new haircut, slightly new coffee venue for this morning … sitting in the Brew’d Awakening aka The Red Room in beautiful downtown Lowell … I went to The University of Massachusetts at Lowell, so I have special feelings for the city, for the people, for the places of Lowell …

open conversations extending across from table to table here this morning … ‘you see, that’s the trick … you throw 5 or 6 answers out there, people forget the message’ … must be talking politics …

today its a large caramel latte … hot + frothy … swirl of caramel + foam sitting at the mouth of the deep blue mug … cool older alternative music playing, I don’t know who it is even though its from the era I grew up in, but I am getting into the jangly noise of the guitar + the occasional double hit of some sort of electronic snare + the semi-spoken vocals …

Brew’d Awakening is live, raw art … checkered pants + a perm … skull + crossbones on the bottle of life … suede cowboy jacket w/ the fringe nicely complimenting the goatee, the dark eyebrows that punctuate the eyes, that accentuate creativity + persecution … nice chime coming in on the next song, accentuating the next sip of dehydrating happiness … I need a lift + Brew’d Awakening is putting me in that mood, in that place where I can just become my thoughts + forget about the day that is about to happen, forget about the night before + just concentrate on what I want, on who I remember being …

so, that’s my drink … + now I know that the group is Joy Division … the next song that opens up w/ a triumphant depressive quality is ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ … a song that I first heard on Paul Young’s first album in a much more pop-refined format … Joy Divisions is very Frankenstein-gloomalicious … very much a wake up song, a post-punk reflection of a certain sad truth in the universe, the sad truth that the more you love, the more you fall apart … the closer you think you are to true love, to finding your soul mate, the closer you are to self-destructive madness

that’s joy … another sip of coffee now please

taking a little time this morning to add Coffee Thirsty | Refill to the BlogCatalog … i just heard about it through Boston-area social media guru Chris Brogan + thought it would be a good idea to add a bit of Fair Trade fun into the mix … here’s a little link …

… + so, just so you know, BlogCatalog is a place where bloggers interact + network, talking about their blogs … gettin’ all bloggy …

i’m hoping adding Coffee Thirsty into the mix gets us a little more in the way of readership … real readership … less spammish commenting + more of the real deal … gotta get me a cup + start rollin’ into work now … have a good one, aight?

aight … just a quick one … over the last bunch of weeks its been tough to actually stop off + stay at a coffeeshop or cafe … its all ‘on the run’ … The American Way … commuter lifestyle supreme …

so, escpecially w/ some of the office politics i’ve encountered recently, there’s no time to sit + get the experience of just being … literally being one w/ the coffee, being part of the coffeeshop environment + atmosphere …

i knew something was lacking … my taste for coffee was still there, that’s for sure … + i have been drinking coffee only a little less often than usual … i just haven’t gotten that happy feeling you get … you know? … that quiet zinging throughout the body … the electric caffeinated pulse + hum …

fast-forward { my last post here was in May or something? [ bandcamp inflections here, aight? ;] } … + here i am @ The Javaroom in Chelmsford putting off the inevitable last miles to the Monster HQ offices in Maynard … large vanilla latte as suggested by Dawn … sort of back to basics for me { i typically try a different drink each + every time i’m out on the coffee circuit, you know? } … but SO good … loving the vanilla latte, sitting + gettin’ a little pre-business business done …

but now, alas, its off to work … more soon …

i realize i haven’t posted anything to Coffee Thirsty | Refill in quite some time … i was starting to feel a little guilty, almost as if i should post something here just to post it … sometimes i feel like i need to Google for a new cafe or coffeeshop in the area just to find some fresh new subject matter, fodder for observation and deep caffeinated thought on screen …

but then i realized …

it didn’t surface to the level of obvious until just a few moments ago … perhaps i haven’t posted here w/ coffee-related news, thoughts, observations because i simply have not had a truly impressive coffee experience for a while … it seems like months now …

don’t get me wrong … i have been drinking plenty of nice, hot coffee … coffee at home, coffee at work, coffee on the commute too and from work, coffee at a conference, coffee from new venues, from old standards, coffee from just about any + every source i can think of … + to be honest, nothing is impressing me … nothing stands out

i don’t think i’ve hit my saturation point either … that is, i don’t think i am sick + tired of coffee + coffee-related comsumptives … no, no, no … far from it actually … i guess i am waiting for the inspiration here … Starbucks has actually stepped off into an utterly disappointing experience for me all around … the last half dozen drinks from ‘The Bucks’ { i don’t even really call it that, just seemed somewhat insulting in the flow here } seemed watered-down, kind of blah … used to be a real treat … an addiction to some degree, right? but not anymore …

+ other shops … well, i haven’t had that many opportunities to hit up other local or independent cafes lately … The Boston Bean is always good in downtown Maynard … but there hasn’t been like a particular cup of coffee that just had me stop in my tracks, close my eyes, breathe in + sigh w/ near-sexual satisfaction in quite some time …

it’s been far too long …

i might just need to make a stop off at The Javaroom on the way in this morning ;]

so, last Sunday, February 24 i put together + hosted a last minute open mike event in Lowell affectionately called ‘The ALL Gallery Impromptu Open Mike Celebration + Take Over‘ … basically The Arts League of Lowell opened the floor to members to see who would want to not only watch the space from an art and gallery management perspective but also perhaps hold an event in the space to help celebrate the current Winter Salon exhibit { fantastic stuff by the way … favourites being a large ceramic frog [ lots of amazing color + texture ], a cool fabric bulletin board panel that visually looks very medieval, some great paintings [ one being this sort of seascape in mixed media w/ goldfish or something right over by the window, off to the left when you enter the main gallery space ] } … i believe that the extended show has its closing today … i was very happy to not only participate from a photographic standpoint w/ 2 pieces in the actual exhibit, but also from this event side of life …

as i began to put the event together … only getting notice that i had the ‘go-ahead’ sometime earlier in the week, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday at best … i immediately thought this should be an open mike … + where there is music + poetry + conversation there should be coffee! right? of course … so, all that said i immediately thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to connect w/ my good friends up at The Javaroom at Gingerale Plaza in Chelmsford

so, i emailed Candy to see if we could exchange some positive energies, right? lately i’m all about good karma + positivity … + i had heard that recent write-ups in The Lowell Sun got a bit of good exposure out there for The Javaroom … a little interview w/ Candy, some specifics about one of the hot beverage drinks w/ ‘a little something something’ in ‘em, right? oh … here’s the article, right here … Cafe Mudslide … check it out, aight?

well, i have to say, Candy + The Javaroom came through + went over + above any expectations i might have had for this event … i was simply thinking ‘coffee’ … sort of a primitive ‘me want coffee’ < governor of California vocalization + accent please > … but Candy + The Javaroom crew got back to me superFast w/ a ‘yes’ + some ideas around what they could offer as a donation to the event … coffee, tea + mini-scones … just amazing … we quickly coordinated via email + phone + anyone that attended the event can attest to the high quality of coffee + pastry accompaniment … we put out some promotional material to hopefully bring the crowd at The ALL Gallery that day full circle for a future trip to The Javaroom … i made sure to mention the amazing coffee, spectacular events + evening cocktail set-up they have at The Javaroom … a veritable oasis for the entire community on so many levels … a warm + cozy cultural mecca for Chelmsford, Lowell + other area communities + businesses …

come to find out that some of the ‘ALL Open Mike’ participants attending on February 24 actually hold a near-monthly poetry event at The Javaroom … the group is called something like The Lowell Poetry Society { please correct me when you can if you are reading this } and Stephan Antsey, founder and editor-n-chief of Shakespeare’s Monkey Review graced us with some of his amazing poetics …

we were also extremely lucky to have poets Catherine Wang Hsu and Carol Nelson making the trek out from our regular jaunts at Outloud Open Mike @ The Beebe … fantastic work { i actually have to help locate Carol’s re-writings of The Bible, amazing work … + get it back to her asap … still sorting through the van + getting back to life as normal, or as normal as it gets for me, right? ;] … the piece was called ‘Her Story’ … Catherine read some new work as well as selections from last year’s collection ‘Shadows and Light‘ … pick up a copy today, i highly recommend it } … + then last but not least we were joined by musician Kenan Cooper who not only played a few sets throughout but also kindly assisted w/ the set-up + breakdown of all the music equipment … Impromptu sometimes implies grassroots disorganization { no knocks against humanity in action … form of ‘grass’, shape of ‘roots’ … } which implies ‘hey, jump in + help out’ } … i was psyched to drum on a few coverSongs including James’ ‘Laid’ + a superMellow rendition of ‘Smell Like Teen Spirit’ by, … huh … i forget now … who did that little ditty? ;] … Sir Michael Gurry also dropped in following some Boston-area recording project he was embroiled with earlier in the afternoon … + i believe we all got to jam it up a bit with the artist behind ‘The Frog’ … the ceramic piece mentioned earlier in this extensive blogCast ;] … we went very bluesy for some of these, fulfilling my wish to have a mid-openMike alL out ‘ALL Out Blues Jam’, if you know what i mean …

as far as next time … there will definitely be a ‘next time’ … i just have so much planned that a closing celebration going down today would be too much for my little imbalanced life to handle … so … at some future point in the history of The ALL Gallery we will once again establish an open mike thang, this time, perhaps, a little less ‘Impromptu’ ;]

here are some photos from the event … enjoy! … and many thanks to all who participated or stopped in … there were many couples + families that kept it fun for everyone …