The Bourgeoisie at Play

[kent_allard_jr]

On Saturday, after moonlightalice and wellgull showed me Extreme Dagobah -- for which I will be eternally grateful -- we slooooowly made our way to West 51st Street. (The subways were wonky and human traffic was a bitch.) Along the way, we encountered a bus from Bourgeois Tours, which provided us with endless amusement. Apparently it's a French Canadian outfit, and I guess that "bourgeois" has a different connotation for them than it does for everyone else, for whom it's equal parts "rich" and "philistine." Do they go and look at banks all day? We wondered if there are alternatives like "Lumpenproletariat Tours" where you lie in alleyways drinking beer and so forth.

Comments

[avram]

"Capitalist Tours" would look at banks all day. "Bourgeois Tours" should take you shopping.

[tmlforsyth.livejournal.com]

I thought bourgeois just meant middle class and was just excessively cookie cutter and suburban. I thought lumpenproletariats would be resentful masses easily motivated by demagogues, though drinking beer is probably a huge part of their lives, too :)

[bugsybanana.livejournal.com]

Bourgeois could well be someone's surname. My favorite one-hit wonder band of the '80s is Bourgeois Tagg, composed of Brent Bourgeois and Larry Tagg. Remember "I Don't Mind at All"?

Anyway, everyone knows it's DC that's the bourgeois town. NYC is more an analgam of demimonde and nouveau-riche, with a strong strain of je m'en fous.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

It looks like Bourgeois Tours mostly caters for Quebecois aficionados of various casinos and gambling establishments; I imagine the bus you saw was such an organized shopping/gambling tour on its way to and from Atlantic city.

::B::