My favorite local band, Unicycle Loves You, who recently signed with Chicago’s own Highwheel Records, finally received copies of their upcoming debut album. I was fortunate enough to get a hand on a copy, which incidentally was produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine). While their stage presence could be described as somewhere between eccentric and dysfunctional, their sound is, well, pretty fucking sweet. An amalgam of self-acknowledged influences ranging from sunshine pop to glam rock, they manage to be catchy without being kitschy, eclectic without losing focus, and clever without even trying.

The album will be available to the general public after their release party at the Empty Bottle on June 9th, but you can hear a few cuts on their myspace or catch them live at Reggie’s (sponsored by Venuszine) on March 18th or at Schuba’s on April 17th.

You should check out their photos… my lovely wife took most of them.

Geoff Watts & Sarah Kluth made the news today, in a nice spot on local Chicago channel 7, which gave me the opportunity to turn the lab into a giant rock garden while they were in the studio.  If only that could get a 3 minute spot on network tv, I’d be famous.

It’s the slow season for coffee, at least at retail. Central American crops are starting to show their age, South American coffees are trickling in, and African beans are (mostly) still being processed at origin.

However, this has been a busy week for us in the QC lab, sampling and cupping hundreds of coffees. Our Rwanda Zirikana finally arrived, and is kick-ass. A large portion of our time has been spent evaluating Nicaraguan coffees that have been flooding in to build our Flor Azul for this year. The farmer’s samples have ranged in the size of the lot they represent from 12 qqs to as little as 0.5 qqs (less than a 60kg bag). It’s been grueling, and rewarding, to build this coffee from the smallest of blocks, but it won’t be until later this summer when we see the final results.

The Black Cat Espresso has been consuming inordinate amounts of our time recently as well. Regional barista competitions are already upon us, with the USBC in May. The GLRBC (Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition) is next weekend, March 13-16, hosted by Alterra Coffee in Milwaukee. Goodrich Gevaart and Deanna Myers, whom I worked with at the Millennium Park Cafe, are competing this year, as are training department head Amber Sather and Broadway Cafe in-store trainer Mike Phillips whom I competed with at last year’s GLRBC and both of whom went on to compete in the 2007 USBC. Rounding out Intelli’s team are the always smiling Alexandra Switzer (our wholesale trainer), improvisationally inclined Andy Carey (training specialist), social advocate Talya Strader, and latte-art genie Charles Babinski. Good Luck Team!

Colombia’s attack on the Marxist/Lenninist group Farc across the border in Ecuador is, I think, a bigger deal than many of us suspect in the West. While the last century has certainly not been anything less than rife with conflict in the Americas, this may be the closest any of us has come to full scale international war in my lifetime.

Colombia’s government relied on informants as well as communications intercepts and technology provided by the U.S., according to Jeremy McDermott of the BBC.  Senior rebel Raul Reyes (aka Luis Edgar Devia Silva) and 16 other guerrillas were located in Ecuador, and the ground was leveled by bombs from Colombian jets.  Farc, according to many analysts, will likely not recover from this blow.  While it is undoubtedly sad to see violence of this nature, the elimination of a rebel faction is a less relevant issue than the international situation at hand.  Rebel groups and terrorist organizations will likely always exist.

The issue of relevance, I believe, is: to what extent does a sovereign country have the right to cross international borders in order to defend its sovereignty?  Moreover, what defines a threat to that sovereignty?

Colombia has exerted its power over Ecuador, to the chagrin of  its neighboring countries, following an example set by the U.S. in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, etc., etc., and even more recently by Turkey in Iraq.  Machiavellian foreign policies may never leave the globe, but I’m afraid the U.S. has done more than our fair share of encouragement and participation in such violent and undiplomatic events over the course of recent history.

I’d like to see that situation reversed, and it seems to me that we need a leader who is willing to negotiate and simultaneously unwilling to compromise.  With an election season looming in November, I can only hope the right Obama is elected.

In a somewhat romantic effort to single-handedly stave off the seemingly endless Chicago winter, I picked up a six-pack of New Belgium’s Springboard Ale, which I saw for the first time this year at the grocery store. I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself a big fan of Fat Tire, or Belgian style ale in general, but I was impressed by the smoothness and berry-like finish (which I attribute to the lycium) and the nice buzz… maybe a result of the wormwood used in the brewing process? All things considered a nice beer, round, crisp in the finish and sweet but not overpoweringly so. Worth checking out.