Glenn Kubish

Tonight in Edmonton, NextGen hosted a pecha kucha evening devoted to winter as part of the Winter Cities Shakeup conference now in full swing. I shared the stage with some really interesting speakers, and am grateful for that. I used my 6 minutes and 40 seconds to thank my friends at Coffee Outside. I’m going to give you the inside scoop on a little movement called Coffee Outside, but let me jump to my all-important conclusion: You’re all invited to join us for Coffee Outside in Edmonton. We meet most Friday mornings, summer or winter, in a park by High Level bridge. If you’re in the neighbourhood, please make a point of stopping by. Because next to appreciating coffee, and the outside, appreciating stopping by , stopping , is what you have to do to appreciate Coffee Outside. The ability to stop is an overlooked good of riding a bicycle in the city. It’s completely overlooked when we seal ourselves in our automobiles, that’s for sure. Stopping can be existentially diffi...

Saturday morning coffee is a mug's game. Behind only, Do I get out of bed? and How did they possibly insert that old guy in the mirror?, the foggy question, Which coffee mug do I use? is the most important question of the grizzled day. I have a few favourites to hold onto. Picasso The Picasso cup reminds me of the day Shelagh told me about the flower in the Guernica painting. Was it, too, a casualty of the war, or was it the first sign of regeneration? Lincoln  This is a true mug mug. It comes from the Lincoln Memorial. Speaking of civil war. #coffeeoutside  I use this mug on Friday mornings when the Coffee Outside bicycle riding gang gets together to drink coffee outside and talk about bicycle riding. There is a certain circularity to our time together. The Sprocket Podcast sticker gives it some Portland charm. Wait, Wait! We were already out of the Chase Bank building in downtown Chicago after watching a live recording of the wonderful Wait, ...

#coffeeoutside attracts a crowd The view from the ground of a #coffeeoutside meeting in Edmonton is pretty cool.  I also imagine the view from above.  I see bicycle commuters pointing in from all directions of the city toward Faraone Park, or Government House Park, or to the gazebo at McIntyre Park in Old Strathcona, moving along the spokes of road and path toward the hub of our Friday morning community meeting.  We are a loose affiliation of people who love bicycles and coffee and the outside and what Edmonton is becoming as it becomes a little more tolerant of those who go no car or low car. It's a good scene As many Fridays as we can get a quorum (on some days that has been a gathering of one), we start in a park outside over coffee. Some bring coffee in thermoses. Others take some morning warmth from the communal thermos. Others fire up miniature stoves and brew on the spot. We're on the verge of one of us roasting fair trade beans right there. W...