Jam of the day, coffee shop albums, and fresh experiences: Neutral Milk Hotel / "Ghost"

I walked into the Tazza d'Oro satellite location in the Gates-Hilman Center today to grab some coffee and cure those post-late lunch fatigue blues. Yeah, man. I ended up sitting in a nice comforable chair, sipping delicious black coffee with a splash of whole milk (most places just have skim or half & half, so that was nice) while reading the 33 1/3 series book on Nick Drake's Pink Moon (written by Amanda Petrusich, one of those Pitchfork writers who I will read whenever I see the byline, no matter the album). More importantly, for this post, I caught the last half of the Neutral Milk Hotel tune "Oh, Comely" on the house speakers while I walked in. At the time, I thought, "Wow, that's an intense song to be wafting over the ears of these dutifully working nerds." (I can say that cuz I'm one of them.)

After I ordered my coffee and sat down and the song rolled around to its perfect finish, I expected some random playlist to kick in and throw something at us, but instead it transitioned exactly into "Ghost", as In The Aeroplane Over The Sea does. I realized they were playing this album straight through. Awesome. I'm all for exposing great music to potentially unknowledgeable ears. Unfortunately, I'm sure a lot of folks were just ignoring it or tuning into their own earbuds, but it's nice to think about someone who has never ever heard this album and will be drawn to it and maybe ask the barista what they're playing and go back to their dorm and look it up and be welcomed into an entirely new world of music. That makes me crack a smile. I love this album so much I almost wish I could forget everything I know about it and experience it completely anew. Since I can't do that, I just hope there are people out there doing exactly that every day.



Bonus! Here's a video of NMH (and friends, judging by the multitude onstage) jamming this tune live at the Electric Lounge in Austin, TX on April 4th, 1998. We live in an incredible age. We can watch this video of something that happened 14 years ago, something that will never happen again. Yeah, the playing's a little off and the video is grainy and the audio is kinda warbly. Who the fuck cares? This is great.



Are there any other great, classic albums that somehow just work when played at a coffee shop, straight through? We usually think of coffee shop culture as iTunes playlists, or radio, or whatever randomness the barista(s) feel(s) like playing. This album fits the bill, I think. Any favorites you want to share?

Oh yeah, they played through this album, then on to some Olivia Tremor Control tracks, then started of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? and then I had to leave. Kudos to whoever's Elephant 6 playlist was chosen for that day.

Kiva Han Countdown: 11, 10, 9, 8 days!

We're fast approaching the last week of Kiva Han! :-(

I've been stopping by mostly early evenings lately, grabbing a cappuccino and maybe a pastry and sitting and reading library books for an hour or two, enjoying the house music they decide to play here (a few days ago it was Blink 182 followed immediately by Daydream Nation, that was interesting) and people watching.

A few days ago, I walked in and found a friend of mine already sitting at a table with a half-eaten bowl of mac & cheese. It turns out she had never (!?) had mac & cheese before in her life, and got it here on my recommendation, only to discover she does not, in fact, like mac & cheese. For shame! Oh well, her loss.

I also finally crossed off another item from my KH bucket list this morning. I showed up right around 8:05 and was the 2nd customer of the day. I would have like to have been here right when the doors were unlocked and been the first coffee consumer of the day, but I'll take what I can get. I already had to do this on a weekend day so that it was 8:00 instead of 6:30 am, so, whatever. I've been parked here for several hours now, running on multiple cappuccinos and a yummy pumpkin muffin, banging out random writing projects, and people-watching, as usual. It's a different crowd in the morning. Folks pop in and out for a cup for the road. A family with two teenage children and a baby in one of those hand-held baskets (with scant protection from this extremely wintry cold, I might add!) came in and all got drinks to go. Other couples have come in to sit for a bit and then take off. For a while, there were no more then four or five people in the whole place, but now, close to noon, everything feels pretty bustly, a constant flow of people in and out, most tables occupied in some fashion. It's interesting to watch the dynamic play out over the course of the day. I wonder if the employees get caught up in it, feeling bored when the business is slow and getting excited when there's a crowd. Or maybe it's the other way around, and the line of customers just makes them tired. Who knows. I just know that I would wayyyyy over-caffeinate myself if I ever worked at a coffee place. I'd just be sipping espresso constantly.

Kiva Han Countdown: 13, 12 days

I've been stopping by for Hangover Cures the last couple of days. They just hit the fucking spot like no other food item can. They're kinda preventing me from branching out on the menu, but who cares. I did notice one thing today that, surprisingly, never jumped out to my eyes before. The menu says that the Hangover Cure is an "egg, hash browns, slas & chesse" burrito. That's right, CHESSE. I usually notice typos. Obsessively. But this one has escaped me until now. Maybe I noticed once and forgot. Maybe they just changed the sign to mess with me. Maybe "chesse" is some new type of cheese. Who knows?

Kiva Han Countdown: 15, 14 days

Over the past few weeks, I've overheard several conversations about what's happening to Kiva Han's location and what their plans are. None of this comes from direct questioning of a primary source, so don't get all up in arms at me if some of this turns out to be false, but I've heard the same details often enough that I "know" it isn't hearsay or rumormongering.

Kiva Han will be replaced by a Bagel Factory location. The interior will be gutted and made to look more like a diner. The owner will be starting a food truck specializing in soup and will call it "Get Ladled".

That is all for today. That, and their mac & cheese is fucking delicious and you owe it to yourself to eat it before they close and I will not be your friend unless you do this (or you're lactose-intolerant or something).

Kiva Han Countdown: 16 days (yesterday's post)

Something unfortunate dawned on me yesterday while I was sitting at KH and gulping down a cappuccino. I realized I'm not actually going to be in town for the last few days of KH's existence! This brings my "go there every day for a month" crashing down, of course. You see, I'm going to Chicago to visit a friend that weekend, and it will be hard to eat a hangover cure from Illinois. I will most likely be back on that Sunday, the last day of KH, so … there's that, but still. I completely didn't realize this when I set out on this adventure. Who cares, right? It's been fun, and it will continue to be fun. I'll just do something crazy on that last day to make up for the prior two or three days I'll miss.

Something weird also happened to me yesterday there. I walked upstairs to pee, bouncing off the walls from my triple shot beverage, and not more than 5 seconds after getting into the bathroom, someone was knocking on the door. Now, this person must have seen me close the door and known I had just got there, but they continued to knock, ever more insistently and frustratingly, eventually making audible (through the door, mind you) deep sighs, "Sheeesh", as if I was somehow taking forever, all despite my calls of, "Just a minute!" and "Hold on!". Who does this? I wasn't being slow, and I even rushed through the hand-drying process just to get the hell out of there, but this person still gave me a head-shake and glare when I walked out, as if to say "Jeez buddy, thanks for ruining my day with your slow-ass peepee time." I thought of many rude things to say on my way by and back downstairs, but opted for the silent route at the time. Why bother?

Kiva Han Countdown: 21, 20, 19, 18, 17 days (catching up)

I've let my writing routine slack lately. Bah. But here's the scoop. There's barely more than two weeks left in KH's existence. Here's what I've been up to the last few days.

On Sunday, I came in after improv practice on campus for a late lunch/early dinner. I stopped at the public library on my way over, and then bumped into my friend on the way in here. It was so crowded there weren't even any tables to sit at! I totally forgot it was Sunday and missed brunch earlier that day, despite my vow last week to go to brunch more often, and it was absolutely packed around 5:30ish. I ended up sitting in one of the comfy, red-cushioned chairs upstairs by the fan. It was the only truly open seat around. My friend got a coffee to go. I sat there and had a cappuccino and muffin, and was forced to overhear a conversation between two older gentlemen who I presume were professors or teachers of some kind. One of them was lamenting to the other about an algebra student of his who "just couldn't get it". Adding 5x to 2 doesn't give you "7 something", as he pointed out. He said it was like "water pouring through a bucket with a hole in it". Ugh. I can't stand hearing stories like this. If someone "doesn't get it", that just means they're not seeing it the way you are explaining it, and you need another approach. Demonstrate it visually. I've got 5 baskets of apples, and 2 leftover. How many total apples? Well, it depends on how many are in each basket. There is always a way to teach someone, if you're patient and inventive enough. To give up and say that you're just pouring water through a hole … that's a shitty attitude, man.

I was frantically working on slides for an upcoming presentation on Monday, so I came by for dinner and sat there for a couple hours working, head down in my laptop. I suppose I'm usually like that here, but this time I was actually focused on something so intently that I hardly looked up from it. It's nice to know that one can do that here. It's easy to get distracted—people watching, the music playing, etc.—but if you have to, you can tune everything out and work.

I was here a long time on Tuesday, still working on that presentation. I got here in the late afternoon, ate some food, and worked worked worked. Some friends showed up later, and then I went off to campus for an IM squash match. I got my ass handed to me (I'm blaming it on my timing and strategy, which are still tuned to racquetball and haven't adjusted) and came back to find my friends still here. I got an iced coffee and stuck around right until closing time.

Yesterday, I was only inside KH briefly on my way to campus. I stayed at home all day alternately working/sleeping, and got an iced coffee on my way to give that presentation I'd been working on. It has been unseasonably warm the last few days, amiright? Spring seems to be coming a little early, which I'm generally fine with, but it doesn't seem like we got a true winter this year. It was never quite in full effect, occasionally throwing a t-shirt day in amongst some snow.

After that presentation yesterday, I went down to the Pitt campus and did a segment on WPTS radio for Draw Us Lines. It was pretty fun, although it'll take some getting used to the on-air logistics, remembering things you can't say (apparently "free" is the "other F word"), and getting comfortable hearing my own voice in headphones. On the way back from there, I was walking on Forbes and had to pass right by/through a march by "Occupy Oakland". They were walking right by KH corner as I was, and when the walk signal at the intersection came on, I diagonalized and was nearly run over by them. Not really, but I wasn't about to stand there and let 100 people walk by and miss my chance to cross the street, ya know? I honestly couldn't tell what they were chanting, or what their message was, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun. Rather than being angry at the source of their protest, they were just kinda smiling and enjoying being out in the middle of the road, yelling and walking. Kinda odd, right? And yeah, they just kept marching down the road, into traffic on Forbes, as I ducked into PHI bar and a couple of cops looked on from both sides of the street. Weird.

Kiva Han Countdown: 22 days

I've been pretty much a big bum today, loafing around and doing nothing of consequence, so I got my ass out here for some food and coffee and to do some work. Hangover cure + cappuccino = delicious motivation.

How long do travel coffee mugs "last", so to speak? I mean, if I use mine every day for a couple of years, is that pushing its limit? I usually just rinse it out with hot water every day, and scrub it with soap every few days, and then run it through the dishwasher every couple of weeks if it looks particularly dirty. I've had this particular one since senior year of college. It has the logo of the college's environmental action group. They were handing them out one day and I took one and decided to use it all the time and avoid carrying paper cups whenever possible, and that's what I've done since then. If I think I might be getting coffee while I'm out, I'll carry it with me.

I wish more people would do the same. Seeing all of the paper cups that get carried out, that end up in the trash, that get strewn on the street … it's not a really huge problem, but it's something that's so easy to fix. Just carry a mug.

Hah. I just got up after typing that sentence to bus my plate and could barely even throw a napking, what with all the cups protruding from the trash can. C'mon people. If you're going to be sitting here long enough to finish your coffee and throw it away, at least get it in a ceramic mug.

Kiva Han Countdown: 23 days (yesterday's post)

I wonder where Kiva Han gets their baked goods. That chocolate chip muffin I had yesterday was delicious. Spongy, chocolatey, but well-formed enough to rip off chunks and dunk them in the frothy milk of my cappuccino. Yum. A perfect complement to sitting and staring out the window and thinking about math, too.

I met up with a friend there and then we caught a 54 down to the South Side for dinner, and then a concert out in Mt. Oliver. It got me thinking about how there used to be shows here, randomly, from time to time. I have a distinct memory of walking by one a few years ago when I was still newish to town. It couldn't have been an all-out rock show, with noise blaring into the street. But then again, maybe it could. Would businesses on the street be able to complain if there's a rock 'n roll band blasting tunes out of a coffee shop at 8:00 pm on a Saturday, say? I wouldn't really think so, as long as it's not too loud.

This is kind of untapped territory around here, I think. I've heard of shows going on at various coffee shops around town—I even went to one last year at Commonplace in Squirrel Hill and learned that they have (had?) a weekly acoustic set on Tuesday nights—and have heard "you should have been there" stories of years past, like TV on the Radio playing at Quiet Storm or stuff like that. But for all of that chatter, there aren't often coffee shop shows that are well publicized or promoted or attended. There's a thread about KH on a local message board where a Pgh music promoter recalled setting up many shows here in the past, and a musician friend of mine remembers playing here once or twice years ago.

Hmm … maybe there should be some kind of "last day blowout show" here, to celebrate Kiva Han's place in the community. I think that would be fun!

Kiva Han Countdown: 24 days (yesterday's post)

Just a quick stopoff for a cappuccino last night on my way from campus to my apartment. It had been alternately pouring/drizzling all day, and I thought I could wait out the rain before walking home, but … no dice. Luckily, I had an umbrella with me.

Funny story about that umbrella. I used to own a small, black, popup umbrella. It was even in my possession as of a week or so ago. Then, I carried it with me to Kiva Han some afternoon while it rained, sat there for a couple hours, and completely forgot to take it with me when I left because it was no longer raining. It's as if my brain said, "Don't need this anymore!" I'm not really accustomed to carrying an umbrella around anyway; I'm surprised I thought of bringing one at all, since I usually just forget I own one and say, "Well, guess I'm gonna get wet today."

I went back a couple days later to see if someone had found it there because, well, I kept forgetting about it because it hadn't rained in a few days. I asked the barista (I really should learn names, right? I just feel weird asking …) if they had a lost and found and if they had a small black umbrella. She looked around and said, "Nope, but you can take one of these spares," and showed me a pile of three unclaimed umbrellas. So, unbeknownst to me, Kiva Han apparently operates some kind of umbrella exchange operation. It's like "leave a penny, take a penny", but with rain protection instead of tiny pieces of legal tender.

I found myself walking into KH last night with that medium-sized, white umbrella in hand. When asked how it was working out, I replied honestly: "It's a lot better than no umbrella." So, do you need an umbrella? I can leave one there for you …

Kiva Han Countdown: 25 days (yesterday's post)

I keep managing to not write these short blurbs until the day after. Oh well. This post corresponds to the unique day where the number of days left in Kiva Han's existence is also the day of the month. My mathematical mind felt that was important to note.

I stopped by yesterday evening around 8 pm for a cup of tea. This time, I went with the liquorice peppermint herbal. It was surprisingly delicious, considering I usually don't like liquorice. I played a couple of games of Outfox with my friend and then did some work. Not much to say, but it was fun and productive, a good combination.

At one point I heard strains of Bob Dylan's voice wafting over my ears, and I strained them to finaly identify the song as "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". Then I heard faint music coming from the speakers out in the other room. At that point, I realized the guy at the table behind me had his earbuds playing music so loudly I could hear them and identify the song. Turn it down, dude. You're ruining your ears.

The sign was gone from the counter! I had momentary hope that maybe Kiva Han isn't closing after all. That was dashed, of course, later on when I overheard this exchange:

Customer: Are you guys closing?
Barista: Yeah, on February 19th.
Customer: Oh. I meant, like, tonight.
Barista: Oh right. At 10.

By the by, isn't liquorice a weird looking weird? LIQUOR ICE. Weird.

Kiva Han Countdown: 26 days (yesterday's post)

I stopped by for a quick cup of tea on my way to the Southside for a concert because I was feeling like a little congestion/cold was creeping up on me. I got a green tea and sat in the corner table by the window to read a book. The barista wrapped the string of the tea bag around the handle of my travel mug so it wouldn't disappear into the depths, only to be retrievable by pinching my fingers into its boiling lava. Smart move, my friend.

I hadn't been sitting there all that long when I heard a little skittering sound coming from above and descending. I momentarily thought it was a tree branch scraping the window or something, but then realized there aren't any tree branches within reach of that window. A split second later, a piece of ice or two landed on the side of my table and bounced to the floor. I heard laughter and giggling coming from above. Luckily, there was no damage to my book or other effects, so I kinda chuckled to myself and leaned over to look up. There is a tiny gap along that window/wall wherein a customer sitting on the second floor can potentially (or actually) spill something and have it come sailing down to the first floor with only gravity on its side and a floor in its way. A young lady happened to be leaning over to look downward at that moment, and she giggled out, "Sorry about that!", and I said, "No problem!, and waved back. And that was that.

The strange thing is … that is the second time that has happened to me there! Same table. Same situation. Except the last time, I think someone spilled their entire iced coffee on the floor up there, and it dripped down slowly onto the side of the table for a short while and hit a book or two I had with me. I'm sure that person was more focused on cleaning up their own spillage on their own stuff, so I didn't really begrudge them not acknowledging the fact that I got hit, too. Oh well. This time, it seemed to be just ice water … well, actually, just ice. So, NBD.

Side note: they were playing a lot of Blink 182 while I was there. I only know this because I recognized "All The Small Things" and then the rest of the songs sounded exactly like that one. Now, I only recognized that song because my college roommate used to play it a lot and sing along in his humorous, fake emo voice. He was very good at imitating that whiny, nasal tone. A little too good. I think he secretly liked that song, but he also introduced me to Interpol and Radiohead and Modest Mouse, so it's all good.

Kiva Han Countdown: 27 days

I crossed two items off my Kiva Han bucket list today! (See this post for what I mean.) A friend of mine gchatted me during the day and said "nice blogging" and met me here in the afternoon. When I got here, he said he was just talking with the barista and mentioned this here blog series, so I guess folks will know about it somehow. Cool.

I didn't quite feel like settling down and working, so I looked through the shelf of board games while waiting for my coffee. The stack was falling over after I plucked one out from the middle, and I had to do some careful rearranging to keep the whole pile from toppling onto the ground and making a big mess and din. I settled on the game Outfox. It looked like an easy-to-learn game, was playable by three people, and the time component said 10-30 minutes. Perfect. I went back to our table, unpacked the box. In the process, two balls of paper (one a ripped-up brown napkin and one a pink receipt) fell onto the floor and I said, "Oh well". I also discovered that there were two rules sheets, one entirely in French and one entirely in Spanish. Between me (French) and my other friend (Spanish), we pieced together the rules and started to play amongst the three of us. I realized that those balls of paper were in the box to replace some missing pieces, so we made do with some spare change I had in my pocket. (A penny makes for a great "brown circle".)

We didn't play long enough to develop fully intricate strategies, but enough to realize that the game is not easy, and amounts to being careful about setting up your opponent for an easy win. Perhaps the two player version is different/better/more strategically rich because, as it was, we could really only play with one future move in mind, and that was hard enough. Still, a fun game, and I'd recommend checking it out. So yeah, that was one check on my KH bucket list: play a board game. I'll likely do that again in the coming weeks. There were several other games I'd never played before, and Balderdash is a great multi-player game that I've played many times.

Later, I went upstairs to the bathroom and checked another one off my list.

Kiva Han Countdown: 28 days

You know what I should do more? Eat brunch. In general, yes absolutely more brunch all the time yes, but at Kiva Han, in particular, since there are only so many Sundays left where they'll be serving brunch. Three more Sundays, in fact, and then the 19th, their final day of business, is a Sunday, too. That leaves scant few opportunities to enjoy their brunch options and atmosphere.

I stopped in around 1:30 today, just before brunch ended at 2:00. I actually forgot it was Sunday brunch time, really. I just happened to be starving and needing to be on campus later in the afternoon, so I walked down to Craig St. and went inside and saw the orange menu on the counter and remembered, "Aha, brunch!" I had a hangover cure (of course) with some fruit and toast on the side, and a cappuccino, with thick and frothy steamed milk. It was delicious. The hangover cure also had seasoned tofu. The barista was apologetic that they were out of bacon, and I said that tofu is even better. It was quite busy there, even in the 45 minutes I was there as brunch was ending, and I overheard the manager saying a few times that they "got slammed" that day and were out of a few other things. No worries, man, glad to see lots of business. In other news, I even noticed a couple sitting outside on this unseasonably warm January day and thought about sitting outside myself but decided I didn't want to risk a car taking a right onto Forbes and cutting the corner too closely and hitting that giant puddle of melted snow that has gathered there too quickly and making a huge splash. Yeah, it was a huge puddle.

At one point, one of the cooks brought out three plates of food and called three girls' names fairly loudly. A few minutes later, he reemerged with another order and re-called their names even louder. This might have iterated one more time, I don't remember exactly, but by the end, he was shouting, "KELLY! JASMINE! VERONICA!" (I just made those names up, by the way.) As the girls giggled and walked over to get their food, someone said that they'd been sitting there awhile, and it almost sounded like they were upset about this. Maybe I just misheard the tone, but the girls apologized and walked away with their food. It got me thinking about how many times I've done something similar—didn't hear my name, didn't realize how long it had been, flat out forget about a food order, etc.—and how many times I've done the oppoiste—keep checking the counter eagerly, getting up from a table in the other room and hanging my head in shame and hunger while walking back plate-less.

You might have noticed that I didn't write anything yesterday. I already broke my promise and skipped a day. In my defense, it was cold and blustery and such out yesterday during the day, I had other shit to do, was feeling lazy, and ended up staying in all day until late in the evening. So yeah, I missed one day. That's the last one. Less than one month left!

Kiva Han Countdown: 30 days (yesterday's post)

I stopped by for breakfast yesterday (Friday) but never had time later on to write this post. (I went off to downtown for a Planned Parenthood rally, had a delicious veggie hot dog at Franktuary, hit the gym, and then went out for a friend's birthday all night.) That granola works (yogurt, fruit, granola) really hit the spot. I was in a bit of a rush so I didn't stay long, but was there long enough to enjoy my food, sip an uber hot americano and take the rest to go, and people-watch. It was relatively quiet for 11:00 on a Friday morning, and I could hear some employees laughing back in the kitchen. A few folks came in and out, including one older gentleman who I see there all the time. He joked with the cashier about Kiva Han opening a new location in Hawaii called "Huna Kahuna". Actually, that might have happened on Thursday, but I'm confusing it together because I'm writing this on Saturday. Oh well. It was funny. It was also really really really hot by the window. The sun was streaming in (as you can probably tell in the photo) and you could have melted cheese on the leather seat of my chair.

One thing I did realize while sitting there yesterday is that I have never been at Kiva Han around opening time. One or two times I have been at that corner very early in the morning to catch a 28X to the airport, but once it was before anything was open (like 4:30 am) and another time only the Starbucks was open (around 5:30) so I sucked it up and bought a coffee and bagel to make it through my travels. Other than that, I don't think I've been there before 10 am. (I've been there for closing time more often than I can count, though!) That's partly a consequence of my lifestyle (if I'm out and about that early, it's for class or something, and otherwise I'd rather just make coffee and food at home) but I also realized it should probably be something I experience. Then that got me thinking about other silly things I'll never be able to do there again. So here's a short list of things I've never done at Kiva Han that I'd like to hopefully accomplish in the next month:

• Show up at opening time
• Draw/write graffiti in the men's room. It's all over the place, why shouldn't I partake?
• Play one of the board games on their shelf. My friends and I are board game enthusiasts, so I'm surprised this has never happened. It should.
• Read one of the books on their shelf. Why the hell not?
• Take a nap on one of the comfy seats upstairs. I've hardly ever sat upstairs, let alone do this.

I'm sure I'll think of other things. And do them. Does anyone reading this have any ideas? Is anybody reading this?

Kiva Han Countdown: 31 days

I've been sitting here at that nice table in the front for well over an hour. People have come and gone. A friend of mine was sitting in the other room and saw me here, so he came over and we chatted for a long time about anything and everything: the new Apple iBooks app and the iTunes university iPad app (that's a lot of s), the fact that almost all carousels in the United States rotate counter-clockwise (a.k.a. widdershins) except for one at Great Adventure in New Jersey, the fact that my former high school is one of only three locations in the United States where one can play Fives, the fact that some names are awesome (Pablo Bravo, Gunther Grass) and some are weird (William Williams), the ding ding dong song, and the following story I'm about to tell which is what I was thinking about on my walk over here from campus.

One time last summer, I was sitting in Kiva Han after teaching class. My headphones were plugged into my laptop and I was munching on a delicious Hangover Cure, KH's concoction of eggs, salsa, cheese, and hash browns in a burrito, smothered in hot sauce. It is scrumptious, and I've even tried making some homemade versions in my kitchen, with varying degrees of success. (Try it yourself!) A family of mother/father/daughter walked in and sat down with some cups of coffee and an order of food of some kind, I forget what. They looked very much, to me, like a high-schooler looking at colleges with her parents. (BTW when I told this story, my friend heard "daughter looking ecologists" instead of "daughter looking at colleges" and expressed confusion. Weird.) They kept looking over at me, and I assumed it was because I struck a sight with my long hair and beard scarfing down a breakfast burrito, but it was frequent enough that I eventually slipped off my headphones when I caught the mother looking at me. She smiled and said, "Sorry to bother you, but we're wondering what it is you're eating." I said "Oh, it's called a 'hangover cure'" and kinda chuckled along with them, then stated matter-of-factly, "…and it works!" They gave me a polit smile and laugh at that, and I slipped my headphones back on and that was that. I'm not sure what they thought of me after that, and I had intended it to be funny at the time, but in retrospect, I realize it might have sounded rather gruff or dismissive. So, sorry, random parents and daughter looking ecologists. I was just trying to be funny. I hope you got that.

What this got me thinking about, though, is a more general idea of what Kiva Han represents about Pittsburgh. Imagine you're a visitor to this city, perhaps looking for a school to attend for four years. You drive into the student section of Oakland, heading down Forbes Ave. through the U. Pitt area. What do you see? The looming Cathedral of Learning, of course, but what do you see on the street? Students bustling back and forth. Buses driving by. And some shops and restaurants. Panera. Dunkin Donuts. Caribou Coffee. The O. Primanti's. A brand name shoe store. A gas station. And so on. How many of those are local shops, Pittsburgh institutions, long-standing family businesses? Not many. Then you keep driving, navigate the one-way intersection properly (I once saw a lady drive into the middle of it the wrong way and try to back up instead of just turning, strangely), and head down Craig St. There's Quiznos. Subway. Starbucks. It deeply saddens me to think that across Pitt and CMU's stretch, the coffee shop selection is entirely populated by "big name" shops. Starbucks, Dunkin, Caribou, maybe a Crazy Mocha. That is not a fair representation of this city. One of the things I've grown to love about Pittsburgh is that a Beehive or a Quiet Storm or a Voluto or a Jitters can exist and succeed and thrive amongst some heavy-hitters, so to speak, that it represents something about the people who live here, that people are proud of what they do and what others do and want to support them in their ventures, that we won't just succumb and have cookie-cutter shopping plazas everywhere and pepper the city grid with equally-spaced out clones of the same big name store/shop/restaurant so that someone can satisfy that Starbucks/Subway/KFC/McD's fix no matter where they find themselves during the day. That's one of the things I find myself hating about other cities; not to say that this phenomenon is widespread everywhere else, but when I see that kind of trend, I get upset. Where is it all headed? Hegemony of choices, force-feeding the public the same crap everywhere and all the time. I'm getting a little too ranty now, but I hope you see my point: Pittsburgh is different. Pittsburgh is special to me. I don't want to see that happen here, not even a little bit, because it will be too hard to stop once it starts. Do we really want visitors to this high-traffic university area to see only brand name coffee shops and think that this is a microcosm of the city, that they'd find this everywhere else? I don't. I hate to think that visitors leave thinking that this city is just like every other city because it's not. Kudos to CMU for employing only local coffee shops in their academic buildings (Tazza D'Oro in Gates, La Prima in Wean, maybe others) but that only goes so far. I really hope something special moves in here in Kiva Han's absence, that some other local business can thrive and keep going with the understandably high rent for this major area of foot and auto traffic. Come on Pittsburgh. We can do this.

Alright, time for more coffee.

Kiva Han Countdown: 32 days

Just a quick visit today on my way from a seminar on campus to the Brillobox later for pub quiz. I grabbed a double americano and am sitting here for a little while on my laptop with some friends. One of them heard rumors that the Bagel Factory might be opening a location here … ? Another voiced a desire that Kiva Han just reopen in another space somewhere interesting, like on Penn in Garfield, or who knows. What do I think? I'm not sure yet. I should probably say something vaguely philosophical and hopeful for the future but, unfortunately, I'm feeling a little pessimistic now. I'm not sure that whatever moves in here can be my "go to place" near campus. This is just too right to be replaced. Maybe I'll be spending more time at Tazza D'Oro in the Gates Center, even though it can get quite crowded there during the day. I guess we'll see what happens … *cue closing credits and cheesy soundtrack*

Kiva Han Countdown: 33 days

I've been to this coffee shop a lot. A LOT. At least in the last few years. Strangely, my first two or so years in Pittsburgh, I didn't go out much at all, so I completely ignored that weird looking coffee shop located right across from Starbucks on the corner of Forbes Ave. & Craig St. (I didn't go to the Starbucks either, in case you're wondering.) But over the last few years, I've started to come here more and more often, and, this past summer, I was here almost every day after teaching a 9:00 am class. (For you fellow foursquare users, I'm the current mayor, and will likely be forever, as you'll learn if you read on …)

There's something more significant to their appeal, to me, than just the "Oh I don't want to go to the big chain over there" effect. The flyers on the wall telling me about tons of interesting concerts, art exhibits, and workshops … the funky plants (and now an avocado tree that will never be used here!) … the ever-changing art work and mural on the main wall … the baristas' smiles … the way they'll yell out whatever name you give them, and loudly, even if you're sitting right there at the bar … the perfectly-frothed cappuccino … the hilarious graffiti in the men's room (and women's room, actually, or so I've heard, I mean, what?) … the perfect location, right near CMU and the museums and Craig St. shops … the random assortment of music you'll hear over the speakers … setting up a foldup table outside and watching the traffic … the way that a hangover cure + cappucino combo hits the spot, any time of day … the scrumptious mac & cheese (with chili, too, a.k.a. "the mess") … I could go on and on.

I stopped in yesterday for a nosh and caffeine fix on my way home from campus and spotted a sign on the counter: Kiva Han will be closing its doors forever on February 19, 2012. A confluence of factors—the economy, an expensive lease and another leaser-in-waiting, the competition, etc.—have worked against this place for long enough, and they are, sadly, succumbing. I feel like a little kid whose friend is moving away and they don't really know why, or what they'll ever do in the future. I'm certainly not gonna go hang out at Starbucks every day. (Although I will continue to scam their free wireless signal from across the street, suckers.) Alright, it's not that life threatening, in the grand scheme of things, but it still sucks. I said that to a barista yesterday when I spotted the sign: "That really sucks." She said, "Yup." And that was that.

So why am I writing this now, and why is there a "countdown" in the title? Well, I don't really know what else to do, and I like to commit myself to quantified, manageable tasks, so I have vowed to patronize this here coffee shop (that I am sitting in right now, as I type this) every single day for the next month and a couple of days, while it's still here to be patronized. Even if it's just for a cup of coffee to go on my way to catch a bus, I will stop by here at least once a day for the next 33 days. I figure that will at least be a nice way to make some lasting memories of the place in my head, and if it helps show some support for the place on the whole, all the better. Maybe you'd like to join my quest? Go for it!

Today, I showed up around 2:30 and ordered a California wrap (eggs, avocado, sprouts, spicy tomato spread) and a drip coffee. I'm sitting at a table by the coffee bar, the one that's situated right by the door that opens out onto the corner of the street. I was pretty warm (unsurprisingly) from my walk when I got here, and even thought about ordering an iced coffee, but realized that would probably make me look insane in this weather, so I didn't. Instead, I contemplated opening the door in front of me a tiny crack, but then figured everyone else here wouldn't like that, so I just sat here sipping hot coffee and slowly cooling down. And then I started typing this. And now we're here. And now we're going off somewhere else.