Character Sketch: 17th and Madison (for a class)

It’s a bar. A lounge bar. The hanging lights are always low, and darkened. It has a long bar counter with leather stools. The bar has a glossy finish on it, over hardened wood. A few ashtrays down the bar counter. Behind the bar, and stools there are a few booths up against the wall. A few for only two and a few for groups. There’s always jazz, and blues playing, always at the perfect volume, loud enough to hear it, but not enough to drown out conversation. The bartender always gives you a nod when you're walking in, and knows your regular.

You don’t have to be high class, or low class; you just have to carry yourself with a certain way. There’s always an open seat, and the place is never crowded. Everyone is well dressed because that’s just the norm. It’s a place for artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, and thinkers, businessmen, and the every man Joe, it doesn’t matter who you are or what you believe, as long as you live by the bar’s cadence. It’s a place for gathering, thinking, and taking a few deep breaths.

It’s not on the edge of town, but right in the heart of the city, it’s seen history. Although it’s a sanctuary and a clear space in between chaos, and beauty. It doesn’t attempt or try, it just is, and always has been. It’s the place where Steve McQueen read the first line of Bullitt, where Bukowski sold his first poem, where Dr. Gonzo & Raoul Duke contemplated The American Dream, and where every one goes to -- to escape the daily drumming of reality.