Coffee @ MindSay

Coffee shop kids and the reality of space and time

In the decadent decors illuminating a fantastic illustration of aesthetic and hidden curriculum of pretentious names and capitalist symbolism, there are those who enter into a space of being different than when than enter and taking on a form of identify seeped within a distinct, yet different composition and conception of time.  These I have come to regard as the coffee shop kids.  The use of “kids” is somewhat misleading, but it is a playful usage of language that I will explain later.

My first thoughts came to me as I sat in the corner of a starbucks and felt a shift and uneasiness of the time and space in which I was situated.  Inside there was an attitude and an allure of the other world. The other world in this case is one of intellectualism and proposed elitism.  The names are foreign to the traditional convention of small medium, and large and in place we find tall grande and venti. The complication of ordering is only a brief complication of nervousness like the first intravenous experience of heroine, a trickling burn of cocaine in the nasal cavity, or the sting of a sucker punch.  Those that have become addicts, narrators, and navigators of this space and time know its intoxicating aroma and effectual bliss of hypersensitivity and loss of the world which they left to enter such a space.

The experience of the coffee shop kids is one that cannot be proposed or summarized in some tyope of universalism or generalization.  I feel that everyone experience a temporal loss of the self and floats in uncertainty to find one’s self that is a compatible self to such a  space.  There can be such rejections and utter forced excretion of the incompatible beings that try to retain a sense of self that has not been organically stimulated in this space.  The resistance to flowing into a space and allowing a sense of being and self, and such a possible identity, is thus the result of temporal disengagement and organic stimulus of the core desire.  Perhaps the desire is one of chameleon adaptation, but this would be a bad example.  The chameleon changes to not be seen.  The coffee shop kids partake in a voluntary involuntary paradigm of self negotiation negation and transformation.  Their consciousness turns from that of external concern to one of internal concern that stimulates and informs the outward.  As such, the transformation and space is one that can be describe as the of the old tv show “The twilight zone.”

Is it required that something strange should happen to analogously refer to the twilight zone, if so why?  Here it is assumed that the space and time must be different to a degree of horror and psychological asphyxiation, but this is not necessary.  Such vile interpretation of space and time different form that that we believe exist as normal is falsely assuming the deviance of another space.  Such is the fetish of many to assume the there can be a “normal” space and time.  Moreover, the ability for us to truly become of aware of such transformation of our self and the space in which we occupy is questionable.  How do we know it exist or occurs if we cannot place any type of absolute framing into its descriptions?  The answer is not one that can be simply provided in any degree of objectivity in observation.  Observation itself is subjective and thus we arrive at understanding of a personal experience.  The observation and mere pondering of transformation from one space to another could be considered experience, but is it really experiential?  If one does not cognitively recognize and gain the ability to articulate, or at least attempt to articulate, such experience can it be called experience?  How can we make distinction between experiences as something of an occurrence situated in the objective in contrast with transformation which is situated with in the subjective.  It is a matter of theoretical view and philosophical inquiry. 

By observing and proposing a theory of transformation I am proposing that the transformation is somehow standard or at least measurable.  This, however, is not what I mean to discuss here.  Rather, what becomes more consuming and contemplative is the subjective referential of self reflection upon the self in the self and of the self while consciously assuming no cognizance, perhaps acknowledgement, of such transformation.  In this sense the transformation can never be described nor attributed to anyone except the self and conscious undertaking of that self to attempt to understanding the transformation and subjugation of a new space and temporal allowance.  We can simply posit that people enter the coffee shop unaware and incredulous to any such change in their being, identity, or self.  But this matter does not concern nor does it matter if its generalizable to others.  The only one who can provide a settling understanding of what is is the one who is being at the time of such transformation.

We could call upon the pop culture reference to the movie The Matrix in which people participated in a world they believed to be true but in fact existed as a sub-world to the “real world.”  The issue of real and reality are also complicated and can only be explained as much as they are contemplatively experienced.  Dreams provide an example of such space in which we believe things to be real for an amount of time and only when we gain consciousness in our unconscious state(i.e. lucid dreaming) do we come to understand that real and reality are not objective claims but very subjective to the understanding and transformation, conceptually of the self in such a space and time.

* Sorry, this was posted twice. I deleted the duplicate.

 

I think the husband and I may have lost a year off our lives.  Yesterday, my mother told me that while she and the Cocolette and my sister were out shopping, the Cocolette complained of chest pains.  She said she was was rubbing her chest and said, "It's okay Tabba, it usually goes away after a while."  I was PISSED because my mother didn't think to call me until about 9:00 p.m. to tell me!  Her explanation was "she seemed fine."  This of course threw the husband and me into full scale panic mode. The kiddo at the time was still at my sister's house because she was supposed to stay there for a week.  I was tempted to run right over there and pick the child up.  However, I didn't want her to panic so I figured it would be safer for her to stay there until we could pick her up to go to the doctor's in the morning.  Make no mistake, I was determined to get a doctor's appointment today even if I had to act a complete and utter ass to get one.  Luckily, I didn't. I was easily able get one today, *whew!*

 

So, between the hours of 9:00 p.m. yesterday and 9:00 a.m. this morning the husband and I were miniutes away from stroking out or having a coronary.  I pretty much stayed up all night praying and conversing with the Lord.  "Why Lord? Why my baby?" "Sweet Jesus don't take my baby! Whyyyyyyyyy!!"  My stomach became upset and I spent a good portion of the night on "the throne". I couldn't wait until that doctor's office opened so I could make an appointment!

 

When that moment finally came, I made an appointment for 1:30 p.m. and I called my sister and told her to make sure the kiddo was up and ready to go.  Once we picked her up and made it to the doctors office, we were seen right away.  She explained to the doctor that her chest hurt all over and sometimes her stomach, too.  After checking her breathing, heartbeat and pressing her in various areas and asking, "does it hurt here?" he looked at us, smiled and said, "She's not having chest pains, she's having muscle aches." He showed her the connection of muscles that extended from her chest to her abdominal muscles and asked her if she liked playing on the monkey bars. She nodded and I told him that she was also doing sit ups and crunches.  To make a long story short, he prescribed Tylenol, gave her the last shot in her Hep-A series and suggested we get a series of blood tests done because she hasn't had any blood work done since she was a baby.  We were seriously relieved to say the least. Now I think I may need a doctor!

 

I should have known today was going to be a good day when I checked the mailbox this morning.  I was pleasantly greeted with a large white envelope sent byRV1501! Inside was a vacuum sealed bag of Hawaiian coffee beans! RV is a sweet, SWEET angel! *mwah* 

I haven't been posting anywhere near as much as I would like, and my last few posts have had almost nothing to do with living and working in Japan. I suppose it's because I've been here a while and I've gotten quite used to it... nothing strikes me as particularly noteworthy as of late.

That doesn't mean that I'm depressed or that I hate Japan or the people around me or anything... in fact quite the opposite. Now that I have fallen into a good routine and I know what I can and can't get away with at work I am rather comfy. Plus I will have a nice, long summer vacation in a mere month and a half. I can't wait to visit friends in Tokyo.

I've also been staying good to my word and writing at least a page a day, most of which I just delete, but a few that I feel pretty good about. And of course I have been mixing songs a lot and reading.

On a Japan related note I taught at a kindergarten today which made me very happy. The kids were fun and responsive... we played duck duck goose and made animal noises. The teachers were surprisingly helpful too.

The one problem is that when I arrived they served me coffee. Iced coffee. I am not a fan of iced coffee, both because I tend to get sick to my stomach when I drink it and I am still of the opinion that "iced" coffee is just a nice way to say "cold coffee". I know I wouldn't serve anyone cold coffee; it just seems in poor taste (pun intended).

Anyways my big idea now is that I might start a podcast featuring my mixes and, if anyone actually listens, other peoples mixes as well. I'm into eclectic and old school stuff lately, but if you look online you will mostly find mainstream hip hop, house (all kinds) and the occasional D&B mix podcast. I would like to feature stuff that deveates from the typical club scene... like what I did in It Goes in Cycles with the Gremlin Rag/Check the Skillz mash-up. I have two mixes in the works now, both with heavy 70's influences. The first is a pure disco mix which I have been kicking around for a while now and the other is a funky 70's funk revival thing. I figure once I have 8 mixes that I am happy with I will do this... like once a week or every two weeks. I will have 9 mixes (including my old jungle mixes that I am happy with) once I finish these two I am working on now.

Speaking of podcasts, I thought I would go ahead and list the ones that I subscribe to here. Any archaeologist will tell you that the best way to learn about a culture is to find its garbage. Well, this is kind of like my internet garbage I guess... so here is a list of what I listen to/watch, why, and why you should too.

This American Life:
An hour long radio show produced from my hometown of Chicago. Host Ira Glass guides us through on average three stories each week covering a variety of topics. Each episode is themed, so one week might be "Fiascoes" and the next "How and why the housing loan industry almost took down the world economy". The stories are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes thought-provoking. One of the things I love about the show is that it can't be labeled as "comedy" or "drama" or the like. Not every episode is gold, and some can be downright boring (I'm looking at you, "Ghost of Bobby Dunbar"), but most are at least worth a listen.

BBC Newspod and Global News:
This is where I get all my news from. The BBC is probably one of the most reliable sources for news out there, so I try to listen at least once a day. Global News is really just a rehash of the Newspod, but it often includes stories from areas not covered in Newspod, so subscribing to both is a good idea.

Channel Frederator:
Great source of original animation. Very experimental styles are the hallmark of the podcast and they often have catchy songs attached to them. One of the neatest ones that is still available for download is the Drinking and Drawing animation, wherein a cartoon was made in a bar by scribbling on paper while getting drunk. It's a cool idea and is executed really well.
The Meth Minute (by Dan Meth) is an extension of Channel Frederator and is worth downloading in tandem. You can only subscribe through iTunes.

The Wubbcast:
Adorable Children's animation about a little animal of sorts named Wubsy, created by Bob Boyle. The podcast also includes select animations by various unsigned artists. The quality of the art and story-telling is top notch, and if you have an eye for animations I highly suggest this one.

They Might be Giants Friday Night Podcast:
For Kids! For Families! For you! My girlfriend told me about this one. Hosted by puppet versions of the two Johns of They Might Be Giants the podcast features a host of songs from the bands' DVD "Here Come the 123's" and "Here Come the ABC's". A lot of the script is ad-libbed making for some great off-the-cuff comedy.
The other podcast by They Might be Giants is simply titled They Might be Giants Podcast. It isn't aimed at kids per se, but there isn't anything I wouldn't let my kids listen to in it... if I had kids. This one is kind of a natural extension of the Dial a Song thing that They Might be Giants used to (still?) do, as the podcast features a bunch of unreleased and unfinished tracks. If you don't like They Might be Giants, this podcast is obviously a bad idea. If you do like them or are indifferent, I highly suggest these, especially the kids' one.

I'm also subscribed to The Best of Youtube, but that could really just be called "Look at this funny viral ad/animal/guy getting hurt!" It's good on rare occasion, but it's primarily "internet funny", so expect to see the best stuff used to death, resurrected, killed again, and repeat.

So that is the bulk of my debitage. I have a new hip hop mix that I will post soon, hope everyone likes that too.

-Maru!

Yesterday was cloudy and I was low on coffee.

Today is sunny, the weekend's here, I have a new bag of my fave Seattle's Best House Blend coffee, a great new book by The Dali Lama, there's a huge comic convention here Sat. n Sun., aannnd I also did a snag buy at the store and got a fresh Key Lime cheese cake! Ohhh yeaah, life is good.

Have a great weekend everyone, peace.