Beer In Big Styrofoam Cups

There is bar in my neighborhood that serves beer in such cups. I went to this bar with a friend of mine on Wednesday night. I like beer, I have no real issues with styrofoam, so I suggested we give it a try.

Let this serve as a cautionary tale - If you drink big styrofoam cups of beer, there is a very good chance your head will hurt the next morning. The pain can prevent you from doing things that otherwise come naturally - like making photographs of the food you eat that are in focus.

Only time, and the soothing elixir known as black coffee allow clarity to return.

How does God take her coffee?

The following is an excerpt from Dan Barry's column in today's New York Times titled 'Not Much Guidance From Above.'

"You know the answer," God said, as she tried to choose between milk and half-and-half for her coffee. She finally decided to drink it black.

I'm not a religious man, but I've always been told that God created us in her image.
Perhaps this is why one is overcome with a sense of calm and clarity when drinking a cup of black coffee.

47th St.

untitled2
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

This is from one of those times that I feel really cooped up in the office. I come outside and have a seat on a bench. Its always the same bench. It's up a few steps in this little brick courtyard with a waterfall. It's very pleasent there on a nice day. I sat there before my first interview for this job for a few minutes having some iced black coffee.

breakfast - sept. 27

breakfast - sept. 27
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

Breakfast of Champions

legs

legs
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

Legs. Feet. Shoes. Lately around this big city I've taken notice of the peoples feet. All the people and all their shoes, or maybe just their legs. I'm not sure this only really started a few weeks ago. I was watching this show about a girl who was a shoe designer. She was cute. She mentioned something about noticing the shoes people wore. A perfectly senseable thing for someone who designs shoes to do. I myself never really took notice of such things. However, after hearing her I began to notice the shoes pepole were wearing alot more. I'm not gonna go crazy and say its the first thing I notice on people now, its not and sometimes I still don't notice them at all. But I sure do notice them a whole lot more and I've found shoes, feet and legs make for interesting pictures. Thus the name of my new set of photos - Shoes, Feet, Legs

Breakfast sept25

breakfast sept25
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

This is part of my evolving photo series called 'Food I eat and/or see eaten.'
Those of you who are interested can find the set on my Flickr page.

Everything bagel w. Light veggie cream cheese, the two pills I'm taking these days, and a large black coffee.

They always give you way too much cream cheese...its like your eating a cream cheese sandwich. I always end up wiping like half of it off, but it looks nice in the photo I suppose.

Breakfast - 9/24

Breakfast - Saturday, September 24th 2005
This was at the Garden Grill - my local dinner. It's good. I had an egg white omelet w. feta cheese and tomatoes. When I order it the guy behind the counter says 'Feta and tomato OM-E-LETTA BLANCO all the way to stay.' I think the 'all the way' business is for the potatoes and buttered white toast that come with it. I always put hot sauce on my eggs. The ketchup is just there for show...I was wearing a Heinz Ketchup tee shirt so the old fella behind the counter thought that the ketchup bottle belonged in the picture - I didn't object. I also had about 4 cups of my beloved black coffee.

craig w. bubbly

craig w. bubbly
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

This is my friend Craig. We met freshman year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. That was in 1996. Wow, it sure doesn't feel like 9 years ago. I can still remember our first conversation. It was in the dinning room, we were eating bad pizza - its all pretty bad in Madison - and Craig was telling me about this experience he had with a young lady and some kind of controlled substance.

This is a good picture of Craig. He's poppin open a bottle of bubbly. Craig seems to have a certain flair for entertaining – he’s a very good host. Criag and Jen (his wonderful woman of many years) had a New Years Eve party in 2004. There weren't really many people there, and one girl was really getting on my nerves, but we all had a very good time and nobody ever had an empty glass.

How'd they make the burgers so damn small?!?

IMG_1014
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

This is my friend Jon. I've know him for a really long time. We were on the same basketball team in the 4th grade. That was a lot of fun. About 18 years later I had a party and bought a lot of White Castle hamburgers. Jon seems fascinated with his, doesn't he?

885 2nd Ave

885 2nd Ave
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

I work here. It's a big beautiful building on the east side of Manhattan. We work in a tiny room with no windows in the basement. Sometimes in the middle of the day this makes me sad. When this happens I'll go outside for a few minutes and eat a peach or something. That usually makes me feel a little bit better.

the coz

the coz
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

Gotta love those sweaters!

self-portrait

self-portrait
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

I made this pic very early one Friday morning in May. I look kinda crazy...I'm not really that crazy. I also don't really look like this any more.

music

IMG_0905
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

This is a neat picture

My kitchen

IMG_1032
Originally uploaded by jbrau13.

It doesn't always look like this...black coffee comes from this room. Mmmmmmm.

The Beginning

This is the first entry in my new blog.
I actually opened the account back in December, but haven't used it until today - 9/22/05 - the first day of autumn.
I'm calling the blog 'Black Coffee'
Black coffee is one of my favorite things in this whole world. Maybe I have simple pleasures, or maybe I just know a good thing when I see (or taste) it, but I love me my black coffee.

Today is also the first day of autumn. I thought it would be a good time to start this here blog. I suppose autumn is kind of about the end of things in some ways, the end of summer, end of long days, end of girls in open toed shoes is near, days get shorter, and so on.
But for me its the start, the start of this blog at least. And black coffee accompanies the start of each day for me, so why not the start of this as well.