This place has really developed since it first opened last May and I'm glad that I've been around to observe its evolution.
It started out a very meager attempt at the small, neighborhood coffee shop; inundating its customers with environmental initiatives and small-scale, inner-city activism.
Now, it has molded itself into a full-fledged hipster elitist think tank of beat-like proportions.
However, most of the time there is no place to sit and certainly no place to think. When you enter, especially through the east door (the door that faces where I'm coming from and most often enter) you immediately confront the looks and judgment of a crowd so unknowingly condescending and exclusive, you would think you had mistakenly walked into a secret council, who's primary objective is to rid the world of all evil...and YOU are the very evil they are trying to rid it from.
You can order food or coffee or tea (they don't carry soft drinks or regular iced tea, so don't ask... this will induce instant derision from the employees and all those who overhear your order...a possibly irreparable rookie mistake). They have taken to strange, get-to-know-each-other type exercises such as putting out name tags by the register for customers to pick up and wear. They all have random, mildly amusing names written on them for you to choose from. For example, one of the female baristas wears one that says "Maurice," a ragged looking customer (clearly a regular) dons one that reads "Day Man," a male barista is "kitten," another female employee making the sandwiches is "farmer" and so on and so forth. I picked up one that says "mailman" and put it on my shirt. It would do you well to participate in these little games, as they are designed to tie the herd closer together and alienate those who enter who do not think like them.
And if you follow these instructions without faltering and proceed to sit down with your laptop, book or newspaper (do NOT come without one of the prior, it would be like going to the pool without a bathing suit or towel...once you're there you're completely useless and must, by consequence of your ill preparation, leave), you're in the club.
Don't be nervous about it because they can sense your nerves and will prey on them like an intuitive animal preys on fear. It is yet, another thing that can give you away as an intruder who doesn't belong.
The owners, a thirty-something couple (from what I gather) with no kids yet (I'm not sure about the kid part though) are quintessentially the royalty of the place; the most uppity and haughty of the bunch, only talking to those who suit their persnickety fancy. They have quite intentionally perpetuated a hierarchy in their cafe for them to preside over and in a way, I respect them for it.
All of that said, once you're in, this place is kind of sweet. They play decent music and provide an outlet for daytime exercise of brain muscle and socializing.
Pompous and brow-raising as they are and bedraggled as they look, these hipsters can surprise you at times with their quips and their often friendly medicine for the common brain cloud. ? would have felt at home here and would be proud of the progress it has made (he moved to India back in October, by the way).
So let's all raise our cappuccino mugs and emerald lily green teas to toast what has become of BBC (an accidental pun they have taken to playing up in the cafe, of late). The good, the bad and the bald men with ever-so-carefully groomed chin beards. Cheers.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
The Condemned Library
A sight of wreckage to behold.
A portrait of the laziness and apathy that infuriatingly plague Shaw.
I wanted to go to the library today to do some work so I decided to walk (it being such a an unseasonably nice day and all) down to the Watha T. Daniel Library that sits across the street from the Shaw/ Howard metro station's R and 8th street exit. The library essentially splits the street, positioned in an acute angle to R and Rhode Island. Heading due West on either street, you can't miss it. It's an old, brick, oddly-shaped building reflecting poor architecture and shoddy construction. I still don't know who Watha T. Daniel is (no matches found on Wikipedia), but whoever she is I don't think she would approve of what has become of the building that bears her name.
I never could quite figure out which side was the front of it since the outside walls of the west and north ends both showcase the name of the library and I never did notice a front entrance.
But as I was walking toward it I noticed it was fenced off. I just thought that was a precautionary measure at first (a supposition not altogether unjustified), but alas upon rounding the east end of the building, I came across the unanticipated and startling sight of an abandoned demolition.
There, a rusted bulldozer with its crane extended into the bottom of the front entrance sits on a pile of rubble. Some orange cones lay sporadic around the bulldozer. And situated in front of the bulldozer (the closest object to the fence), as if to introduce and welcome the onlooker to the scene, stands a leaning sanijohn.
Needless to say, it was a gloomy sight. I wondered what happened? Did the construction crew get a call in the middle of their first swing calling off the whole deal? Did not enough people show up to adequately start the project, but the ones who did show decided to have a little fun and wreck some shit before leaving to go get a beer? Did some crackhead who shouldn't have been wielding a bulldozer in the first place get distracted by the smell of hot dogs coming from the 7-Eleven across the street? ...A ridiculous place, by the way, probably an active outlet for drug trafficking. I know there are aways crackbums begging outside, and in a really rude and aggressive way, no less. Metro was once confronted by a lady telling him she would suck his dick for five dollars.
Whatever the hell happened the point is that nothing even got cleaned up or returned
or anything. It's just sitting there reminding everyone who sees it that a library couldn't flourish there and those hired to destroy it must have concluded that it just wasn't worth it.
Now the building is probably home to homeless people, rats, drug addicts and maybe some local teenagers in need of a place to be alone , if you know what I mean. Oh and maybe that cracklady who solicits at 7-Eleven with her woebegone clients.
Anyway, reaching some fingers into the blogosphere I found out that construction of a new library or perhaps housing and retail in that location is scheduled to begin in 2010. I just hope (although I have my doubts) that this development comes to pass.
I also wonder what became of all those books that must have been in there.
A portrait of the laziness and apathy that infuriatingly plague Shaw.
I wanted to go to the library today to do some work so I decided to walk (it being such a an unseasonably nice day and all) down to the Watha T. Daniel Library that sits across the street from the Shaw/ Howard metro station's R and 8th street exit. The library essentially splits the street, positioned in an acute angle to R and Rhode Island. Heading due West on either street, you can't miss it. It's an old, brick, oddly-shaped building reflecting poor architecture and shoddy construction. I still don't know who Watha T. Daniel is (no matches found on Wikipedia), but whoever she is I don't think she would approve of what has become of the building that bears her name.
I never could quite figure out which side was the front of it since the outside walls of the west and north ends both showcase the name of the library and I never did notice a front entrance.
But as I was walking toward it I noticed it was fenced off. I just thought that was a precautionary measure at first (a supposition not altogether unjustified), but alas upon rounding the east end of the building, I came across the unanticipated and startling sight of an abandoned demolition.
There, a rusted bulldozer with its crane extended into the bottom of the front entrance sits on a pile of rubble. Some orange cones lay sporadic around the bulldozer. And situated in front of the bulldozer (the closest object to the fence), as if to introduce and welcome the onlooker to the scene, stands a leaning sanijohn.
Needless to say, it was a gloomy sight. I wondered what happened? Did the construction crew get a call in the middle of their first swing calling off the whole deal? Did not enough people show up to adequately start the project, but the ones who did show decided to have a little fun and wreck some shit before leaving to go get a beer? Did some crackhead who shouldn't have been wielding a bulldozer in the first place get distracted by the smell of hot dogs coming from the 7-Eleven across the street? ...A ridiculous place, by the way, probably an active outlet for drug trafficking. I know there are aways crackbums begging outside, and in a really rude and aggressive way, no less. Metro was once confronted by a lady telling him she would suck his dick for five dollars.
Whatever the hell happened the point is that nothing even got cleaned up or returned
or anything. It's just sitting there reminding everyone who sees it that a library couldn't flourish there and those hired to destroy it must have concluded that it just wasn't worth it.
Now the building is probably home to homeless people, rats, drug addicts and maybe some local teenagers in need of a place to be alone , if you know what I mean. Oh and maybe that cracklady who solicits at 7-Eleven with her woebegone clients.
Anyway, reaching some fingers into the blogosphere I found out that construction of a new library or perhaps housing and retail in that location is scheduled to begin in 2010. I just hope (although I have my doubts) that this development comes to pass.
I also wonder what became of all those books that must have been in there.
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