[lbo-talk] working class authenticity

[B.]

The Bobby Van's website brags that the restaurant was
loved by Leona Helmsley.


"The Bridgehampton restaurant with it's bright and
airy, laid back atmosphere has long been favored by
Manhattanites, among them the rich and famous who have
second homes in the Tony Resort area. After years of
inquiries as to when Bobby Van's would come to New
York City, a personal invitation by Leona Helmsley
swayed owners to open a second location in her Park
Avenue & 46th Street building." --
http://bobbyvans.com/rest_experience.php?r=1

The Boss was a big symbol of working class
authenticity esp. during that awful 80s "heartland
rock n' roll" movement that sucked in people like John
Cougar Mellencamp and had people destroying imported
Japanese cars, etc. Bruce is supposedly down with blue
collar folk (tempting to say "volk" in this instance).


He's oddly attained a kind of cultural currency as a
symbol of the US working class, hence why a lot of the
left loved it when he did "American Skin ("41 Shots")"
a few years ago about the police shooting of Amadou
Diallo (even Maoists suddenly loved the guy, if I
remember my bad left wing newspapers correctly from
around the year 2000) and the right hated it. He
wasn't supposed to sing about how cops could be bad;
he was supposed to wave a flag from the back of a Ford
truck while wearing sleeveless flannel or something.
Like how the Dixie Chicks were also supposed to be God
& Country, but went off that script for a little
while. Still, Bruce has a lot of cultural cache as a
volk symbol; eating at Bobby Van's is kinda funny,
like imagining Dubya the rugged Texas rancher as a
Yale male cheerleader in a white collegiate sweater.



-B.




Carrol Cox wrote:

"So?"



Doug Henwood wrote:

"[from the Post's Page Six "Sightings" feature] BRUCE
Springsteen, in Bridgehampton to see daughter Jessica
compete in the Hampton Classic, posing with fans after
dining in a back corner of Bobby Van's . . ."