"I Have Been Chosen!"

So many syrups, how do they know which one to choose? They all look the same to me.



"Farewell, my friends. I go on to a better place." - Alien toy after being chosen by the claw in Toy Story.

Will Tune for Coffee?

Great news! Insomnia Coffee Company now has a piano. If anyone knows of a piano tuner who will work for coffee, please send them by.



“They afterwards took me to a dancing saloon where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice- 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.'” - Oscar Wilde

Ali Harter / Ryan McClellan

Ali Harter and Ryan McClellan played Tuesday evening. It had been a very warm Hillsboro day and the turnout was surprisingly good. I came late and missed Ryan, but was told he gave a great performance. Ali was great, and her guitar playing was very enjoyable. Her music is definitely unique, and not in a bad way.



“Any problem you can't solve with a good guitar is either unsolvable or isn't a problem.” - unknown

Saturday Concert

Local artist Rosemary Tracy will be on the Insomnia Coffee Company stage this Saturday from 9 to 11 pm. Born in Memphis, her music career so far has taken her through Idaho, California, and Alaska. She is now calling Portland home and is a part of the local music scene.



“But he that dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.”
- Anne Bronte

Special Tuesday Concert

Ali Harter will be here for a special Tuesday evening concert. Ali is from Oklahoma and is currently touring around the country. Joining her will be Ryan McClellan, also from Oklahoma, for some folk rock, soul, and blues.

If you haven't been able to come by for a Friday or Saturday concert, here's your chance to do it on Tuesday. The music starts at eight.

As always, plenty of great coffee and tea creations, bagels, cookies and cakes will be available.



"After all," said Rabbit to himself, "Christopher Robin
depends on Me. He's fond of Pooh and Piglet and Eeyore, and so
am I, but they haven't any Brain. Not to notice. And he
respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can
spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling
isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply
doesn't count.

Dick Kutch and Friends

Dick Kutch played some great Jazz tunes at Insomnia Coffee Company Saturday night. He played the keyboard and did some vocals, accompanied by Fred Gordon trading off between the saxophone and the flute, with Lisa Harvey singing old greats like "At Last", which she knocked out of the park. All three musicians got great applause for their fine solo performances.

If you missed it, too bad, but they'll be back Saturday June 16th. Don't miss them!

Another thing you missed, but I was able to share with my wonderful lady, is a slice of Orange/Ginger/Cranberry cake. Becky described it as "A party in your mouth". You can still get some next time you visit. I shouldn't tell you it's wheat and gluten free, 'cause that makes it sound healthy. Here's proof good tasting cake can also be healthy.


“Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.” - Charlie Parker

Casablanca Live

Casablanca played at Insomnia Coffee Company Friday Night. They seemed to have a good time. Judging from the applause, the audience also seemed to like it. They played some original works, and did real well with some covers of classics from before any of them were born. Think Dylan and Hendrix, for example.


“There's beauty in the silver singing river, There's beauty in the sunrise in the sky, But none of these and nothing else can match the beauty, That I remember in my true love's eyes” - Bob Dylan

Wi-Fi

Californians Kirk and Paula stopped in at Insomnia Coffee Company to see their old friend Evan. Becky is showing off her new laptop. The WiFi at Insomnia works great, and we all shared a spectacular piece of cake.


A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece. - Ludwig Erhard

Jazz Combo Saturday

If I had a sandwich shop I'd name one of the sandwiches the Jazz Combo - that's probably one of the smarter things I would do as a sandwich shop owner. Good thing I don't own a sandwich shop.

Dick Kutch and friends will be playing at Insomnia Coffee Company this Saturday from 9-11 pm. Dick is a local artist and has been playing around these parts for some time. Should be a fun evening. How can you go wrong with jazz?

Until I had relatives with a coffee house I never hung around those kind of places, so I never got to know all the local talent. Now I have no excuse for not hearing the music. So far the shows have been real good.



“You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.”
- Cab Calloway

Casablanca

Casablanca will be on stage from 9 pm at Insomnia Coffee Company this Friday. Roland and Evan are local acoustic/classic rock artists who will bring some original pieces and some classics.

I was discussing with Evan Aldrete what to put on a poster for Casablanca when Roland happened to stop by and we were able to get this shot of his cool bike and even cooler new guitar. It pays to always have a camera on hand.

Roland may bring his new guitar if he is comfortable with it that soon.


“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.” - Mark Twain

Rutherford

Rutherford the turtle lived in a pond in Bend, Oregon. He wasn't happy there, so he came to Hillsboro and ended up making his home in one of the restrooms at Insomnia Coffee Company. Seems to be very content now.

You can talk to him if you like. In fact he's better than most of us at keeping secrets. Rutherford is a real good listener and normally lets you do all the talking. If he does happen to start talking back to you, I think maybe you've been in there too long. If it continues to be a problem, you might want to cut back on the coffee, or try drinking more.

Please don't feed him.


“Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” - James Bryant Conant

Jump!

Woohoo! It's Insomnia Trivia time again!

This week's Insomnia Coffee Company trivia question:

Which Insomniac can proudly claim to be a skydiver, having first jumped for his or her 21st birthday?

Amy Aldrete?

Evan Aldrete?

Tyler Geel?

As always, I won't give you the answer, either online or in person. You'll have to go in and ask them for yourself.



I watched him strap on his harness and helmet, climb into the cockpit and, minutes later, a black dot falls off the wing two thousand feet above our field. At almost the same instant, a white streak behind him flowered out into the delicate wavering muslin of a parachute — a few gossamer yards grasping onto air and suspending below them, with invisible threads, a human life, and man who by stitches, cloth, and cord, had made himself a god of the sky for those immortal moments.

A day or two later, when I decided that I too must pass through the experience of a parachute jump, life rose to a higher level, to a sort of exhilarated calmness. The thought of crawling out onto the struts and wires hundreds of feet above the earth, and then giving up even that tenuous hold of safety and of substance, left me a feeling of anticipation mixed with dread, of confidence restrained by caution, of courage salted through with fear. How tightly should one hold onto life? How loosely give it rein? What gain was there for such a risk? I would have to pay in money for hurling my body into space. There would be no crowd to watch and applaud my landing. Nor was there any scientific objective to be gained. No, there was deeper reason for wanting to jump, a desire I could not explain.

It was that quality that led me into aviation in the first place — it was a love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty. It lay beyond the descriptive words of man — where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same instant.

— Charles A. Lindbergh - The Spirit of Saint Louis, 1953