WANTED: Singers, Poets, Musicians, Magicians, Jugglers, All Performers
Open Mic Saturday 4-7
WANTED: Singers, Poets, Musicians, Magicians, Jugglers, All Performers
This Saturday, Leo’s Coffeehouse presents Open Mic II, with Brent Egelend as Master of Ceremonies, featuring the really chill acoustic music with nice melodies of Jonathan Bretz Nilsen, and anyone else bold enough to take the mic.
The show starts at 4:00 PM. Please email us if you plan to perform, so that we can coordinate times and equipment needs.
Audience attendance is free. The greatest listening experience will be had while drinking a cup of delicious coffee or tea made by the very talented staff at Leo’s Coffeehouse.
Check out samples of Jessica’s music at http://www.myspace.com/deceivingeve and Mr. Nilsen’s music at http://www.myspace.com/heartsathomeband
**Note this is a proper use of the word bold. Bold is not a flavor of coffee, nor is it currently recognized by Leo’s Coffeehouse as a descriptor of any coffee related experience, though one may boldly order delicious coffee at Leo’s Coffeehouse.
Local Music - Friday Night 5/7 @ 7:00 PM
Cancel whatever other plans you may have for this Friday night and get over to Leo’s Coffeehouse to catch live performances by three local music acts: Somewhere In Between, Wide Eyed, and soloist Jessica Courson.
The group Somewhere In Between rocks the house like nobody’s business with numerous Nashville-worthy original hits, as well as better-than-the-original covers.
The Punk/Ska band Wide Eyed features Brent, picking and croonin’, Danner, hittin’ the skins, and Antonio the bassman. They’re style is a rockabilly influenced, ska punk fiasco that’s fun for the whole family.
http://www.myspace.com/fuzzybagelproductions
Jessica Courson is a very talented singer and musician that writes thought provoking, life inspired, lyrics over soaring melodies in a style similar to Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, and Sheryl Crow, but much better.
The show starts at 7:00 PM. Get here early to best ensure a space inside. $5 cover to get in.
Acoustic Friday Night - Tonight @ 7:00 PM
Tonight, Leo’s Coffeehouse is proud to host live music performances by two local soloists, Jessica Courson and Andrew Gork.
The show starts at 7:00 PM. Get here early to best ensure a space inside.
Delicious coffees and iced teas will be sold all evening long. $3 minimum drink purchase to get in.
Jessica Courson is a very talented musician that writes thought provoking, life inspired, lyrics over soaring melodies in a style between Sarah McLachlan and Tegan and Sarah.
Andrew Gork has an impressive menagerie of easy to listen too, witty, and thoughtful songs with a style that fans of Snow Patrol and The Postal Service will appreciate.
Local Band Variety Night - Friday 4/23 at 6:30 PM
This Friday at 6:30 PM, Loe’s Coffeehouse is proud to host live music performances by three local bands: PAFEEDAFUNGUS, WIDE EYED, and THE SPOTLIGHT VARIOUS.
The show starts at 6:30 PM. Get here early to best ensure a space inside.
Delicious coffees and iced teas will be sold all evening long. $3 minimum drink purchase to get in.
PAFEEDAFUNGUS: Lunchbox- Vox, Guitar; Chris Brown- Lead Guitar, Backing Vox; Cory Baumer- Harmonica, Sitar, Bango, Misc. Instruments; Antonio DeAcites- Percussion, Misc. PaFeedafungus has been jammin’ in north phoenix for about a year now. They’re influenced by various styles of music namely blues, psychodelic, folk and eastern music. http://www.myspace.com/pafeedafungus
WIDE EYED: Brent- picking and croonin’, Danner- hits the skins, Antonio- bassman Wide eyed has been a band since the 8th grade talent show where they covered Louie Louie and fell in love with performing. since than they’re style has developed into a rockabilly influenced, ska punk fiasco that’s fun for the whole family. http://www.myspace.com/fuzzybagelproductions
THE SPOTLIGHT VARIOUS: Wade- guitar/vox, Shea- drums, Jake- bass The Spotlight Various is a recently formed pop-punk act with an impressive repertoire of emotionally charged, acoustically written, anthemic serenades. http://www.myspace.com/thespotlightvarious
Open Mic - Saturday, April 24th, 4 to 7 PM
Calling all musicians, singers, poets, comedians, and performers! This Saturday at 4:00 PM, Leo’s Coffeehouse will host its first open mic event, with Brent Egeland as Master of Ceremonies. Participation is open to anyone bold** enough to take the mic. Email us at leoscoffeehouse[AT]gmail.com if you plan to perform, so that we can coordinate times and equipment needs.
Audience attendance is free. The greatest listening experience will be had while drinking a cup of delicious coffee or tea prepared by the very talented staff at Leo’s Coffeehouse.
**Note this is a proper use of the word bold. Bold is not a flavor of coffee, nor is it currently recognized by Leo’s Coffeehouse as a descriptor of any coffee related experience, though one may boldly order delicious coffee at Leo’s Coffeehouse.
Biting My Tongue, Win Free Coffee
If I ever describe our coffee with any of the following words or phrases, the first person to point it out to me wins a free cup of coffee.* Words and phrases may be added to this list, depending on my temperament and what bothers me.
- BOLD
- DARK ROAST
- GOURMET
- CUTS THROUGH MILK
For now, I’ll bite my tongue, and not comment when I see others use any of these descriptions.
*If I preface or otherwise provide a disclaimer that I’m using any of the terms jokingly, then nobody gets free coffee for pointing out my use of any of the words at that time.
Chopped
On Sunday, after seeing Dave Carter’s Tweets (1, 2, 3, and 4) about his portafilter chopping project, I immediately got up, grabbed my drill, a hole saw bit, and an extra portafilter from each of the two espresso machines we’re using at Leo’s Coffeehouse, and started hacking.
The cutting went slowly - about half an hour each - but it worked. After cutting the bottoms out, I smoothed the edges with a Dremel and an orange stone bit. These chopped portafilters aren’t the prettiest, as I added a few more scratches and there’s no chrome where I cut, but they work well.
To test out my new toys, I grabbed an eighteen-day-old bag of my current favorite coffee, DoubleShot Coffee Company’s Colombia La Concordia Finca San Rafael Label. (Before this coffee, I’d never had a Colombian coffee I liked.) Since DoubleShot Coffee Company sources and roasts coffees that are too fresh, I let this bag get old, to taste how it changed with age and to see whether it would ever go stale; and since the bag has no fancy valve, I was really hoping it would explode, for entertainment purposes. Alas, even after eighteen days since it was roasted, the coffee was still delicious, even when extracted as espresso, and the bag never exploded.
Photos and video of this project are available in the previous two posts.
53mm portafilter cut from inside.
Burn marks from heat when cutting.
58mm portafilter cut from bottom.
18-day-old coffee bag, no explosion.
Currently my favorite coffee. Delicious.
Images of the 58mm and 53mm portafilters I cut the bottoms out of, along with the hole saw bit used, and the delicious coffee that was first extracted through my new toys.
First extraction from my self-chopped 53mm portafilter. The machine is a two group La Spaziale New EK. The coffee is DoubleShot Coffee Company’s Colombia La Concordia Finca San Rafael.
The grind was a little too fine, as it took about fifty seconds to extract 1.5 ounces from a double basket; I think the extraction gap shows evidence of uneven dosing distribution in the basket; and I purposely let it continue to extract a little after it started blonding - this was an experiment, after all - but it still tasted delicious, especially after I turned it into an Americano with an ounce of hot water.
(The Portafilter Podcast is playing in the background.)
