Zen Burger

If you want to get a good analysis of contemporary culture you can do a lot worse than start with the writing of George Ritzer. Ritzer, best known for "The McDonaldization of Society", is greatly influenced by the 19th Century sociologist Max Weber. Weber predicted that much of what was seen as progress would actually lead us into a future where we might live constrained by an "iron cage of rationality". Essentially, he felt bureaucratic organisation and rational thinking would replace magic, freedom and creativity.

Ritzer suggests that this is most obviously played out in a McDonald's restaurant. However, he suggests that this style of business and interaction is becoming more and more evident in other social settings. Ultimately (best documented in his "The Globalization of Nothing") he suggests our lives are increasingly characterised by non-interactions with non-people in non-places. Scary stuff!

It's with this in mind that I hop on the F train up town and visit Zen Burger on 45th and Lex. Zen Burger has aspirations of being a chain like Mcdonald's. Although there are currently only two (the other being in California) their website has information for anyone who might be interested in becoming a franchisee. It certainly looks and feels like a McDonald's with its garish colours and row of workers willing to "take your order" but as soon as I walk in I kinda like it. I remember that, as a kid, this sort of thing was a treat. I was in my early teens when my home town of Belfast got its first McDonald's and it felt special and exotic.

Of course, as I got older and ideological objections got in the way I, like everyone else I knew, began to hate it. The only McDonald's I've been to in the last ten years is in Athlone, as it has a bathroom and is about midway on the drive from Dublin to Galway.

But I feel OK in Zen. The workers seem a little happier and everything seems "right on".

So the food? I got the basic "beef" burger but the range of options is awesome. Pick an animal? Zen has the fake equivalent of it. The patty does seem kinda cheap but this is fast food and at $7 for a meal you can't be too choosy. The bun is whole meal, the vegetables are fresh and the fries are... Well exactly like those in McDonald's which everyone loves but us vegetarians have heard too many horror stories about to try. 

All in all, this is what it is. Fast food. But it is all veggie, seems to have a social conscience and is  really good value for a quick bite on the hop.

Post-burger I'm joined by Bobs for two very different musical experiences. We start our evening in the basement of Bloomingdales with free apple martinis (good) and the virgins (getting better) and then move on to Webster Hall for The Gutter Twins...

Random Gutter Twins lyric generator... Darkness. Baby. Yeah. Drowning. Baby. Soul. Fire. Woman. Evil. Satan. Baby... 

C'mon boys, this feels like an act. You're grown men! Enough with the sinister act. Even Nick Cave's lightened up a bit and he invented this schtik. The music is frequently incredible but it's just hard to take the chuckle brothers seriously. Ho hum.