Appendix E-J » everyday joe’s

A Note To You: We Love You.

The Communiqué — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:45:21 +0000

Well hello.

First things- apologies for the 6 days of silence. It has been a week full of recovery from an exciting and exhausting first half of 2009 and a week full of the beginning stages of special surprises that are no less exciting than the first half of 2009. Plus, we covered the skylights with some burlap to help keep the room cool during those days of hotness…and it works. You will no longer sweat while sitting in Everyday Joe’s. Unless you just sweat a lot, in which case I can’t help you but I will give you a hug.

Back to the first half of 2009…

At Everyday Joe’s, we tend to operate on semesters. This is the result of being in a college town. When I look at a calendar, I see semesters and breaks…though I have been a college graduate for 5 years now.

This past semester (January – May 2009) has been a special one to me & I believe probably most folks at Everyday Joe’s. Our volunteer base (love them) continues to grow and improve as they continue to take more and more and more ownership of the place. Diana Sitzman (EJ’s assistant director whom I call Boss) is due most if not all of the credit for this. She loves the volunteers like lion cubs…and as a result they make superb drinks but more importantly they believe in 144 S. Mason and what happens here.

Our board/leadership team/synergy directive ambassadors (we’re not sure what to call it) has also taken ahold of things like the things had horns. A bar redesign is in the works (shhhh….it’s a secret) among other special surprises all aimed at being able to serve our community – that we hope to become our family – better.

Really, I am lacking proper words right now. Perhaps you should just believe me when I say that you – our peoples – have made the first half of 2009 mighty fine. Thank you.

We love you so much.

love.

chris & everyone at Everyday Joe’s

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Everyday Joe’s Gets Audio Blogged, Drops A Beet

The Communiqué — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:29:40 +0000

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.

FURTHER:

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Video: Adventures in…coffee? Part Two: Instant Latte

The Communiqué — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:10:11 +0000

We receive a lot of samples at Everyday Joe’s. Some are surprisingly good and some are good as expected and some are what you’d expect from a sample.

The most recent sample to arrive on our desk: the instant latte. We decided to give it a go, stacked next to a latte made in-house. Watch the results below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdQC9m-vP7w

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Volunteers Make Art: Rico Lighthouse

The Communiqué — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:39:07 +0000

The volunteers of Everyday Joe’s Coffee House are important people. They make this place go and without them it just wouldn’t be very much fun. It’s even more fun when the show up for their shift bearing gifts and when that gift is art we all do a dance.

Rico is our Monday barista from 11 am – 2 pm. He has a respectable beard, a lovely wife, a nice son named fynn, and a band called The Lighthouse Band. Yesterday, he emerged from Finn’s room with the following creation for Everyday Joe’s. It is beautiful and our heart is splattered all over it in a non-grotesque way. Enjoy.

Further:

The Lighthouse Band Official Site

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….and we’re back.

The Communiqué — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:16:19 +0000

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Everyday Joe’s 90/10 Benefit Roundup: A Crash Course For Those Who Haven’t Been Paying Attention

The Communiqué — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:34:00 +0000

The Everyday Joe’s 90/10 Benefit is tomorrow. This is very exciting and is cause for whoops and hollers and loud rejoicing.

In case you haven’t been paying attention over the past month and have no idea what this so-called “benefit” has to do with “anything,” we’ve put together a nice cheat sheet for you. This way, you will have some idea of what is going on Saturday at Everyday Joe’s, why it matters, and why you’d be declared clinically loony if you missed it. Here we go:

First, read the initial announcement concerning this year’s 90/10 Benefit by clicking the poster below:

Now, read the following concerning the whole “90/10″ thing:

At Everyday Joe’s, we believe in supporting the arts and the artists making those arts. As part of this, we give a rather generous door cut when a musician charges a cover for a concert. This generous door cut is 90%. We just take 10% to help keep things trucking along.

Well, one night a year (i.e. THIS SATURDAY), we invite a group of musicians we think represents what we believe in (community, relationships, goodness, Love) to come and play the show that is to be a celebration of this place. The musicians are also kind enough to flip the door cut and split the 10% amongst themselves, while we get the remaining 90%. This money is then used to make improvements to Everyday Joe’s so we can better serve you, our community.

I hope that wasn’t too cut and dry. If it was, I am sincerely sorry. Keep reading though, because it gets much more fun and auditorally nice.

Now for the most fun things…songs and whatnot by the musicians playing Saturday night. Click a picture to be magically whisked away to lands of digital delight:

Dan Craig

The Riflemen

Aaron Espe

Lifeboat Etiquette

See how pleasant and great that was? Now, imagine if you were seeing all those folks play on the same night at Everyday Joe’s. Your head may very well explode. Well, lucky for you, they’re all playing this Saturday…and I can promise minimal head explosion but nothing concerning the expected elation of your heart.

Tickets are still available and are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Buy them at Everyday Joe’s (144 S. Mason, Fort Collins) or online by clicking here.

See you tomorrow.

love.

everyday joe’s

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Meet This Year’s 90/10: Lifeboat Etiquette

The Communiqué — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:52:27 +0000

The 2008 Everyday Joe’s 90/10 Benefit is coming soon! The annual show to benefit Everyday Joe’s will feature Dan Craig, The Riflemen, Aaron Espe, and LIfeboat Etiquette. In order to be properly prepared to enjoy the evening, we’ll spend the next few weeks introducing the artists to you. This week: Ryan Hollen…aka Lifeboat Etiquette.

The lifeboat. It saves some people. The Titanic didn’t have enough of them. This one has a substantial and respectable beard.

Exhibit A:

And Exhibit B:

What does the beard matter, though? Shouldn’t this be about this man’s tunes? Not his fantastic facial hair? Indeed. But you see, bearded troubadours have a penchant for making music that is listenable exponentially… i.e. Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, and ZZ Top.

Fortunately for the world, Lifeboat Etiquette and his beard are no exception. The Fort Collins native is quite good, and thanks to the good people at the Internet, we have audio and video as evidence.

Please watch Red Threads:

[

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRX3unq5Hmg

Then, listen to Eye For Composition (or listen first then watch…whatever you’re into).

Now, go buy your tickets to the Everyday Joe’s 90/10 Benefit Concert on December 6. They are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. You can buy them at Everyday Joe’s or online here .

Next week we’ll meet Aaron Espe. He’s a nice fellow.

love.

everyday joe’s

p.s.- Ryan proposed to his future wife (& also a musician) Baily Stauffer front & center at the Sigur Ros concert at Red Rocks. Legit.

Further:

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Audio Treat: Aaron Espe & Jonathan Kingham

The Communiqué — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:57 +0000

For quite a bit now, I’ve been drawn to music with bleeps and ambient wahs and not quite discernable words. Music probably categorized as weird by my parents and not cool enough by the hip kids.

However, as of late, music makers using guitars and lovely melodies and very discernable words have been patiently making a welcome reentry into my musical universe. As of right….wait for it…now, you can add Aaron Espe to that list.

Even more exciting than this expansion of my universe is the fact that Mr. Espe will be playing at Everyday Joe’s this coming Saturday night (September 20). In order for your universe to also expand, Aaron has been kind enough to give us two songs to listen to. He couldn’t decide between them, so I decided on both.

The show starts at 7 pm and is $5. The quite talented Jonathan Kingham will be starting the night off right. He’ll be on stage as a result of another blog post.

Please enjoy “Small Town” and “Tuesday Morning.” I look forward to seeing your lovely eyes Saturday night.

Small Town by Aaron Espe

Tuesday Morning by Aaron Espe

Oh, wait. Here’s another special surprise that just came down the pipes. A treat from Jonathan Kingham. Please enjoy “Grace.”

Grace by Jonathan Kingham

[audio http://www.everydayjoes.org/images/songs%20for%20blog/Grace%20%28scratch%20vox%29.mp3]

Further:

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This Building is Alive #2- Seth Daire

The Communiqué — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:42:36 +0000

As part of celebrating our 5th anniversary, someone who is part of Everyday Joe’s will write something about it each month. Anything from essays to sonnets to interpretive dance. How interpretive dance would translate to this blog, I’m not sure…but it’d be interesting.

Whatever is written, it will come from the life that is in this building. 144 S. Mason seems to be alive and breathing…and it is something you can’t ignore when you walk in. Our second installment comes from Seth Daire, Everyday Joe’s volunteer webmaster & sound tech.

The train is going by. It does that, loudly announcing its presence near our entrance. It reminds us we’re downtown, a block off College Avenue. That’s enough to make us a destination, a place sought out. And they do, college students on bikes, business people in suits, and families with children.

I work from here, volunteer here, and live here. I moved to Oldtown Fort Collins last month, and now walk almost daily to this space that serves coffee. I could stay home, in my quiet flat, sipping a mug of French Press coffee, without distraction. In silence, where I am reminded of the loneliness that pervades our souls, and my own. Rich Mullins once said that loneliness is part of the human condition, even in our best moments.

At times, even this week, the weight of my own pain and disappointment tempted me to pull back, withdraw, lest people see how not together I can be, and think less of me. Yet I am drawn back, and there, in my weakness, I connect, and feel love. Being me. With the irony being that I am best known when I’m not at my best.

There is a quote by Madeleine L’Engle, “If our lives are truly ‘hid with Christ in God,’ the astounding thing is that this hiddenness is revealed in all that we do and say and write.” Sometimes our faith, our life in Christ, is lost in our efforts to force that life into a particular structure or set of words. The mystery of it is that hiddenness is the most visible to those around us when we’re not trying to reveal it.

I, along with many others, choose not only to be here, but to volunteer, whether it be making coffee or running sound for a concert. But it’s not the task that’s significant, but being there, among whosoever walks through our doors, and doing so because love is in our hearts, not because we have to, but because we want to. And when you watch our baristas, that’s what you see. Ministry, not as a program, but as a lifestyle. Ministry that happens when we get out of the way and let people be who God created them to be.

And for those of us who long for community, it’s a place of rest for our weary souls. So we come, not always knowing why. We see the students, the business people, and the children…and slowly…over time, they become family we see every day. The kind of family I can expose my most embarrassing wounds to, and find healing. And why? Because I’m no longer alone in my pain. Because I’m known. And when there’s nothing left to protect, I can simply be.

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This Building Is Alive #1- Suzanne Vigil

The Communiqué — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:16:04 +0000

Whatever is written, it will come from the life that is in this building. 144 S. Mason seems to be alive and breathing…and it is something you can’t ignore when you walk in. Our first installment comes from Suzanne Vigil, Everyday Joe’s original manager and visionary.

It was just a tiny cloud on a vast horizon. So simple, so vulnerable to any kind of wind.
That was 1998 when a small hand scribbled down on a fragile idea on a regular piece of lined note book paper.

It read: “Coffee House Ministry?”

That vast horizon was the heart where a dream was being conceived and that dream became a prayer of faith that withstood the winds of uncertainty for 5 years. Today, you are part of that dream…Everyday Joe’s Coffee House. Every time you come into 144 S. Mason you make the dream materialize from a thought to a living reality. Thank you.

2008 marks our 5 year anniversary, as with any locally owned business this is a milestone. As one of the co-founders, I thought it might be interesting to take a stroll down memory lane….

2002: a small congregation of faith named Joshua’s Crossing stepped into a permanent residence-144 S. Mason. Major renovations began on this 1920′s warehouse that had always been used as a garage until now. Two pastors worked day and night 6-7 days a week learning the skills of renovation. Skilled professionals began poking their
heads in and offering themselves in the processes of drywalling, electrical work and construction.

Coffee House Ministry was discussed and a hospitality counter area was built in the renovation. Coffee service began on Sunday nights before and after church.
The building’s inner beauty made us want to share it with more people, more often.
So, we started working towards an actual Business/Ministry model.

On June 16th, 2003 our doors opened without fanfare as Everyday Joe’s Coffee House.
I was 27 years old, and left my position as a floral manager to manage Everyday Joe’s. No paycheck. I lived with my parents to avoid rent and God took care of the rest. My financial obligations were paid every month in a different way.

Please don’t ever think you cannot do something because of money alone. I will testify to the incredibility of faith that bypasses personal income. And I believe that faith is very contagious. It is now 2008, and there are over 30 people who volunteer to serve coffee, run the sound for concerts, hang art, do bookkeeping, etc. Believe it or not, it started with two of us. Myself and our unsung hero-Tim Kuhlman.

Tim left his well paying computer job and did everything from making and folding church bulletins to serving coffee at Everyday Joe’s till midnight for 2 years. Thanks Tim. And thank you all who are willing to humble yourselves and work for free.

So here we are, 5 years old. As I look back, a consistent idea keeps appearing….Faith.
The ability to believe in a reality that is unseen. When all our logic and calculations based on what we know don’t seem to stretch as far as our imaginations can dream, we need this vital ingredient….Faith.

I have found it to be true here at Everyday Joe’s. People said we’d never make it downtown without a liquor license or by acknowledging we’re a church based ministry. But look at us now. Now you can see it with your own human eyes.

But what will the next 5 years bring into vein? Where is your faith? And where will it take us? How will God inspire our imaginations to dream towards 2013 and beyond?

“(God) creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, The good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” Ephesians 2 (The message). “Jesus answered, ‘the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” John 6:29 (NIV).

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