Ethnography Results, Week 2

Ethnography Week 2 Results
By Evin Schuchardt, Jeremy Nelissen, Ryan Kerbow and Wesley Konderla


Goal:
Our goal going into this night was to mingle a bit more with those at the bar.  Specifically we wanted to speak with the bartender and see what he is about.  We found ourselves able to go on Valentine's day, which interested us in if there would be many singles there, few singles there, and if there were any couples there.

Setting:
Two of us ventured to the venue on another Monday night, Valentine's day, around 9:30PM.  They had been open for about an hour and a half (since 8PM).  There is live, usually local musicians every night and this night was no different.

We were able to get a better glimpse of the inside as we sat in there.  The 4 small round tables in the place were all made of a tile mosaic.  There was a bench seat on one side that was not extremely comfortable.  On two of the tables there was a plastic chair that was not really comfortable either.  On the other two tables sat 80's chairs that looked really retro and comfortable.

People:
When we arrived, there was the bartender, a woman at the bar, and an artist who we came to call the Mandolin Man who was setting up speakers and his guitars and mics.  At one time, the most guests there at one time was 12 (including us two).  On average (including us) there were about 8 people.  Only about 3 people left that we noticed in our stay.  There was first a man playing guitar and singing.  The Mandolin Man, although not a part of his band, went up there and jammed with him for the first couple of songs.  To me, this showed the comradery between the locals musician there.  After he played a few songs, the Mandolin Man and another went up to play.  That is the time we left.  As we were about to leave, a man came in who looked pretty shady asked us if we could help him get a bag of chips.  I have no idea what that meant, but we declined.

There seemed to be one couple there that night, but the rest came as same sex pairs.  Near the end we found it interesting that four guys similar to ourselves (engineer-looking people) came to hang out, only one of them getting a drink.

One of us purchased a drink and we were able to have some conversation with the bartender.  He was obviously unhappy to be there, but as more people came in his mood seemed to perk up.  It seemed he knew personally about half of the people that came in.  He also seemed to be friends with the musicians.

Activities:
It seemed that those sitting at the bar for the most part were conversing with one another and the bartender while those sitting in the chairs at the small tables were more listening to the musicians.