Transmission from Caffeinator_X

I initially started this blog as a way to review local coffee shops, imagining myself as a caffeinated version of Jason Sheehan from Westword or Ricardo Baca, bar writer for the Denver Post. What I come to realize more and more as I schlep in and out of the various java joints throughout the city, and as I read other bloggers who have attempted the same mission, is that coffee shops can't be judged on the same technical "thumbs up / thumbs down" sort of criteria as a restaurant or watering hole. No matter how much credence one puts on quality of coffee, experience of barista, even aesthetic value of the art on the walls... what keeps a person coming back for their next fix is more subjective and intangible than that. Kind of like how even though you know "Citizen Kane" belongs at the top of any best movie list, you've seen, say, "Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon" starting Taimak about a hundred more times. ("Sho' Nuff!")

In short, what I've come to realize is that even though I love coffee shops, I don't even like most coffee shops. And that makes it kind of tough to be objective when you're reviewing a place who's owners decided on a whim "Hey, I've got an original, novel idea... Let's open one of those expresso shops all the kids like!".

So I dropped the ball, left the blog behind. Because, hey, nobody wants to read their favorite haunt getting bashed; it's like having someone pee on the altar at your church.

Then, last weekend, I went and got a cup of coffee at Kahladi's w/ fellow blogger and bean geek Troy (http://www.scooterdad.blogspot.com/) who called bullshit on my protestations of why I haven't been writing. So what if I'm so broke right now that I can't even afford to spend the $2 to go to coffee shops to get something to write about? (for the record, this is true; he was buying) What about my love of coffee, and the culture that surrounds it?

Sure, there'll still be some reviews for the places that really knock me out. And I'll still give hell to the half assed, "why bother?" joints that raise my ire. But what this blog will really be about is that "subjective and intangible" that I mention above. Meditations on my ideal hangout... Sonnets and salutations to the beauties sitting on the patio... Pornographic descriptions of the line of a vintage espresso machine. Just observations from a coffee whore, a guy who's been on both sides of the counter, who's now sitting in the ratty old couch, watching the world out the window.