Appendix E-J

I was at a coffee-friend’s office the other day when I saw this on the wall:

That is a bunch of things applied to a wall via thumb-tack. The largest thing there? A poster from our Josh Ritter album release listening party/latte art bloodbath. That was a great great time. Reprise soon.

Mr. Josh Ritter is on the list of artists we’d love to see play at Everyday Joe’s (solo…his band would tear the place to the ground…or perhaps that’s the kind of raucous  . We trust you would too, so help us make it happen, in whatever (legal) way you can dream of. No abductions, please. Thanks.

If you’ve ever seen the man in concert, you understand what it means to see someone live. I tell quite a few musicians I chat with that if they want to play music for a living, they need to go see a Josh Ritter show. They need to take paper and pencil and take notes. It is a magnificent thing.

This past week, Mr. Ritter began a series on his Book Of Jubilations blog on just this very topic. At Everyday Joe’s we want to see people succeed. People being our volunteers, you, our vendors, the musicians that play here….the list could continue. The best way to get going at something is to take a peek at how others have done it. Mr. Ritter is offering his wisdom up, and we might best be advised to at least gander at it…musician or not.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Some weeks Friday afternoon rolls on around and the energy in the tank is low and all you really want is a chuckle inspired by the comments on music blog Stereogum’s post about the new Sufjan Stevens album. Am I right?

Then you get to the Stereogum and see “Candy Claws Silent Time…” in the corner of the page and you click on it and a new video from our old friends is there. Pleasant surprise.

The video is below. The write up is very nice and you should read it. The comments on it aren’t quite taking off, but there are some about recent Stone Temple Pilots antics worth a smirk.

There are Candy Claws tour dates over there, too. Got word this morning from our man/sound engineer/volunteer Jon Alonzo that he has left the band and the girls of it are taking a break to go to school. BUT…this still leaves the mighty Ryan, Marty, Wesley, and Riley. Should sound ultra soothing.

And just noticed that CC is in the heavy rotation section on Stereogum. Quite the day, I guess.

Popularity: 8% [?]

We don’t get spiritual in this sliver of cyberspace too often, but these are good things to consider regardless of your beliefs concerning beliefs.

Speaking Of Faith is a fine show on public radio that has had input concerning the way certain things are done around Everyday Joe’s. The show and the people of the show don’t  know this, of course. Methinks they have input many places. Host Krista Tippett spoke at First United Methodist back in the fall. Several of us went and it was wonderful. There is an amusing story that came out of the evening, but we’ll get to that some other time.

The staff of SOF maintain a Twitter account (@softweets). Today it produced this tweet:

40 Days 40 Deeds: a project “to be kinder, to give more, to inconvenience” + “make the world a more pleasant place.”

This sounded so lovely to my heart, I clicked on the provided link and was taken to a post son the SOF blog SOF Observed. From there, my clicking intrigue took me to another post on Observed and to an entirely different blog, 40days40deeds. It was a lot of work for my clicking finger, but it was worth it.

The “other post” on Observed is actually titled “A Is For Alleluia.” It marks the beginning of the Lenten season, and the Irish writer marked my heart with the statement:

Lent is less for giving up, and more for making space.

40days40deeds is a project of sorts, centered on Lent and the hearts of 4 folks across the U.S.

40 Days 40 Deeds is a project created by a small group of people in various U.S. cities who have pledged to make small changes throughout the 2010 Lenten season to encourage people to be kinder, to give more, to inconvenience themselves a little to make the world a more pleasant place to be.

Those are sentiments of sacrifice and service…things at the core of Everyday Joe’s. The volunteers of Everyday Joe’s…those are the things their hearts beat for. Please know that.

It has been said here lately that what Everyday Joe’s IS must not stay at Everyday Joe’s. By reading this, you take part in this place. If you come in, you take part in this place. By being a human being, you take part in this place, because this place is part of a much larger thing. We are all in it.

Everyday Joe’s wants to make space for things of love and goodness to occur. We want to make changes that provide space. The best part is, we can all do this each day all the time. Perhaps a new habit can be formed over fourty days…a habit that makes the places we are a part of more pleasant places to be. A habit that makes space for pleasantries to occur. Then we can be thankful.

Please take a moment to read those posts/blogs. Comment if you please, or come in and say hello.

FURTHER:

• Follow Speaking Of Faith on Twitter
• A Is For Alleluia
• 40days40deeds

Popularity: 8% [?]

We haven’t spoken of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea here lately. That is sad. This post is meant to remedy that.

We have been purchasing our beans from Intelligentsia for over two years now and we have watched them grow quite a bit in that short window of time. It is fun and at times intimidating. They are good people who do good things to bring some justice to the coffee world.

Intelligentsia used to be almost a weekly topic on this blog. Their green coffee buyer sent out weekly short-form essays concerning coffee & all things related to coffee, and those messages would then make their way to the Appendix. Since those have stopped, so has proper keeping you in the loop. Sorry about that. Everyday Joe’s wants you to know about everything we are involved in, and that includes who we have relationships with and why.

I want to encourage you, therefore, to check out Intelligentisa’s official blog by clicking here. They have good things to say. I’ll again post relevant infos here from time to time, but it is never a bad thing to keep yourself educated.

FURTHER:

• Intelligentsia Coffee Official Site

Popularity: 55% [?]

Part of working at Everyday Joe’s is talking to people…whether you feel like it or not. It usually seems the most fruitful conversations are the ones you didn’t want to start or actually tried to avoid. Communication with others is important.

Recently, our friends at Beet Street were kind enough to feature Everyday Joe’s in their weekly re:Beet e-news letter as the subject of “Beet Street Burning Questions.” Chris sat down with a microphone in front of his face to talk of things Everyday Joe’s & otherwise. He almost cries, which is par for the course. Listen below and check out what the rest of re:Beet has to offer here.

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FURTHER:

• Beet Street Official Blog
• Sign Up for re:Beet

Popularity: 55% [?]

To me, there is not much better than when a musician’s voice is as good an instrument as the one they happen to be playing. You’d think this would come naturally, but it very often does not (names could be mentioned…but I don’t want to start any scuffles). Names that do fit the “voice is as good an instrument as any” category are Ryan O’Neal (Sleeping At Last), Matthew Perryman Jones, Nathaniel Rateliff (Born In The Flood), Karen Peris (The Innocence Mission), and Glen Hansard (The Frames). There are more, but I need to get to making my point.

Two whose voices are smooth like a nice glass of whiskey and warm my innards just the same are Aaron Espe and Gregory Alan Isakov. And looky here, they’re both playing at Everyday Joe’s on Saturday night:

I have been fairly giddy concerning this show for several months, as have you I am sure. To increase that excitement exponentially, our friends over at The Mountain Tempo have posted a new song by Mr. Isakov over on their fine, fine blog. To hear it, click on his lovely South African face below.

Further:

• The Mountain Tempo
• Aaron Espe on Myspace
• Gregory Alan Isakov on Myspace

Popularity: 80% [?]

This is the new home of Appendix E-J, the official companion to the Everyday Joe’s Communiqué. It will continue to operate the same…bringing you all the nice things that happen in the Everyday Joe’s universe that our weekly newsletter can’t possibly cover.

All the old posts are here, and the new awesome will be posted here. Make sure and subscribe to the feed, pals. You don’t want to miss the exciting things we have coming down the tubes…and there are some exciting things in the works. That is a promise from the bottom of my heart.

talk to you soon.

love.

everyday joe’s

Popularity: 33% [?]

It has been mentioned here a few times over the past month that our friend Aaron Strumpel won Calvin College’s Bandspotting contest and that his new album Elephants is superb and that because the album is superb and because he won Bandspotting he got to perform at the 2009 Festival of Faith and Music, opening up for Over The Rhine.

Said festival took place this past weekend. I have been wondering how things went for Mr. Strumpel. Luckily, Bandspotting judge Andy Whitman maintains a wonderful blog – Razing The Bar – and took time this morning to recant the festivities. He has this to say in regards to Aaron’s set:

“We hung out with Aaron Strumpel, from Colorado, and Todd and Angie Fadel, from Portland, Oregon, who somehow got together to lay down the most outstanding musical set of the conference, a raw, punk-like, discordant, and often strikingly beautiful take on The Psalms. Or, the Wail.”

The rest of the post that brackets this statement says some good things regarding pain & love & God. Read the rest here.

Further:

• Razing The Bar

Popularity: 60% [?]

When you are an organization powered mostly by volunteers, it is a safe bet to assume that the folks around you have hearts that desire to do things for others.

Throughout the year, we see volunteers leave to head somewhere else and help other people. To serve the global community. Maggie Canty took off last summer to serve with YWAM in Switzerland. Now, she is leading a team to Costa Rica to assist with the relief efforts surrounding the January earthquake.

“My team will be headed to Costa Rica, where we will be helping earthquake refugees in several different ways, from working on houses to passing out food to watching children and wherever else there is need.

And eating a lot of bananas. At least that’s what I hear.”

You can read more about Maggie’s adventures beyond Fort Collins – past & present – over at her blog Marge At Large. She’s a good lady and we love her very much.

Further:

• Maggie’s blog Marge At Large
• BBC coverage of the Costa Rica earthquake

Popularity: 43% [?]

Everyday Joe’s likes things from Chicago.

Primarily, we like two things from Chicago: Intelligentsia Coffee and Sleeping At last.

Thankfully, we drink the former everyday. Also thankfully, there is new music coming down the pipes from the latter.

Sleeping At last is entering the studio this weekend to record their follow-up to 2006′s Keep No Score. Here is a tasty treat from rehearsals:

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All that and more can be found at the band’s studio journal, which can be found by clicking here. It also seems the band has found a drummer for the studio sessions, and I dig the economy of his movement.

Further:

• Sleeping At Last studio journal
• Sleeping At Last official site

Popularity: 39% [?]