Balconi Coffee

The Balconi Coffee shop is part of a wave of fancy pants coffee places; while I think I'll always be loyal to the original quality coffee place, Peet's, it's sometimes interesting to check out these new places like LA Mill, Intelligentsia, etc.

Of course your coffee won't cost $1.80, it will cost $5, maybe even $6.50.  Not for a mocha or what have you.  Just for one cup of black coffee.

So let's check out Balconi.  The place is located at Sawtelle and Olympic, so it's somewhat part of the whole Little Osaka reinvention of the area - though it's definitely Seattle/San Fran anglo in feel.

Inside are lots of little test tube looking beakers.  You feel like you are back in junior high science class.

The test tubes are (I had to look this up on wikipedia) actually vacuum coffee makers, sometimes called siphon coffee makers.  They were apparently popular in the late 1800s up through the early part of the 1900s.  They work by heating the bottom part of a beaker filled with water.  The water then rises, or is siphoned, into a higher beaker, where it mixes with the coffee grounds.  Here's a picture of it I found online:

Before they make your coffee, they have you smell the grounds, which is a lot like smelling the cork: always a little awkward.

They then start making your coffee.  Don't be in a rush.  It takes about 10 minutes.  Per person.

Here is my actual coffee being brewed:

While waiting, you can read one of the many books lying around the place, or look at the interesting decor.  You might even want to type something.

Looks like one person typed something at some point:

Or maybe you'd like to make a phone call.

Finally the coffee arrived.

It tasted....like coffee basically.

The little biscuit was a nice touch.

One neat aspect of this place was their hours.  They used to be 10am to 5pm.  The idea was that they should NOT be open before 10am, because anyone coming at that time would be in a rush.  They only wanted people willing to sit down for a long while and savor the coffee.

Well I guess they have caved, because I noticed they now open at 7am.

So is this coffee worth $5?

No, no it isn't.

But for a non-corporate place to relax in the middle of the day, with no crowds or sense of being rushed, it's probably worth $10.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Probably one of the hardest positions to be in is to be someone like Jerry Seinfeld. You've produced the greatest sitcom of all time.  How do you follow it up?

If we look to other people in similar positions....

Johnny Carson simply disappeared from view.

Ralph Ellison, author of what is often cited as the greatest American novel ever, Invisible Man, also disappeared, never to write a sequel.

Paul McCartney, post Beatles, decided to start with a clean slate.  He formed a band of relative no-names, threw equipment into a van, and played a tour of impromptu gigs at colleges in England.  He played no Beatles songs - maybe one for an encore.

Seinfeld, post Seinfeld, admirably opted for the McCartney route.  He retired all the material he'd built up over the years, and started from scratch, playing small comedy clubs.  Like McCartney, it didn't come close to matching his glory years, but he was at least starting anew.

His new online-only show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, is similar in its intent to keep things simple and go low-key.  The premise of the show is pretty much outlined in its title.

1)  Jerry gets into a classic car, either one he owns, or one he is using for the day.
2)  He picks up a comedian friend.
3)  They go and get coffee.

That is it.  The show gets mixed reviews, but I personally like just seeing Seinfeld chatting about random things.  Sometimes hilarious, sometimes slightly amusing, sometimes less than exciting.  Plus the cars are pretty cool.

It's also fun as many of the spots (John O Groats, Rae's, etc.) are nearby.

Perhaps the three best episodes are Larry David, Alec Baldwin, and his sit-in with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.  The latter episode is interesting as, apparently, Reiner and Brooks have a weekly tradition of meeting for dinner at Mel's house, then watching Jeopardy.  Seinfeld becomes the first person to sit-in on this weekly tradition that previously nobody even knew about.

This show feels relatively real; perhaps because it is.  A couple weeks ago, I saw Seinfeld with a comedian buddy at Malibu Country Mart.  Parked nearby were two sports cars with NY plates.  There was no film crew.  This was just two comedians.....in cars.....getting coffee.

Low expectations help here, but it's free and there's only one ad at the very end, so it's worth the price of admission.

The Latest Educational Fad

Anyone who has taught for awhile knows the drill.

Every 10 years or so, the pendulum swings from one educational extreme to another. While they all carry different names, the basic pattern is a vacillation from "back to basics" to "deeper, more progressive thinking."

An oversimplified timeline:

In the 50s, we had basal readers, "Dick and Jane" books, desks in rows...

In the late 60s/70s, there were open classrooms, "New Math," and progressive schools.

In the 80s, it was "back to basics" a la Reagan.

In the 90s, we had "whole language" and "investigation math."

In the 00s, the emphasis was on tests, tests, and more tests.  Remember "Open Court" textbooks which the LAUSD teachers had to read from, word for word?

After each swing toward the left, and the subsequent failure, the pendulum swings back right.  Only to again fail.  Because the underlying problem (lack of quality teaching / low expectations for students) is never addressed.

The latest reform effort is called "Common Core."  This falls under the progressive / open-minded / deep thinking type category.

Basic premise is to teach less, cover less, expect less.  In other words, fewer concepts are even attempted.  However what they DO cover is expected to be done in depth.  Kids have to spend a lot of time explaining HOW they got answers.  In fact, the HOW is more important than actually being correct.  A youtube video has gone viral actually showing a teacher talking about she'd rather have a kid say 3x4 = 11 (but explain how he got the wrong answer), then get 3x4 = 12.

Of course thinking in depth is a great thing.  And any great teacher already does this. But the way this will come down will be some very vague goals like "Students will interpret and interact with data in a meaningful way."  Or "Students will engage in group dialogue to problem solve."

Very cool, but how do you measure that?   Answer: you can't really.

What will happen, again, is that school will be spent doing a lot of engaging, involved, fun projects.  They'll build rollercoasters to study physics.  They'll design their own model dinosaurs to learn about art and paleontology.  They'll run a bake sale to learn about math.

But the kids will not learn the basics.  The wealthy kids will get tutored, the smart kids will pick up enough to get by.  And the bottom end will fall off the map.

The irony is that this new effort to improve came about because the US is failing in comparison to other countries.  So committees set about looking to see how we could improve.

They found a lack of depth.  Of course they did - we were in the middle of one of the "back to basics" movements.

But....in their quest for more depth and meaning, they missed something important. These high performing countries like Singapore, Japan, India, Russia, what have you....they have BOTH.  (Or at least the basics.)  In Singapore, for instance, you have to drill and drill on your basics.  Learning 3x4 = 12 is just a given.  THEN you use that knowledge to do higher order thinking.  The US plan flushes the basics and focuses on the "deep thinking."  Thinking the kids can't really do because they lack the foundation.

The difference this time is that instead of this coming from the usual misguided school groups and teachers associations, it's coming from the government.   The feds are requiring every state to comply with these new rules, or forfeit funding.  (Not sure what funding, as most schools are funded by local taxes, but I digress.)

The old vet teachers used to say this to me: when a fad like this comes, just roll along. Then, when nobody is looking, take out the old materials from the closet and actually teach.   One teacher I knew used to have books from the 1960s stashed in her closet - she still used them daily.

Anyway, have fun for the next few years.   The next "back to basics" movement should arrive in about 8 years, once the current kids graduate with no skills...

;)

Flat

You don't see this very often.  The ratings on Surfline are:

Flat (gray)
Poor (blue)
Fair (green)
Good (green as well)
Epic (red)

"Flat" only comes up a handful of times per year.  "Epic" is maybe once a year. Of course, eventually the flat spell will end.  Luckily I have every morning free for about the next year, so I am ready!

Depressing

I was enjoying the traffic-free bliss of August (when people are out of town and schools are not in session) when I found myself caught in a traffic jam.

At a school.

The next day I read an article in the Beverly Hills Courier that said, indeed, school began August 13 this year, the earliest ever.  It looks like LAUSD also began the 13th.

Apparently, the schools are trying to get a leg up on state tests, and want to log more weeks before the test dates.  The problem is that the tests are scaled and percentile-based.  That means that if everyone starts earlier, nobody is going to have an advantage.

Unless of course they improved the actual teaching taking place, but that hasn't apparently been suggested!  ;)

You really have to feel sorry for these kids.   Maybe someday we'll go back to Labor Day being the cutoff point for school to start....

Poo Bah

Anyone else remember Poo Bah Records?

If you lived near Pasadena, and were into records, you probably visited this spot over the years.

It wasn't a huge store, but they had a great selection, particularly of used records.  Unlike some other stores with massive bins to sort through, Poo Bah had one fairly small bin of records....but they were all in mint condition.  Perfect covers, no scratches, no worn-out grooves.  Every record I ever bought there was pristine.  And at the time, these records only cost 3 or 4 bucks at the most.  (Today, they could go for $25 to even $100 for the same records, as vinyl has become quite popular amongst a certain niche.)

Poo Bah was also connected somewhat to radio station KROQ, which at the time was centered in Pasadena, and was one of the pioneer new wave stations in the early 80's.

They must have started even earlier than that, as their logo and artwork featured the "Keep on Truckin'" guy and font so popular in the early 70s.   Compare this artwork below with the Poo Bah logo at the top.

I would love to find out more history on Poo Bah, but could not turn up much online....

What made Poo Bah special was that it was located in a house with creaky wooden floors.  The two owners were always manning the checkout area, usually buried behind a stack of vinyl.  There was a house cat that lounged around on the records, waiting to be petted.  (Is petted a word?)  The walls were of course adorned with all kinds of memorabilia and posters.  Along with Rhino Records and a few others, it was one of the best record stores in Southern California.

I hadn't been to Poo Bah in a long time, living fairly far away.  And their record bin seemed to have faded in the late 90's.  I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I'd gone there.

Last week, I found myself in Pasadena and drove by Poo-Bah.  "You know what?  I should go in there!"

Well, I parked and walked over.  And.....it wasn't Poo Bah anymore!  It was a YARN STORE.

I couldn't believe it!  Of course I wanted to go inside, but I guess Skein is not open Mondays.  But what if someone REALLY needs yarn?  In fact, wouldn't Monday be the kind of day where you decide to embark on some kind of craft project?

Now if this were back in the Poo Bah days, the mystery would end there.  I would not know what had happened to Poo Bah's.

But of course now we can google things.  So I of course did so, and it turns out Poo Bah still exists!

Well sort of.  Someone bought the name in 2002.  (2002?!)   The two bearded dudes who had run the place since probably the 1970s retired.

I guess in 2007 or so, the house was sold.   Poo Bah moved into a Colorado Blvd storefront.

The store seems to mainly a rap-oriented place now, based on what I read online.  Their website has a very different look:

Looking at their "blog," they do have some old rock records for sale.  But you can see they are poor quality, worn out....exactly the kind of records those dudes at Poo Bah would never buy.  It was sad.

So sad that I won't even bother to go to the new Poo-Bah's.

Jinxed Summer?

Welcome back to my blog!  It has been taking a vacation for a bit...

So it seems that my ode to June Gloom may have been misinterpreted by the Weather Gods.  While I love the cool May Gray, June Gloom, and even a little Cloudy Sky July, eventually, full-on summer, with zero cloud cover, needs to arrive.

Obviously, this year, it so far has not.  This may be the coldest summer of all time.   And now, as you can see above, even the ocean is cold.   Thanks Obama!  (Had to throw in that running joke.)

What we need, then, is a rebound for August and September.  That means a blazing heatwave inland, and perfect 80 degree beach weather here.  That will more than compensate...