Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Coffee Humor

What's in that cup?!?  This little coffee flash animation gave me a chuckle.  I wish I knew what the text said, but I'm barely uni-lingual.

http://www.cartoline.it/pics/_zoom_flash.htm?immagine=scherzi_150404_01.swf

Thanks to VW for this, who commented on D's post, and thanks to D for sending it on.

CTC in the Movies: Singles in Seattle

I've done enough "tea in the movies", time for some "coffee in the movies". 

Singles centers around a group of twenty-somethings in Seattle in the early-early 90's, trying to find themselves and each other.  Ah, young love.  The reason it's showing up here is there's a coffee shop in the movie that I fell in love with. 

Interesting that all the plot summaries and blurbs I read about this movie don't mention the coffee shop.  Not once.  It's all about relationships and apartment living and grunge rock.  Especially the grunge rock.  Who's writing these blurbs, and where are their priorities???

There were several reasons why I bought this movie... Grunge rock isn't one of them.

Coffee Tunes

It's Coffee Day at Kat's. 

More than usual, that is.  I always enjoy her unusual and eclectic music, but today she's serving up coffee mp3's!

Have a listen to these coffee-flavored treats for your ears:  You're the Cream in My Coffee by Ruth Etting, Joni Mitchell's Coffee & Conversation, and my personal fav, the grande creme de la creme, Java Jive by the Ink Spots.

A Carnival and a Meme

Two shots in one here, hopefully coherent, but the odds are against me as I had a late night and early morning and I'm still on my first cuppa. 

First shot: The 41st Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing! 

I'm arriving a little late to the party; my CCCCCC recipe is my very first Carnival entry.  I've missed forty-one weeks of delicious recipes!  I'll have to speed read to catch up, but FIRST, this week's Carnival.  Hosted by Fresh as a Daisy, there are some mouthwatering recipes shared here!  Whoever thought of this idea gets a gold star!  What a great way to share recipes in the blogosphere!

(I started with the desserts and worked my way backward.  I do that in real life too.  One of the benefits of being a pretend-grown-up... But the main dishes all sound good too, and the salads, and ...  erm, ahm, ok, moving on ...)

Second shot: David at thirdworldcounty tagged me for a movie meme, and since I LOVE movies ... well, ok, technically this is a "DVD" meme.  About 1/2 my movie collection is still VHS, so this isn't an accurate picture of my movie obsession.

1. The number of DVD's I own:

Not sure, at least 200, maybe 220.

2. The last DVD I bought:

My latest shipment from Amazon arrived yesterday.  On the truck:
    Singles - I'll be posting about this one soon in CTC in the Movies
    The Ninth Gate- Johnny Depp and old books, where's my drool cup
    The Man Who Cried - more Johnny Depp
    Cabaret- I love the music & choreography, and the blend of delightful and disturbing(there I go again)

3. The last DVD I watched:

    You KNOW what I was doing last night.   I made it through 2 of the new ones.  Singles, and then stayed up way too late watching Cabaret. 

4. 5 movies that  I watch a lot or mean a lot to me:

• Citizen X - a dark and fascinating movie, not superbly acted (Donald Sutherland's accent is atrocious), but I'm drawn to the story over and over again. Does that mean I'm disturbed? Probably.
• Chocolat - I already wrote about why I love this movie
• Gosford Park - I watch this one over and over again, here's why
• The Stand - Pretty close to the Stephen King novel, I watch this one over and over again too. Something fascinates me about end of the world scenarios, how people respond and survive, etc. Cripes. Showing my darker side here. Again.
• Shakespeare in Love - A visual feast, and a luscious love story

Well, it's taken me 2 whole cuppa's to finish this post, and I still haven't figured out who to tag.  #5 on the list is tag 5 more people.  I don't know, once again, if you want to take it on, jump on the wagon, holler at me (pct at coffeeworksdesgn dot com) and I'll list you here.  What say? Any movie buffs?

The Write Mug

Writer Nancy over at Soliloquy notes how important it is to have her favorite mug to enjoy both her coffee and her writing. 

Amen! 

I've gone through many-a-mug, and I can tell you, the shape of the handle, the width of the rim, the feel of it against my mouth, and the look/color/texture of course, all make a huge difference in my slurping experience.  The cup is hugely important!  This is not an eccentricity.  This is not an idiosyncrasy.  It's a fundamental necessity of life!

I've been enjoying Nancy's blog for a while now, but never leave comments because you have to be a Blogger member!  I like the looks of your mug, Nancy.  And you've got one of those little warming plates!!!  I'm jealous.

Roadside Coffee Pot in Canada

Guess I'm going to Canada!  I'm adding this to my travelogue, for sure.  (Will try to have a map online soon ... )

This one is supposedly the world's largest coffee pot.  It's located in Davidson, Saskatchewan, measures 24 feet (7.3 meters) tall, is made of sheet metal, and could hold 150,000 8-ounce cups of coffee, according to the coolquiz.com trivia list.

It was built in 1999 "to symbolize Davidson's friendliness and hospitality."  More photos and info here.

There are quite a lot of roadside attractions across Canada.  I might have to visit some of the other sites while I'm up there.  In Saskatchewan alone I could visit a giant avocet, a big indian head, Ralph the Grasshopper, and the world's largest oil can!

Surreal Tea - Art that Walks the Line

Surrealist Julian Landa's Tea Art is unusual, and sometimes a little disturbing, but I love this guy's work!  I guess I like to walk the line between dark and light.  It's obvious that he paints from his own little world, the "Landa tea tray in the sky", and he's definitely got a unique view.  I especially like that he combines the natural and mechanical, death and life, day and night.  Sometimes in the same painting, sometimes in a pair of polar paintings.

Not all his artwork centers around tea, but enough to keep me happy and browsing for a long while.  I had a hard time picking something to show here, because I liked them all.  But this one was a good example of walking the line between whimsical and disturbing:

The Tea Cemetery

See more of Landa's Tea Art...

Think Big Home Foamed

It's coffee this afternoon, in the ThinkBIG mug.  Not great foamage, but the best I could do here at home.

The Pleasures of Tea

I'm still going through mom's collection of tea books.  There are so many, it's going to take some time, but I'll be sharing them here, at least touching on the best and the worst.  This one is a true gem: The Pleasures of Tea, Recipes & Rituals. 

There are some wonderful-sounding recipes that I plan to try and some cool tidbits of history and info, but mostly I love this book because of the luscious imagery.  I spent an hour browsing through this book, letting my eyes luxuriate in the beautiful photographs, before I even realized there were recipes. 

A feast for the eyes.

Not surprising to discover that it's put out by the editors of Victoria Magazine, the only magazine I actually save and keep.  I've got back issues collected from years ago.  That doesn't make it easy to move, as I found out the hard way, but I refused to throw them away.  Some of the older issues are a bit cut up now.  I needed pictures for a decoupage project I was doing.  But I won't be cutting up this book, that's for sure.  It's a keeper.

Coffee Shop of Horrors

Got a chuckle out of this: The Coffee Shop of Horrors, horror-themed coffee and tea shop.  No, really!

They offer teas with really appetizing names like Vampire's Kiss and Spider Legs, and coffee blends like Witches Brew, Shrieking Toad, Graveyard Shift, and Hallowed Grounds.  I may have to buy some of the Re-animator blend.  Guaranteed to bring you back from the dead.  What a hoot!

Also on the menu, 3 flavors of Bat Eggs (candy), coffee mugs with horror pictures on them, a coffee shop cat that's trying to be scary but is just too cute, horror action figures & toys, and horror movie reviews. 

They have a physical locale, somewhere in Georgia.  This has got to go on the map of must visit places!!