rant · moment 16 of 25
The Full Tapestry of Bar Life, and David Carr's Crack Confession
from Names On Paper | The Tim Dillon Show #376 · #376
3 min
Tim describes the highs and lows he witnessed at Lisa's Lounge, including a family confrontation over an absent father, and cites journalist David Carr's line about being prepared to be a bad person but not a bad father.
- Tim on what bars reveal: the full tapestry of life—the highs, the lows, people's breakdowns, all of it happening in the same room.
- The bar is everything for those people—24/7, their element, where they experience both their uncomfortably good times and their sadnesses without leaving.
- Tim spent his early-to-mid twenties in bars drinking and doing cocaine, talking about nothing, and doesn't regret that time.
- A story about a man and woman at the bar: the wife drags in their crying 11-year-old daughter to shame him into leaving after three days.
- Tim tells the man the daughter gambit was performative and he shouldn't like it; the man agrees, and they do shots together.
- The real lesson is knowing your threshold—how much of a piece of shit are you willing to be.
- Carr's distinction: he was prepared to be a bad person but not a bad father; most people he knew were okay being bad fathers as long as they stayed fun.