bettering morning coffee

There are some friends who you have friend-dates with, and then there are those to whose house you bring a bike pump to fill their tires and eat some bread. And then maybe watch them do their hair and put their makeup on.

It's nice when they live close by.

And sometimes you can trigger deep truths from within that erupt unexpectedly; sometimes you learn things about coffee.

The friend in question used to work at a swank coffee shop in Brooklyn—Oslo—who, to my taste buds roasts the best coffee in the world. Try Freya.

[Shameless attempt at promotional support? Or simply earnest?]

One new hot thing in the world of coffee is Chemex: a glass carafe with a filter for the beans on top. Sounds too simple to be good, but it's the new big thing. And apparently there's a right way and a righter way to pour.

The trick, apparently, is to do an initial pour that soaks the beans and releases the bitter aromas. Then it's time for a long slow pour in a spiral, starting from the outside.

I tried the first trick on our standard drip coffee maker, and it worked.

It requires you making some hot water first, but pour it over the beans and let them steam for a few seconds before starting the pot. Turns cheap Trader Joe's coffee into acid-free B+ coffee.

scheduling fail

I really wanted today to be different. I wanted to start in on things early and have a day to process all that I've been doing and then channel that into something sensical. But here I am at 11:30am finally getting to a quick post and then showering before a coffee date. And then I got invited to 8bb's concert at 5:30 before going to MusicNOW at 8. AT EIGHT O'CLOCK. I'm pretty paranoid about getting the time wrong (or the date), having mixed up details in the past, but I've gotten pretty good in recent years.

This weekend, however, the details are shifting under my feet. On Saturday, I went to a concert that was supposed to be at 1250 W Foster. I got to that address, found apartment buildings, none of which having that address. Then I got a text from some random friend saying "that's the wrong apartment." I thought he had the wrong Evan, but no. He was apparently driving by and saw me looking confusedly at addresses. I checked Twitter. Yes, Twitter. According to the tweet, it was 1250. I searched with an "app" for the name of the church around me and found it: 1650.

Then Sunday, I went to a show at 8pm but it was at 4. That one, I'm still confused about. I am completely certain that somewhere on their website said 8pm. I even put it on my ChicagoNOW blog as such. Their website is NOT the most accessible, more about aesthetic than readability. And Laura saw 8pm too. At some point, over the weekend maybe, they changed all the times to show the correct time. So when I got home, it said 4, and I started to think I was going crazy. It shook my wide-eyed faith in the universe.

My coffee date just canceled. I think that's actually the universe giving me what I need--based on what I expressed in the first paragraph. I'd love to sit in a coffee shop for the afternoon, go pick up a book at the library downtown (required reading for bike tours this year), and then to the concerts. But I think I'm going to spend 4 hours polishing some music; maybe you'll get to hear it tomorrow.

Did I mention coffee grinder in my list of needs? I know that sounds bougie, but, after this morning's failed experiments, it's on the list now.

zzz

My day started out ok. I made my bed, neglected any exercise, and had tea instead of coffee. I worked on some writing, mostly on a post about the Wagner adaptation I saw over the weekend. I thought it was well worth seeing despite some structural flaws. About 60% finished, I emailed the theater to see if they had any photos. Really, though, I emailed the woman who was with the media contact with the publicity company. Me writing a review did NOT sparkle with her. Apparently, it's still a "preview" so things might change, making it against the "rules" to write a review of it. She then emailed the guy at the review site and it became a big mess. I just thought they would some buzz; any press is good press. Even though it was a preview, they can't change the important things. I must approach reviewing from a different perspective than most - perhaps less detail oriented, focusing more on the choices made long ago. Like the music being inappropriate. Like the cool shadow puppets and inventive other shit. I really just want people to go and to help make it better, but I don't really care any more. The file will probably fester and rot on my hard drive.

Mostly though, unfortunately, the whole ordeal drained me. I distracted myself by hearing the leitmotifs of the cycle and reading some articles about it.

I then made my food for the week: butternut squash, sweet potato soup and rice. Tastes great. Today. Let's see how I feel in a couple days when I'm still eating it.
Around the afternoon, I felt unmotivated and hazy - like I just woke up from a nap. I watched some History channel programs on the Earth and its place in the galaxy to help put me in my place. Apparently our sun has orbited around the center of the galaxy (the massive black hole) only 18 times in billions of years. Then some more tea, and I forced myself to listen through some stuff I did last week, hoping to get inspired. There's some good stuff brewing, but I couldn't bring myself to delve back into it.

Overall, I felt kind of blasé and half-asleep. I blame coffee: I had way too much over the weekend, so I was in mental and physical withdrawal today. I'll get some sleep tonight, but I think I'll have one cup tomorrow. This is a short, short week, so I got to make Wed, Thu, Fri really count.

Now that I'm thinking about the huge black hole at the center of our universe, I can't help but think how wrong the ancient myths are. Christians can use the Sun as a metaphor for God, bringing light to the world. Greeks talked about Apollo. It's amazing how far we've come in our thinking, from seeing the Earth as the center of the universe, to seeing the Sun as the center, to seeing this black hole as the center of our galaxy, which is only one of billions in the universe. Now maybe we'll see how we need both the light and the dark: the Sun keeps us warm, but the black hole keeps our solar system from flying out into intergalactic space.

This is the appropriate South Park episode for this discussion. The Earth gets cancelled.

dscpln

I've gotten a little lax in the last two days, yesterday waking up late and doing a fair amount of working but ultimately playing more than working. It's always a mix, but the key concept I'm concentrating on today is "discernment". Per a suggestion from my conversation with the medical intuitive the other day, I am too open to whatever possibilities come my way, whether they be styles of music to write or people to meet. Be more discerning. I then told her about my concept of "say no to say yes," which seemed exactly like what she was talking about.

So I did have coffee today, but I used it as an incentive to get out of bed before 9 (Michigan time). [This should make Laura nostalgic; I'm sure she's missed the presence of coffee in our recent conversations.]

I'm realizing that I have a decent amount of ideas, but I should spend more time organizing them. I did that a little yesterday, going through my files that I've created up here and storing the fragments of ideas in one folder, the more completed, useable ideas in another. Keeping files organized is helpful for both computers and memories.

I need more songs to cover. I've already got the usual Radiohead, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Smiths, Daft Punk. It's funny, for as much as I liked Jethro Tull when I was in high school, they really weren't saying anything with their songs. Their songs are stories about other people, and they are simply the minstrels telling the story. No, not black face; like old, old minstrels. So while Aqualung is fun to play on the guitar, it's not saying anything I need to say. To be honest, though, the songs I am covering aren't necessarily expressing things I'm feeling now now, but I at least have emotional access to those sentiments through the past.

But the past is gone; this is now now. Whatever is happening now is happening now.


I'm relistening to my remix. I still kind of like it, so I'll make a radio-friendly edit so you can all hear it more easily without sifting through the garbage.

I may give up on the orchestra piece. I can't see it getting accepted to this program taking me to where I want to go. It may be one of those things that I either do later or not at all. I'm honing in on an album - or several - but I think that's where my passions are, probably, too, my "path".

I'm still listening to the remix - it's that long - and although it is not, itself, what I want to spend all my time doing, it certainly helps me to put together the pieces of a sound that I'm looking for. Then, maybe, with the sound in mind, it will be easier to write originals. Which is also, in a way, what I'm doing with the covers. I know a lot about music, but most of it comes from classes and theory; it's nice to learn about it through performance. Especially since I always struggle with the vocal parts of songs - meaning I either omit them or write shitty ones (see "Someone Else").

So a quick teaser of what I'm thinking for the album.
* Embody the Struggle (formerly known as Hypernova Requiem)
* Bike Salute (but completely redone)
* You are part of we (song for sister's baby, Lincoln)
* The electronic thing I did with the guitar solo
* Someone Else (which I apparently took off myspace)
* Some song called now called Suddenly
* A song I started writing about some German girl last year
* A cover. Right now leaning towards Needle in the Hay
* Maybe another cover like How Soon is Now

And probably a couple others. I'm making lots of lists these days.

Oh, an Ableton Live keeps crashing but only when I'm doing certain things. Doing the remix project, it didn't crash at all, but then in some projects it crashes every 5 minutes. Hopefully they get back to me soon.