Barista No More

It's official, my last day as a barista was last Sunday. The owner of the shop where I have been working has been contemplating selling the business for a while now. A buyer was recently found and ownership was transferred on Wednesday. The new owner wants to try to run things himself for the time being, so I was let go.

While I have certainly enjoyed being a barista, I'm not too sorry to see the job go. I wasn't working there terribly often, only a few hours each week, and my normal work day was not ideal. I have a regular gig at a bar on Saturday nights with the Celtic band down in Denver and I would have to go to work at 8:00 on Sunday morning. I can't believe that I did that almost every week for 3 months... Also, I just got a raise at the bakery that mostly covers the money I lose from the coffee shop, so my income will stay basically the same.

Being a barista was one of the most fun jobs I've ever had. I've enjoyed the challenge of making great espresso and coffee for people. I'll miss the regular customers a lot too. The owner was wonderful, and the job was never stressful. I am proud of the knowledge and skills that I gained there, and I hope that I can use them again in the future.

Anyway, at least my Sundays are mostly free now and I'll finally be able to get enough sleep on Saturday nights!

Musical Anarchy and Musical Order

The past few days have been filled up with contrasting musical experiences. The first involved playing with vee device in an anarchist hangout. The second involved sight reading a Mozart opera.

On Monday, vee and I drove down to Denver to play a show at the Brokedown Book Collective. Basically, this is a place that serves as a gathering place for anarchists, hippies, radicals, poets, artists and other sorts of free thinking crazies. It was awesome! G Man and Charlie Rose joined us onstage for the performance, and while their playing was top notch, most of the nights memorable moments happened offstage. While playing music, I was witness to two different crimes, and a third occurred shortly after we arrived and before we started playing. Descriptions of these events (penned eloquently by vee) can be found here. Audio clips from the performance can be found here.

On the other side of the musical spectrum was my Wednesday night. I play occasionally with the local university symphony, but they’ve been playing Mozart’s Cossi Fan Tutti lately with the opera program and it only requires two bassists. Last week, I got a call from one of the bassists asking me if I could sub for the dress rehearsal.

Now for those of you who may not know me, I’m not a fan of Mr. Mozart. I find his music to be rather annoying for reasons too complicated to describe here. Still, playing an entire opera that you’ve never even read through before seemed to be an entertaining way to spend a night, so I accepted.

The rehearsal went rather well considering I had never seen the music before. The only really horrible mistake I made was because of an improperly marked cut. My playing wasn’t great, or polished, but I got the job done. I’m fairly good at sight reading music, but doing it for two hours was very taxing on my mind. By the end, I was quite glad it was over.

After the performance, the conductor thanked me and asked me what I thought of the experience. To him I said, “let me put it this way: I’m going to go home right now, drink a glass of scotch, and pass out.”

And I did.

In related news, vee device has a show tonight at 7:30 PM at Café Amoré, 255 Linden St. in Old Town Fort Collins. It will just be vee and I, but it promises to be an entertaining evening. Hope to see you there!

Also, in completely unrelated news, a big “Happy Birthday” to Barb!

Jeans or Scotch?

Jeans or Scotch?

Fashion or Intoxication?

I'm torn here. I've been contemplating buying a bottle of good single-malt scotch recently, but I also recently discovered a rip in one of my pairs of jeans. I've only got money enough for one or the other. I could possibly get one of each, but I fear that I would not have enough money to purchase both items at the quality level that I am looking for.

For Jeans, I'll most likely get some at the Gap. Relaxed boot fit is my jean of choice. For scotches, I'm considering Laphroaig or Lagavulin. I've also Considered Red Breast, but it's an Irish Whiskey so I guess, while it is very good, it's not technically Scotch.

Entering into this discussion is the thought that my mother is fairly likely to buy me a pair of jeans when asked, and less likely to buy me a bottle of scotch (though not completely out of the question, if you know my mother).

Any suggestions on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Guinness + Gouda = Heaven

We made Guinness and smoked gouda bread today at the bakery.

It might possibly be the greatest thing I've ever tasted.

I promised vee that I would share it with him. I hope I have the willpower to keep myself from eating it all right now...

If this bread contained pistachios, I would probably die from ultimate flavor overload.

I'm going to melt into a puddle of sweet, sweet ecstasy right now.

Have a great day everyone.

I know I will.