Bottom of the Bottle: The Joshua Mohr Interview
Dive bars are a circus. Those that congregate within, huddle in halfway houses for the bungled and botched. Yet, they play a role that goes beyond their unpleasant appearance. I remember smoking rock with Rory, a disarmingly charming Irishman in the back patio of a bar, then doing shots with a burly stubbly-faced lesbian, drinking ourselves to death with all the other drunks on barstools, and they all had a story to tell. Each sad, sick tale helped me to better understand my own problems. It might’ve been they were only riding a downward turn on that fickle bitch Fortune’s wheel but the one thing we could all agree on was that life’s no picnic. Joshua Mohr’s ‘DAMASCUS’ is an absorbing tour through the lives of the patrons of one such bar in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Nicholas Milanoff: What’s the difference between a weekend drunk and the devotees, people as much a fixture as the bar stools, dim lights and cheap drinks, who are seemingly resigned to hopelessness?
Joshua Mohr: I don’t feel comfortable speaking on behalf of other people’s hopelessness. I will say that the heads that sit on the stools in Damascus are doing their best to mute real world responsibilities. They’re no different than us, except they can’t seem to treat themselves with much respect right now.
Milanoff: Do you feel that life is what we make it out to be for better or worse, rather than the “Yeah, this and that happened to me. Life sucks.” blase frame of mind?
Mohr: I definitely believe that our world is what we make it. There’s always going to be adversity; that’s guaranteed. I know more people who endured fucked up childhoods than those who came from happy spots. But once we’re fully grown, we’re responsible for what we do, how we act. This is our only little life, so why not make the most of it?
Milanoff: What happens when we feel we are helpless to act and change our futures?
Mohr: We tap out. This is when we act our most selfishly, the most violently, the most indignantly, the most self-destructively. Feeling as though we have agency to make our worlds a better place is key. Otherwise, the owner of Damascus better renovate that spot and add some more stools because here come the reinforcements!
Milanoff: Is it easier to give up or to run away?
Mohr: It’s difficult to look all the hard stuff in the eyeballs, but we have to do it. Give up… runaway… these might be temporary fixes. Hopefully, they never become permanent residences. It’s okay to need solace, asylum, but we can’t pretend that the world isn’t moving on with or without us.
Milanoff: How do we prove ourselves in the face of failure and why do you feel the ones closest to us sometimes challenge our ambitions and choices the most?
Mohr: That’s part of loving somebody. If someone you care about is making suspect decisions, you have to say something, even if it’s the last thing on earth they want to hear. Love is being willing to have uncomfortable, tough conversations. Love is messy.
Milanoff: As a dive bar devotee myself, I couldn’t help wondering how much of “Damascus” was culled from your own personal relationships or from the often heart wrenching stories of the poor bastards who call whatever bar they go to their second home?
Mohr: I drank and drugged most of my twenties and early thirties. I’m sober now. There’s a lot of real life in this book. All the alcoholic and junkie pain is mine.
Milanoff: Have you ever been to Happy Daze? It’s closed down now, but used to be one of my favorite dives. A bar in your book reminded me of it. It was on 7th @ Market in San Francisco on the lip of an alley and across the street from that ugly Federal Building.
Mohr: I don’t know that particular haunt, but it sounds like a kindred spirit to Damascus.
Milanoff: Favorite watering holes in San Francisco, dive or otherwise?
Mohr: I used to drop a lot of dignity in the following spots, in no particular order: Zeitgeist, Mission Bar, The Lone Palm, Benders, The Attic, The Latin American Club, and The Uptown.
DAMASCUS is out now from Two Dollar Radio. Get to know Joshua Mohr. Photo: Kevin Irby.
