place is that it's not relaxing. You walk through a hot kitchen and they bring you meat and that's all.
Anyway carry on.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:21 PM on August 30, 2021
Anyway carry on.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:21 PM on August 30, 2021
You guys, Times Square and environs are filled with modest, harmless Italian, etc. restaurants that exist primarily to service the Broadway dinner crowds. Why does everyone think the only choices are Darden-esque or, like, $400 tweezered tasting menus?
posted by praemunire at 6:28 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 6:28 PM on August 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
You know, if we absolutely had to elect a businessman to the Presidency, could it not have been Jimmy Buffet? The man at least can actually run a company.
posted by thelonius at 7:23 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 7:23 PM on August 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
No mention of Trader Vic's, but TIL Jimmy Buffett is occasionally credited with writing "Werewolves in London" because he covered it in 2006.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:39 PM on August 30, 2021
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:39 PM on August 30, 2021
I can guarantee you a lot of the clientele at that rooftop bar are not tourists. Any rooftop bar in NYC is going to attract a lot of locals because rooftop bars are wonderful.
When I worked in Times Square my coworkers and I would gladly drop by the rooftop bar at the boring Novotel on 52nd St for happy hour. Why bother being a snob about kitschy, expensive Times Square “resorts” or bland, corporate chain hotels when they’ve got a rooftop bar?
posted by theory at 10:56 PM on August 30, 2021 [13 favorites]
When I worked in Times Square my coworkers and I would gladly drop by the rooftop bar at the boring Novotel on 52nd St for happy hour. Why bother being a snob about kitschy, expensive Times Square “resorts” or bland, corporate chain hotels when they’ve got a rooftop bar?
posted by theory at 10:56 PM on August 30, 2021 [13 favorites]
I work about three blocks away from Times Square and see probably hundreds of tourists every day, and I gotta be honest, I find all this "morons from East Bumblefuck" talk to be pretty reductive and shitty. Incredibly, different people like different things and have different life experiences that lead them to approach new situations differently. That doesn't make them idiots or monsters. I'll judge perfect strangers up and down all day long, but I prefer to do it for things that are actually morally wrong, not just "eating at a chain restaurant in New York City."
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:33 PM on August 30, 2021 [25 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:33 PM on August 30, 2021 [25 favorites]
That's a fair cop.
Heh; I am suddenly reminded of a story that Anthony Bourdain's team has told about when they were filming an episode of PARTS UNKNOWN in Shanghai; they'd taken Eric Ripert along, and after several days of more heavily-seasoned food than he was used to, Ripert kind of snapped and took Tony aside and said he'd seen one of the hotels in the area had a Hooter's, and could they please eat dinner there that night?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:56 AM on August 31, 2021 [6 favorites]
Heh; I am suddenly reminded of a story that Anthony Bourdain's team has told about when they were filming an episode of PARTS UNKNOWN in Shanghai; they'd taken Eric Ripert along, and after several days of more heavily-seasoned food than he was used to, Ripert kind of snapped and took Tony aside and said he'd seen one of the hotels in the area had a Hooter's, and could they please eat dinner there that night?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:56 AM on August 31, 2021 [6 favorites]
I haven't seen anyone describing tourists as idiots, monsters, or moral degenerates.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 3:59 AM on August 31, 2021
posted by escape from the potato planet at 3:59 AM on August 31, 2021
Perhaps not in so many words, but the whole point of this post is to give us an opportunity to sneer at people "not like us".
posted by hoyland at 4:03 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by hoyland at 4:03 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
I chose the pull-quote for the post, hoyland, specifically to make clear that this oughtn't be that kind of post. It’s a thoughtful piece about the meaning of leisure and work under capitalism that happens to hang on a potent symbol of weaponized leisure in the middle of one of the most touristy districts in the world.
But I assure you that sneering was not the intent.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:19 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
But I assure you that sneering was not the intent.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:19 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
Oh sorry I wasn’t talking about the article! Just some comments rubbed me the wrong way.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:19 AM on August 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:19 AM on August 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
People who think "Margaritaville" is a happy vacation anthem...
Margaritaville is about a guy suffering from depression, but is written in a major key, which is why people think it's happy.
That's why my favorite version is cortex's, which is in a minor key.
I play this often, and most folks prefer it to the original.
posted by MtDewd at 6:01 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
Margaritaville is about a guy suffering from depression, but is written in a major key, which is why people think it's happy.
That's why my favorite version is cortex's, which is in a minor key.
I play this often, and most folks prefer it to the original.
posted by MtDewd at 6:01 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm under 50 by several years, and I do know what a pop top is. Though partly because when I was a kid, my dad basically asked that same question, "Do you even know what that is?" and then corrected me when I said I thought it was a (non pop-top, it turns out) soda can tab. In my defense, a) as a family we had a running contest trying to pull those tabs off without breaking the ring on the bottom, so having them lying around didn't seem weird, and b) once he described an actual pop top, I knew exactly what he meant because Grandma was at that point still getting some drink that used them. In my memory it was small cans of V8, but I can't find evidence online they ever used them (I didn't look too hard though). Oh, and c) the much weirder part of that line is "blowing out" a flip flop. Wtf, were they INFLATABLE? Now THAT's something that would be entirely outside of my lived experience.
posted by solotoro at 6:06 AM on August 31, 2021
posted by solotoro at 6:06 AM on August 31, 2021
showbiz_liz and hoyland, those are fair points, but I think that at least some of the reaction is less "wotta buncha rubes" and more "there are so many better places that they could have gone." Especially if you've lived somewhere for a while, and like it, and want to show visitors what's really unique about it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:45 AM on August 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:45 AM on August 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
Of course Margaritaville caters to idiots, monsters, and moral degenerates. So does every other business in the world. The vast majority of humans are idiots, monsters, and/or moral degenerates, including me, and probably you.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:55 AM on August 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:55 AM on August 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
Metafilter: Degenerates to the left, degenerates to the right, and you're the only degenerate in town
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:45 AM on August 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:45 AM on August 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
Oh I’d so go if there was a David Foster Wallace convention at this hotel.
I so desperately want this to be a thing. I’d go in a New York minute. I’d order the Consider The Lobster entree and drink cocktail after cocktail, surrounded by lapsed 12-steppers, former tennis stars, and the constant blaring of the giant ad screens of Times Square, getting away from already being pretty much away from it all.
The whole thing would last about a day longer than I wanted it to, and when I got home, I’d wonder what it all meant.
posted by panglos at 7:56 AM on August 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
I so desperately want this to be a thing. I’d go in a New York minute. I’d order the Consider The Lobster entree and drink cocktail after cocktail, surrounded by lapsed 12-steppers, former tennis stars, and the constant blaring of the giant ad screens of Times Square, getting away from already being pretty much away from it all.
The whole thing would last about a day longer than I wanted it to, and when I got home, I’d wonder what it all meant.
posted by panglos at 7:56 AM on August 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
Oh, and c) the much weirder part of that line is "blowing out" a flip flop. Wtf, were they INFLATABLE?
I wouldn't necessarily hang my hat on a Jimmy Buffett lyrical interpretation from the folks at Genius (pka Rap Genius), but I think they got this one right.
posted by box at 7:59 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
I wouldn't necessarily hang my hat on a Jimmy Buffett lyrical interpretation from the folks at Genius (pka Rap Genius), but I think they got this one right.
posted by box at 7:59 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
All the things you want to know about flip flops but didn’t know to ask: to blow out a flip flop is to walk on pavement hot enough that the button which holds the strap to the sole melts and pulls loose or breaks. I’ve only done that once, and it does render the flip flop unusable except for keeping seagulls away.
posted by BeeDo at 7:59 AM on August 31, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by BeeDo at 7:59 AM on August 31, 2021 [8 favorites]
Even top-tier Tevas are going to suffer adhesive failure after a year or two of hard-walkin' in the heat and salt. You can often manage partial-strap operation for the rest of the day but it's demeaning.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:18 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:18 AM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
^ these two comments combined and we have the plotline to a short story
external struggle: seagulls
internal struggle: I feel demeaned
okay go
posted by elkevelvet at 8:33 AM on August 31, 2021 [8 favorites]
external struggle: seagulls
internal struggle: I feel demeaned
okay go
posted by elkevelvet at 8:33 AM on August 31, 2021 [8 favorites]
I mean this type of place definitely isn't my bag, but I think some folks are missing a key element of this story. It’s not so much a question of why someone would stay at a mellowness-themed establishment in one of the least mellow places in the world. It's more a matter that Margaritaville has a "resort" theme, and yet it very much is not a resort. It's a hotel with a pool, a few bars, and a restaurant. And I think the story calls this out — mostly in pointing out the limited hours of the bars and restaurants, and the difficulty in staying there a full 24 hours without having to leave.
Seen in this light, I don't think it's so mysterious why folks would want to stay there. It's a chain hotel with some amenities. If you're visiting from out of town, you're going to choose from any number of options. If you enjoy Jimmy Buffet and his whole ... aesthetic ... why not stay there instead of the Hilton? Again, not my jam, but not a huge mystery either. Some people enjoy the perceived safety and uniformity chains, and perhaps the Buffet theme appeals to them.
posted by panama joe at 8:53 AM on August 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
Seen in this light, I don't think it's so mysterious why folks would want to stay there. It's a chain hotel with some amenities. If you're visiting from out of town, you're going to choose from any number of options. If you enjoy Jimmy Buffet and his whole ... aesthetic ... why not stay there instead of the Hilton? Again, not my jam, but not a huge mystery either. Some people enjoy the perceived safety and uniformity chains, and perhaps the Buffet theme appeals to them.
posted by panama joe at 8:53 AM on August 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
But while his songs are full of steel drums, lyrically they are mostly about being a white American man dreaming of a Bahamas without Bahamians.
Reminded me of the first and only cruise I went on, to the Bahamas and Bermuda when I was young. Came outside from my cabin in my bikini with a book and a towel to the massive pool on this massive ship, laid out my towel and was just about to lie down when I noticed an older white couple giving me the evil eye. Deciding to say something for once (I had been a very meek young woman), I asked, "Is there a problem?" "Why are you in this section!?!?!! Don't the employees have their own section?!?!!" barked the old man. "I wouldn't know," I replied, "because I DON'T WORK HERE! NOW MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" "Well, I never!" gasped the woman. "TRY." And they quickly went away. A waiter came, took my drink order and apologized. For my botheration, I got a $100 gambling comp.
As for the hotel complex described in TFA, I had always wondered what's on these executives minds as they plan these places. At some point I got it: it's exactly what I put in the first paragraph of this comment. I mean, actually going to a place, truly engaging with the people and not treating them like servants, and communing with them in their actual culture must be scary to a lot of white people (ask me about the white tourists who take the subway to my area to visit a big tourist attraction that's near me, and how they react to seeing me and my brown/black neighbors walking around and minding our business). Then again, when some semblance of that does happen, it all gets co-opted and sold back to middle class white people in the US in settings like Margaritaville.
"Caribbean chicken egg roll appetizer".
posted by droplet at 9:15 AM on August 31, 2021 [18 favorites]
Reminded me of the first and only cruise I went on, to the Bahamas and Bermuda when I was young. Came outside from my cabin in my bikini with a book and a towel to the massive pool on this massive ship, laid out my towel and was just about to lie down when I noticed an older white couple giving me the evil eye. Deciding to say something for once (I had been a very meek young woman), I asked, "Is there a problem?" "Why are you in this section!?!?!! Don't the employees have their own section?!?!!" barked the old man. "I wouldn't know," I replied, "because I DON'T WORK HERE! NOW MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" "Well, I never!" gasped the woman. "TRY." And they quickly went away. A waiter came, took my drink order and apologized. For my botheration, I got a $100 gambling comp.
As for the hotel complex described in TFA, I had always wondered what's on these executives minds as they plan these places. At some point I got it: it's exactly what I put in the first paragraph of this comment. I mean, actually going to a place, truly engaging with the people and not treating them like servants, and communing with them in their actual culture must be scary to a lot of white people (ask me about the white tourists who take the subway to my area to visit a big tourist attraction that's near me, and how they react to seeing me and my brown/black neighbors walking around and minding our business). Then again, when some semblance of that does happen, it all gets co-opted and sold back to middle class white people in the US in settings like Margaritaville.
"Caribbean chicken egg roll appetizer".
posted by droplet at 9:15 AM on August 31, 2021 [18 favorites]
I chose the pull-quote for the post, hoyland, specifically to make clear that this oughtn't be that kind of post. It’s a thoughtful piece about the meaning of leisure and work under capitalism that happens to hang on a potent symbol of weaponized leisure in the middle of one of the most touristy districts in the world.
I should say that I appreciate the effort. I read some of the comments before starting the article yesterday and I think that soured me on the article.
Even top-tier Tevas are going to suffer adhesive failure after a year or two of hard-walkin' in the heat and salt. You can often manage partial-strap operation for the rest of the day but it's demeaning.
On the plus side, I have not had the mode of failure with Chacos. On the downside, I have not once noticed them being about to split in two in time for me to send them in to be resoled. Eventually I notice walking feels funky and discover a split 95% of the way through the sole and footbed.
posted by hoyland at 9:23 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I should say that I appreciate the effort. I read some of the comments before starting the article yesterday and I think that soured me on the article.
Even top-tier Tevas are going to suffer adhesive failure after a year or two of hard-walkin' in the heat and salt. You can often manage partial-strap operation for the rest of the day but it's demeaning.
On the plus side, I have not had the mode of failure with Chacos. On the downside, I have not once noticed them being about to split in two in time for me to send them in to be resoled. Eventually I notice walking feels funky and discover a split 95% of the way through the sole and footbed.
posted by hoyland at 9:23 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
these two comments combined and we have the plotline to a short story
I think this could be the basis for a New England version of the Margaritaville song. The protagonist is demeaned for getting thrown out of a Salem bar for wearing flip-flops, and they react by waving them at the hyperaggressive seagulls. Then gets in a fight with a random Masshole who thinks they've said something about the Red Sox.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:34 AM on August 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
I think this could be the basis for a New England version of the Margaritaville song. The protagonist is demeaned for getting thrown out of a Salem bar for wearing flip-flops, and they react by waving them at the hyperaggressive seagulls. Then gets in a fight with a random Masshole who thinks they've said something about the Red Sox.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:34 AM on August 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
We lived in New Orleans when the Margaritaville opened there. One afternoon we happened to be in the Quarter to get stuff at the French Market, and on a lark decided to go there for lunch simply because it was so different from what we would usually do. Quirky cafes are great, but I couldn't remember the last time we'd gone to a chain place. A burger sounded good and of course Mr. Cheeseburger in Paradise just had to do a great one, right? Reader, it was fine but not as good or as cheap as the burger at a quirky cafe a block over which we would have normally visited.
posted by indexy at 9:36 AM on August 31, 2021
posted by indexy at 9:36 AM on August 31, 2021
Metafilter may be the only place on the internet where people are polite enough to call out a discussion of tourists at a simulacrum in Times Square like this:
I gotta be honest, I find all this "morons from East Bumblefuck" talk to be pretty reductive and shitty. Incredibly, different people like different things and have different life experiences that lead them to approach new situations differently. That doesn't make them idiots or monsters.
While I admire and respect that level of sensitivity, by any objective measure the Margaritaville "Resort" in Times Square is the Tenth Circle of Hell incarnate. And even with with DMT vape (Are there such things? Available on Amazon?) the people in it to be avoided at all costs.
posted by Dean358 at 10:00 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I gotta be honest, I find all this "morons from East Bumblefuck" talk to be pretty reductive and shitty. Incredibly, different people like different things and have different life experiences that lead them to approach new situations differently. That doesn't make them idiots or monsters.
While I admire and respect that level of sensitivity, by any objective measure the Margaritaville "Resort" in Times Square is the Tenth Circle of Hell incarnate. And even with with DMT vape (Are there such things? Available on Amazon?) the people in it to be avoided at all costs.
posted by Dean358 at 10:00 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
and "East Bumblefuck" should be rolling off a person's tongue at least twice a year.. It may not be canon, but I'd like to think there was a nook of the Shire called Bumblefuck
posted by elkevelvet at 10:20 AM on August 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 10:20 AM on August 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
Do you suppose that anyone under 50 knows what a pop-top is though?
48 here and yes.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 10:26 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
48 here and yes.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 10:26 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
Margaritaville is about a guy suffering from depression, but is written in a major key, which is why people think it's happy.
Franz Schubert said that there is no such thing as happy music.
posted by thelonius at 10:26 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
Franz Schubert said that there is no such thing as happy music.
posted by thelonius at 10:26 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think this could be the basis for a New England version of the Margaritaville song. The protagonist is demeaned for getting thrown out of a Salem bar for wearing flip-flops, and they react by waving them at the hyperaggressive seagulls. Then gets in a fight with a random Masshole who thinks they've said something about the Red Sox.
Wasted away again in Yawkey Avenue
Lookin' for a dish of fried clams & salt
Some people claim it was Bill Bruckner to blame
But I know it's the Mets' damn fault
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:28 AM on August 31, 2021 [6 favorites]
Wasted away again in Yawkey Avenue
Lookin' for a dish of fried clams & salt
Some people claim it was Bill Bruckner to blame
But I know it's the Mets' damn fault
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:28 AM on August 31, 2021 [6 favorites]
New York has been marketed as a sort of amusement park, or like another kind of Vegas, for so long that of course a subset of visitors who are going to look for an experience with the greatest amount of that particular sort of pre-packaged novelty. It's the same reason people go to the Cheesecake Factory on Michigan Ave. when they visit Chicago. It's artificial, and weird enough, and different from the ordinary, but in an expected way.
I've been to the Margaritaville in Niagara Falls (Ontario) in March. That was fucking weird, although not actually the weirdest element of what was an incredibly strange work conference.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:46 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've been to the Margaritaville in Niagara Falls (Ontario) in March. That was fucking weird, although not actually the weirdest element of what was an incredibly strange work conference.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:46 AM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've been to the Margaritaville in Niagara Falls (Ontario) in March. That was fucking weird
I was there in early April of 2019! It was indeed deeply weird! It did not occur to us when planning our early-spring road trip that it would be cold and rainy literally everywhere along the way, and upon arriving in Niagara Falls, we discovered that there was almost nowhere to eat because it was a Sunday evening during the off-season.
I did get to drink a beer with frozen margarita floating on top of it, though, which was for sure an experience.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:22 AM on August 31, 2021
I was there in early April of 2019! It was indeed deeply weird! It did not occur to us when planning our early-spring road trip that it would be cold and rainy literally everywhere along the way, and upon arriving in Niagara Falls, we discovered that there was almost nowhere to eat because it was a Sunday evening during the off-season.
I did get to drink a beer with frozen margarita floating on top of it, though, which was for sure an experience.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:22 AM on August 31, 2021
I do like the giant broken flip-flop and pop-top. Do you suppose that anyone under 50 knows what a pop-top is though?
I saw that picture and immediately wondered if Oldenburg ever produced a pop-top sculpture. He did not, afaik, but he did produce two cheeseburgers in paradise.
posted by a Rrose by any other name at 12:10 PM on August 31, 2021
I saw that picture and immediately wondered if Oldenburg ever produced a pop-top sculpture. He did not, afaik, but he did produce two cheeseburgers in paradise.
posted by a Rrose by any other name at 12:10 PM on August 31, 2021
Sadly, I never made it to Señor Frog's before it closed. I will not repeat that mistake here.
posted by spilon at 12:42 PM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by spilon at 12:42 PM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
Seen in this light, I don't think it's so mysterious why folks would want to stay there. It's a chain hotel with some amenities. If you're visiting from out of town, you're going to choose from any number of options.
This is essentially what I was going to say. It's a big, glitzy hotel with a bunch of restaurants/bars and pool(s). It seems like it'd be a pretty decent place to come back to after a tiring day of sightseeing in a crowded, possibly hot, unfamiliar big city. Would most of us prefer to stay in a boutique hotel in some cool neighborhood in Brooklyn? Probably! But I get the allure of a big, comfy hotel that acts as a refuge from the bustling city but also offers fun.
This hotel sounds, above all else, real kitschy. And I think a lot of people love kitsch, whether that love is ironic or completely genuine.
posted by lunasol at 3:06 PM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
This is essentially what I was going to say. It's a big, glitzy hotel with a bunch of restaurants/bars and pool(s). It seems like it'd be a pretty decent place to come back to after a tiring day of sightseeing in a crowded, possibly hot, unfamiliar big city. Would most of us prefer to stay in a boutique hotel in some cool neighborhood in Brooklyn? Probably! But I get the allure of a big, comfy hotel that acts as a refuge from the bustling city but also offers fun.
This hotel sounds, above all else, real kitschy. And I think a lot of people love kitsch, whether that love is ironic or completely genuine.
posted by lunasol at 3:06 PM on August 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
I’m thinking the hotel is for the family members who wanted a beach instead of NYC, and I am curious whether it can actually make any of them content. When I try to imagine a built environment replicating idle calm in a city, I remember the careful stylings of breast cancer centers, and who knows? Maybe the soundscaping and themed art and scrubbable soft furniture would have worked if it was a vacation.
posted by clew at 6:35 PM on August 31, 2021
posted by clew at 6:35 PM on August 31, 2021
these two comments combined and we have the plotline to a short story
external struggle: seagulls
internal struggle: I feel demeaned
How about a song?
Sung by Yoda?
posted by panglos at 7:51 AM on September 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
external struggle: seagulls
internal struggle: I feel demeaned
How about a song?
Sung by Yoda?
posted by panglos at 7:51 AM on September 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
I used to travel to Hollywood, FL for work and would ALWAYS make a pilgrimage to the Margaritaville resort there. I always felt compelled to take a picture of their blown-out flip-flop statue, and I always ordered the Cheeseburger in Paradise. I heart NY but as a Disney World fan I am always eager to check out a new weird themed dining/resort concept!
posted by cakelite at 8:30 AM on September 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by cakelite at 8:30 AM on September 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
This is probably the best chance I'll get to share this story:
A good friend grew up in Pensacola and is a casual Buffet fan as a result. He and his girlfriend have a lot of random musical instruments and at one point had them displayed on their wall.
There was a two-year stint where one of my cousins, himself a musician, also lived here in New York. And once when my friends had a New Year's party, I brought my cousin as a plus-one; he came by after a gig and had his guitar with him. After introductions and a little bit of small talk, my cousin gestured to the instruments on the wall. "Whose are these?"
My friend eagerly got his own guitar down. "Wanna jam?" he said, reaching for his sheet music. And they spent the next hour or so bonding over playing Eagles and Grateful Dead covers and having a whale of a time. Finally my friend pulled out another piece of sheet music. "Ooh, how about 'Margaritaville'?"
My cousin said nothing - just stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
After a moment my friend quietly put the "Margaritaville" sheet music away and picked something else.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:22 AM on September 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
A good friend grew up in Pensacola and is a casual Buffet fan as a result. He and his girlfriend have a lot of random musical instruments and at one point had them displayed on their wall.
There was a two-year stint where one of my cousins, himself a musician, also lived here in New York. And once when my friends had a New Year's party, I brought my cousin as a plus-one; he came by after a gig and had his guitar with him. After introductions and a little bit of small talk, my cousin gestured to the instruments on the wall. "Whose are these?"
My friend eagerly got his own guitar down. "Wanna jam?" he said, reaching for his sheet music. And they spent the next hour or so bonding over playing Eagles and Grateful Dead covers and having a whale of a time. Finally my friend pulled out another piece of sheet music. "Ooh, how about 'Margaritaville'?"
My cousin said nothing - just stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
After a moment my friend quietly put the "Margaritaville" sheet music away and picked something else.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:22 AM on September 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
New York Magazine: The Look Book Goes to Margaritaville
posted by kirkaracha at 10:35 AM on September 2, 2021
posted by kirkaracha at 10:35 AM on September 2, 2021
Spilon beat me to posting the virtuoso Pete Wells Sr. Frog’s review. The Margaritaville piece is thoughtful, but Wells is just so inspired, whether his rave of Sr Frog’s or his rant about Guy Fieri’s restaurant.
Pete understands the “look at the rubes” charge mentioned in comments above, and understands that it can provide cover for kind s of aggressively mediocre and even exploitative populism.
posted by umbú at 9:58 PM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
Pete understands the “look at the rubes” charge mentioned in comments above, and understands that it can provide cover for kind s of aggressively mediocre and even exploitative populism.
posted by umbú at 9:58 PM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
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Chef's kiss.
posted by chavenet at 11:00 AM on August 30, 2021 [38 favorites]