I'm back! And it's only been two months since the last (and first) post. Ha, go me! Anyway, figured, y'know, might as well start it all up again now that I have more time. Let's launch into it:
Coffee!:
Coffee! Hooray! I love coffee. I'm a barista, and as such, have a more-than-casual interest in it. Let's preface this: I've been working at Bellano for just about a year now (1 year already!), and we've had Zoka's Espresso Paladino for the entire time. And recently, I've been thinking, "Hey, we should mix it up with our choice of espresso." Fortunately, my bosses have been thinking the same thing.
About a week ago, Bill (one of said bosses) came up to me and told me we'd be trying out a new espresso, and I was like, "Sweet." I asked what he had in mind, and from behind his back, like a tall, stealthy magician, he produced several bags of Intelligentsia Black Cat! Woo-hoo! At the 2007 Western Regional Barista Competition, one of the Intelligentsia baristas from LA made me a double Black Cat, and I was blown away. It was, far and away, one of the best espressos I've ever had, so when Bill told me we'd be thinking about Black Cat, I was stoked! We emptied the grinder of Paladino, filled it with Black Cat, and Jessica (co-worker) dialed in. She set her grind and served me the finished product. As expected, it rocked my face off.
Of course, after that, the next test of espresso mettle was a cappuccino . Now, as I said, we've been doing Paladino for the last year, and I don't really like it with milk, so I rarely have it in a cappuccino. As such, when Jessica offered me a cappuccino, I was skeptical. What if it was bad? But one mind-blowing sip put those fears to rest. It's great! I love it. Black Cat is freakin' awesome. I want to get to know it. I want to hang out with it, talk to it, learn its life story and bond with it. Word on the street is, when the Intelligentsia in LA starts roasting, we'll be looking into it. Unfortunately, I might be gone by then! Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Show Review: Mystical Herb/the Chillin' Dogs- The Bronco @ Santa Clara University, 17 May 2007
So. Another show review. Which is okay, because I love shows. Especially free shows. I went with my homeboy D-Street, who was skeptical because he'd never heard of the bands, but I told him that I hadn't either and besides, it was free. So he agreed to go, and we went. We got there an hour early because the Asian Man Records staff told me the wrong time (how dare they?!), had some coffee, and waited to see what would happen.
As we waited, waited, and waited some more, strangers in a strange land, we were thinking about leaving when the show finally started. The Chillin' Dogs took the stage, and I recognized Bob and Mike from Shinobu, along with a fellow I didn't recognize. Immediately, I looked over at Streeter and said, "This can only be good." Little did I know how right I was.
Look, I'll be honest. The music was pretty good. I dig it. It wasn't AMAZING, it wasn't, like, so totally life-changing, but it was pretty rad. I like the rap music, I'm hip with the kids. But any show where one (or more) of the band members end up pantsless is freakin' great by my standards. I personally think that most, if not all, social functions should end with one or more people without pants. This and the presence of the most underrated of percussion instruments, the egg shaker, made me wholly regret the mere thought of leaving.
So, the Chillin' Dogs wrap it up, and roughly half of the people in the room gather and walk outside. I happened to recognize several of these individuals as members of Shinobu and Pteradon, as well as Skylar, the Asian Man Records mascot. Confused, all I could be sure of was that a band I've never heard of called Mystical Herb was going to take the stage.
And take the stage they did! They took it and they rocked it, like a hurricane. From out of nowhere, approximately a dozen and a half people in shiny, colorful robes and purple party hats ran on stage and started playing. It was easily one of the greatest things I'd seen all Thursday. So sum it up, it's basically the Polyphonic Spree meets Kali, the dark goddess of chaos. On top of a big pile of eccentricity and puppies. David Streeter said that it gave him a headache after a while, but he's probably wrong.
As far as I can tell, the entire set was one really long song. Either that, or 14 smaller songs. Or a hundred really small songs. Point is... well, I don't really know any more words for it. If you have the chance, you should check 'em out. Even if you don't have the chance, you should do it anyway.
Anywaaaaay... there it is. I'm back, and I anticipate updating much more frequently. You should to.
