1:00 AM in Los Angeles, the city of forgetting. Dinner and drinks somewhere on the Westside (way above the fray) with some friends (Evan & Lily). Beautiful lights and views. Sleep has never been a specialty of mine. But, maybe vivid dreams are.
So what have we? Los Angeles. Truculent. Marvelous. Reckless. Magnificent. The best and worst of what the future has to offer. A reflection of the human spirit—vacant, vain, but stunning, complicated. Bring folks here from somewhere else and they are speechless, breathless, puzzled, curious, leering, judgmental, awed, confused, inspired, numbed, and breathless. I take a sip of Flor de Cana and think, “What a place.” The void, anti-matter, or is it matter?
See you tomorrow in Silver Lake.

“Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy,” said Scarlet. That was my little girl’s response when I asked her about the difficulty of her 1st grade math class. Man, I wish I could say that was the case for anything in the adult world. It all seems to take longer, cost more, extract more mental energy, and cause more stress. At times it is hard not to be cynical. On the other hand, if you want an opportunity to absolutely laugh your ass off, I highly recommend playing the old classic “20 questions” with a six-year-old. It should be renamed “20 guesses” as logical questioning is abandoned one or two questions in. It goes something like this:

“Is it an animal?”
“No.”
“Is it a mouse?”
“No.”
“Is it bigger than you?”
“Yes”
“Is it a dinosaur?”
“What? I said it wasn’t an animal.”
“Is it a dead mouse?”
“That’s still an animal.” (Trying very hard not to laugh).
“Is it a crumb?”
“A crumb? No. Don’t you want to ask questions that might help you to get to an answer?”
“OK Daddy, is it the Serious Tower?”
(Since she meant to say Sears Tower, I am now laughing hysterically as are Scarlet and my wife, Emily.) “No.”
“Can I have a clue?”

Back to “Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.” If you want a couple of coffees that are both easy to drink, yet all out stunners from different ends of the flavor spectrum, check out our current Yirgy from the Kurimi Project and our Matalapa Micro-Lot from the Los Inmortales Project. If only everything were that easy.

It’s been awhile and I’ve decided that I will commit to posting at least once a week, even if it is brief.

A lot has happened since my last post: Slow Food Nation in San Francisco (a smashing success), the opening of our New York Training space in SoHo, Black Cat Espresso going 100% Direct Trade, our Venice store beginning construction, a successful Great Lakes Barista Jam, Intelligentsia’s 13th anniversary, and many other good things. Although challenging and sometimes tiring due to quite a few cross country flights, things seem to be coalescing in a way that I hadn’t necessarily expected.

I guess the sad news is that the Cubbies got crushed in three games and the economy appears to be scary, to say the least. So for the three of you (thanks Mom, Dad and other) that read my blog, look forward to more frequent posts. I gotta ask: Should I go picture free (as in a great book) or add pictures (so as to be part of the “look at me I’ve taken a picture of everything” generation)? I eagerly await you responses.

Over and in/out.