*FREE BREAKFAST*
but wait! i gotta write about something! right?! we're major missionaries this week. like, the kind who believes deeply in what they believe. in what they're doing. in the fun of it. the good of it. the why of it, really. cuz the what always comes back to widgets, right? it's the why of it that matters. and this week we got three big why stories to tell. count 'em three.
first. and most importantly i must say. remember when you were a kiddo? (remember when? remember when? it's like the start of every beer review i write. and every rant i write. and every EP i record. and college the virtues of which i extol. (not my own mater, sadly.)) but remember that? remember when you'd come in from playing outside. you'd been fucking running around for like 4 hours. your little legs. running everywhere. never walking. and it was cold as hell but you didn't know temperatures or comfort or care about sound design or lighting levels or "can i please have a blanket?" or "this steering wheel is really cold i need gloves". the short of it: you didn't fucking complain about your conditions.
but then you'd go in for dinner. and you'd be a dick to your little sister for some reason. maybe she was washing her hands and singing out of tune and that pissed you off so you hip-checked her into the toilet and started washing your own hands and hobbes felt vindicated in his grave and then your parents heard her wails and punished you by sending to your room without a single morsel. and at first you didn't care cuz you had all your baseball cards in there. and your train set. but after awhile. your stomach started to growl. and your family was cackling about something. and you were lonely, yeah. but you were also fucking hungry. i mean, you started to feel those fake hunger pains that we americans have learned to immediately gratify just like the way we put on three cute blankets on at the slightest chill. but then you got the courage to peak your head out of your room and our ma saw you and asked what you needed and you asked if you could come eat dinner and she asked why you were in your room in the first place and you shrugged and she said then go back to your room and then you admitted that you hip checked gretchen because she was done washing her hands she was just standing there singing poorly and refused to move when you asked her nicely and your ma told you to go back to your room and then you admitted that you really just did it cuz gretchen is tone deaf and your ma asked you if that was appropriate and you shook your head and hobbes was defeated because his philosophy is almost too silly even to read and consider other than to prove its lack of depth or to place in in history somehow.
YOU WERE SO FUCKING LUCKY. because your family ate dinner every night. and your belly was so damn full that your hunger pains were fake news. and your ma was confident enough to send you to bed without dinner cuz you were so damn well-fed all the damn time! and most of you readers probably can relate. to the story above. but there's gobs and gobs of kids who can't. whose parents would never punish them that way because they barely get more than one meal a weekend anyway. sometimes because there's another bill due. sometimes because the parents are working three jobs and they cross wires and the dad thinks the mom fed the kids and vice versa until it's 11p and a kid walks out of a bedroom and begs for food and the dad feeds the kid and then cries his eyes out. or sometimes, sadly, the parents are into drugs. or one of them is in jail and the other is just trying to make it moment to moment.
and thank the prince-gods and cool-humans for things like "free or reduced lunch" at CPS! some kids get 2-3 meals a day at various CPS schools. that's amazing! but kids don't go to school on the weekends. not ever. and so what happens to those less lucky kiddos on the weekends? lots of them just stay hungry. and can't wait for monday to come. not cuz they love fractions. like we future spreadsheet lovers. cuz they're fucking hungry! and then we wonder why their SAT scores are lower.
but wait! again wait! not everyone who comes to our *FREE BREAKFASTS* is a hungry kid. we'll admit it. maybe some are. maybe some aren't. but there's another contour to the story here. some of the kids and families who come in, surprise surprise, are super close-knit with strong mothers or fathers. parents who make damn sure they instill their kids w the right ethics. who always prioritize feeding their kids. who always find ways to take care of them. and so they ain't joining us on some saturdays out of desperation. but instead want to show their kids something new. they want their kids to see the breadth of interests and creativity in the world. and so they come to *FREE BREAKFAST* for that.
anyway. gentrification is a bitch. and we're gentrifying the shit out of our neighborhood. we can't help it. so the least we can do is attempt to feed some of the kids and families around us who might want to hang out together in a *different* place. on a weekend morning. or who might be starving. whichever.
come partake. or support. we'll take care of you the same either way. you beautiful, multitudinous human.
...and then a bus came by.
and the folks from virtue cider got off. with two apple saplings!! in what's honest to god one of the best marketing events i've ever come across, virtue cider is planting apple trees around the city. this saturday. in honor of arbor day. and we're lucky enough to get two of them! and they're gonna be so damn adorable!
anyhow, we're tapping a keg of their rosé cider on saturday after free breakfast. and will have it on until it kicks. and we're stoked'r than ever about what's to come on our patio! thanks to sara and her team.
*DEEP BREAKFAST*
and then there's *DEEP BREAKFAST*. i know what you're thinking.... another breakfast?!?!?! but yes! breakfast is that meal! that meal that only important people eat. right?
so wrong! everyone loves breakfast. and so when my cool cuz michael hilger was fryin' up some eggs one morning. listening to ray lynch's deep breakfast. he thought, "i should host a deep breakfast event". and so it was born. our chef mickey neely (who, of course, we met through cousin michael) jumped on board. and they threw their first event. and it worked! anyhow, late last year, it became a series. held the last sunday of the month at sleeping village.
but this month they're traveling! they're on a field trip! to bungalow! we'll be hosting our very first *DEEP BREAKFAST* this sunday. and, just like always, it'll involve breakfast and ambient music. mickey will cook up a dutch baby pancake. jess is offering some killer raisin spice toast with a coconut jam. and michael will play ambient music with macie stewart from the band ohmme. and we'll have our regular beers on tap. and our regular breakfast dranks. and it'll be a trip!
as cousin michael always says: bring your babies. your dogs (except don't bring them. just bring thoughts of them. cuz they can't come inside. and it'll be chilly sunday.). ... bring your humanity. relax. eat breakfast. talk a little bit. and listen a lot. (ok. he says most of that most of the time. i just talk two words for everyone else's one word usually.)
