Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ders, seating parties, running drink tabs—typically involves usage of this entirety. Thus,
three tables from me, Jackie pressures a middle-aged man to have another drink during
Tommy's intermission. An initial benevolent suggestion, turned down, quickly becomes
a tersely worded imploring for him to buy another drink (an unwritten rule in the club
is that patrons should always be drinking). When he balks, she turns to a disciplining
tactic of suggesting and gesticulating that all club customers should constantly “work”
drinks. As he softens his stance, the stone-cold aesthetic becomes supplanted by a bene-
volent coaxing. Finally, he orders the drink and Jackie—in this engagement—returns to
the persona of the tired, overworked servant of the blues club and local blues ways. A
seductive coercion—using diverse emotions, behaviors, and sensibilities—proves suc-
cessful.Throughouttheevening,Jackierepeatsthisrecipeinherengagementswithcus-
tomers, but never displays the identical sequence of personal transformations.
At the same time, this bodying and style of engagement works within the club's coda
and signals a reverence for its current social milieu; that is, an engagement style draws
onestablished stylesofsocializing withinBeebe's. Inthisprocess,JackieuseswhatKo-
beena Mercer (1997) calls “a bebop blues” style of engagement which mixes humor,
sarcasm,sternness,revulsion,teasing,andjoyousness.ToMercer,thisbebopbluesstyle
of interaction is common in working-class blues clubs and blues settings. It pays tribute
to these milieus while being immensely respected as an engagement style by its observ-
ers. This style, to Mercer, provides a kind of sliding easiness and conviviality to trans-
actions—business and nonbusiness—that lessens tensions and edginess. Human negoti-
ation, through this form, is infused with a comfort and an easy respectability. But also,
this style used by Jackie massages and elevates the club's “code” and the identities of
her customers. Asked about this kind of engagement, Jackie said to me, “Oh yeah, it's
how I relate to customers … everyone talks this way to everyone else, it's just the way
it's done.” One more time, the ritualized order of the club is enriched. Every instance
of this strokes the club's dominant social contours, seizing them, demarcating them, and
elevating them.
But,Jackie'sbodyingandengagementsalsosignalsomethingquitedifferent:anopen-
ness to accepting a more commercialized club in certain ways (i.e., the influx of more
affluentcustomers, barofferingsthatcater tothispopulation). Atthecoreofthis,Jackie
engages “club outsiders” in a distinctive way. For all to see, she is upfront friendly, vi-
vacious, and ultra-accommodating to them. Spurning the interactive style deployed for
club regulars, she is flagrantly engaging, and at times, unduly obedient and solicitous
(compared to her style of engagement with club regulars). She strikes a stance here that
reverberates across the club. Club regulars tend to take notice immediately, and some
ascribe an ominousness to this. “I know what she's doing,” one club regular told me,
withpeoplelikethatshe'scozyin'up,makingnice,youknowwhatI'msaying…Ihope
