true colombian roast2

Tuesday, January 11, 2005
the true colombian roast

coffee shops are doing brisk business. where i am right now, the café has become a melting pot of intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals who get off discussing the meanderings of human existence. beautiful ideas are born—and killed—in the exact same place. at the onset, everything seems to be equal. but as soon as people open their mouths, the great divide spreads its legs even w i d e r. for example, at a table set along the alfresco strip, three friends discuss chinese communism. "mao tze tung was convinced of the immense potential of peasant strength. blame it on the peasant revolution. his viewpoints were totally against orthodox marxism, though, which is why he lost the support of the chinese communist party, which feared alienating sun yat-sen's kuomintang party." and at another table near the barista, four friends also discuss chinese communism. well, sort of. "mao tze tung? isn't that, like, better than mushu pork? but i think i'm into italian, nowadays. like, pasta. i love fellini." erm, yeah. the great divide, indeed. last week, i was one of the intellectuals (yes, i am a card-carrying member) who entered three different cafés on three different days and walked out with three different epiphanies. not that it was a bad thing. however, i am only allowed one epiphany a week. or else i overanalyze things then suffer from severe mood swings. epiphany number one. i am transparent. epiphany number two. i am transparent. really. epiphany number three. i am transparent. to the point that it's not even funny anymore. did i say three different epiphanies? well, these differ in terms of degree, don't they? to make a long story short, let's just say that my extreme openness (in three different circumstances) came back and bit me right on the derrière. a big, rabid, festering bite. but i am better now. i eventually realized that i should come with a label: I AM TRANSPARENT. WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT, I CANNOT LIE TO SAVE MY LIFE. BUT MAYBE I WILL TO SAVE YOURS. I DON'T KNOW. LET'S CROSS THE BRIDGE WHEN WE GET THERE. SO USE ME WITH DISCRETION OR SO HELP ME. so maybe you'll understand my love-hate relationship with caffeine. and maybe you'll forgive me when i look forward to that day when someone appropriately invites me out for coffee only to mean, "fancy a fuck?" now that would be easier to process, easier to digest, easier to react to than, say, mao tze tung and chinese communism. but really, i am better now. that was just the coffee talking.

i rode north at 10:53 PM 20 kph

JErm pedaled up to say... Hey at least you can be transparent in the middle of a crowd.. that's something a LOT of people wish they could do! I'm transparent even when I'm alone.. I can't even see my fucking self in the mirror!! Believe me is better to sit in a cafe and listen to folks blabbering about mao tze tung than being caged listening to your own heartbeat.

11:44 PM
rain pedaled up to say... okay. somebody get this girl some more coffee!!! haha. seriously, trans. i think you better lay off the caffeine for a while. you might end up in a 12-steps program. :p

1:28 AM
claudzki pedaled up to say... haha...liked the mao tse tsung one... appreciating different interpretations :D

1:33 AM
Village Idiot pedaled up to say... Forget the going out for coffee...how about just joining me for a whole bag of caramels...(shamelessly and appropriately ripped off from what movie?) VI

2:46 AM
retarius pedaled up to say... isn't it odd how coffee has become a religion and coffehouses have become temples? or offices away from the office...the guy with the laptop and the cell phone and the charts doing a corporate takeover with his double tall mocha latte. so when you say transparent, you mean people don't acknkowledge you or they see right through you and you can't lie. really, either one isn't too bad if you look at it a certain way. damn, i am all notey..sorry for going on like this, won't happen again. oh, and >>hey VI...good will hunting. sorry to ruin it.
2:57 AM
mussolini pedaled up to say...

It was Krushchev who accused Mao of straying from true Marxist doctrine.
3:21 AM
transience pedaled up to say...

JErm >> "...caged listening to my own heartbeat." i need to do this more often. btw, be careful about losing your reflection. it could wreak havoc, like your boulder did in malibu.

rain >> agh. and to think i swore off caffeine a few years back. this is all my bladder's fault. it's developing a tolerance.

claudzki >> heh. yeah.

village idiot >> hahaha! join you for a whole bag of caramels, eh? maybe i would. depends on what brand of candy you have in mind. and damn, retarius just ruined your whole movie question thing.

retarius >> i like you "note-y." it means you pay attention.

mussolini >> yeah. but i was talking about 1927, when mao wrote that paper about the peasant movement in hunan.
4:23 PM
Kishore pedaled up to say...

I read thro the piece, pedaled my way the kphs' ... well! what do I have to say for it - "I just want some coffee now" and maybe then we talk .. heeee
4:47 PM
Anonymous pedaled up to say...

Brilliant... I was just thinking the other day over cup of coffee about an obscure bjork video which could've had a thousand meanings and allegories... but then the coffee kicked in and I had to get up and do something before I got jittery and started fidgeting with the sugar packets and waitresses :P



Peace.

Monsterspank.
4:50 PM
JErm pedaled up to say...

Sounds like you're more than willing to swap lives with me.. I guess I could use a change for a day or two? So how bout it swetie?
9:23 PM
Jay pedaled up to say...

I love the great divide; I rely on it to feel more important that I really am.
Sometimes I think I'm missing out on the whole coffee craze. I don't do the cafe thing. I don't bond over caffeine, or require it to do my deep-thinking. And yet it seems like at least weekly, if not daily, someone is trying to drag me in, sit me down, and 'have coffee'.

Also, in regards to being too transparent to lie, that's probably why you write so well. You can't get away with it in person, but writing, good writing at least, is often described as a series of intricate, entertaining lies, woven into a story.
1:26 AM
Anonymous pedaled up to say...

..the migraine having lasted now for nearly a week.. i am too mentally handicapped to say anything even microscopically clever in response other than "the great divide spreading its legs" brings an interesting visual to mind in conjunction with the phrase "fancy a fuck"... philosophically speaking.. a fuck has bridged more than one divide & filled more than one gap but generally has nothing to do with coffee.. unhh.. is this post about coffee, fucking or chairman mao? (fucking chairman mao whilst drinking coffee) join with me in saying.. ewwww.. excuse me while i return to the murderous throb that is my brain and a quiet dark corner..

monsterspank
5:44 AM
Calaloola pedaled up to say...

Working at one of those giant bookstore/ coffeehouse chains gives me a front row seat to the spectacle that is the intellectual divide, case in point: the countless peeps who come into the store looking for the history book, "*Mayo's* Last Dancer"(!) Mayo? Was this the Condiment Revolution, perhaps?
7:44 AM
transience pedaled up to say...

kishore >> yeah. coffee. then talking. good idea. hee.

monsterspank >> yay for obscure bjork videos! but wait...you fidgeted with waitresses? never saw that in a café before. teach me.

JErm >> that wouldn't be a bad idea. it would get me to indonesia. and i'd have great dexterity with computers, too.

jay >> people around here do everything over coffee. like it was paris or something. or maybe everyone is just craving a fix.

i appreciate your insight about the transparency issue. but i do find it hard to lie, even when writing. no matter how hard i try, the truth leaks out. and those who know me well enough can read between the lines. frightening, isn't it?

monsterspank>> eeewww. only you could string these things together.

the post is really about the self-realizations i've had about transparency. it just so happened that they occurred over coffee while i was eavesdropping. the drama just faded into the background. which is a good thing, really. i wouldn't want to be accused of sappiness three times in a row.

i knew you'd notice the phrases "the great divide spreading its legs" and "fancy a fuck." these are needles you'd easily pick out from any haystack, heh.

and this migraine thing isn't normal anymore. go see a doctor, okay? call you later sweetie

calaloola >> mao's last dancer. li cunxin, right? but mayo's last dancer sounds much more interesting. *giggle* condiment revolution, indeed. you have a way with words.
10:05 AM
JErm pedaled up to say...

why would anyone want to come to indofucksia?? it's been spreading its legs for centuries and no one wants to fuck it so there came the tsunami fucking it all over!! this place is god-forsaken.. stay where you are.. i'll stay here to save you from damnation!
11:59 AM
transience pedaled up to say...

JErm, hush. it's nobody's fault that the tsunami happened. don't bleed yourself dry, it'll get better.
1:08 PM
monsterspank pedaled up to say...

I was just about to blog and I think my caffeine just ran out... oh what a fuckin headache... anyway I was about to comment again on your transparency, I got that same damn problem.. people see right through me... thing is sometimes I'm too honest and people don't like the truth that much.. they like their ego's stroked and to know that everything is okay and that they are really clever people who know a lot and that their lives don't suck... but then they meet me and ... God Forbid... ask me a question.

Dont know if you get frustrated withthe transparency thing... I need to go study how to be a spy or something.. some training to lie to myself sometimes. It's hard to fight the truth though.

Peace.

M.
5:42 PM
Anonymous pedaled up to say...

Ay, toss the slings and arrows as thou wilt, layer upon layer stacked on mine misfortune. Yea, still.. I say fie! Knoweth I, the true fiend. Gods teeth, t'was hardly a mere beverage to imply, thy infirmity of mind. For, surely, thee are touched, by the deevil himself!

(Or at least a serious need to get laid. Don't blame your sexual innuendos on me -returns to coma-)

Hark, Nae long for this world, see then, with clarity unbridled, the wisdom of my word, and, the meaning of thine.
12:56 AM
karma pedaled up to say...

those phonies probably don't know how to spell inttele ... itillictwal ... aww entillictual??? :D
8:29 AM
transience pedaled up to say...

monsterspank >> truth is so much better than fiction! why fight it?

spank >> och, you can get pretty cryptic at times. i was just teasing you, dearest. if i was lacking in sympathy a few days back, then i am sufficiently contrite now. as for getting laid, well...the tragedy of it all. i have been celibate for far too long (two weeks, blech.)

get better then you can...

karma >> the two of you... tsk tsk .but i bet they can spell duh.
9:10 AM

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