b e a r d
Something about bowling is very Americana. Going with some friends and grabbing milkshakes always brings me back to a time period I didn't even really get experience.
@beardalaxy Finally, someone points out an aspect of American culture that doesn't involve hyperconsumerism.
@KingKrouch @beardalaxy There are other examples: cookouts, rock-n-roll, jazz, baseball (even though nobody knows it's true origin), American football, apple pie, burgers, classic diners, drive-in movie theaters (though the latter two have been phased out over the years).
@xianc78 @KingKrouch i fucking hate american football lol. i find absolutely no joy in watching guys run for 3 seconds and then a few minutes of downtime, followed by several minutes of commercials. total waste of time. maybe it wasn't super commercialized in the past but now what is supposed to be a 60 minute game is stretched out to like 4 hours and they shove as much advertisement and political propaganda in there as possible.
the good part about football in how it relates to american culture is that it brings people together to do other americana stuff like cookouts, or going to grab some diner burgs and shakes after a game.
there are still drive in theaters, though very few of them. most of the time though, they are community-ran instead of private ones and they really just show G-rated movies. at least, from my experience. during the summer, a lot of cities will do stuff like that. or if it isn't a drive-in it'll be displayed on a big blow-up screen at a park and you bring your own blanket and picnic.
@beardalaxy @KingKrouch I hate TV sports in general. I don't get the point of watching grown adults play the same game that some kids play during recess. To me it's no different than having televised hide-and-go-seek games.
I brought up American football because unlike baseball (which is also popular in countries like Japan), it's ours. Everyone else associates the word "football" with soccer. Sure, it's filled with ads and more recently, woke propaganda (at least when it comes to the NFL), but it will always be a sport that we can call our own.
I was also going to bring up basketball, but I felt like if I brought that one up, someone was just going to reply with the "American culture" copypasta so I backed off at that.
I've never been to a drive-in movie theater. I only saw one once when we passed by one on a road-trip but it was closed and wasn't showing anything. I think they got phased out because it seemed like even back then, they couldn't show the latest movies, only re-runs and indoor theaters have the advantage of having multiple screens and can show multiple movies at once. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they still have them for independent film festivals.
>or if it isn't a drive-in it'll be displayed on a big blow-up screen at a park and you bring your own blanket and picnic.
I think a local elementary school hosted them and probably still does. I never been to any of them though.
No really. There's a former movie theater near me that is now a stage theater because it's simply more profitable and niche to keep it going as one of those than as a movie theater.