May 8
...serving up your daily dish.
You may have heard that those Uber Baristas in Seattle have nixed store sales of Bruce Springsteen's latest CD due to objectionable lyrics. It seems to us, that pits Jersey's favorite son against its favorite pastime. Thanks, Pops, for the idea for today's poll.
May 8, 2005 in Barista's Sunday Poll | Permalink
From backstreets.com review of Bruce's denver show last night . . .
But there was nothing wrong with having a laugh, even at his own expense: referencing the recent flap over Starbucks, which just decided not to carry his new album, Bruce told the crowd that Devils & Dust would be available at Dunkin Donuts instead.
Posted by: Rchanin | May 8, 2005 12:53:28 PM
Go, Bruce!! Dunkin Donuts is for the common man-- screw all this highfalutin soy latte crap.
Posted by: latebloomer | May 8, 2005 1:45:19 PM
frankly, it just saddens me that every cd sold at the counter of starbucks doesn't have at least one song about negotiating the price of anal sex with a prostitute in reno.
Posted by: fran | May 8, 2005 4:23:50 PM
and don't tell me that steve earle, jim lauderdale, joe ely and lucinda williams aren't heartsick that they didn't think of it first.
Posted by: fran | May 8, 2005 4:25:06 PM
Well, this was enough for me to write off Starbucks as a "phase".
I stopped buying their coffee by the pound a year or so ago, and I have decided that their brewed stuff just doesn't taste good anymore (especially since I do not add any milk or sugar), and I would certainly miss Bruce more than I'd miss Starbucks, so this one was easy.
Posted by: sue | May 9, 2005 8:54:56 AM
Illy (Dark Roast - Espresso Grind) made in a French Press (American made, of course) is my choice in cafeene delivery systems. But, sometimes, Starbucks does nicely, or Dunkin' Donuts or even a push-cart on 9th and 44th.
But with it's arch-leftie-goodness-pandering I am surprised Starbucks gets such criticism in these parts.
Posted by: Right of Center | May 9, 2005 9:19:11 AM
Thanksgiving Coffee's Gorilla Blend made in an old fashioned Melita drip is my choice in caffeine delivery.
Dunkin Donuts is better than Starbucks IMHO.
Posted by: Pam | May 9, 2005 10:26:44 AM
There's little of the real "workingman" in Springsteen's music (partly because he's apparently never held a job other than musician in a band, and no matter that his songs paint middle-class Freehold as a kind of Welsh or Yorkshire milltown), absolutely nothing of it in Starbucks' prices or atmosphere. Should have been the perfect match, with degreed poseurs galore sitting there in flannel shirts and soul patches nodding their heads sagely to "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" and other Bruuuuce classics. We're in real trouble, however, given how we hear that Bruce's "readings" influence his music (as per "The Grapes of Wrath" and his Tom Joad-inspired songs), if he ever hears up both "Mein Kampf" and "The Communist Manifesto." Or even an admiring biography of Trotsky. God forbid he should try Byron or Shelley.
Posted by: cathar | May 9, 2005 10:53:42 AM
No, DDs is not better than Starbucks, unfortunately, though Starbucks coffee, as brewed on the premises, is excessively bitter. Even card-carrying liberals on the East coast find it hard to stomach that ultra-pastuerized baby-boomer culture they push. Yuck. It's almost enough to make me miss 7-11s. What's really driving Starbucks in this town is the adolescent crowd who buy $5 frappucinos with their allowances. Ever been there on a Friday evening?
Posted by: walleroo | May 9, 2005 10:58:45 AM
(No, DDs is not better than Starbucks, unfortunately, though Starbucks coffee, as brewed on the premises, is excessively bitter)
disagree... I get a stomach ache after drinking S'Bucks, never after drinking DD.
Posted by: Pam | May 9, 2005 11:23:52 AM
Pam, if a cup of coffee were judged solely on how it left your stomach afterwards, you'd be right. However, there's also the matter of taste. I used to think DDs was great, but that was before I'd been much to Europe and before the Starbucks coffee movement and so forth. Like most Americans, my palate has gotten more refined in the past few decades. (You can even get an espresso in Kansas now, for chrissake.) DDs is just too weak. I don't like to brag, but I think I make a better cappucino at home than you can get in Starbucks, and I use Starbucks beans. Go figure. I could go on at some length, but I've promised myself that I'm really truly going to get some work done before the Yankees game tonight (Randy Johnson is pitching!). I've already been posting here for an hour, it's almost lunchtime and I haven't gotten started yet... damn you, Barista!
Somebody save me...
Posted by: walleroo | May 9, 2005 11:48:17 AM
Dunkin' Donuts definitely gets the nod. Once, I and someone else were even behind the first wife (remember Julieann Philips?) when she leapt from her BMW and into DD to pick up a quick dozen (carbos for the Boss?). More recently, at a mallplex, I and the daughter were behind him and his current spouse as they bought tickets for the last James Bond movie, and he was carrying a coffee he'd gotten at Loew's own counter. Jumbo tub of popcorn too.
Posted by: cathar | May 9, 2005 11:49:31 AM
If anyone's interested in politically correct coffee, singer Jesse Colin Young, at his eponymous website, offers reasonably priced (for Kona), hand harvested, 100% pure Kona coffee from his coffee farm in Hawaii. Even if anyone else here can't quite afford it on a regular basis, I'm sure Bruce Springsteen can.
Posted by: cathar | May 9, 2005 12:03:24 PM
Walleroo
I'm from SF Bay Area ... in the 80s we were drinking great coffee before Starbucks was around (Peets in Oakland,CA comes to mind...)
And as I said, I drink T'Giving coffee (from Mendocino, CA- organic etc etc)as my preferred brew.
But if you want a quick cup and DD is there, it is WAY better than S'bucks.
sorry...
Posted by: Pam | May 9, 2005 1:10:25 PM
Bluestone fan here! I like Starbucks iced coffee, but not so much the hot. And the steamed milk drinks always make my stomach hurt.
Posted by: E. | May 9, 2005 1:17:40 PM
"But with it's arch-leftie-goodness-pandering I am surprised Starbucks gets such criticism in these parts."
They get my criticism for two reasons: it's hard for me, as a leftie, to buy into their leftie pose when all they are, after all, is a real estate business intend on shuttering doors on similar, usually mom and pop, establishments, in the process ruining the fabric of a neighborhood. And their crappy coffee is overpriced.
Posted by: the summer of noise | May 9, 2005 1:41:02 PM
Pam,
My apologies. I had no idea of your credentials. I remember drinking Peets in Berkeley out of a styrofoam cup in the mid 1980s. I can still remember the taste explosion. (It's like a first high--you're forever trying to recapture that feeling.) I am going to go out at my earliest convenience and try DDs coffee again. I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe someday I'll make you a cappucino -- I'd love to know what you think.
Posted by: walleroo | May 9, 2005 2:01:14 PM
ps Where do you get the T-Giving? Do you have it shipped?
Posted by: walleroo | May 9, 2005 2:02:45 PM
noise,
It is so much easier to be a 'rightie' we just buy the coffee we think tastes better...
Posted by: Right of Center | May 9, 2005 3:12:28 PM
ROC, that's the best comeback I've heard from a Republican in months. I may steal that one...
Posted by: walleroo | May 9, 2005 3:17:20 PM
(It's like a first high--you're forever trying to recapture that feeling.)
Try Thanskgiving Coffee... www.thanksgivingcoffee.com
Their motto is, 'not just a cup, but a just cup'
I get it shipped about once every month and a half.
They are pretty much the provider of all things caffeine for Mendocino and points north.
Posted by: Pam | May 9, 2005 3:20:45 PM
"we just buy the coffee we think tastes better..."
That's what I'm saying! Because of my "leftie" values, I won't give my money to a business whose practices I don't agree with.
Posted by: the summer of noise | May 9, 2005 3:22:39 PM
All right, Pam, one more question. Do you grind your own beans? For espresso? And if so, which grinder do you use? I have never found one that does a suitable job, and I've been relying on Starbucks to grind the beans for me, and frankly they never quite get it right.
Posted by: walleroo | May 9, 2005 3:40:55 PM
I do grind. I use a Krups which I'm told does not 'mash' the beans.
I dunno- it seems to work.
Also keep your beans in a cool place (freezer is ok I'm told) and grind small amounts at a time.
T'Giving sends the beans vacuum packed and they are incredibly fresh.
Posted by: Pam | May 9, 2005 4:11:08 PM
