woohoo

yeah! we made it. so wouldn't you know it that the very first issue me and brown are going to be on display in barista magazine, it would be christmas season and the mail would be running a week or so late.

this blog (and the company behind it) is a sentimental sort of operation. while we're no limelight hounds, we get excited when we have the opportunity to strut our stuff on the big stage. so i was really pleased when the opportunity came knocking to do a quick write up on our recent barista jam.

ah, the joys of being a blogger who has no idea what he's talking about. i guess i'm one of the ones who raises the ire of those who rule opinion in the industry by virture of their ability to carry a microphone and recording equipment. (and even if not, i include myself in there because i'm precocious that way.) yep, i have no idea what i'm doing. i'm just plodding along blindly and dumbly, hoping to back into my lucky break by--God forbid!--being published in b-mag, which, of course, only encourages me to continue doing what i'm doing. "can't shut down the business now, honey; we're in barista magazine this month!" (because as we all know, posting esoteric blogposts and getting printed in barista magazine = money, recognition and validation. "sarah, where's my fat check?!?") i'm sure it has nothing to do with the concept of being bold/stupid enough to try/say just about anything in the attempt to learn, be taught, push the envelope in any direction, proffer slightly touchy or controversial opinions, poke, prod and the like. it's all done for the sake of the coffee, not for the sake of ourselves. go, jaime! long live barismo!

the hypocrisy is just overflowing with irony. and i love irony. that stuff needs to be called out because it's diametrically counter to everything most of us love about this industry. especially if you haven't met most or even any of the people you're publicly downing. massively immature and quite a shallow, "we four and no more" viewpoint. perhaps just stop reading and you won't have to be pestered by our unwillingness to go away and stop being so meddlesome into the private party that is the specialty coffee industry.

i guess i, like many of the other blogs in question, didn't receive the memo that there are only a few spaces at the table, reserved for elite members of the community who go to all the conferences and shake the right hands. i suppose the only two options for an outpost of a blog such as this one is to either celebrate the little victories we can get--the proverbial crumbs off the table of the big dogs--with every piece of tiny recognition we can get; or shutter our doors and call it a great experience and move on to something else.

upset, am i? not in the least...not anymore, anyways. now i just sort of roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all--of a medium-sized fish calling the minnows a tedium. "can't be bothered by aspiration. i've already arrived. there can't be anything else to learn and study and ponder and discuss."

get over yourself. i invite you to apologize, reconsider, rephrase, recant, or remove your comments. they are surely not what we (thought we) knew about you.

as for us, here we come. get used to us. ain't going nowhere.