Investing in a friend

Benjamin was one a few people to mention the importance of the history on the walls in Carapace:

What I love is,

the history is literally

on the walls of the building.

They’re newspaper articles

from events that I remember,

growing up here in the ‘80’s.

In the other room, they used to have,

apparently they had a viewing party

for, like, King Kong in 3D,

when it was on TV.

Lance:

They had their assortment of eclectic little oddities on the wall

and little

things like that.

And it gives this vibe

to it that it's

back to being in that safe place again

you would look at some of the pictures on the wall

or some of the little things that they had scrawled on the wall

and they didn't take themselves too overly serious.

Shannon:

It's wonderful the way this place has managed to

transform itself over the years.

When you look around,

you can see the pictures that connect to

decades and decades of history,

and yet it's

progressing.

I wrote about some of the things on the walls in my field notes from the July Carapace:

There are photos on the walls (mentioned often in interviews). Some of those I noticed from my seat on this night included a framed FDNY jersey and some other fire department stuff (photos). I saw a clown and a map.

The pictures and stuff on the walls seem to be important. They make Manuel’s feel like a community bar and also contribute to its “safe” feel. It seems as it people feel like they are a part of the history of Manuel’s and then perhaps more of a sense of belonging.

I was a little surprised to learn that Manuel’s was a “cop bar.”

and we’re going through the

walls just looking at all that

and the headlines and

the police articles

‘cause this used to be a cop bar.

And so,

you go through all of it,

yeah, ‘cause this was the cop bar (B. Carr)

My own associations and biases cause me to be a little incredulous that the same place could be both a democratic stronghold and a cop bar, but, of course, the two are not mutually exclusive.