Great American Saloons: Psyche in Cyberland
Malenic, Marina
by Marina Malenic Psyche in Cyberland Where plugging in is easier than getting a beer. H urrying along brightly lit M Street with a friend one brisk Friday night, I was suddenly reminded of...
...When a waiter attempted to hurry past, I stopped him and asked who had dreamt the concept of cafemyth.corn...
...And so we were free, free at last to indulge in our first girls' night out...
...Friday night did come, and we greeted it like the holy day it was...
...My friend opted for Cupid, and suggested I sample Psyche...
...How many pedicurists had the interior decorator employed in this enterprise...
...My companion all but dragged me to the entrance...
...I resumed my attempts at conversation with the revelers languishing on the sofas, this time with some measure of success...
...In the U.S., however, no area is immune to the spread of cybermania...
...I made an effort at conversation with the computer operator nearest me, devising a pick-up line appropriate to time and place as I made my approach: "Is there some kind of system for getting a chance to use the computers...
...Greek salads and calamari were appetizing, and the prices seemed reasonable...
...The Maenads were offto the dance...
...I sipped the odd brew uncertainly and remained unconvinced that it bore any resemblance to the goddess...
...It's just the human touch...
...Stealing away into the darkness, modeling our uniform of black pants or mini-skirts, platform heels, and velvet shifts, we hunted for particularly energetic locales along lively M Street...
...But, I asked, why would one bother coming to a busy car6 just to tune people out...
...At long last, a man who likes to dance...
...Instead of the clickety-clacking I had imagined, the ecstatic cadence of techno spilled out into the night as the glass door swung open...
...The walls were covered with framed prints of surreal, pseudo-scientific images--part myth, part technology...
...The manager admitted that caremyth.corn catered mostly to "student needs," thus the moderate cost...
...realized students needed exotic olives and shellfish, not to mention Cupids and Psyches, but it has been a while...
...Hiphop rhythms greeted us as we finally entered the Cross...
...Each of us would part with her particular Penthius, vowing to reunite, guiltless in the knowledge that he was better off without her, given his lack of interest in the dance...
...The Mediterranean cuisine was a marked improvement over the "ap6ritif...
...The American Spectator _9 May 2 o o o 73...
...Our first excursion began with a dilemma-how to gently part with the guys who ]~IARINA MALENIC is assistant editor of The American Spectator...
...Kind of...
...I thanked him, turning back to my companion and thinking that, even for long-distance investment, a place like this had to be a considerable departure for some traditional Muslim ruler, whose subjects would not likely witness anything remotely like cafemyth.com anytime soon...
...He informed me that I could sign up at the bar for "fifteen-minute usage increments...
...My next impression, as I peered into the warm, gleaming core of cafemyth.com, was purple--fluffy purple sofas, "Grape" iMacs, and a shimmering silver wall directly behind the glossy black bar, reflecting the purple decor...
...Most of the clientele was young (one component of the place which conformed to my prior suspicions), but the rest was far beyond imagination...
...To which he responded, "Just to be social...
...Something like passive socializing...
...had invited themselves along, not perceiving the ritual significance of the event...
...Isn't that defeating the purpose of frequenting public places...
...Of those, the dancers and the conversationalists seemed most content...
...Girls' night out will never be the same...
...And we had no better luck with Cupid, who bordered on the sickeningly sweet, as my friend and I had to agree, love could often be...
...She furrowed her brow momentarily, and then declared: "No...
...I hadn't The walls were covered with framed prints of surreal images~art myth, part technology...
...A tug at my coat sleeve ended my reminiscences...
...A fter dining we moved to the fluffy purple sofa area, where various well-dressed, healthy-looking young people were assembled, some gazing at the Grape iMac screens and much less flashy beige PCs, a few flailing about in various dance poses, others deep in conversation...
...Only much later would we master the routine...
...Later I'd learn that, although Tehran has seen its first cyber caf6, it is still the exception in the Middle East and the rest of the non-Western world...
...I would later learn that the silver originated in z,ooo bottles of Revlon Silver Glitter nail enamel...
...And people are fine with that...
...Much has changed, even in the few short years since having graduated from Georgetown University, but the hunt for a good saloon is one tradition that lives on...
...That was the time of the great cocktail revival, when a random sampling of potent potables at any given night spot would yield a collection resembling potions in a science laboratory...
...Weekdays, I mused, had been a span of unending history lectures, research papers, and Ancient Greek study sessions...
...Excepting the overly synthesized music, we had a good time...
...You want to be around people, even if you're not doing the same thing they are...
...lust awful," we'd murmur as we parted ways with our male companions once they were denied entry by the ever vigilant bouncers, sentinels with the sense to discriminate on the basis of gender rather than age...
...I followed unenthusiastically, resigning myself to an evening ~ of bizarre concoctions of ultra-hip cock72 May 2o o o _9 The American Spectator tails, protein smoothies, and, most distasteful of all, conversations about all things cyber, set to the discord of overly enthusiastic young fingers tapping at computer keyboards, all in an antiseptic, hyper-tech environment...
...Who would have guessed there could be science behind my superstition...
...A bitter soul indeed...
...They just put up the money, knowing that this type of place has been a hit in New York and London...
...Like a neo-Athena springing, not from the head of Zeus, but from a phrenologic diagram enhanced with electrical wires--a cyber mind in place of the ancient god...
...Yeah," she concurred...
...As we took a seat at the bar, we found that the gods were further immortalized in cafemyth.com's extensive menu...
...I returned to my seat at the sofa, a lit~ tie bewildered but eager to learn more about this exotic cyber oasis in the middle of Washington, D.C.'s historic former shanty town...
...Undaunted, I asked if he came there often (reverting now to successful lines of the past), to which he replied a one-word affirmative...
...A woman with ample piercings-not even counting those that likely lurked in unseen areas--best explained the appeal of the cyber world of cafem)eda.com: "Ifs better than a regular bar or night club because you have the option...
...Its eerie glow emanated from a site which once housed one of our old haunts...
...Taking my friend's arm, I decided it was time we test the dance floor...
...Washington, D.C., and its eclectic Georgetown neighborhood in particular, provided a novel backdrop for life at the university...
...Unlike many bucolic college scenes I had witnessed back home in the Midwest, the city never induced the boredom necessary for the depravity many associate with college life...
...Leisure Week reported recently that even the leisurely South has caught the fever, with Birmingham, Alabama, due to witness its first cyber car4 opening this month...
...those fixated on their computer screens seemed lost in another world, a much less vibrant one at that, judging from the vacant looks on their faces, greenish from the glow of the machines...
...Its only potency was derived from the protein powder added to the mixture-no doubt a health-conscious option for many...
...who were its owners...
...But despite the fashion, no selfrespecting young woman would be caught imbibing a Cosmopolitan--why, after all, would she fancy a fruity pseudoMartini in place of the real thing...
...H urrying along brightly lit M Street with a friend one brisk Friday night, I was suddenly reminded of the last time I combed Georgetown's main avenue for an appropriate night spot...
...But we knew that Friday night and the weekend would come, more quickly still if we didn't think of it--a ridiculous notion a physics professor confirmed for me later that same year, citing Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle...
...Like, be in your own separate sphere where no one can bother you, no matter what's going on around you...
...I was greeted with the same blank-stare treatment the screen had been receiving...
...I looked up from the sidewalk, and was confronted with something calling itself cafemyth.com...
...As we fidgeted wearily with our freshly minted curls and rhinestone necklaces while waiting in line to enter our first college bar, the Cross, little did we imagine how fate would favor us...
...I asked, raising my voice above the cadence of French electronica...
...Some Saudi investors," the waiter, dressed in head-to-toe black, told me...
...In another, Psyche's oil lamp has been exchanged fora mechanical glowing orb, forcing one to question how her neo-Cupid would ever come to realize her deception...
...You can either talk to people and dance and socialize, or you can totally tune them out...
...They don't really have a whole lot to do with it, though," he added...
...The odd luminescence made none of the interior visible through the m sizable windows, creating an opaque i effect in the ordinary glass...
...He returned to his screen, but I couldn't resist one more try, asking why he should want to come to such a place...
...Or perhaps it's just that Washington rations its share of depravity differently...
Vol. 33 • May 2000 • No. 4
