Canadian Color - The unmeasureable hipness of Habit Coffee · Saturday October 18, 2008 by colin newell
I sat in Bubby Roses Bakery Cafe this morning and chowed down on a spectacular serving of Challah French Toast – a half-order in fact. Baker-owner and Socratic master, Mark Engels and I mused… “I wonder what the average age of your clientele is?”
I continued, “I figure there is a big block of kids in their mid-twenties… a gap… lots of 50-somethings and then those over 60s-young and beyond…”
Mark injects, “I wish I knew that information…”
Truth is, there are some remarkable looking young people that hang out at Bubby’s on Saturday morning. A young lady in particular stands out – she has the face of a child and is obviously in her twenties – her buff stud dude has biceps twice the size of my legs and they cuddle in the warm October Sun. They are a picture of youthful and unspoiled purity – at least on some perverse level…
Flash forward a few hours. If Bubby Roses is the sanctuary to youthful maidens with gorilla sized gentle giant boyfriends, Habit Coffee and Culture is a missing chapter out of a modernized Hunter S. Thompson novel. Habit Coffee and Culture oozes an impossibly rich sap of hipness and has caffeinated beverages brewed to heighten already jaded slackers to unheard levels of awesomeness.
As a reasonably jaded 40 something on the eve of my 5th decade on Planet Earth, I watch with muted amusement the funky social dance performed by these naive critters of the Z and Millennial generations. We are on the leading edge of an economic crash – where we will pass from an era of excess and endless employment opportunity – where a slacker job (high paid) incorporates chill time, face book time, spa time and, well, simply not showing up for work if they do not feel like it… and like whaddya gonna do about it anyway?!?
The Z’s and Millennial`s fail to realize that once this current bubble bursts, they will be ill equipped to deal with the realities that us 30-somethings and 40-somethings survived so well 10, 15 and 20 years ago.
I laugh. Ha. Ha.
Kids these days remind me of growing up on the farm in the 70’s and eying giddy fatted and rambunctious lambs gamboling from one stump to another…
moments prior to the slaughter. They have no idea. None.
Pass the mint jelly.
Fall Colors Canadian Style - among the living legends · Thursday October 16, 2008 by colin newell
It is the summer of 1943. You are in Burma. As a POW (Prisoner of War). You are being held captive by the Japanese Empire. You are working on a railway. You work in unthinkable conditions working harder than you will ever work in your life – for no salary and hardly enough food to get through the day. Your brothers in this task are Australians, Brits, Dutch, Americans, fellow Canadians, and ethnic Asians enslaved by the empire for the express purpose of building a railway. You are 19. Your name is Peter.
In 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma from Thailand and took it from Britain rule. To maintain their forces in Burma, the Japanese had to bring supplies and troops to Burma by sea, through the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea. This route was vulnerable to attack by Allied submarines, and a different means of transport was needed. The obvious alternative was a railway. In June 1942, the empire of Japan set out to do the impossible. They needed labor and they got it from almost 300,000 slaves and POW’s. You survive because you are young and strong. Your American buddies who survive call you Pete. The Australians call you sir.
The estimated total number of civilian laborers and POWs who died during construction is about 160,000. About 25% of the POW workers died because of overwork, malnutrition, and diseases like cholera, malaria, and dysentery. You celebrate your 20th birthday with a bowl of rice in one hand and a pick axe in the other.
In the year 2008, I look at a flat-screen monitor struggling to boot Windows XP. I wonder if the OS is corrupt of whether or not the hard-drive is on its last legs. I unplug USB devices and switch off unneeded ports in BIOS to free up resources in memory. There seems to be little that I can do to unfurl this mess.
Over my shoulder, a very encouraging Peter B. gives me the odd clue as to the demise of his cherished PC. He enjoys his e-mail, his web browser and the photos of his grand-children and great-grand children. Peter and his wife are in remarkable health and embrace this modern technology. And yet I cannot wrap my mind around the visual… a teenage boy slashing his way through a tropical jungle, warding off disease and tolerating hunger while older men fall around him.
There is something about helping a veteran from another era that is sobering and humbling – when men and women fought for the very survival of freedom and democracy and paid the ultimate price.
Words escape me. They really do. On November 11, 2008 (Remembrance Day in Canada) – think about Peter, the survivors. And those that did not survive.
Comment [1]
Fall Colors Canadian Style - Giving Thanks pre-Election day · Monday October 13, 2008 by colin newell
On a recent trip to the U.S.A. I spoke with quite a few folks standing in the queue to get on the boat back to Victoria – We had just spent the weekend in Seattle, Washington – arguably one of the coolest, sweetest, hippest and politically savvy cities in the Union – perhaps in North America – and we had a productive visit to Coffee-Fest – and we were coming home.
People misunderstand Americans. Especially from a global perspective. And unless you can actually reach out and touch one, you really do not understand what they are all about. What they are, from my observations, are really hard on themselves – especially these days. Their economy is in the tank and it is effecting economies Worldwide – and their military adventures have been less than successful this decade.
And yet I like Americans – virtually every one I have ever met. And they return the favor. What I experienced, more than anything else, was their thankfulness to be living next to a peaceful country like Canada – apparently we influence them on some level – at least that is what I was told.
Well thanks.
Canadians are so different, we celebrate Thanksgiving earlier… weeks earlier – this weekend in fact.
This weekend we give thanks – for what is left of our retirement savings… if we are brave enough to look. Thanks to our government and financial institutions for being regulated enough not to find ourselves in the mess that our friends to the South are experiencing. Thanks.
Thanks that we have a roof over our head. Thanks that the people around us are reasonably healthy. We live in a city that has seen increasing issues with poverty and homelessness. I give thanks to those who work tirelessly to solve some of these challenges. To those alone in this city, living without family – on a day where one could get seriously depressed being reminded what they do not have – I offer them best wishes and hope for the future.
To fate. That gave me two strong arms and a healthy body… once again, I say thanks.
Tomorrow we have a federal election – a democratic process that I have learned to appreciate during my life. Thank you to those who fought for this.
Oh yea. In the picture above. Thanks to the Irish Times pub that let us split a burger for lunch – along with a couple of small glasses of beer. A tribute, if you would, to those that have little.
Thanks.
Comment [3]
Fall Colors Canadian Style - Last minute election attack ads · Friday October 10, 2008 by colin newell
I am not a big fan of Stephen Harper – but I am not so much against the man to think that he would make a terrible Prime Minister – fact is, he will probably do way better than anything I could come up with.
And Stéphane Dion? Same thing. Or Jack Layton… and Elizabeth May… or Gilles Duceppe… all the same.
So what is with these increasingly absurd attack ads in the last week leading up to the election?
“Vote for Stephen Harper and be prepared to lose all your money… and your hair. Are you prepared to risk it?
“A Jack Layton majority is… bad. Really bad. You know what will happen if you vote for Jack Layton? You might as well raise the Red flag over Ottawa. Your children will come home stoned and pregnant… or worse. Is that what you really want?“
“Stéphane Dion is bad for Canada. And your blood pressure. A vote for the Liberals is a lethal pill that will put to you sleep. A sleep that you will not wake up from. And while you sleep, your home will be broken into… by monkeys. Monkeys with mischief on their minds. Mischief and chaos. Is that what you want?
Alright. A vote for Elizabeth May and her Green party will cause your skin to peel off, your children will rebel and ultimately kill you… and while they are dancing on your grave they will quickly become crack addicts – but you will not care, because you will be frozen in a dozen pieces in a freezer next to 15 pounds of ribs from M&M Meats. Is that what you want?
Finally. A vote for Gilles Duceppe is a vote for New France. And that is just plain Crazy!
Anyway. Get out there and vote. For something. And someone.
