Shortly after I arrived here in Portland, Ore., for the current run of Ben Franklin: Unplugged at Portland Center Stage (through Nov. 22), I wandered off during a break in search of coffee-making equipment. (I hadn’t brought my Melitta stuff from Berkeley.) At the popular Stumptown Coffee Roasters I became entranced with the idea of trying to make coffee with a “French press” — which had always seemed like a cool way to make a very strong brew. (I imagined burly, caffeine-addicted French people — or maybe even French Canadians — applying enormous amounts of pressure to create super-intense cups, then writing muscular poetry about societal injustices.)
Wanting to get the French-pressing process just right, I asked the young woman who was helping me — Carrie — if she would mind my video-ing her while she made an exemplary brew. Kindly, she said yes. The result is one of those gritty, hard-hitting documentaries that blow the lid off of outmoded stereotypes of coffee preparation; needless to say, it is not for the faint of heart — watch at your own risk!
So far, a couple of weeks into this eight-week gig, both the coffee and the audiences have been hearty and complex, with a gratifying finish. Once my family gets here, next week, I will be completely grooving on the whole Portland experience.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some serious pressing to do. …
That’s the hard hitting journalism that Kornbluth’s are famous for!
At least among Kornbluths…
Indeed, bro’ — it is how we roll.
I apologize in advance for being a total punctuation geek, but I just think Jake should know that the plural of Kornbluth is “Kornbluths,” not “Kornbluth’s.” A lot of folks make the same mistake, but it is my mission to spread the word (in a kindly, informational sort of way) that nobody should force apostrophes into situations where they don’t belong. They don’t trespass by choice–people have to put them there.
Well put, Tanya. I often scribble out messages quickly in the digital medium that are spelling / punctuation-ally challenged. Sadly, this is my cross to bear — my mother was an English teacher and cared deeply about this stuff, Josh is really good at it, and it unfortunately isn’t a gene that got passed to me. I’ll do my best to pick this up, though, and to cultivate redeeming qualities to compensate….
Hey Josh,
I loved hearing about your adventures in India, and now I am digging your reports from Portland. I’ve often thought of visiting Portland — following the trail of espresso drops and cast off Paul Frank clothing up the trail from San Franclisco — but have yet to make it. But see, I’ve digressed before I’ve even begun.
My main point in writing today was to ask you about your video camera. Specifically, does it have a live preview for you to see. I have noticed that many of your shots are framed “high and outside”, as if the camera was mounted on a coal miner’s helmet.
So, for example, in this latest video when Carrie is talk about filling it to the top line, I’m saying, “Where?! What top line?! Show me the top line!”, but instead we have a view of Carrie’s, ahem, “necklace”. I know this was not an intentional, neanderthal choice of framing, because later on when Carrie is speaking you just show us her hair. Which, of course, could just be hair porn, on which point I would sympathize with you even though I note that I have just countered my last point.
No matter, I am sticking with you on this one and will assume that these framing choices are not some postmodernist, kinetic spun flux, producing a splintering of viewpoints and perspectives so as to point up the existence-density of things in a mobile referent facing dissolution within the inner motion that favors coalescences of planes that necessitate an accommodation between the eye and the mind in a Cubist oscillation creating different element-fields weaving a complex, heterogeneous fabric bringing into being a contexture where everything is ordered in a new equilibrium.
Or is it?
david
I would like to visit Powell’s and Josephine’s and check out the vegetarian food cart scene. Just want to chill wif da fambly.
So, how do you like cleaning that French press? Seems like it would be messy.