This morning, I was on my way to Lighthouse Roasters in Fremont, when I passed Ethereal Cafe & CDs (note: web site is "under construction" but it can be found in the physical world at 254 NE 45th St, Seattle), which had a banner advertising fair trade Kenyan coffee, organic teas and vegetarian & vegan food. I decided to stop here instead of continuing on (will visit Lighthouse another day). Ethereal has a pair of chairs and a table for outdoor seating, but I ended up hanging out inside, chatting with Kelly, the proprietor, and Nicole, the barista. Ethereal has approximately 500 CD cases displayed in five 10×10 grids on the walls inside, each case labeled with a number that corresponds to its index on a CD jukebox (with headphones) and comfortable seating area nearby. Each grid has a theme — Pop / Classical, Ambient / Electronica, Darkwave, Psyche / Prog, World / Improv — and many of the titles were new to me (of course, as someone who just saw Bowling for Columbine, it’s probably clear that I’m not exactly ahead of the curve when it comes to media consumption). I listened to — and then purchased — The Mirror Reveals: This Infinite Eye, which had an interesting look & sound, while enjoying some French-pressed coffee. I was thinking — and talking with Kelly — about how great it would be to create a way for the music playing in the loudspeakers (vs. headphones) to be somehow influenced by the people in the cafe at any given time … reminiscent of the MusicFX system (which did this in a fitness center rather than cafe). I’ll have to bring Trevor, who is thinking about similar possibilities with respect to usage scenarios for the Personal Server, next time I come here (or, actually "there" … Ethereal does not have WiFi access [yet], so technically speaking, I’m "blogging about place" rather than "blogging in place").
On my way out, I met Johnny, who is half of the local Celtic[ish] folk music duo Total Tonic, sitting on one of the outside chairs strumming his guitar.
