Ode to Blue

Change happens. It happens to the best of us, the worst of us. Fact is, no one really likes change - comfort is part security - knowing it will never change always gives us that security.

But change... it happens. All the time - each of us everyday - change for the better or worse. It happens.

About 5 years ago... a lot of change happened. Me and my friends had been frequenting this place called King Tut's in Tempe... a hookah bar with good hummus and comfy places to sit. We went there all the time. I had a crush on the girl, Caitlin - everyone knew that. But we all we friends and it was no biggy.

Anyway, so about 5 years ago - I was introduced to this place, Jamaican Blue Coffee House. I decided to invite my crush to go check it out.

That was it. We sat in the corner at the comfy couches and we talked for hours. About anything... everything - a triple white mocha iced in her hands - I think me with a frozen mocha... it took a couple months before I converted to straight coffee.

After that more friends joined, Bill, Kaisa (sp?) - even David every now and then would join in and hang with us... the idea still the same... conversation. Some of the best thoughts and ideas came out of that place... some of the best talking.

But then it changed. Serena joined the group, Kaisa left... Bill and I were no longer in good terms... I moved on from Caitlin. The paint changed from classic murals on the wall to a contemporary blue and white. When we met - the ideas were still the same though... that didn't change... conversation, talking.

Then it changed again. The walls repainted a flat color now and art hung on the walls. We stopped coming as groups and I just came and sat with my laptop by myself, working on my website and my blogs, typing to friends on the East Coast and sometimes people right down the street. I would see the same people every time... the tall guy with long hair, the chick with glasses that was friends with that one guys girlfriend, that dude that sat in the corner with his laptop with all kinds of stickers on it.... Paulie, Ben... that other guy, Pete? Was it? Every time the same people. That guy with the awesome bike with the spikes all over it... the chick in the really nice car. I wonder if they ever said to themselves... I always see that guy in here with his laptop and his way-to-big headphones... I never knew any of them even though I've probably seen them a hundred times and walked past them a hundred times or even bumped into them once or twice, a polite "Hello..." Hello familiar face...

I would love to look up from my laptop after two large coffees and a dozen cigarettes... I see the people just like I was... talking, conversing. About anything, everything.

It changed again... this time a patio added to aid the smokers, a new bar counter top... nothing is blue at all anymore but art still hangs on the walls. It started looking more like a trendy, contemporary wine and beer bar than the artsy, counter-culture coffee shop it once was. But the people... the people were still there - and they never stopped talking. Now sitting outside at the picnic tables they sat in large groups, talking, smoking - drinking beer or coffee. I would watch from a distance when I looked up from my laptop.

I wonder if anyone asked - I wonder what that guy is listening too as he bobs his head to a mysterious beat.

Groove Salad Ambient Radio from Soma.fm - Winamp Radio. Now you know.

And I was working on my website - 4 different times. Graphics, Flash animation, page design... in case you ever wondered about that too.

Because now - we reflect on the places that defined us. The places that made us human, that made us relax. The place we would go to sit alone in the corner and collect thoughts. The place we would go before hitting the clubs or come to after just leaving the clubs. A place to go show off all dressed to the nine before a birthday celebration. A place for the first beer or a wake up coffee. A place for hot mocha's on the go for a quiet art walk. A place to watch the Suns take it to the playoffs, or watch the captions of the "adult swim" on cartoon network. The place were the lights dimmed at 8, when Paul or Ben or whoever else walked in, the rock music got a little bit louder, the regulars shuffling in. The place where the tip jar always had a different funny saying like "Support starving college students."

Now we reflect on the place where you would go to make up a friendship after a couple weeks or months of not talking, or to rekindle new hopes or new ideas. To take a first date - or a tenth date. We reflect on the many times the face of the place changed - but the faces within it never did.

We were comfortable. We were secure. No matter how many changes the place they call Jamaican Blue Coffee House had... we, the people within it, would never change.

Now The Blue is closing. As of October 8th the place I have been going, we have been going for the past however many years, will be closing. The regulars can't keep it alive single handily - what it needed was new people like me, craving a new place to sit down and just... talk. Friends, family... people that love you, people you love.

Do you know what therapists were back in the day? Friends, Family... people that love you, people you love.

So, here's to the people I know but have never met. Here's to the large black house coffee or the occasional Bud Light. Here's to the friends that have joined me in my conversations over the years. Here's to the one place in a world of detachment that helped us remember the once forgotten art... of talking.

Here's to Jamaican Blue Coffee House, the Blue Bar, JBlue... it's been a good run.