Thursday, October 14, 2010

I Can Drink as Many Glasses of Water as You Can Bring.

A Hiatus has come down the pike for Man is Men due to a new term of school starting and the preparation for the presentation of an original piece of fiction from Man is Men at a conference for school, which shall be posted here in the coming weeks.

I will say that school is very fine for learning but I must agree with Sarah from the very creative blog The Wolf of Insignificance, when she comments on The Hand is Divided into Fingers


"I prefer the salon model - an evening with friends, drinks, and just a dash of drama."


There is something strong about the salon model that goes back through the history of creativity. One particular example that comes to mind is the Vienna cafe movement. The Viennese cafes were a phenomenon that are at the root of that, which we we would off-handedly call a coffeeshop. However, the Viennese cafes were the centers of creative action that served as a vortex of musicians, artists, writers, and intellectuals. For many like-minded thinkers, the interchange between those who sought to progress in their particular art served as its own education. Up-to-date, relevant, and without a preset program of instruction, one could learn things at a Viennese cafe that could never be learned at a school. 


The attitude of the proprietors is key here as well as there was no expectation of purchase if one wanted to just sit and read the newspaper in the morning or plumb the depths into the night. A glass of water would cheerfully be topped off into infinity if that was your wish.


Unfortunately, the  movement was largely Jewish and came to an abrupt end, when Nazi Germany decided that it would like to have Austria in 1938, leaving Hitler to drink by himself at the Cafe Sperl, probably not arguing with anybody.


(An Aside.)


Through many burns and false paths, I have built the hypnagogic mind machine. However, the microchip PIC16LF628A is eluding me. It apparently comes in many forms and the form I have will not marry to the socket I have provided for it. So, there will be a further delay until the right chip is found. 



8 comments:

  1. you should check out the vibrant coffee shop scene in salt lake city! In a place literally built from the ground up by a group that outlaws the consumption of said beverage, there is a conspicuously unbalanced magnetism to the various caffine-atoriums. there's the biker/tattoo coffee shops the down and dirty Joe-holes the stuffy-upper-crusty classical university of hot beverages, the pretensions/ sacrilegious JackMormon coffee shop and a healthy supply of multinational corporate coffee-bucks. The fist thing you notice is the subtle, almost invisible guilt stricken look of half of the patrons, contrasted by the brazen "yeah, I'm here, what are you gonna do excommunicate me?!" look on the faces of the regulars. The person behind the counter, the barrista if you speak starbukesse, usually falls into one of two categories, either failed emo punk rock star, or coffee roasting alchemist deeply devoted to the acquisition of rare bean strains from the smallest growing region that you certainly haven't heard of where all the beans are picked by vegetarian shamans.
    When you come to visit ill take you on a tour of my favorites but please remember to bring a hat and some dark glasses.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thank you for the quote and the compliment! you should know that a salon is in the works for the boston vicinity. right now we have three group members and plans for a monthly dinner and writing assignment in various homes. you are welcome any time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. They're waiting for their own version of the Anschluss take them away. The floorboards probably all come up and lead to an arsenal thats prepared for the caffeinated insurgency.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That last one was for Mike G.
    Sarah, let me know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Salon or Saloon you mean? Wait.... You arent writing a midwest cowboy drama with a young, time traveling Heinrich Himmler?
    Jeezoo Micah, i thought you had taste.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, and this is what you need...

    http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=579-PIC16LF628A-I/SS

    you can thank me later

    ReplyDelete
  7. Micah, how have we never discussed our mutual infatuations with the Viennese cafe? Some day I will own one, but Wakefield doesn't seem the spot. Have you been to Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie? They pretty much hit the nail on the head, and bonus! Serge Sabarsky was a jew!

    ReplyDelete
  8. We're sitting there right now! Tall ceilings, good pretzels. But the closest thing to intellectual intercourse was a food blogger photographing her weinerschnitzel.

    ReplyDelete