This one's a variation on an old theme. We are introduced to an utterly barbaric people. Their days are spent pillaging one another, sexually assaulting and seizing, fighting with large sticks, eating turkey legs with their hands all greasy and drinking grog from a broken stein.
Once a year, they have a "festival." During this two-week period, they spend their time playing the cello, solving bridge problems, listening to chamber-music with a rapt expression, doing Saturday NY Times crossword puzzles with little reading glasses on, discussing plays by Chekov, tasting wine and spitting it out, and other related activities. Maybe they mix it up with a little bit of golf and tennis, but nothing much more physical than that. After two weeks, exhausted yet refreshed, they return to their usual routine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I like and understand this one.
Dude, here in Portland, twice a day, they do "cuppings" at stumptown annex. I am a little unsure of the exact nature of this beautifully anal ritual, but it seems to involve the following.
Stumptown Annex (Stumptown is like Dave P running a coffee shop) is right next door to a fulsize coffeeshop run by the same people. It is even more modern and minimally designed than the big cafe, which lends itself perfectly to the ritual they undergo there. They test out new types of coffee, which run from 15-40 dollars a pound -for coffee. So they lay out 4 cups for each bean, eah person walks to the grinder and grinds, one bean at a time, the beans for one of the 5-6 beans, walks back to that designated cup, puts the grounds in a cup, repeats... for all the beans. Then (this first part took 5-ish minutes) they get the water. then they pour the water into one of the four-per-bean cups (not I repeat NOT the one with the grounds- you must WAIT FOR IT), repeat for each. Then they pour the water into the ground filled cup. Repeat for each. Then they sniff. Each. Cup.
And discuss. Then, each cup steeps a bit. Then, fore each cup, they scrape, with two delicately poised spoons, the grounds from the surface. repeat for each. Still sniffing.
Finally, they are allowed to drink the coffee. But no sipping: too gauche. They instead SLURP up the tiniest little bits of coffee- from the spoons they scrape grounds with (don't worry- the 4th cup was filled with 'greywater' for rinsing dirty spoons etc). This shoots the coffee across all the palate simultaneously, while saving coffee for everyone. (it seems like it is just for employees- so why then do it so publicly?? Maybe it is open to the public, but the only ones who are interested just yet are the employees of stumptown?) It sounds like they have crazy-running noses, like they ate whole hot peppers dipped in wasabi, except the noise is coming from their coffee-filled mouth. Well, not filled: tiny little bits.
(can i write a comment this long? I have totally forgotten what blog I am even responding to- sorry chris if I am hijacking yo shit!)
The whole process takes a least a half an hour. I am still on the fence if i amusedly like this ritual, tolerate it as an oddity, or despise it. Actually, I decided: all three at once.
only in portland??
I'm not sure if I fully understand what they are doing and how, but I think I get the basic gestalt. Who is Dave P?
Post a Comment