I never watched The Jeffersons, and I don’t ever use a dry clean service. The east side is of no importance to me & neither are deluxe apartments in the sky. Your ability to enjoy this blog is of great importance to me, however.

Because of this feeling of importance, this blog has moved to a new home that looks nice and swank. All the content that is here from the past 16 months of blogging is over there, too…so don’t worry about all those old posts you love and having to come here to see them and going there to see what’s new. Just go there. Where is there?

Click here.

www.appendixej.com

Tell your friends, your lover, your dry cleaner. There isn’t any fish fryin’ or beans burnin’, just all good things Everyday Joe’s and our immediate universe. See you there.

love.

everyday joe’s

Back in November, we became quite excited about the Handmade Militia…a group of local artisans celebrating all things handmade and even hosting seasonal markets to sell the product of their handiwork.

Well, I’m excited to let you know that the Handmade Militia Spring Show will be taking place on May 2 at Everyday Joe’s. We’re normally closed Saturday during the day, but we love & appreciate these folks so much that we jumped at the chance to help them out.

Here’s the details from Susan & Whitney, the minds behind the militia:

How To Enter

1. www.HandmadeMilitia.com to download application.
2. Fill out application
3. Add a few photos of your work
4. Send back to me [susan@susanhazelrich.com] before the 15th of April
5. We will reply to you on or before April 20th

Gritty details: Booth spaces will be roughly 8′ by 10′ and are $95 a piece. Location you ask? Everyday Joe’s located on Mason Ave. in Old Town.

First time show jitters? Don’t be nervous we at Handmade Militia are just about as friendly as a couple of koala bears. Okay, so I couldn’t really think of a good example. Anyhow, email us and let us know if you have any questions.

Extra credit?? Forward this info onto all your creative friends. We are super excited about the response we have had thus far but are certain there are gems just like yourselves out there who’ve yet to apply.

Questions? Concerns? Don’t hesitate to email me (Susan).

Sounds like a pleasant time, huh? They still have 22 spaces available, so if you have something you have made and want to distribute to the masses, do yourself a favor and enter. If not, come down on May 2 and support local people making things.

Further:

• Handmade Militia Official Site

It has been mentioned here a few times over the past month that our friend Aaron Strumpel won Calvin College’s Bandspotting contest and that his new album Elephants is superb and that because the album is superb and because he won Bandspotting he got to perform at the 2009 Festival of Faith and Music, opening up for Over The Rhine.

Said festival took place this past weekend. I have been wondering how things went for Mr. Strumpel. Luckily, Bandspotting judge Andy Whitman maintains a wonderful blog – Razing The Bar – and took time this morning to recant the festivities. He has this to say in regards to Aaron’s set:

“We hung out with Aaron Strumpel, from Colorado, and Todd and Angie Fadel, from Portland, Oregon, who somehow got together to lay down the most outstanding musical set of the conference, a raw, punk-like, discordant, and often strikingly beautiful take on The Psalms. Or, the Wail.”

The rest of the post that brackets this statement says some good things regarding pain & love & God. Read the rest here.

Further:

• Razing The Bar

When you are an organization powered mostly by volunteers, it is a safe bet to assume that the folks around you have hearts that desire to do things for others.

Throughout the year, we see volunteers leave to head somewhere else and help other people. To serve the global community. Maggie Canty took off last summer to serve with YWAM in Switzerland. Now, she is leading a team to Costa Rica to assist with the relief efforts surrounding the January earthquake.

“My team will be headed to Costa Rica, where we will be helping earthquake refugees in several different ways, from working on houses to passing out food to watching children and wherever else there is need.

And eating a lot of bananas. At least that’s what I hear.”

You can read more about Maggie’s adventures beyond Fort Collins – past & present – over at her blog Marge At Large. She’s a good lady and we love her very much.

Further:

• Maggie’s blog Marge At Large
• BBC coverage of the Costa Rica earthquake

This past Friday night, I decided to check my e-mail one last time before shutting down the CPU for the day. I had basketball to watch and sleep to get. My inbox held a pleasant treat for me.

I had a message from good friend/good man Aaron Strumpel…and it involved a download of his forthcoming album Elephants. Immediate giddiness came over me causing my wife to tell me to calm down. This is the album that recently won him the Bandspotting contest. This is the album I have been hearing him talk about since September…maybe longer. This is the album where I’ve been told he pushes himself. This is the album that other musicians I listen to almost obsessively have gone ga-ga over.

Ga- ga.

Excited as I was, I was also tired and wanting sleep. I decided to listen to a couple of songs and save the rest for the next day. Eighty-six minutes later I had listened to the album twice. The elephants were in my mind and spirit. They were charging through my body gently holding my heart with their trunks. I went to bed, falling asleep in true peace. Elephants has things to say & you need to hear it & your heart needs to hear it. I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t believe it.

There is not much more I can say here…mainly because I can’t seem to find the words. My wife describes Elephants as tribal. This is a good word for it. It has heavy beats at parts and mandolins and strings and voices of other friends all over it. Elephants run together. They are a parade. This album is a parade…the songs walking together tail-in-trunk like that scene in The Jungle Book. They belong together.

You can order Elephants here. Aaron Strumpel will be celebrating the release of the album with a show at Everyday Joe’s on May 1.

Further:

• Listen to 2 songs from Elephants
• Order Elephants

Everyday Joe’s likes things from Chicago.

Primarily, we like two things from Chicago: Intelligentsia Coffee and Sleeping At last.

Thankfully, we drink the former everyday. Also thankfully, there is new music coming down the pipes from the latter.

Sleeping At last is entering the studio this weekend to record their follow-up to 2006’s Keep No Score. Here is a tasty treat from rehearsals:

All that and more can be found at the band’s studio journal, which can be found by clicking here. It also seems the band has found a drummer for the studio sessions, and I dig the economy of his movement.

Further:

• Sleeping At Last studio journal
• Sleeping At Last official site

Coffee Shop: Cartel Coffee Lab

Location: Tempe, AZ

Drink: 8 oz. Latte

Drinker: Chris Hess

Two of the cultures I am most intrigued by are converging upon one another: coffee and beer.

Two of the local breweries here in Fort Collins now have beer/coffee offerings. At New Belgium you can try Giddy Up and the folks at Odell Brewing Company were offering their try at the concoction in the tap room for a limited time (can’t remember the name, sorry). It feels like I’ve been drinking various coffee porters for years. Even a few of the folks at Intelligentsia (our Chicago-based roaster) worked with the guys at Three Floyds to produce a very limited run of Dwarven Hammer, a delicious altbier.

Just as good coffee is something I seek out in my travels, a nice pint is never a bad thing to find either. The last time I was in Alaska, I discovered the Midnight Sun Brewing Company. I asked my cousin if we could go to the brewery to do a tasting. He said sure and off we went.

As we drove, I wondered what the tap room at Midnight Sun might be like. The tap rooms at New Belgium & Odell & Fort Collins Brewery are each so distinct to the personality of the brewery that some very grandiose visions began to form in my head. Then we pulled into an industrial complex and parked the car in front of a taxidermy shop. I was confused.

Once out of the car, I realized that Midnight Sun was located in the two spaces next to the taxidermist. One space was full of brewing equipment and the other refrigeration equipment. Taps came out of the corrugated steel covering the refrigerator and a stainless steel counter stood between me and the goodness . On the walls hung merchandise and various heads of animals that couldn fit in the taxidermist’s quarters next door. If we were to show up outside of business hours, the spaces would have been concealed by your typical industrial park garage door. It was like discovering a treasure and the beer was nothing short of mighty fine. I long for it often.

A week ago I had a similar experience when entering the Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe, AZ. I found out about Cartel while watching the United States Barista Championship, as one of the competitors is employed there. I became excited because I was going to be in the Tempe area for vacation. After a bit more research, I realized the shop was on the way to IKEA and quickly came to the conclusion that a beverage from Cartel would be a good prelude to Swedish things.

The wife & I had some initial trouble locating Cartel, as the address we thought was correct brought us to a tattoo parlor in a smallish business park. It turned out to just be confusing signage and after driving around the corner we found our destination and the Australian woman on the GPS was able to take a break.

Once we walked in, I immediately began to flash back to my experience at Midnight Sun. The shop is long and fairly narrow with wonderful (tiny) art on the walls. The roaster sat towards the back of the shop in front of an open garage door, and the coffee bar was on wheels & covered in stainless steel. I approached and ordered a small latte, noticing the doserless grinder and naked portafilter the barista was working with (yes please, thank you). While waiting I noticed the only lights on were above the bar, and the natural light streaming in from either end of the the shop provided  the rest of what you needed. The menu was spray painted on ply wood and various seating areas – couches, stools, tables – were set up where they could fit. I almost had the feeling that if I left and then tried to bring people back, Cartel Coffee Lab would vanish and my friends would think I was making the whole thing up…like Costanza & his party full of supermodels. I had again discovered a treasure, this one tucked away amongst the hustle and bustle of the university down the street.

My latte was great enough I wished I had time for another, but we had “Swedish” lamps to buy. I will return to you Cartel, as long as you promise to be there.

Further:

• Cartel Coffee Lab Official Site
• Midnight Sun Brewery Official Site

I figure we should be celebrating Moustache March as well. We’re proud to present the world-debut of the cappuccino substache:

Have an enjoyable Monday.

love.
everyday joe’s

There is a group of musicians in Fort Collins that are a deeply important part of the Everyday Joe’s family. We’ve literally watched them grow up playing music. They are the Act So Big Forest.

Act So Big Forest is made up of many, many bands…most of which share members. One of those bands is Candy Claws, and they will be celebrating the release of their album Saturday night (3/21) at Everyday Joe’s.

To this point, CC hasn’t done much live performing, but they have made nature videos to accompany their songs or songs to accompany their nature videos. Few my favorite of these videos below. Then listen to their song . Then view the concert poster below that (designed by Rion of Candy Claws…have him design you something). Then come down Saturday night at 7 pm. House Of Leaves & Ocean Bump! are also on the bill. There is a $5 suggested donation.

“Lantern Fish” by Candy Claws

Further:

• Candy Claws Official Myspace
• Act So Big Forest Blog
• Ocean Bump! Official Myspace
• Rion’s Design Portfolio

You might remember back in January when Everyday Joe’s hosted a benefit for Deliver Darfur – an organization started by two of our volunteers to raise money to battle & awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The benefit was an overwhelming success and boasted on of the finest musical lineups these ears have heard in some time.

One of the acts that night, Young Coyotes, are beginning to make waves on a national level.  They’re currently in Austin, TX making the rounds at the ‘09 installment of the SXSW festy and will surely conquer the town by the time their stay there is over. Also, Daytrotter (a fine indie music blog) posted Young Coyotes’ session today and it is chalk full of free downloads. To add good listening (though not easy) to your music library, click the Young Coyotes Coat Of Arms/Beards Advocay Shield below.

Further:

• Young Coyotes’ Daytrotter Session
• Young Coyotes Official Site
• Young Coyotes Blog