Feliz Navidad all you Hipsters and Beatniks

There is nothing I like better than when Irony meets the holidays. I hate the benevolent Hipster Culture, which has definitely been changing into this weird girls wearing Han Solo outfits thing, like a lot. I think it is because it is constantly either trying to hard to be too cute or not enough to be looking like it tries too hard. In fact my lady friend opened up to me and thoroughly hates my pretentious ways in coffee. She doesn’t get coffee because she likes it, she just likes that I have guy friends.

Well even with your handlebar mustaches and your commitment to Arcade Fire (Reflektor was a big “meh” this year) I salute your indelible ability to laugh at yourself. As we wind down for the year and prepare to celebrate our commercialized pagan holiday, take refuge in this video about Hipster Santa. Revel in the fact that this year he bought you Settlers of Catan and a new mason jar set. Enjoy your soy based kombucha drinks with quinoa “chocolate” chip cookies and just laugh at the humor of the holidays.

I have always denied my hipster tendencies but I still feel that it is important to laugh at the absurdity of a trend that you occasionally fall into. It is just fun, and isn’t that what life is all about? Happy Holidays everyone and I look forward to the 2014.

Music For Mondays: Christmas Standards

I’m like a Cat when it comes to Christmas Decorations

If you do or do not already know, I am an Audiophile. That means I love music. I am actually slightly addicted to it. I think that music is our portal into the soul. It connects people and spirits in a way that nothing else can. Maybe it is the harmonics, the unheard notes that aren’t played, whatever it is music is what gets me into a good mood. I really like to use music to create my holiday cheer and spirit. In fact, last night I was listening to some holiday standards, The Charlie Brown Christmas Album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Rosemary Clooney’s rendition of “Snow”, or good ‘ol Dean himself singing “White Christmas”.

All great songs, but to get you into the mood of Christmas I wanted to give you my top10 Christmas songs ever:

#1 Otis Redding- Merry Christmas Baby

I love Blues and Soul music. Always have, always will. I believe that it is the second most American style of music behind Jazz. It is rooted in the songs of our forefathers, of the hard working men and women of American spouting their pain for the world to hear. It is magical and ever since I watched Martin Scorcese’s Blues anthology on PBS I have lived in that blue kind of world. Otis Redding has always been a soft spot for me. His song “Merry Christmas Baby” was released in 1967, the same year he died. The song is a beautiful praise of his woman and how much happiness she brought to him this time of season. It warms me up and makes me feel good about my woman and is something that I feel like I can dance to all night long.

#2 Vince Guaraldi Trio- Skating

This is a hard pick. Every song played on this album is good. In fact it was one of the albums that inspired me to play Jazz. I really like Skating the most because the song reminds me of snow falling. Any time it snows and I can sit at the window I like to turn this song on and watch it fall. It is a song that is lighthearted but at the same time slightly ominous. You love the snow and have fun but you still feel that chill running up your legs as the day goes on. I can get lost in my thoughts with this song, a good cup of coffee and the snow falling outside of my window.

#3 SNL Cast (Chris Kattan, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, Tracy Morgan)- I Wish it Was Christmas Today

Oh man. Every year the SNL Christmas special is on I sit and wait patiently like a wide-eyed kid on Christmas day for this skit to come on. I wait with anticipation and every skit that isn’t it, I start to cry. But than, just when I don’t think I’ll see it. I see a giggling Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon pop up with Tracy and Chris in matching red sweaters and goofy smirks and they sing the BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER! I love it so much. It is childish, simple, catchy, and just pure fun. Exactly what Christmas is supposed to be about. Who cares if it was done by the most unprofessional goofballs on SNL. I love the song and it isn’t Christmas till I get it.

#4 Mountain Goats – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

#5 Walkmen- Holiday Road

#6 Louis Armstrong – Christmas Night in Harlem 

#7 BB King- Merry Christmas Baby

#8 Vince Guaraldi Trio- Christmas Time is Here (More orchestral than vocal version)

#9 Charles Brown – Please Come Home For Christmas

#10 Bing Crosby – White Christmas (Pry the best holiday movie that I watch with my family)

Excuse me boys and girls, I think that as much as I enjoy sharing my music with you, get out there and listen to some of your own. Or check out my post on the Polyphonic Spree’s Christmas album. Happy Holidays and see you in the New Year.

 

Turkey Day Libations

Turkey day is a great day for food.

Happy Turkey Day ladies and gentlebeans!

Today is the day to celebrate gluttony, family, and laziness. Not shopping. If you shop today you are a fool. And I hate you. In fact, I think that everyone hates you.

But I have to tell you. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I think that this is because it’s all about food. AND I LOVE FOOD. I love the preparation, the ability to come together, and especially to share. Something about the idea of sharing, of experiencing life together with people using all 6 senses just titillates me. When I get to labor over a cranberry sauce with whiskey, cinnamon, and citrus and have it shared with family and friends, it sparks something in my life and makes me feel, well, whole.

But as much as I love food. The food isn’t my favorite part. My favorite part of Turkey day is the libations. Turkey day has a lot of staples and standards. Mashed potatoes, turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, the list can go on and on. When you have Thanksgiving once a year, I always hate when I don’t feel surprised. Especially with my family who is very comfortable with bland food. Drinks are able to liven the food up. And the guests.

Libations at Turkeyday serve dual purposes. Firstly, libations add and enhance the flavor of the food. They bring out certain flavors in your food. A really peppery wine will help enhance meatier flavors. A great whiskey cocktail can enhance your pies or citrus like dishes. Libations are the accent to a well made dish.

Here are some of my favorites: 

National Novel Writing Month

When you are at a job in front of a computer all day, than you are at home in front of a computer all day many things get pushed to the wayside. Including working on your blog. But, when you have a really good excuse, you use it and you justify only posting here and there. No why am I using excuses this month? Well because this month is NaNoWriMo! Or Novel November, and for the first time, I am participating.

For those that aren’t in the know, NaNoWriMo is a national event that brings professional and amateur writers together. The goal is very simple. Write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. That is pretty much the only rule. Other than that, you have complete creative freedom. You can write any type of book, fiction or non, mystery or fantasy, and include any type of historical fiction twists and turns you want. I was inspired for my book by reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. A historical fiction book that looked at the early days of the comic book business. I loved that it was able to keep me enthralled and had so many layers. It made me want to write something that was so sincere and honest but so fantastic at the same time. 

Sartorially Self-Inclined: Clothes that wear you

For my Halloween magic show I was a “a fraid” knot

With fall officially thrust upon Colorado, it is exciting for myself and my ladyfriend because we get to pull out all of our sweaters, her tights, and all the other impeccably fashionable fall cold weather gear. We love fall because it is the one season where we get to really express ourselves and have just enough layers to do it. But just like any other season, it is important to recognize and remember important clothing rules. Actually only one rule, wear your clothes, don’t let your clothes wear you!.

Halloween 2013: Dead Man’s Bones

Rockabilly Batman

I love Halloween. The lady and I both agree that it is our favorite holiday. Not just because of the candy, or the dressing up, or even large amounts of playing our favorite game “Costume or Regular Outfit!” It is a delectable game where you have to decide if they are in costume or not. The answers will very well surprise you. No, the real reason we love Halloween is because it is our holiday. We both have all of our other holidays with our respective families so Halloween is the one we get to share. We also love it for Dead Man’s Bones.

Sartorially Self-Inclined: The Commute

Man I love Mr. Porter. Talk about a modern and chic clothing website. I absolutely love all of their articles and style/fashion pieces. I think a lot of the problem with men’s fashion is that the fashion is presented in the same vein as woman fashion. It is all about the style and clothes. But for men, we require something a little more substantial. Men’s fashion should be part of the whole experience. Clothes should be used to highlight or create a layer to our lives. When I look at men’s fashion i like to look at it in context of the setting and situation. I think it is cool to look at an amazingly cut piece from opening ceremony but it won’t really get me to buy the outfit. I mean maybe it is because men don’t have the wherewithal or the creativity to be able to know where you should wear that outfit, but I think that men need context. We need the why we should wear something. Why should i be wearing a suit? Why should I be wearing a flannel and buy an axe from Best Made?

It is just a well groomed website. Much like how a man should carry himself.

It’s all about context and seeing how your clothes fit in the real world. How the man is perceived in the clothes. I think that when men start to make the transition into a more bespoke and tailored fashion sense, they start to become more aware of their presence in the world and how they want to be seen. I mean take for instance shows like Suits, White Collar, and the Mentalists. These men are all very well dressed and demand a certain respect in and out of the office. Not only that, they carry themselves with this absolute classy and casual debonair. They exude control of their situation around them.

When you place the clothes into perspective, I think that it helps men realize and understand the importance of how you present yourself to the world. How you can use clothes as a tool and an asset. Think of them as a way to present your personality, your confidence, but also your ability to just be a man. A Steve McQueen, a Russel Crowe, a Most interesting man in the world!

Men’s style, especially American men style is very much buried in years of tradition and romanticized tendencies. When I start to really focus on how I look I feel in this weird way that I am connecting with a tradition of strong willed, good looking, well respected lineages of men that have come before me.

 

I bring all of this up because Mr. Porter is a website that is constantly providing that context for clothing. Instead of just giving you the clothes at fashion shows or just releases by the companies, they actually place the clothes in real world settings and show you how to wear the clothes and in what context they work. I love suits, I really do. But i recognize that they are not for every setting, but what can I substitute to still maintain that classic American man feel. One of my favorite parts of the website is their video series. They have numerous ones but their most recent release, #thecommute really shows you how dressing well doesn’t inhibit a man’s ability to be an individual but just makes it that much cooler.

You’ll see what I mean.

 

Friday Morning Coffee Break: The Customer Service Topic Yet Again

Have you had enough of Friday yet? Decided to head down to your favorite coffee haunt and order a coffee and “work from home?” If you have join me again for another exciting Friday Morning Coffee Break.

(*Update: My friend TJ at John Galt’s Coffee in Greeley now has latte’s. For a small town it’s a big deal!)

A great coffee podcast and well worth the hour or two to sit down and learn about coffee from coffee peeps

Today though I will forewarn that this is a “Soapbox” post. A soapbox post is formed in the style of a disgruntled tangent. Today I would like to focus and analyze customer service in coffee. But today we will be using the example of the new podcast “Coffee Uncut” to analyze the different approaches to customer service and the lack of understanding  about the relationship between people.

Friday Afternoon Coffee Break: Inspiration

Grab your coffee or tea, take a break form work on Friday and enjoy some inspiration from one of my favorite people in the world. Bill Watterson. Who is Bill Waterson you ask?

Nominated for a Liebster Award

SUCCESS BABY

This is awesome. I originally started this blog thinking that I was just writing it for myself and no one else would read it. But lo and behold, someone was really impressed with what I was doing and nominated me for a Liebster award. I found out that a Liebster award is a peer award passed out from blogger to blogger to improve morale and compliment someone else’s work. The way the award works is a person will nominate 11 blogs with 200 or less followers and send them a list of questions that they want answered. When the 11 people respond they link back to the original blog and send out there own questions to another 11 people. And so it goes on and on and on forever connecting people to new blogs and inspiring people to have fun. I love the idea of this and creating a community of support. Anyways, without further ado, here is my Liebster award interview:

Thank you so much to rubymartes.com for nominating me. It made me feel good.

Here are the 11 questions I am asking my nominees:

1. What is your favourite thing to do?

One of my favorite things to do is to brew and drink really good coffee and libations. Over the last few years I have gotten into enjoying really good drinks. If you read my blog you know that I have a lot of friends in the coffee and booze industry. When I sit down and enjoy a drink with them, I get to really enjoy all of the flavors and subtle nuances of the drink. For some reason when I taste something and enjoy the flavor, I feel like I am experiencing the best things about life.

2. What is your most hated item of clothing?

My most hated item of clothing that I own is my cheap white shirts from target. Part of the Merona clothing line, these shirts are slightly too tight in the shoulders and too short in the sleeves and instead of getting rid of them I am stuck with them and cannot seem to just let them go. Every man should have a white dress shirt and so I feel like I can’t get rid of them till I find another one. And believe you me, one of the hardest thing for men to find at a thrift store is a non-stained white dress shirt.

3. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because I needed somewhere to express myself in words. Over the last three years I feel like I have been doing an extremely large amount of personal growth. This growth has been difficult but I think is improving my self as a whole. I wanted to be able to track that experience through anecdotes and explaining the things in my life that I think are special. If I can explain what makes life special for me, I would help people become inspired and live life with intent and purpose. I have been trying to find my purpose and if I can find make it easier for someone else to find purpose than I think this blog has fulfilled this purpose.

4. What was your first blog post about?

My first post was explaining what an “intentional lifestyle” is. It basically explained that life is meant to be lived. When you live with purpose you experience everything around you. Your life becomes important and you don’t blindly follow trends or become stuck in a consumer nature. Everything you do has meaning and purpose. Your life is fulfilled and true.

Or something along those lines. You can actually read it all here.

5. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

I think the craziest thing that I have ever done is fall in love. I always grew up believing in pushing boundaries and living by the saying “you should never ask why, but always ask why not?” But when it comes to a relationship and committing to someone fully, and creating this intimate connection, I just feel it is crazy. Crazy that it is so easy and one of the most difficult things i have ever done in my life.

6. What inspires you?

The people and community I surround myself with. I have a very supportive group of craftsmen and entrepreneurs that have inspired me to pursue my own dreams and want to create. Whether that be through music, art, coffee, or my job, I always want to make something special.

7. Where is your favourite location in the whole world?

My favorite location in the whole wide world is just a few hours from my house. It is the continential divide trail in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  My dad and I backpacked it a few years ago and to this day when I go to the mountains all I ever feel is awe and can’t wait to go back there to explore. It’s beautiful.

8. D you speak another language? If so, why and when did you learn?

I kind of understand spanish but my family was never a big advocate for learning another language but were dissapointed I never learned.

9. Do you prefer to read or watch TV?

I prefer to read but I always find myself watching large amounts of T.V. I get caught up in great shows like White Collar, Suits, sci-fi but I love finishing a great book. There is so much more dyanmics and character development. I just feel like I never have any time to connect to a book whereas a tv show I just have to sit back and relax.

10. What is your favourite blog to read?

Putthison by Jesse Thorn. Jesse is an actual idol of mine. He really helped me up the ante in my dressing and inspired me to get back into the radio thing before I joined Americorp. He is a triple threat, comedian, podcaster, and fashion staple. He loves what he does and what he does is talk to people. You can’t not love that.

11. If you won the lottery (5 million for arguments sake)- what would you buy/do?

Invest in Gold, pay off my student loans, pay off my families debts, and than quit my job to take 3 months to backpack the Camino De Santiago in Spain.

I am working on my nomination list so that will come later with all new questions so stay tuned.