Esquire Magazine just named its top bars in the country and several New Orleans watering holes made the cut. New Orleans was third in the number of bars in the “best of” list in the US, only beat out by San Francisco and New York for the most “best” bars in any city (not a great surprise, to me, anyway):
Carousel Bar, Hotel Monteleone
Throughout the rest of Louisiana: Fred’s Lounge in Mamou (great web site!) and the Blue Moon in Lafayette also made the list.
Congrats to all! There were 169 bars total, which is a strange number, but what the heck. I’m sure most of these bars would fit onto any real New Orleans barhopper’s “best of” list. Been to ’em all, and they all have something special.
Which brings me to another point I’ve wondered about for a long time: what is it about being on a “best of” list that is so great? Who votes on these “winners”? Are they the owners and staff who have an inside on the bars themselves and who voted many times in order to increase their chances of winning? Not to say that this happened on the Esquire piece, but there is a local publication that does a “Best of” list annually, and it’s obvious that the so-called winners on the list every year are obviously culled from the pub’s advertisers (almost all of the advertisers in their issue with the list have been “voted” as the best). That’s right! “Advertise with us and we’ll give you a prize—something you can put up on your wall and claim to be the best of.” I find it interesting that in this list, the magazine awards not only a “Best” designation but three or four “One of The Best” as well. So you’re not the best, but you’re one of the best. How meaningless is that? I mean, isn’t that a blatant means to suck up to an advertiser so you can continue to vacuum money out of them? Shame, shame.
I’m a little jaded on what it takes to sell advertising, but I’m also disgusted that people stoop to this tactic. And the worse part of it is, a legitimate well-run business has the right to get excited when it wins an award from a source that is fair and honest in its selection of recipients. Then it’s legit. Anything else is just bullshit.
On that note, we discovered a great website that all musicians need to know about (I’m being facetious here, folks). It’s run by a PR firm that promises to give your CD a great review for only $35, just in case you need some “credibility” for your press kit, and in case no other legitimate press source wants to review your music (probably because it’s crap). Sad, and not something to aspire to. And I’m not giving you the URL.
Ah, what the world has come to!
UPDATED: Cure was added to the list above. It was sixth in Esquire‘s top ten.
