coffee and a pow wow

Toddy Cold Coffee Brewer

Another new product for brewing ice coffee.
Looks similar to the aero press, but isn't.
Looks worthy. Click link to check out the stats.

L found this for me a few years back

click photo to enlarge

I never get tired of looking at this map in wonder,
at all the different tribes that were here, long
before the europeans came ashore.

A kind person sent this along to me awhile back.

I am going to venture that the man who sat on
the ground in his tipi meditating on life and it's
meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures,
and acknowledging unity with the universe of
things was infusing into his being the true
essence of civilization.

Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux Chief

This time of year the native american
pow wow season arrives, and I'm hoping
to make one a few counties away from here
in the heat of August.

Mihsihkinaahkwa Pow Wow

The following song is from a cassette that came out
in the early '60s, by a Mescalero Apache named
A. Paul Ortega. It was called Two Worlds.
It was very hard to find and was produced by
Canyon Records. Not a whole lot of information
can be found on him, although he is a medicine man
and works within the native american community.

It can now be found on CD:

Two Worlds /Three Worlds:

What Is An Indian

w-ar-t

Ethiopia - story HERE

click photo to enlarge
Exhibit @ Morgan Art Of PaperMaking - Cleveland, Ohio

War is a poor chisel,

to carve out tomorrow.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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I want to Thank Kimy @ Mouse Medicine for taking
the time to see this exhibit and to send the
photos to me. I am hoping we can get to Cleveland
very soon, to see this and other interesting sites.

The article above the exhibit photo is from
a post from here early on, and thought I
should bring it out again, since it coincides with
the exhibit and using remains of war for purposes
other than for killing.

coffee on the menu

from a 1918 directory, rockford, illinois

A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning,

as if supported by the rays of the sun,

a bird settled on the fire escape,

joy in the task of coffee,

joy accompanied me as I walked.

Anais Nin

click on any photo to enlarge

Some of you have inquired from time to time,
what we actually served in our coffeehouse,
circa 10/31/1999 - 5/2004.

This is one of our working menus at the time.

L put the menu together.

Our prices were reasonable, even for
then. We only offered 12 and 16oz drinks,
but if you stayed in, the ceramic mugs were
large ones. We only went as high as $3.50 for
the larger & flavored drinks towards the end.

happy anniversary L !

To the world you may be just one person,

but to one person you may be the world.

Brandi Snyder
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It was 15 years ago, we met through a mail art call.

Sporadic mail art for a year.

Emails for another year.

Phone calls, once a week, twice a week, then,
almost every day for another year.

Then I took one of the biggest steps in my life.
Came to the mid west and we've now been together for 12 years.

I can't imagine life getting any better than this:

Except many more years with you!

Thank You for Being You!

two beans in a pod

Bullhead:

A coffee bean that develops to more than
twice it's normal size. This happens when
two beans get cozy with one another and
grow together. Sadly, they break apart
during the roasting process.

from: Fantastic Fables, Ambrose Bierce 1898

looking backwards and sideways

click picture to enlarge

In conversations with people at work who
have lived only here in the midwest, I've
been reminded daily, as to how lucky I was
to have lived on the west coast during my
formative years.

Once I saw the first issue of Zap Comix
I was hooked. But I also read the
San Francisco Oracle, a paper printed
with interesting articles by people like
Gary Snyder, poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
and many others. Food and clothes
give-aways, where the free concerts
were going to be held, environment
issues, etc, etc.

Thinking, outside the box and
alternatively certainly started
during that time.

Seems like creativity too was
rampant, unlike now, unless
you know where to look.

verdant used in a song

photo: 1959 (click picture to enlarge)

Looks Like Rain - 1969

When I left home and moved into SF, aside from
working, went to a few concerts.

I first heard this album played on KSAN,
an underground station. Its a beautiful
album. For those who don't know, his first
big hit was actually sung by Kenny Rogers
and the First Edition: Just Dropped In To
See What Condition My Condition Was In.

He wrote American Trilogy that Elvis
made famous, and on and on.

A musician friend and I saw MN at the
Boarding House in SF and had a chance
to meet him back stage. Back then, if you
hung around and asked, most artists at
the time were happy to say hello to you.

If his singing didn't make you cry a little,
I don't think anything would. He was as
nice and gentle a human being you'd want
to meet. I saw him 2 more times, once a
few years later at the Great American Music Hall,
when he played with only a violin player. Last time
was at Chucks Cellar in the S Bay area.

As an older friend says, to make a long story long,
in a recent post @ Grrl + Dog she used the word
"verdant" and I thought I had only heard that
word used in a song by Van Morrison. But while
listening to VM all day at work on my iPod, I
realized it was Mickey Newbury I was
thinking of, and here's the song from an
old LP, as in record and wax.



Heaven Help The Child - 1973
from the album by same title

happy fathers day pop

What was silent in the father

speaks in the son,

and often I found in the son,

the unveiled secret of the father.

Friedrich Nietzsche

I used to ponder what it would have been like,
to grow up differently than I did. What would I
have turned out like, what would I be doing.

But then, reality creeps in, and I am, simply,
the product of my upbringing and surroundings.

Looking back, there have been little things,
that certainly brought my Dad and I together,
that we never talked about.

Once, while young, my Grandfather was in
the hospital after having another one of his
many heart attacks. He was in a room
with Charlie Krueger of the SF 49er
football team. He offered my Dad 2 tickets
to the 49ers playing the LA Rams, and he
and I flew to Los Angeles to watch the game.

We went to museums, we camped and
traveled places whenever he had a chance.

I'm thinking because of all this, without
trying to find reasons, is part of why I
am who I am today.

This is my son through the years and honestly,
I still can't believe I've been a father.

Our lives were different than mine growing
up and I too hope that I gave enough to him,
that he will make the best of his life that he can.

Although thousands of miles away from
my family, inside we are close.

Happy Fathers Day Pop!

sirens and tornado watches

from the net

A cock on the church spire,

though made of iron,

would soon be broken by the storm wind

if it did not understand

the noble art of turning to every wind.

Heinrich Heine

==============================

I much prefer an earthquake
rather than the possibility
of a tornado.

There was a tornado watch yesterday
and the sirens going off were
very near our area.

If nothing else, at least we
may get a slight heads up
before one were to occur.

a fable

Photograph - 1959 (click to enlarge)

click to enlarge

Fables - Arnold Lobel 1980

why hate?

insufficient dada

photograph: 1917 exercise yard

A strange thing is memory, and hope;

one looks backward

and the other forward

one is of today,

the other of tomorrow.

Memory is history

recorded in our brain

memory is a painter,

it paints pictures

of the past and of the day.

Anna Mary Robertson Moses

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Those of you who really Love
Espresso, might want to check
this out (looks promising)
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