Thursday, July 5, 2007

i h e a r t J O E S!

it's that time -- summer in the city -- when you need a frosty iced drink to help combat the humidity. while i still mourn the slow but eventual death of mola coffee shop in my town (i can still get my favorite banana mocha but now the place is an ice cream joint and most of the coffee lovin' regulars are gone), i'm trying to find a new place. nothing much in hoboken that fits the bill, except if you love starbucks. there are 2 here in our mile squared city, plus the mini one in the barnes and noble (the only bookstore). everyone seems to walk about, touting a wasteful to-go cup. the main one, housed in a beautiful old building in a key location sits across the street from a tiny independent coffee shop (too small for seating so not ideal for me), landmark coffee. they have a regular following it seems, but i know one day sooner not later, i might find it closed, another casualty of the starbucks machine.

while fuming about starbucks, i stumbled upon starbucks gossip, a blog "monitoring america's favorite drug dealer." while i didn't find anything new or earth shattering related to corporate whoring, i did read about their latest cultural appropriation... hip, indie music.

recently, sonic youth guitarist thurston moore mentioned that the band needed to record a new song for a starbucks compilation, "Hits Are for Squares", a limited-edition CD that features sonic youth songs hand-picked by chloe sevigny, dave eggers, michelle williams and other enthusiasts. thurston recently responded to fans' cries of SELLOUT. i'm not sold on his reasons... but i guess everyone has a price.

but i can celebrate the existence of a wonderful coffee shop (at 3 nyc locations), joe the art of coffee. the baristas are the best, the environment is casual, simple yet cozy and you can sign up for coffee classes or join their running team for folks that want to train and run together for charitable causes.

check out barista erin m's blog about what happens when journalism meets coffeeism, and assistant manager's anne n's blog that documents travels to different coffee destinations around the country.

happy caffeinating!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salut la francaise,
nobody but you could find this kind of news linking music and starbucks! No other words than sellout. So disapointing to see how globalisation is even perverting the best.
Glad to see you still have a sharp eye for that. Keep on finting the starbuck "ground-gaining" in the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

This is all very disturbing. Dave Eggers? Starbucks? Sonic Youth? What the !@$#^!?

The addage that everyone has a price is true. But, how come it is only people who already have lots of money who have a price? And that price is corporate whoring of the worst kind. Starbucks is close to a level with Walmart and we should all be aware of that when we visit the Frappaccino haven of soul sucking burnt coffee.