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Coffee With: Michael Cepress, Artist · Coffee People Podcast

0:00
Great. Where are you right now?
0:02
I am in my closet in Southern California.
0:06
I live in Carlsbad. I've been here 11 years, right?
0:10
How about you? Are you in Seattle?
0:12
I am, yeah. Yeah.
0:13
I'm at my home slash studio here in Seattle.
0:16
The last time I think we chatted, even social media wise,
0:20
you were like on the road for a bit, so it's been a while.
0:23
Yeah, I mean, I've, I've, I've run away so many times and had
0:27
some really long, really long stints on the road, but somehow,
0:31
you know, Seattle just keeps, I don't know, I've, I've always
0:34
kept a nest here and it keeps calling me back.
0:37
So here I am. Well, the conceit of this
0:41
podcast is that we are in different places, but I'm having
0:45
a cup of coffee with you, which I am.
0:46
I'm drinking a cup of Columbia from a local roaster here called
0:50
Cozy Canine. I'm going to shout them out
0:51
because they do a great thing supporting local Humane Society
0:55
and puppy adoption and that sort of thing.
0:58
How about you? Do you got anything to drink
0:59
over there? Coffee.
1:00
I sure do. Yeah.
1:01
Oh, I'm, I'm a coffee guy. Hands down my drug of choice.
1:06
This is from the Co-op that's right across the street.
1:08
It's the equal exchange. Love Buzz Dark Roast?
1:15
I know we've got a show to do, but there was a diner in our
1:19
hometown by the movie theater. Do you remember what that was?
1:23
I've been trying to figure this out for years.
1:25
Annie's. Annie's Diner, that's what it
1:28
was. I might have had a coffee there
1:30
once when I was a kid, but I. Don't know for sure.
1:33
Totally. Yeah.
1:34
Annie's. It was the place like where
1:36
everyone went after, after any event in high school, anything
1:40
that was going on. Like everyone would would pile
1:43
there into the wee hours and probably, you know, like 40 kids
1:47
showing up and everyone buying nothing more than one basket of
1:53
of mozzarella sticks and a couple of coffees and staying
1:57
there for five hours with a tab of 6 bucks total or something.
2:01
I think the staff at Andy's, they might have been the only
2:05
ones excited when Applebee's finally opened up in town.
2:09
Take away some of that, some of that, that crowd.
2:29
Before we go too far, we need to tell people who you are.
2:32
Would you mind introducing yourself and if you, if it's
2:35
even possible, tell them what you do for your life?
2:38
Sure, I'll, I'll do my best with this one.
2:42
It's a heads up. Yeah, right.
2:45
So my name is Michael Sipress. Born and raised in Wausau, WI
2:50
and I, I live out here in Seattle now.
2:52
Seattle, WA. I'm an artist.
2:55
I think the easy answer to the question is I'm an artist and
2:58
musician. So a little more specifically,
3:00
my world is primarily about writing and performing music and
3:05
also creating clothing. So my my visual art world has
3:10
lived in the textile and fabric world for quite a while.
3:14
And so basically I'm I'm in constant play between what I
3:19
think is really beautiful and exciting clothes and beautiful
3:22
and exciting music. I'm going to do just a little
3:25
bit of context for our audience here, a little bit of looking
3:29
backwards before we look forwards.
3:31
Yeah. We've known each other almost 30
3:35
plus years in some capacity. I was trying to figure it out,
3:40
and I think that we met on the same Little League team, yeah,
3:44
at maybe 9 or 10 years old. Yeah, yeah, that sounds right to
3:47
me. I don't know if you have any
3:49
memories of that era, but if you do I would love to know what
3:54
they are. I have a very specific one of
3:55
you I'd like to share at some. .0 yeah.
3:57
Oh good, good, good, good. Oh, I absolutely have memories.
4:00
I mean, yes, we were on the same Little League team.
4:03
Our dads knew one another from their past, think they may have
4:08
graduated high school together if I'm not mistaken.
4:12
And honestly I don't even know. But I mean, they, I guess I know
4:16
our, our dads knew each other in some capacity from Once Upon a
4:19
time. And I would say we were about
4:22
nine years old when we met playing Little League.
4:24
And my the, the memory that leaps forward the most is coming
4:28
over to your house and riding go karts in the lot beside your
4:32
house on whatever that street is next to the restaurant and just
4:40
having a blast. And your little, your younger
4:43
brothers were there. And I mean, I, I kind of
4:46
remember just really loving it and feeling like a whole lot of
4:49
freedom being able to do that. I have AI have two memories.
4:55
One is you being at our house, at my at my family house, our
5:01
farmhouse there. And we were listening and
5:04
calling the local radio station to request Blue Suede Shoes.
5:09
And I remember we got on and they played the song and I
5:15
remember sliding around in the kitchen in our socks to the song
5:19
Blue Suede Shoes. I think that was the song and
5:22
which is not something I would have ever done on my own.
5:25
So I'm sure you were inspiring it.
5:26
I probably haven't even known the song.
5:29
That and also visiting your house.
5:33
I don't have like a specific memory, but, and this is, is
5:35
kind of one of the reasons I wanted to, to chat with you.
5:38
But to me, your house felt like a sense of normalcy.
5:43
And so you say that my house kind of felt like freedom, which
5:46
is probably true because my parents were working and we had
5:48
kind of this space and this random land to run around in
5:52
with no one paying attention. But when I came to your house,
5:55
it felt very much like what I imagined a family on a sitcom
5:59
was like. There was this kind of warmth to
6:01
it. Your mom was always just so
6:03
lovely. And you know, you had a brother
6:06
there and there was books and there was games and it just felt
6:08
like a very normal experience. And I always kind of craved.
6:11
That oh wow, wow, that's amazing.
6:16
Hearing you describe the blue, the blue suede shoes.
6:19
I completely remember that. I I haven't thought about that
6:22
in a long time, but I, I I can. Clearly remember that I can
6:27
still see you, you know, with your, your hair kind of slicked
6:30
back, which is probably unusual for a nine or a 10 years old and
6:34
just the excitement and joy that that music brought to you.
6:37
I still remember that moment and I think as I get older, I don't
6:42
know for sure that my memories are real anymore or if there are
6:45
things from pictures or there, you know, stories that have been
6:48
told enough times. I did that start.
6:51
It's not a bad thing, but the, the, the edges blur on those
6:54
memories a little bit. And that's one that I know is a
6:57
real memory, because there is no other record of it as far as I
7:00
know, I don't think. There's a picture.
7:01
There's no I just, it's just there in my brain and I can see
7:04
it. Yeah, yeah.
7:06
Wow, wow. You know, one other thing I
7:09
remember, and this sort of might connect to some of the other
7:11
things we talk about as as we continue, but I've, I've always
7:15
loved clothes. I've always loved flashy clothes
7:17
and wearing them myself. And I think I was probably about
7:23
10:00-ish. And your mom sewed a shirt for
7:29
me. Really.
7:31
Do you remember this? Did your mom sew?
7:33
Yeah, she was very talented. I mean, she used to make a lot
7:36
of our clothes. Yeah, certainly every Halloween
7:40
costumes and all of our pyjamas. Or she would do.
7:45
Yeah. So somewhere along the way, and
7:48
I, I don't remember exactly, I might not have been aware of
7:51
what even triggered it, but she knew that I loved flashy clothes
7:55
and found this incredibly bright, colorful.
8:00
It was like this sort of tropical fruit print in a
8:03
rainbow of colors with bananas and oranges and grapes and all
8:07
sorts of things all over this really loud kind of Hawaiian
8:11
vibe. And she cut and sewed me a
8:12
shirt. It fit beautifully.
8:15
And I, I remember it being like, I had already enjoyed sewing at
8:20
that point and my mom had showed me how to so at home also, but
8:24
I'd never ventured into clothing.
8:27
And I remember that being like a real switch got flipped for me
8:31
being like, I can make clothes. This is something that people
8:35
do, you know, this is something that people do.
8:38
And whatever clothes you want, you can go out and find fabrics
8:41
that you really like and turn them into something.
8:44
And it was like, to this day, it really was one of those early
8:49
memories that I have that connected a lot of dots for me.
8:52
Wow, that's that's a beautiful memory.
8:54
Yeah, it was. And we kept the shirt for years.
8:57
And then another friend of our family had a younger son and he
9:02
was also very artistic and colorful kid.
9:05
And so somewhere along the way, it's probably been 10 years now,
9:09
plus I, I gave him that shirt and he's it, it's in his world,
9:12
so. I know that pattern because
9:16
there are definitely photos of me wearing pyjamas in that
9:19
pattern. OK, it was it was probably the
9:22
very same, probably the very same fabric.
9:25
My mom has always been very a maker.
9:28
She's always made things and when we were young, she had a
9:33
special dedicated space room that was her sewing space and
9:40
kind of crafting room. And she made a lot of our
9:42
clothes. She used to sell dresses and
9:44
things at the restaurant that she had made and like nautical
9:47
themes for the restaurant. And I think, you know, looking
9:50
back, like IA, lot of that desire to make things came from
9:53
her. And.
9:55
Seeing her do that, I also think it was like her way of saying if
9:58
I'm in this room, you need to get the F out of here and go.
10:00
Somewhere else. Because this is me, this is my
10:03
time. You mentioned on a basic level
10:08
of musician and artist, especially in fabrics, you know,
10:12
the younger versions of ourselves.
10:14
I knew you through sports and school.
10:16
We kind of went different directions.
10:18
I don't know how you felt about it, but did you know from kind
10:22
of an early age that you had a penchant for creativity?
10:24
Was that a choice that you kind of intentionally made, or did it
10:27
just sort of happen as you got pushed through upbringing?
10:32
No, I've always known. I've always known.
10:34
Yeah. I mean, I've just always known
10:36
that I'm an artist. And it was sort of cut and
10:38
dried. It was never a, there was never
10:41
really a discovery about it. There was never a there were
10:45
discoveries about how to do it in a more serious way.
10:50
But I mean, if you asked me when I was five years old what I
10:53
wanted to be when I grow up, I would have told you an artist.
10:57
And then I would compromise a little bit.
10:59
I'd say I either want to be an artist or a teacher because I
11:03
knew that if I told adults that I wanted to be a teacher, that
11:06
sounded like something that was a little more reasonable and
11:09
possible. Well, that was kind of leading
11:12
to my next question, which is was there pushback, you know, in
11:16
particular from your family because the idea of your kid
11:19
growing up to be an artist. I don't have kids, but even I
11:21
know that's like not something you want because there's a lot
11:24
of risk involved and a lot of challenges, You know, we're you
11:28
encouraged? Were you discouraged?
11:30
Were you, you know, what was that relationship like?
11:33
Yeah, my creativity, my art, my music was always encouraged.
11:38
I always felt really free to just do what I wanted to do.
11:42
So, you know, spaces at home dedicated to sort of making the
11:48
messes that that art requires. I think if there was any
11:53
pushback, it wasn't specifically.
11:56
It wasn't like you shouldn't do this.
11:58
It was definitely never that. But it was more kind of the
12:03
cultural air that we all breathe in the United States that says
12:07
being an artist is going to be a really hard life.
12:09
That's not necessarily something people do that can take care of
12:14
them, that can earn them money, that can support them da da, da,
12:17
da da da, you know, that sort of thing.
12:19
If there was any pushback, I guess I felt that, at least with
12:24
my family, it always came from a place of concern, you know, And
12:28
I think just wanting to know that I would be OK and that I,
12:31
you know, I wouldn't be putting myself in a, in a difficult
12:36
situation by choosing this as, as a career.
12:41
But the deal with being an artist is you don't, you can
12:46
choose whether or not you pursue it, but you'd, if you are an
12:49
artist, you are an artist. It's not an active choice you've
12:53
made. It's just how you are in the
12:55
world. It's a way of being in the
12:57
world. And so for me, it's been more
13:01
about just negotiating that and finding my way to do it.
13:05
And thankfully I love to work. I loved giving all day every day
13:10
to what I do always have. I remember like sort of enduring
13:16
math and literature classes in high school and like just
13:21
endlessly being obsessed with my art projects in my mind while
13:25
watching a teacher at the front of the room sort of go on about
13:28
something that I really wasn't just but thinking about, OK, how
13:30
can I dye that fabric? How can I?
13:32
What's the next thing I have to work on in that painting?
13:34
You know, this sort of deep obsession with it, That's it's
13:39
always been there, man. Yeah.
13:42
That kind of speaks to the the lottery of where we grow up,
13:48
right? And if you had a grown up, say
13:49
in a larger city or more metropolitan area, there might
13:52
have been like an art school that would have had programming
13:55
or tracks that way. In my memory, we had a pretty
13:58
strong creative programming system in like our high school.
14:01
I don't know. I was, I went to a different
14:03
junior high, but I do have a a memory where So you were very
14:09
involved in the music program. We had a really kind of
14:12
expansive choir and what was the concert that we held every year?
14:17
We got to be pretty. Big in my right pop concert.
14:20
Pop concert and you guys travelled and did all this stuff
14:23
and there was theatre programming.
14:24
I, as a freshman, I very, very clearly remember I wanted to go
14:28
out for drama and join the theatre group.
14:32
And when I showed up to the first meeting, I remember the
14:36
drama teacher taking me aside and said, don't you play sports?
14:39
And I said, yeah, OK. And they said, well, then this,
14:44
you really can't do both. And I remember thinking, oh, I
14:48
didn't know that. Nobody's ever told me that.
14:50
And they said, well, you're going to have to choose because
14:54
you can't do this and do that. And that was a really kind of
14:57
defining moment for me in it kind of it not, not like it made
15:03
choices for me, but I kind of just took that as a fact and I
15:06
didn't push back on it. And I went one way.
15:09
And that dictated a little bit of who I became closer with and
15:12
friendly with throughout school and what things I was more
15:15
focused on. And and I thought that was a
15:17
very interesting thing where maybe in another situation I
15:21
would have tried to do both. And so I think that's really an
15:24
interesting gamble. We have this beautiful luxury of
15:29
growing up in the United States with all the all the luxury that
15:33
affords us and all the benefits, you know, looking at the world.
15:36
But there's still these little nuances to where you grew up,
15:39
whether it's the Midwest or the coast or a city or a town or a
15:43
farm, that will change where you end up.
15:46
Right, right. At some point you had to make a
15:50
decision on where you ended up. I think you went to school in
15:54
Wisconsin College and then found yourself headed West.
15:59
What drew you to Green Bay? And then you know what called
16:03
you out towards the coast? Yeah, so I, I knew I wanted to
16:08
study art. And it's funny, even studying
16:13
art felt like a little bit of a compromise of what I actually
16:18
wanted to do, which sounds might sound kind of strange.
16:21
It's like, well, I knew I was an artist and I wanted to be an
16:23
artist, but because I was so musical also and had been, you
16:29
know, playing in a several bands by that point and starting to
16:33
see some nice momentum with my music even by the time I was 18
16:37
or 19. Yeah, you were travelling around
16:40
with like a a local band, weren't you?
16:42
Yeah, yeah. We were starting to travel and
16:44
get, you know, booked in bigger shows and, you know, several
16:49
times 18 years old or so, I was playing in front of a few 1000
16:53
people. Was it the Shakin 70 Eights?
16:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah. First the the first band was
17:01
called the Sons of Mary, and then after that, Mike Tsipras
17:06
and the Shakin 70 Eights. Yeah, little kind of rockabilly
17:10
trio. And so there was part of me that
17:12
even just going to college and going to art school felt like a
17:15
little bit of a compromise because in my 18 year old boy
17:19
brain, I was like, I'm doing fine.
17:21
I'm playing rock'n'roll. You know, we're playing four or
17:24
five shows a week. When it's good, I'm I'm great,
17:27
you know. But I also knew and you know,
17:31
the influence of some adults in my life are like you really
17:35
should, you should, you should get, get a degree, go to school.
17:39
And actually around that time I had, I was already in school,
17:43
but I was really not, not loving it.
17:46
And I went to the casino in Green Bay to see a really well
17:51
known kind of rockabilly roots music artist named Rosie Flores.
17:56
And she's sort of an icon in that world.
17:59
And I met her after the show and she and I told her, I told her
18:03
straight up. I said, look, I play music.
18:05
It's going really well. But I'm, you know, I'm in art
18:09
school and, you know, it feels like it's kind of a waste of my
18:13
time. I'm really thinking about
18:15
dropping out of school just to do music full time.
18:18
And she was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
18:20
Like as someone. And at that point, she was well
18:23
into her 50s. And she said, absolutely, keep
18:26
going with your music. Do it as much as you can.
18:29
But as someone who has grinded through this business for
18:34
several decades and seen how difficult it can be, take the
18:38
time, get your degree, get yourself educated.
18:42
You know, hang in there, basically, hang in there.
18:45
You're actually doing the right thing.
18:46
It doesn't feel like the right thing.
18:48
And take it from someone who's been in this gritty, weird music
18:51
business my whole life. And let me tell you, an
18:55
education, having a degree is going to help you out a lot.
18:58
And that was, you know, some really incredible advice I got.
19:01
So thank you, Rosie Flores. It really helped me sort of
19:05
hunker down in a new way with with school.
19:08
And so, you know, it was the art program at Green Bay that
19:11
brought me there. I knew that it was a really
19:13
great undergraduate art program, which it absolutely was proved
19:16
to be. And basically my life for the
19:21
next those next five years was art studio by day and
19:27
rock'n'roll on nights and weekends.
19:30
You were one of the first people that I knew as a young person
19:33
who kind of left the WASA area. I knew that you had gone off to
19:37
school at Washington and, you know, I didn't travel or have a
19:40
lot of exposure to the outside world.
19:43
Do you think playing music gave you a little bit more of an idea
19:46
of what was out in the world at a young age?
19:48
And then what kind of said, you know what, I think my next phase
19:52
is going to be going to take me across the country, far away
19:55
from home. Yeah, I think music was part of
19:58
that. I think art was part of that.
20:00
I mean, I think there's a couple facets to that.
20:02
I knew that there was a bigger world out there.
20:04
The music I loved the most didn't happen in the Midwest.
20:07
It wasn't it wasn't grown and and born in the Midwest.
20:11
Not to say there hasn't been some amazing art and music
20:14
that's come from that area, but for me, like the the music and
20:18
art that inspired me the most is very much out of California
20:22
culture of the 60s and 70s. So I've always kind of had this.
20:26
Draw to the West Coast. So I think my, my music
20:31
curiosities were part of that. Just getting out of getting out
20:35
of my hometown and even seeing other towns in the Midwest was
20:39
really helpful in that regard. Starting to see some bigger
20:42
places. You know, once I was an
20:44
undergraduate, I would take trips to Milwaukee and to
20:47
Chicago and some bigger cities in the Midwest, which, you know,
20:51
is an eye opener for a, a kid from Wausau, WI.
20:55
And also for me, being gay is a huge motivation for kind of
21:02
realizing that I need a bigger world than that.
21:06
The world is a much bigger thing than the slice the the slice of
21:11
the pie that I had seen up until that point.
21:14
And that there are places and communities to be within in the
21:21
world that can really help you thrive and be yourself.
21:25
And so I little by little realized, OK, if the more I
21:30
position myself, put myself in those places, suddenly the
21:35
better I feel, the happier I am, the more free I am to just, you
21:38
know, be myself and do my thing, live my life in the way that I
21:42
see it. So it's a, it's a multifaceted
21:46
thing for sure. I didn't know that you were gay
21:48
as a kid. I don't know if you knew you
21:51
were gay. I don't know your that story.
21:53
But did you feel at some point in your life that you there was
21:59
a weight being in a smaller community that you didn't really
22:03
know what it was, but you didn't feel like you could be yourself
22:05
in that way? It could just based on what you
22:08
just said. And then what I'm assuming is
22:11
that you eventually found yourself in a place where you
22:13
stopped thinking about being gay in a place, and it's no longer,
22:18
at least for that moment, maybe it's a cup of coffee, something
22:21
that you're defining yourself by because the community around you
22:25
is less defining of you. Right, right.
22:29
Yeah. I mean, I think just the, the
22:32
timeline, the timeline in the geography of when I was born and
22:37
where I was born, you know, born in 1981 in Wausau, WI.
22:43
Culturally, America really was not in a place where visibility
22:49
was significant around queer gay people of any sort, you know, or
22:54
if it was, it was, you know, being painted in a pretty
22:57
negative light all throughout the 80s around the AIDS crisis.
23:01
You know, so I, you know, lived and grew up in a culture that
23:06
just really didn't offer examples of what that could look
23:10
like and what that even was. So even though I knew I've known
23:14
my entire life that, that I'm gay, there wasn't I, there
23:20
wasn't culture and people around me where I could go, oh, there
23:26
there's an example of something I sort of see myself doing or,
23:30
and the same goes in so many ways.
23:32
The same goes for art and music. You know, there weren't all that
23:36
many examples that I could look at and point to.
23:40
Or if they, if the examples I had were more in the media, you
23:43
know, they came through the TV or books or magazines.
23:47
And which ultimately, I think became a motivator to move
23:51
beyond and sort of look at the world in a bigger way and be
23:55
like, OK, there's more out there and I got to go be part of it.
24:01
That timeline you mentioned just again, part of that lottery of
24:04
when you're born and where you're born.
24:06
But if you were born today, you would have visual access to a
24:11
lot more examples of things because of the Internet.
24:13
You know, we're connecting in ways that that we couldn't
24:16
before. I mean, you and I are see, I can
24:18
see you and it makes this conversation easier for me over
24:22
this video chat. You you mentioned the, the idea
24:28
of kind of California culture or Western culture inspiring you as
24:32
a young person. And you have a very distinctive
24:35
vibe, very distinctive look that feels and you've, and you've
24:39
said in some of the, you know, the, the work that you've
24:41
written, how the late 60s, early 70s really spoke to you.
24:46
Why do you think that time stands out to you?
24:48
Why do you think you identify with that and have incorporated
24:51
it into your life? Sure, there's there's a lot of
24:56
different ways I could answer this question.
24:59
Pick the most poignant, most intelligent sounding one.
25:02
That's what I would. Do I think my grooviest answer
25:08
would be that my most recent past life was in that period and
25:14
that I am here today spiritually and energetically to carry that
25:20
energy forward and to be this, this modern moments, an example
25:28
within this modern moment of what that time and energy was
25:31
all about. And that I've been chosen as a
25:34
person to help kind of carry the torch and carry this forward.
25:39
When I say carry this forward or that torch, I think it's a torch
25:42
of absolute celebration of authenticity.
25:47
I think it's about political, social, sexual, spiritual
25:52
freedom in all the ways. And I think more importantly,
25:56
it's about what happens when a creative renaissance is allowed
26:02
to form. And I mean in that window, 1965
26:07
ish to 1975, the primarily young people, but artists of all
26:13
sorts, there was an explosion of incredible high quality,
26:20
experimental, expressive art, music, theater, fashion, da da
26:25
da da da. All of the art forms, writing,
26:27
literature, film. And I can't help but be just
26:32
like a magnet drawn to it and wanting to wanting to still be
26:39
in it even though it is now, you know, 40-50 years ago.
26:43
Well, I wonder if the financial component of generations has an
26:50
impact on that. And I don't want that to be like
26:53
an easy answer, but I'm thinking about whether or not it's
26:57
possible to have those kind of revolutions again in a time
27:02
where financially speaking, it's a lot more challenging because a
27:06
higher percentage of your income goes to just surviving.
27:10
Where, as you know, in the late 1960s, there's stories of my dad
27:15
buying a car for like $60.00, you know, or $600.00 and driving
27:19
to Mexico. And it's like, well, that's not
27:21
kind of the same thing anymore, you know, or, you know, renting
27:26
for 50-60 a $100 a month. And it's just those are worlds.
27:30
I wonder if it's if it's possible because there were so
27:34
many people able to survive either on a lower amount of
27:39
income that it gave them the freedom to explore artistically.
27:42
And if that's possible in our current age where especially
27:46
young people are coming out into a world where it's more of a
27:49
struggle. Yeah.
27:50
I mean, I think you've hit the nail on the head.
27:52
I think that's such a, that's a key element like so a lot of the
27:57
work I've done along the way has been meeting, meeting the
28:02
artists from that period, sort of key players from that time.
28:05
And I've created some like pretty significant museum,
28:08
primarily museum projects about those artists and artist after
28:13
artist after artist. They have, you know, pointed out
28:16
that very fact to me and made it really clear.
28:18
Like, I think of my friend, artist, textile artist named
28:21
Alexandra Hart, Alexandra Jacopetti.
28:24
Her current last name is Hart. And she wrote the book Native
28:28
Funk and Flash, which is sort of a centerpiece of my research
28:31
from that period. It's like perfect little slice
28:34
of handmade clothing culture from that time.
28:37
And she, you know, she told me straight up, like in the early
28:41
70s. She was married.
28:44
Her husband Roland had a part time job as a DJ at KSAN, the
28:49
Bay Area radio station, one of the first FM stations
28:52
broadcasting Rock'n'roll in the Bay, and he worked part time.
28:57
She didn't work. She was able to focus 100% on
29:00
her, on her art. With three kids, they owned a
29:03
home, they had a car, they had all the food they needed.
29:06
They could get get, you know, they weren't living
29:08
extravagantly. But on with one adult working
29:12
part time as a radio DJ, they were able to sustain a life that
29:17
liberated half of his time. To be an artist all of her time
29:21
to be an artist and raise a family and feed themselves that,
29:25
you know, all of the things. And today that's, that's just an
29:29
absolute impossibility, you know?
29:31
Yeah, well, and if they still have that house, it's a lottery
29:35
gold mine. Right, right.
29:37
Which? Is a whole other thing.
29:39
That's a whole other thing, yeah.
29:41
I don't want to leave this conversation depressed, so I'm
29:43
going to change tax. Sure.
29:46
As I said in my. Studio, The pendulum keeps
29:49
swinging, so the pendulum swings in both ways.
29:52
So, you know, we'll see what comes.
29:55
You know, we were talking about fashion and, and you're talking
29:57
about, I mean, to me, fashion was No Fear T-shirts and
30:03
American Eagle when I was a kid. So you definitely saw a bigger
30:07
picture. I'm wondering how does fashion
30:10
or the fashion choices we make, how does that impact you, how
30:14
you feel as a person, your identity?
30:16
I mean, I certainly feel differently wearing this *NSYNC
30:20
Christmas album T-shirt than I do when I put on my new Jean
30:24
jacket, you know, like that was a suit.
30:27
And so as somebody who works in that field, how do you feel kind
30:32
of the human relationship with fabric and and clothing impacts
30:36
them, impacts us? Yeah, well, you know, it's, it's
30:40
something we all consciously make choices about everyday,
30:45
whether we realize it or not. You know it.
30:47
I think of it as and it's one of the reasons why clothing and
30:52
music are sort of cornerstones of my creative world is because
30:56
these music and style, fashion style clothing are the two and
31:03
of universal languages of humanity.
31:05
In my opinion, we can know nothing about a person but or a
31:12
culture from anytime, any place on the planet.
31:15
But by listening to their music and looking at how people dress
31:20
from that time or era or place, we can learn incredible amounts
31:26
of information about who they are as people.
31:29
Because it's all coded and it's all expressive of any number of
31:35
different things. You know, like if you study folk
31:38
costume from any culture on the planet, you learn about what the
31:43
geography of that land is like because of the materials that
31:47
are used in creating the clothing, the dyes that they
31:50
have access to, The, the, a sense of the climate because of
31:54
how the clothes are designed and worn based on what the
31:58
temperature is. And you know, and then the
32:01
symbology and the, the, the meaning that's put into the
32:08
design of the pieces, it's all expressive of something.
32:13
So I find, I mean, I think clothing is incredibly powerful
32:18
in that way and incredibly meaningful in that way.
32:21
Because even if it's a, I'll use you as the Guinea, even if it is
32:25
the **NSYNC T-shirt, there's a story within it and it marks a,
32:32
a time, a place, a particular little sliver of facet of
32:36
culture. And it's expressive of
32:37
something, right. And so I see it as a, it's
32:41
amazing tool we can use. And I'm someone who prefers to
32:46
be on the very conscious side of it as opposed to like, oh, no,
32:50
just put on whatever and I head out.
32:52
But I really like to use it as a way of and of showing who I am
32:57
and how I like to be in the world.
32:59
Like a friend, my friend Celeste always says, do your outsides
33:02
match your insides? You know, is what you're
33:05
presenting. If how people?
33:07
See you visually, does that match who you are on the inside?
33:12
And I think that there's a kind of long game goal in that to if,
33:16
if those two things are in harmony, you're presenting a
33:21
pretty balanced sense of yourself to the world.
33:24
Doesn't that make you feel incredibly vulnerable though?
33:27
I mean, I look at it as clothing is more like an armor.
33:31
And this might be a hospitality life thing where I, I'm wearing
33:37
clothes to represent whatever I'm doing in the moment or to
33:41
help me through that moment. But if I'm using clothes to
33:44
express who I am inside as well as outside, now anyone that sees
33:49
me on the street or, you know, behind the bar or, you know, on
33:52
this show gets a better idea of who I am and I'm kind of giving
33:56
a piece of myself to them. Doesn't that make you feel
33:59
nervous? I wouldn't say there's a
34:02
vulnerability in it for sure. You know, as a general rule, I
34:07
don't mind people looking at me like I, it's the performer in
34:13
me. That sort of attention I've
34:16
always been OK with. There are times where I don't
34:20
want it and I dress accordingly, you know, and there are times
34:24
where I really want it and I dress accordingly, you know,
34:28
it's so I think it's, it's, it's where it becomes a tool, right?
34:33
It's an act. It's an active tool in our lives
34:35
that we can use either, like you said, as a sort of utility to
34:41
get our work done. The uniform, the uniform of a
34:45
bartender, the uniform of a mechanic, Those clothes are
34:48
designed to help them be and help them achieve what they need
34:54
to do. You know, helps you get the job
34:56
done. And for me as an artist, as a
34:59
musician, performer, the clothes I wear, I make and wear, help me
35:06
get my work done. And part of my work, I've never
35:10
thought about it in this way, but This is why I love these
35:11
conversations. Part of my work is to express
35:15
myself and be myself. And so like, I put my effort
35:21
into how I dress, what I wear, because A, it's fun and
35:26
important to me and it kind of helps.
35:28
It's part of me moving forward with the work I feel I have to
35:32
do. You mentioned performance.
35:35
When you are performing or presenting in some fashion
35:39
artistically, is that as an artist where this is also your
35:45
job, which creates this kind of blurry Gray area in the middle?
35:50
Are you doing that for the audience?
35:52
Is it for them or is it for you and they happen to be
35:56
participating or is there some third relationship there?
36:01
Yeah. I think at its best, it's for
36:03
both, you know? Though in recent years I'm
36:08
realizing more and more that a goal I have is to be of service,
36:13
that my work, especially with my music, is I want to be of
36:19
service somehow. You know, I, I'm becoming less
36:22
and less interested in the kind of very personal and very
36:30
potentially selfish side of being an artist where it's like
36:34
my ideas, my vision, my thing for me so that I feel good.
36:37
And but it's more like, OK, how do I take that and offer it to
36:43
folks in a way that it can be useful and helpful to them?
36:47
And I mean, even better yet, like how as an artist, can I be
36:51
in service of a greater good? You know, we've got a lot of
36:55
weird shit going on in the world right now.
36:58
And I feel like, yeah, I know I've noticed I've.
37:03
Noticed. And I think art, art and music
37:06
are the medicine in in the midst of that.
37:09
So I'm only focused on. Myself, I don't think about the
37:13
outside world at all. Right.
37:15
Yeah, Yeah. Well, you're 1 of many in that
37:17
regard. I'm a man of the people.
37:23
I was listening to some of your music Morning.
37:26
You have a song, Magic Boots, that I was listening to.
37:29
I was walking the dog and as I was listening to it, I was
37:32
trying to think to myself, where do I feel like I could hear this
37:35
song just out in the world. And what I felt like is if I
37:41
were on a road trip through the Southwest and I pulled into some
37:44
bar somewhere and there was a band playing behind a fence or a
37:48
screen, I. This this song.
37:51
Would make sense if this song were in the background of a
37:54
restaurant. The song would make sense.
37:55
There's kind of this it, it brought me into this kind of, I
37:59
don't want to, I'm trying to think of the right term.
38:01
I don't have the right language for it musically, but this kind
38:04
of upbeat but also soulful vibe. I think of like what I imagine
38:12
more house bands were like, you know, in the 60s, seventies,
38:15
80s, where that was a more common job and people were
38:19
playing music to get they're going to the bar and there was
38:21
always a live band there. And it kind of gave me some of
38:24
those those feelings and memories.
38:26
And it made me wonder if you feel like you mentioned earlier
38:33
that you are here representing an A previous era's ideals to
38:38
some extent. But it made me wonder if you
38:41
ever feel like you're a person out of time.
38:45
Wow, great question. You know, there's a lot of
38:47
music. I feel like that I associate
38:50
with the music that you perform and I'll share, but I also feel
38:54
like all of the bands that I like kind of vibe with that are
38:57
also from 30 or 40 years ago. And so do you ever feel like
39:02
maybe this time isn't right for you, but you are going through
39:04
it as this, this person? Yeah.
39:08
Sometimes there I do feel a little tension around that kind
39:12
of like, how did I end up here, you know, like how given what I
39:18
love, what I do and how I do it, how did I end up here?
39:21
But then that kind of comes back to that idea of service again
39:24
and, and makes me realize, no, this, these are these are values
39:29
that actually, they're not specific to the 60s.
39:32
Those, they are timeless values that I think are a core element
39:37
in healthy humanity and that the 60s and 70s represent a really
39:46
big bloom in those, in those values coming to the surface and
39:51
being advocated for. But when I realized that they
39:55
are, they are timeless and that music is a tool we have, much
39:59
like style is a tool. But, you know, music and style
40:02
are these tools we have to deliver those messages.
40:06
And so I'm kind of looking at my best nearest example
40:12
chronologically, historically, the closest example to the magic
40:16
and freedom and effort toward peace.
40:20
I mean really at the end of the day, that's what this is about,
40:23
is wanting a more peaceful and beautiful world.
40:26
Music and and for me style are are ways to get there and to
40:31
encourage other people that to join me in going there.
40:35
You know, it's funny, I hear your.
40:36
Voice and I, it's same voice I remember.
40:39
And even though we haven't been like, close or, you know, in the
40:42
same place even at the same time for 20 years, yeah.
40:46
Feels comfortable to me so. I hope.
40:47
I hope the same the other way around.
40:49
Very much so, yeah. This is this is great.
40:51
This is great. I have.
40:53
A very selfish reason for asking you to do this.
40:58
I've been struggling with this idea of whether or not I'm a
41:02
good person. Not that I think I'm a
41:04
inherently bad person, but I look back at the whole of my
41:08
life and positive negative choices.
41:11
Do they balance out? Is that something that I care
41:13
about? Is the person I am today How is
41:16
that impacted by the decisions I made before?
41:19
So my. Question I think for you is, are
41:22
humans generally capable of being good?
41:25
And how do you define what makes a good person or not?
41:31
The first part of that question is.
41:33
Easy for me to to answer. Yes, I think human beings are
41:36
inherently good. I think that to be good is a
41:43
default position for human beings in life.
41:47
I think we all arrive for the most part.
41:51
There are exceptions to every rule, right?
41:52
But I think for the most part, human beings arrive in life
41:57
ready to be good and ready to care for one another.
42:01
If you look at the instincts of babies, they want to touch,
42:09
hold, love. They need that for their own
42:12
protection and survival, but they also offer it really
42:15
freely. Toddlers love to help.
42:19
If they see someone in distress or someone upset, kids
42:23
immediately go to that person and want to somehow make it
42:28
better. So I think that there's a
42:31
inherent goodness in all people. And I think the shadow side of
42:37
that is that our culture hammers it out of us pretty quick, has a
42:41
potential of hammering it out of us pretty quickly.
42:44
And that there's a lot of things culturally, especially in
42:49
Western culture that make us hard really fast, you know, make
42:55
us how to put up walls or hide that goodness or not feel safe
43:01
to express it. So, but in terms of what really
43:05
makes a person good, I mean, I think for me, 1M is more than
43:16
goodness. I would, I think of kindness
43:19
more than anything, you know, are you, are you being kind and
43:25
kind being different than being nice, but kind being are are you
43:31
offering in all the things that happen in your life day-to-day?
43:36
Are you offering yourself, your time, your perspective, your
43:41
interactions? It's like coming to the table
43:43
from a place of respect and kindness and sort of always
43:47
advocating for the well-being of everyone involved, yourself
43:51
included. You know, that's a deep
43:54
question, man. There's a lot there.
43:57
You know what? I don't mean to be like midlife
43:59
crisis guy, but there's a part of me who is not the same person
44:04
my wife and I were recently chatting about.
44:06
We've been together just over 20 years, 21 years.
44:10
And the person that I am today and the person she is today are
44:14
not the same person that we married.
44:17
And if the person that we were then met, the person that they
44:22
are now, would we still get married?
44:25
The answer's probably no. But also, you know, if I would
44:29
have met her in high school, that those two people wouldn't
44:32
have gotten along either. So there's this timing kind of
44:34
beauty of it. And then we've been able to grow
44:36
together. But it made me think a lot about
44:40
who I was as a person and the choices I made, whether they
44:43
were intelligently thought out or ignorant or, you know, things
44:47
I may have said or done. Is this a system, you know, is
44:52
our emotional, spiritual, cultural system a judgement
44:59
scale like in the Good Place? Or is it more of a energy going
45:03
out, energy coming in? And hopefully it evens out in
45:06
the long run. And I really don't know the
45:08
right answer to that. I grew up doing a lot of
45:11
religious church stuff. And so that's certainly, you
45:14
know, the guilt of that sticks with me for my whole life.
45:18
But it makes me wonder about, I don't want to say meaning, but
45:23
if the person we are now is still being held accountable for
45:27
the person we were or still being, and vice versa, if you
45:31
were, if you were celebrated at some point for something good or
45:35
whatever does the person you are later in life, they still
45:39
benefit from that? So should it go the other way?
45:42
And it's this, this balancing act of trying to figure out a
45:46
place in the world and how we can leave it someday and feel
45:54
that if at least there's a part of me that feels like I would
45:57
like to know that I did something good if I were to
46:01
leave tomorrow. And where do we find that
46:04
balance? And that's.
46:05
So it's a question. I've been trying to do these,
46:08
like, interviews and chats with and ask questions about goodness
46:11
just to see what other perspectives are out there.
46:14
Yeah. Yeah.
46:16
I mean, one thing I think about a lot is the, is the ripple
46:19
effect, you know, and, and I think it relates to this idea of
46:24
goodness and, and living a living a life that's generally
46:28
good and, and not of harm to other people.
46:31
And realizing that like our, everything we do has an effect.
46:37
And that can be really far reaching.
46:39
And it might not even be an overt action that creates the
46:45
effect, but that it can be something very subtle and quiet
46:49
that's creating a profound effect in the world that you
46:53
might not even realize and that that is contributing to the
46:56
goodness of, of the world. So like, one thing that comes to
47:01
mind is I, I meditate. I meditate twice a day.
47:05
I have a practice that I've done now for 7 1/2 years, 20 minutes,
47:11
twice a day. One of the concepts in that that
47:15
particular meditation practice is that if 1% of the world's
47:21
population meditated, that within a generation or Two's
47:26
time we could achieve World Peace because of the ripple
47:30
effect of that meditation meditative state.
47:35
So basically, like if if a person can calm themselves and
47:41
find peace within, just being a peaceful person on the planet
47:46
has a significant enough effect that the ripple extends far and
47:52
wide very quickly. And they sort of call it
47:55
casually that, the 1% rule. And I'm not saying that this is
47:59
necessarily like a factual actual thing, but I love it as a
48:03
concept, you know, to like, you find, you find goodness, you
48:07
find peace within yourself. Those that interact with you in
48:11
any capacity, the clerk at the grocery store, the person you
48:15
walk by on the street, they see and feel a peaceful person.
48:19
It gives them a little bit of that that they then hold within
48:23
themselves and it might help correct and align them to be a
48:28
little more peaceful and loving themselves and then and it
48:32
continues right so but. I'm driven by the rage.
48:37
Say that again. I said I'm driven.
48:39
By a simmering rage mic. That's a hard place for me, but
48:44
I certainly appreciate it because I know that when I have
48:46
a positive experience, whether it's walking the dog or it's,
48:50
you know, seeing someone in the store or whatever, that does
48:53
impact me, You know, for another, so often I almost I
48:58
can, I can see it in color where that color of green.
49:02
And then it's at the further away you get from that
49:04
interaction, the green kind of gets a little bit less vibrant
49:07
and you know, the waits for the next engagement is how I see
49:12
things. You you've it's been decades and
49:15
I don't say that to be me. And it's just a fact that since
49:17
the beginning of your creative journey, I'm wondering if
49:22
there's anything that you've learned that you feel would be
49:24
valuable to share about the creative journey.
49:31
Since it has been decades now, which I mean, honestly, that's a
49:35
badge of honor I'm proud to wear.
49:36
I I think me too. I but some.
49:40
People don't like it. Yeah, yeah.
49:42
Yeah, I'm realizing as I as I enter my 40s, a few.
49:49
Years into my. 40s Now there's amazing fruit that has come just
49:56
by the simple fact that I've stuck with it and that I've,
50:01
I've hung in there and that I have really stayed true to what
50:06
I feel I'm here to do. And you know, what's that thing
50:10
they say about success? Like 80% of being successful is
50:14
showing up. Is that what the quote is
50:17
something? Like that, I don't know if
50:18
you're familiar with that that phrase, but I feel that just by
50:24
way of the passage of time and me sort of hanging in there with
50:30
my own work, my vision, my ideas, my creative curiosity,
50:36
that that alone has been huge. And so far, I think thinking
50:40
about the creative process and how it, how it is in anyone's
50:44
life, a really significant thing any of us can do is just hang in
50:50
there, stick with it, you know, don't set it down.
50:54
Yeah, it's the compound. Interest of creativity, Yeah.
50:59
Yeah, you put, you put 10. Dollars away today and 40 years
51:02
from now you've got enough money to, you know, buy a cup of
51:05
coffee. With inflation, yeah.
51:09
Exactly. I've got a few minutes
51:11
hopefully. Left.
51:12
I don't think anyone can ever truly be known, but I think we
51:16
can learn a series of random facts about someone with
51:19
completely arbitrary questions if you're.
51:22
Willing to. Join the espresso round.
51:24
Let's do it. I'll start.
51:26
Throw them at throw. Them at you.
51:27
Let's do. Let's do it.
51:29
Quick answers you don't have. To get too deep about anything.
51:31
But you're a 2016 Wausau Hall of Fame inductee.
51:35
What was that like that? Was an amazing feather in my
51:39
cap. I got to give a shout out to
51:41
Joanne Cerny, my third grade teacher, who taught me cursive,
51:44
which is still like one of the most formative formative
51:48
experiences from elementary school.
51:50
I I wear that one with pride for sure.
51:53
Cursive. For anyone listening that's
51:54
younger is a type of writing and the the letters are float.
52:00
They flow together and connect. Your favorite?
52:04
Guilty pleasure movie. Oh, I'm not a movie guy.
52:10
I mean, it's a general rule. I'm, I'm not a, I'm a
52:12
documentary guy, but I, there's not a guilty pleasure place for
52:16
me that's a like juice up the brain kind of place.
52:21
Are you? Allergic to the top buttons of
52:23
the collared shirt? Yes.
52:26
Have not touched them in years. My my bass player Mike always
52:31
jokes. He's like why do you even
52:33
bother? Like why do you even bother?
52:36
Just just put one at the navel and call it good.
52:38
And he's not wrong. You and my brother.
52:42
Both just love a deep V around the chest.
52:46
A perfect day in Seattle for you is what Sunny.
52:50
Does that. Not happen often.
52:52
That's good to know it does. Not it does not do aliens.
52:57
Exist, yes. Would you ever?
53:01
Shave your head like mine. We're like on the opposite ends
53:03
of the spectrum there, yeah. Under the right circumstances,
53:07
yes, I absolutely would. I've got two last.
53:10
Questions if there was a band that I should look up, check
53:14
out, who would that be? Off the top of my head, The Joy
53:18
of Cooking, Berkeley, CA early 1970s, two women, Terry
53:24
Garthwaite and Tony Brown. Groovy, groovy, groovy, soulful
53:29
and if singer-songwriter meets funk and Blues, really great
53:33
snapshot of that that moment. Do you remember?
53:37
Your first concert, What was it? Yeah, the first.
53:40
Real like sit down concert was Eddie Rabbit at the Grand
53:44
Theatre in Wausau, WI. How cool.
53:47
Country musician from the 80s? Yeah, I would have guessed.
53:50
Something at the the Marathon County Fair.
53:53
Well, and that. It was a toss up.
53:55
I those are the other things that came to mind was like, is
53:59
it something at the fair or but I think it was Eddie Rabbit
54:03
Styx. Was mine.
54:05
Oh, right on. At the fair.
54:07
If you could sit down with the 12 year old version of yourself,
54:11
The Little League All Star version of yourself.
54:15
What would you say to him? You can do what you want.
54:22
To do you can do what you love and it's OK.
54:27
Finally, to close out the most important question of all, if
54:31
you were to stop at one of those lovely Seattle coffee shops like
54:35
Beery and Press, for example, my favorite.
54:38
What would you order? Oh.
54:41
So a favorite thing when I hit a cafe, I go to Vivace on Broadway
54:47
here in my neighborhood, Cafe Vivace, and I order there.
54:52
It's called a Cafe Nico, which is 2 shots of espresso with a
54:58
little bit of steamed milk, cinnamon sprinkled on top, and
55:02
an orange rind twisted so the orange oil sprays across the top
55:07
surface of the drink. That's like my my if I'm not
55:11
just drinking, you know, straight up home brewed drip
55:15
black. I treat myself to a caffeine
55:18
Nico Michael, I really. Just appreciate you're spending
55:23
time to reconnect this hour and and share part of your story and
55:27
your creative journey. I'm excited to share some of it
55:29
with other people that can be inspired and, and hopefully that
55:32
ripple effect will continue from this conversation.
55:36
Let's keep it rippling, man. This has been really nice.
55:39
Such a treat. Thanks for the invitation and
55:42
what a great way to connect. I really appreciate it.
55:45
Yeah, well, thanks for having. A coffee with me.
55:57
Hey there everyone, thank you for listening to this Coffee
56:00
With podcast featuring artist Michael Tsipras.
56:04
Some quick key takeaways from the show today.
56:07
Michael is a coffee guy. During our chat he was sipping a
56:10
Love Bug dark roast from Equal Exchange in Seattle, WA.
56:14
Today's show was important to me.
56:16
I felt a little nervous, to be honest, to start the chat.
56:19
Michael and I are friends and have been at least in some
56:22
capacity since the late 1980s, even if we haven't been the kind
56:26
of friends who hang out or talk regularly or even write notes.
56:30
He's someone I looked up to as a peer as a kid for being so
56:34
willing to let his passion and personality shine.
56:36
Granted, I was looking at it from an outsider's perspective.
56:40
When I asked him to explain what he does, he replied with quote.
56:44
I'll do my best with this one. End Quote.
56:47
The answer from the multi hyphenate is in short, he's an
56:50
artist. He didn't necessarily choose it,
56:53
but it is who he is. He always knew that he was an
56:57
artist. It wasn't a big self discovery,
57:00
but even at a young age he learned to mask that answer when
57:03
talking to adults. Eventually he couldn't deny his
57:06
path. Luckily he was encouraged in
57:09
both art and creativity and got some good advice from people he
57:13
looked up to. I wonder how his life may have
57:15
turned out differently if the nurture wasn't as positive.
57:18
I'd also point out today that memory is a funny thing and
57:22
context, like the story about the go karts being acquired in a
57:25
trade for a boat or something sits in my brain, but I don't
57:29
know for a certain if that is true.
57:31
I was just a little kid. I wasn't paying attention to the
57:33
logistics at the time. I was living in an endless
57:37
pursuit of joy. It's kind of the best part of
57:39
being young and trusting. For me, that meant that mom and
57:43
Dad would take care of it. I actually asked my mom about
57:47
the shirt she made for Mike, but she didn't remember it, though
57:50
she was tickled to think that she may have had any influence
57:53
on someone's journey in that way.
57:56
From early on, Michael identified with the music and
57:58
culture of the 60s and 70s California.
58:01
He's here to be a connection to that time and energy, carrying
58:06
the torch of that era's celebration of authenticity and
58:09
desire for freedom. He looks back at that era as a
58:12
good example of what happens when a creative renaissance is
58:15
allowed to form. The vulnerability of our
58:18
clothing and our appearance as it potentially exposes our
58:22
feelings is something I'm grappling with.
58:24
Currently, the Coffee People podcast, the Coffee With
58:27
podcast, and the Coffee Smarter podcast are going to transition
58:31
into videos for 2025. Shout out to Rostar Packaging
58:35
for support on that front, and I'm excited about that growth.
58:39
But I'm nervous too. I'm not someone that likes being
58:42
the focus of attention or is terribly comfortable with his
58:46
looks. The reflection I see in the
58:48
mirror doesn't always match what's going on inside.
58:51
And because of my career in hospitality, I've learned how to
58:54
mask that in your version of myself and OfferUp a controlled
58:57
response that best represents that restaurant or bar or coffee
59:01
shop that I'm working with. I'm actually thinking about
59:05
these feature video podcasts and the clothing that I'll wear to
59:08
help represent how I'm feeling. And of course, this show, a
59:11
little bit of that is inspired by Michael.
59:14
Speaking of coffee shops, every town has an Annie's Diner.
59:19
It may not be called that, but it is there.
59:22
And it is where you go after the big game or the prom or to break
59:25
up or perhaps to make up over a cup of coffee that you may or
59:29
may not like, but certainly makes you feel sophisticated,
59:34
adult, and as if you've got it all figured out.
59:37
Which you'll probably realize later in life that not only did
59:40
you not, but maybe you never will.
59:43
And that's OK. So that's our show for today.
59:46
You can find a longer recap in our newsletter at
59:48
roastwestcoast.com. And be sure to follow Michael
59:52
Cyprus's creative journey online at michaelcyprus.com.
59:57
And of course, follow his music on Apple or Spotify or wherever
1:00:01
you're listening to great music. I'll link to those in our
1:00:04
podcast show notes. And if you're listening on any
1:00:08
of those big platforms, please tap the follow button for this
1:00:11
show. Give us a bunch of stars if you
1:00:13
feel we've earned them, or just one or two if you don't.
1:00:16
Any feedback is good feedback, frankly.
1:00:19
And if you're out there hanging out talking to people, tell a
1:00:22
friend about the show. It really does help us.
1:00:25
I'm always telling friends about Rostar coffee packaging found at
1:00:28
rostar.com. There are presenting sponsor.
1:00:32
They're supporting our efforts to go video and they're going to
1:00:35
help you tell the big story of your small business, especially
1:00:38
if it's a coffee business that needs coffee packaging.
1:00:41
Their design lab is a great place to start.
1:00:43
Check it out on rostar.com. We're also supported by Zumbar
1:00:47
coffee and Tea, Maria coffee, Cape Horn Green coffee
1:00:50
Importers, Crossings coffee, Hasaya coffee Source, Ignite
1:00:54
coffee company, Ascend Coffee Roasters, Civets roasting
1:00:57
machines, me and my Uncle Coffee Craft 42 Roasters, Relative
1:01:01
coffee Company and Cozy Canine coffee.
1:01:04
Thank you for listening, for sharing this podcast, asking
1:01:07
questions and generally being coffee curious.
1:01:10
This show, the coffee with podcast is part of the roast
1:01:14
West Coast Coffee Network and this episode is was has been
1:01:18
written, produced, researched and recorded by me, Ryan Wolt.
1:01:21
Thank you to our guest, Michael Cyprus, not just for appearing,
1:01:25
but for being willing to just chat about himself and his life.
1:01:28
I really appreciate it and I hope you do too.
1:01:31
Wherever you find yourself today, I hope it's with a fine
1:01:34
cup of coffee and perhaps an old friend.
1:01:37
Thank you for listening to us share the stories of coffee
1:01:40
people. Cheers everyone.
1:01:55
If you are in the early stages of your coffee journey, we want
1:01:59
to support you. Check out the Coffee Smarter
1:02:01
Education podcasts. Coffee Smarter is designed to
1:02:05
enable coffee drinkers to brew a better cup of coffee at home,
1:02:09
and Coffee Smarter Pro covers industry specific topics for
1:02:13
baristas, roasters, shop owners, and aspiring coffee
1:02:16
professionals. You'll find both shows on your
1:02:19
favorite podcast platforms or on our website at
1:02:22
coffeesmarterpodcast.com.