70/366 – The Perfect Cup of Coffee, and Some Sad News.

March 10, 2012 – Do you ever go out and have this happen to you at the restaurant?

An empty cup. A stream of dark golden, steaming, fragrant liquid gurgles and fills it to the rim. Two creamers dribble in. Torn paper, and a teaspoon of golden crystals tumble in and disappear below the surface. A metal spoon clinks and a vortex develops, blending-it all. The spoon rattles to the saucer. Lift, breathe deeply and inhale the intoxicating fragrance, sip, sigh. The perfect proportions. Halfway through the experience, a silver carafe appears from nowhere, suddenly the coffee cup is full to the rim again, perfect proportions Lost. Disruption. Now what? It’s all messed up now. How do you add more than one creamer, but less than two, how much sugar to replace to get back to that perfect proportion. I hate that.

Not today though, because my coffee was made in our machine, I get to drink it all before making a fresh one. No messed up proportions today.

But some sad news. The Vancouver Playhouse is closing. The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company almost reached 50 years of operation. One of the longest running theatre companies in Canada, and like so many other arts companies, just didn’t manage to make it through in today’s economy and government cutbacks. Subscriptions have been dropping, I suppose people are more interested in sitting in front of a box (TV or computer), or Tweeting or Facebooking, to go and support the arts. It’s sad, and not just because we have two tickets for a show next month (that may still go on – apparently there are negotiations going on to try and honour the commitment to the company from Winnipeg that was scheduled to put the show on here), but because the city will have lost something culturally important.