Filed under: community | Tags: alliteration, cafe, choriamb, coffee, Human Beings, humanity, Joe, Joe and the Juice, The Devil, The Juice
My favorite café closed and it was really the only choice in this particular neighborhood, which I pass through with some frequency. In the interim, someone has opened a chain café that has some decent outdoor seating on a spacious sidewalk so I’ve ended up there a few times when I’m in the area. The place is called Joe and the Juice and it’s important that you know its name as I tell you about it because its name is the key to this story.
This particular Joe and the Juice sits just south of Columbus Circle and north of Times Square so it is a well travelled corridor and a street that many tourists pass by.
Having had the occasion to sit here a few times, I’ve now experienced this phenomenon literally every time I’ve sat here. Here’s what happens as people pass by. They shout “Joe and the Juice!” (Again, this is the name of this place.) Every single person says it in a way that sounds as if they felt quite original in their reading of it and ALSO sounds almost identical to the way every other person has exclaimed it. As I sit there, and I am sitting there now, as I write this, I hear a river of “Joe and the Juice!” There is a flow – well, no, not a flow, it is more like Joe and the Juice popcorn. Every few minutes someone shouts “Joe and the Juice!”
If I were a devil and I needed someone to call my name a number of times to manifest, I would name myself “Joe and the Juice.”
*
A short play:
Art thou the devil, Joe and the Juice?
Ay, that I am, for no one can resist calling my name as they pass this establishment.
*
I find it hilarious and kind of charming how like one another humans can be. This is comforting in these times when so many other things seem irreconcilably different in us. Many of these people would fundamentally disagree on who deserves basic human rights but they would all be unable to resist calling out, “Joe and the Juice!” while walking by a Joe and the Juice.
I’m not QUITE sure what it is about this place that makes it so hard to resist saying. It’s not that it’s so popular that people just shout with joy when they see it. Mostly people seem to be seeing Joe and the Juice for the first time. They are reading its name and discovering it. I suspect they find it amusing.
It’s a funny pairing perhaps? Or it tells a story? There’s this guy, Joe, right? And this is a story about his juice. Or it’s Joe and OJ in conversation? It is full of potentiality. It’s alliterative and full of monosyllables, so I suspect that’s part of it. It has a punchy quality in its rhythm. Metrically, it’s known as a choriamb because it’s like bookended stresses. Is that what makes it irresistible?
But it’s also basic. What do they sell here? Mostly coffee (colloquially called “Joe”) and Juice. That’s what they have here. That’s more or less it. That simplicity is possibly the stuff.
I’m not here to sell you on Joe and the Juice, let me be clear. It’s fine but I wouldn’t come here if it wasn’t geographically convenient. However, I am absolutely captivated by the human behavior that repeats over and over outside this establishment. (There went another one!) If I were a fancy radio producer, I would totally come out here with a mic and just record all the people saying Joe and the Juice all day long and then make you a glorious montage. As a humble blogger (and blogcaster) I will only tell you about it and let you shout out “Joe and the Juice!” yourself.
This post was brought to you by my patrons on Patreon.
They also bring you the podcast version of the blog.
It’s also called Songs for the Struggling Artist
You can find the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every podcast features a song at the end. Some of those songs are on Spotify, my website, ReverbNation, Deezer and iTunes
*
Want to help me keep my ear out for other Joes and Juices?
Become my patron on Patreon.
Click HERE to Check out my Patreon Page
*
If you liked the blog and would like to give a dollar (or more!) put it in the PayPal digital hat. https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist
Or buy me a coffee on Kofi – ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
Songs for the Struggling Artist 