Monday, August 25, 2014

Mea Maxima Cuppa.


MUG: 14 once mug made in China, mud-colored (I once painted an entire duplex's interior walls that color), and sold by Pottery Barn (one of the rare pieces of pottery in the store). Lettering by DYMO.

COFFEE: Guatemalan Antigua, Central Market West Gate, medium roasted by Tyler.

NOTES: Yet another penitential prototype. This is may be the largest coffee cup I have. But I have another candidate gigante.

P.S. They can have my DYMO embossed label gun when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of it.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Death's Head Clown #64, or Skull and Roses


MUG: Uncertain origin, but made for and purchased at the Terlingua Trading Post in Terlingua, Texas. Laser-etched design (a process I like). Matte-black exterior glaze, with a purple gloss glaze lining the mug. White incised/engraved design in the Mexican Dios de la Muerte  tradition.

COFFEE: Guatemalan Antigua, roasted by Tyler at Central Market West Gate a few days ago.

NOTES: I purchased the mug as a souvenir on my last visit to Terlingua earlier this summer. The painted acrylic horn-toads gave it a good run for my tourist dollars.

As for Skull and Roses, advance the player to 52:33, and then play on.




Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Mea culpa.


MUG: Eleven ounce barrel mug, with a course black glaze like the surface of an old chalk blackboard. It was a gift from my daughter. Made in China for Gibson-Home. It came with chalk.

COFFEE: Colombian Santander. Great stuff. Roasted perfectly, and brewed well.

NOTES: My morning coffee routine (ritual?) is intrinsically tied to my daily practice/habit/rule of observing a variation of the Benedictine daily office of Morning Prayer (pre-dawn Matins). It usually begins with these words:

Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of
Almighty God our heavenly Father, to set forth his praise, to
hear his holy Word, and to ask, for ourselves and on behalf
of others, those things that are necessary for our life and our
salvation. And so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and
mind to worship him, let us kneel in silence, and with
penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins, that we may 
obtain forgiveness by his infinite goodness and mercy.

There are other versions I use at times.

The text is a rough prototype for an idea I had for a 16 oz. latte-mug design. Helps to understand it if you're old Catholic.

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Dated Material: Release Immediately


MUG: Chinese made barrel-style mug, purchased in the gift shop at the old Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas.

COFFEE: Colombian Santander, roasted yesterday by Frank at the Central Market Westgate.

NOTES: The coffee is not burned, unlike the thousands of humans who unwillingly sacrificed their lives as an offering to save millions of their countrymen's lives (as well as thousands of American lives) on today's date. Thank you, cousin Harry. I might not be here today otherwise (my dad was in the Aleutians, waiting to go).