"The Max"

Java (Louisville) - it's like "the Max" from saved by the bell, except without the awesome magician whose tie spins and makes funny noises. I fell in love with coffee shops when I was in middle school (in Georgia) and I went to visit my sister who'd just gone away to Liberty University (in Virginia). She took me to this place called "the Drowsy Poet" which she later told me wasn't even really the best coffee shop in town, but it was in walking distance. I had a coffee, listened to live music, and hung out with college students (I was an early developer, so I fit in okay) and it was the time of my life. I loved coffee already, but the atmosphere and the company were incomparable to anything I'd ever experienced. I learned what it meant to be a student.

There were no coffee shops in my "one horse town" growing up, so as soon as I got to Mercer University (in Macon, Ga) I looked for a good one, and even then they were very scarce. So I got to Seminary (Louisville, KY), and found this awesome coffee shop called Java. Finally, a place to go since "Jittery Joe's" and "Java Rocket" in Athens, where I would go hang with UGA friends. Oh by the way, if you're ever in Athens, I don't know if it's still in business but there's this place on Barnett Shoals called "the Cup" coffee, and they're amazing. Best Carrot cake ever, and they make a great frozen drink called the "frio".

Anyway, this place has rapidly become the most overpopulated seminary student hangout in the city. It's like, if you get some white lights and hang 'em from trees, then put a fireplace in the vicinity, you will never have competition for business again. Why are we drawn to white lights? Why does it feel so comfortable? My guess is that the intimacy of soft lighting always contrasts heavily against the normal lights of classrooms, offices, and other buildings where we work, and it makes us think of home.