Whither Cafés?

(image from here)

Some cafés play radio stations, often quietly, for their patrons, especially when the employees are bored with the same CDs or tapes they've always played.  (My memories predate satellite radio streamed music.  Bear with me.)  There was a nice café - a coffeeshop, really - on Guadalupe Street in Austin, Texas, I used to frequent a lot back in the day.  It's not there anymore, but a version of it exists in Hyde Park, but, you know, it isn't the same.  I don't know how late the Guadalupe store stayed open, but someone who worked there once told me that they listened to my Monday night show at the café from time-to-time.  Which of course unnerved me.  Once, when I was with a friend, the fellow behind the counter - I don't think barista had become common parlance by then - said, "Are you Gary?"  He said it not like that was a good thing, but I went ahead & admitted I was.  It was too late for him to spit in the drink.

A few years back - or maybe just last year - it feels like a lifelong project - I gave up caffeine.  I was never much of a coffee drinker - I have an aversion to hot liquids - but the allure of the café beckons even now.  I remember sitting in the back of a café in college, trying to read but instead looking at women.  I remember staring out of a café window at a world either too hot or cold for me to abandon my muffin to re-enter.  Something about cafés is nice, you know?

So tonight there'll be a radio show about it!  It's on 93.9 fm in Lexington from 9-11pm Lexingtime (that's 8-10pm Texas time), & you can listen everywhere at the Lexington Community Radio web page, as long as you click "WLXU."

It'll be like having a coffee with me - I'll talk about & play music & won't hear a thing you say!