Thursday, March 11, 2010

milwaukee. barista's. why the hell do i do this?

so i'm back in milwaukee. which is a good thing.
i'm here for a few reasons. the primary one being to judge the great lakes barista competition. and the second is to just catch up with some of the very good friends that i made during my time here.
maybe the first reason was simply the best way i could justify coming back to hang out with some very good people? maybe not? it doesn't matter. i'm here. regardless of the reason.

it kinda caught me off guard a little. i flew in last night. bumpy as all hell. after working a long day in the cafe. and as i was coming over the hoan bridge there it was. the milwaukee skyline.
now i'm not being a knob. i know, compared to the city in which i now reside, the skyline isn't anything that special. but there is something about it. or there was last night. when i saw milwaukee i got really excited to be back. genuinely excited. it was nice. unexpected. but really cool.

barista's are rad. they just are. or rather coffee people are rad. i spent the entire day with a bunch of them. professionals. enthusiasts. barista's. owners. and alike. the certification to become a united states barista competition regional judge is an all day affair. it always is. i've done it a few times before. and it never runs on schedule.
for a group of people who typically have to be up very early to open cafes across the country, when we get together, timekeeping goes out the window. weird.

after exams. discussions. calibrations. coffee. lots of coffee. some good. some bad. we were done. this year we have a huge pool of judges. which is also rad. because now maybe i won't have to judge every single competitor. its not that much fun vibrating from too much espresso for the next three days. the coffee shits suck too.

why do i do this?
because i've found something that i love doing. i've found an industry that i want to be a part of. an industry full of people who are just as passionate as me about what they do. its not just a part time job or something to do until a real job comes along. this is what i, and we love. its what we do. and giving up a little bit of my time to help promote this industry? i love that too.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

i couldn't think of a title for this post. so i'm going the call it 'sitting on my couch. listening to 7seconds. on vinyl. writing nonesense'.


wow...its been forever since i sat down and wrote anything. seriously. what have i been doing with myself?
to be honest, there is no reasonable answer to that question. i've been busy. this living in new york thing is nonstop. busybusybusy. all the freakin time.

oh, hello 2010. wait...where did 2009 go? really. where did it go? it seemed to fly by. but so much is different. a load of shit happened. so i guess its just my perception. or maybe i'm getting old and going senile.

i moved to new york! still seems kinda weird saying that. but its true. and my brother is here too...its the first time in four years that we've lived in the same country, let alone the same city. its awesome. its like nothing has changed. we still finish each others sentences. and my old lady is here too. my boo. my love. my pork chop. we share a rad apartment in brooklyn. with a bi-polar cat. i love it. its comfortable. peaceful. safe. its home.

my co-workers and i have rediscovered...well, i've rediscovered, i don't know how many of them were aware before...how fucking amazing sunny day real estate are. i mean come on. diary is a balls out fantastic record.

this is going to sound ridiculous, but here it is...i'm kinda getting used to seeing pictures of my questionable face in the new york times. see. i told you. sounds ridiculous...but they seem to like us alot right now, us being stumptown, and not myself and kai. the picture at the top was taken from the ny times a few days ago.

people in new york wear alot of black. and by alot. i mean all the time. in any other city i've lived in, you usually save the all black days for funerals. weddings...when perhaps you don't think the union is the best idea... or days when you're feeling particularly elliot smith/the smiths/joy division. but not in new york.
all black. all the time.
i think i'm growing to like it.

regardless of the geographical distance you have to travel. leave yourself an hour to get there.

i've started meditating on a regular basis. actually let me clarify that. i've started formally meditating on a regular basis. every tuesday night. on the bowery. with a bunch of tattooed punk rock kids. dudes in business suits. typical yoga types. and so many more. its awesome. i like it. i'm not becoming all new age. if you call me a hippie i'll fucking kill you.

i now pay someone to wash. dry. and fold my dirty clothes.
it seems so bourgeois. living in milwaukee, it never even occurred to me. why would i pay someone when i can do it myself.
but here. for some reason. and i don't really know why. it seems like the reasonably. almost sensible thing to do.
call me a middle-class capitalist pig if you want. the dude at the launderette is super nice.

famous people everywhere. the city is full of them. i can't go anywhere without bumping into one of them. they just get in the way. they're everywhere.

i've rambled too much.
bye