Last Call

Last Call may refer to:

Film and television

Literature

Last call (bar term)

In a bar, a last call (last orders) is an announcement made shortly before the bar closes for the night, informing patrons of their last chance to buy alcoholic beverages. There are various means to make this signal, like ringing a bell, flashing the lights, or announcing orally.

Last call times are often legally mandated and vary widely globally as well as locally. Legislation's purpose include reducing late night noise in the neighborhood, traffic accidents, violence, and alcohol related health problems.

List of last call times around the world

Australia

In New South Wales, there is no specified closing time, although in residential areas bars are often required to close at midnight. In non-residential areas some bars are open 24 hours. However, a six-hour daily closure period applies to new licences (and extended hours authorisations) granted from 30 October 2008; this period is nominated depending on individual and community circumstances.

During a significant part of the 20th century, bars in Australia and New Zealand were closed at 6 p.m. by law. The resulting rush to buy drinks after work was known as the six o'clock swill.

Last Call (Lee Ann Womack song)

"Last Call" is a song written by Erin Enderlin and Shane McAnally, and recorded by American country music artist Lee Ann Womack. It was released in June 2008 as the lead-off single from Womack's album Call Me Crazy, which was released in October 2008. In December the song reached the Top 20 on Billboard Country Chart, becoming Womack's first Top 20 hit in three years.

Content

Written by Erin Enderin and Shane McAnally, "Last Call" is the set opener to Womack's sixth studio album. The song is a country ballad that begins with the female narrator noticing her phone ringing, and refusing to answer it because she recognizes the number. The woman is aware that the male character is most likely in a bar and drinking alcohol. Therefore, she refuses to answer her phone because she knows that she is always his "last call". This is a play on the bartending term "last call", which refers to the last round of alcohol served before the bar closes for the night.

Critical reception

Last Call (Dave Van Ronk song)

Last Call is a song by Dave Van Ronk, originally released on his album Songs For Ageing Children in 1973, and released in a different version on Going Back To Brooklyn in 1994, and is one of the few songs he has written.

Van Ronk claims that he woke up one morning after a night of drinking with Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, and the lyrics to this song were written on a piece of paper. Neither of them admitted to writing it, so he had to assume that he had

Cultural references

Crime writer Lawrence Block took the title of his Matthew Scudder novel When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (1986) from the lyrics to the song:

And so we’ve had another night
of poetry and poses,
and each man knows he’ll be alone
when the sacred ginmill closes.

A key scene in the novel has ex-cop Scudder listening to the song late one night in the studio apartment of a bartender as they drink their lives away, and the song serves as a structural and philosophical theme for the book.

References

Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus, originally Neiman-Marcus, is an American luxury specialty department store owned by the Neiman Marcus Group, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company also owns the Bergdorf Goodman department stores, and operates a direct marketing division, Neiman Marcus Direct, which operates catalogue and online operations under the Horchow, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman names. In the US, Neiman Marcus competes with luxury retailers such as Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and Barneys New York. Neiman Marcus is currently owned by CPP Investment Board and Ares Management.

History

Founding and early history

Last Call (novel)

Last Call (1992) is a fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It was published by William Morrow & Co in 1992 with ISBN 0-688-10732-X. It is the first book in a loose trilogy called Fault Lines; the second book, Expiration Date (1995), is vaguely related to Last Call, the third book, Earthquake Weather (1997), acts as a sequel to the first two books.

Major themes

Like many of Powers' novels, Last Call features a detailed magic system, here based on divinatory tarot, and draws on mythical or historical events and characters, in this case Bugsy Siegel and the development of Las Vegas casinos as well as the legend of the Fisher King. Powers makes use of T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land throughout, which also features the Fisher King legend.

Awards

Last Call won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1993.

References

External links