Ah, the Sports Bar. There's so much to say about this place. I mean, first of all, how lame is it that it's a sports bar named The Sports Bar? Answer: pretty lame. Second, I think what's very telling about this comic is the comment all the way at the bottom that mentions how I'll be there that weekend anyway. And it's true, I did go there a lot, at least senior year. See, my favorite Binghamton bar was The Royal, which was kind of the low key indie kid (or today you would say hipster) bar that played good music and/or featured an awesome old keyboard lady who played and sang pretty much any song you requested. But the thing is, most of my friends went to The Sports Bar, so I went there too, and honestly, despite the awful music, or maybe because of, it was a better place to flirt with girls. The Royal however, was a better place to bring a girl on a date (until it burned down).

Speaking of music at the Sports Bar, once I was in a grumpy mood so I played a really long, slow, depressing Fiona Apple song three times in a row on the jukebox.

Another thing this comic touches on is the theme of conformity, which comes up again and again in Binghamton era Dustinlands. If you look at panel 6, you'll see some characters that look straight out of the Jersey Shore, although in this case it was probably more like the Long Island Shore. That was definitely a big part of The Sports Bar crowd, although it was way worse at that other bar nearby (Tony's? I forget. I just remember it had fun a trivia night during the week but was unbearable during the weekend). But, you know, every college scene was worth making fun of. And that's actually what I liked about my Binghamton experience. There were a lot of scenes, and yet I wasn't part of any particular one. I hung out with indie nerds from the Pipe Dream and WHRW, Phish-loving hippies, beer pong-playing frat dudes, music geek stoners.... I mean, why not? Who wants to be stuck to one scene, to be a cliche? Well, I guess a of people do. Maybe they find comfort in being a part of something.

Anyway I have two other things to say about The Sports Bar. One: I saw one of the hardcore townie bouncers kick someone's ass at the Tough Man Competition. Two: I used to own people at the football toss-em game, even though I threw each pass like a basketball instead of a football, which only got people angrier.