events & stuff—the end is near!
Spring Events @ joecoffeebar

TENTATIVE CLOSING DATE: MAY 27; stop by say ciao & please please buy our crap to satiate the creditors! The cafe' is closing but Joe's gotta work his -ss off to keep the coyotes at bay, so buy at the farmers' market and our friends. Details below.

• Every day was an event @ joe: SWEET! did our food and pastries. Local cater, Stephanie Thaw, whipped up some of the highest-quality treats you can imagine-using organic and locally produced ingredients whenever possible. www.eat-sweet.com Look for them around town after we close.

• Saturday, May 2, 2-4 p.m.
  Abruzzo Earthquake Relief Fundraiser The Philadelphia Italian Connection Meetup group is hosting a charitable event to support the Abruzzo earthquake relief efforts in Italy. All proceeds will be donated to the Italian Red Cross. Come mingle with Italian-Americans and Italian-culture enthusiasts, have a chat over a cup of coffee or tea and some dessert, and help make a difference in the lives of those affected by this calamity. For info and registration, please visit www.meetup.com/italian-philadelphia/

  Grazie!

• Sunday, May 3, 10-2 p.m.
  The Headhouse Farmers' Market is Philadelphia's largest open-air farmers' market and opens on May 3rd, 2009! Oldest existing market headhouse in the U.S. At 2nd and Lombard Sts. in Philadelphia. More information at www.headhousemarket.org. LOOK FOR US, OUR THIRD YEAR CAFFEINATING LOCAL FARMERS AND PRODUCERS!

• Wednesday, May 6, 13, 20, 7-8 p.m.
  Italian Conversational Group New group to meet weekly, looking for all levels of ability. Native speakers, beginners, ex-pats—everyone welcome. Andiamo!

• Saturday, May 9, 3-6 p.m.
  Philadelphia French Language Meetup Brush up on your French regardless of level with native and non-native speakers in a casual, lively atmosphere.

• Thursday, May 14, 6-8 p.m.
  LGBT Game Night they'll be playing backgammon to Scrabble. Bring your own favorite game and a friend or two. Second Thursday monthly.

• Tuesday, April 26, 6-8 pm
  Male Knitters Meet-up Male Knitters Meet-up varied levels of talent, open to beginners, a comfortable mixed gang 'guys working their wares. Want to join? Gay/str8/curious/envious/stable/tasteful—you're all welcome—just show up with your stuff. With our closing they're looking for a place thats open, welcoming and friendly—key word: FRIENDLY! jtshelly@yahoo.com Last Tuesday Monthly.
  
  Photographic Society of Philadelphia
  members' pix on display
• Friday, May 27, 6-8 p.m.
  Photo Society of Philadelphia's Final Finale They bring down their photos for the last time, and share tales about their many years connection with joe. Hang out with us all and let's say goodbye together. www.philyphotosociety.org
  

Thanks for your trust!

Thanks to our loyal customers we passed our 7 YEAR anniversary. Daily we were awarded with positive feedback from those that "get it" — our customers. From every walk of life, powerful, influential, mild, brainy, artistic, liberal and conservative, with big hearts, generous souls, we couldn't have done it without the incredible support of the loyal locals. Collectively, we supported over 200 fair trade producing families around the world—that's incredible. THAT'S the difference you make simply buying a cup of coffee, tea, chocolate or fair trade mug or tea towel—changing the quality of the lives of hundreds of people. Thanks for for your trust. You can still buy our beans about town—farmers' market, Pumpkin Market, Kaffa Crossing. Keep supporting fair trade.

smiling through the apocalypse
by I.P.Daily

WHAT WAS GOING ON?

An IRS audit from hell. Actually, Dante' described a place with more order and focus. Almost 7 months long, at an expense of tens of thousands of dollars they found the equivalent of -0- for a two year period. While Bernie Maddoff and family piss millions away, Haliburton admits they can't account for over a billion a year in Iraq, the IRS tortures Americans making considerably less. Nothing can generate more taxable income like screaming at people, treating them unfairly/ unequally/ unjustly screwing-up peoples' lives, business, cash-flow. Unlike the Mob they violate their own code of conduct, and the law. My government employee apparently couldn't read a journal, or had an agenda.

That was Bush's "stimulus package"-the division "servicing" me, was Small Business & Self-Employed. The Administration that plans having more horror sequels than Psycho created this division in IRS about 4 years ago to target this segment of the country's employers: the largest job-producing, wage-paying, innovative-generating segment in the Country. If you're self-employed or a small business, you now have a chance of being f---ed over once every 5 years. Did I mention that mega-corporations, agri-farms, money-laundering behemoths are being audited at an unprecedented lower rate? You know, the businesses whose tax breaks the rest of us can't approach.

Clean up the IRS. I'd settle for them obeying the law. Is that too much to ask?

Still we do what we do best: do the walk on fair trade, buy local, be sustainable, better value than the corporates.

HELP CHANGE THE SYSTEM? It won't change via osmosis: Write to your Congressmen and Senators, and the new Secretary of the Treasury. Paying taxes is what fixes levees and dams, build schools, secure our airports, docks and railways. They help keep elderly from starving (their fate before Social Security, really), pay our military personnel, maintain monuments, national parks and put butter on the tables of our elected representatives. Make it stop before they come for you. Ben Franklin said you get the democracy you work toward: roll up your sleeves.

Food for thought: Eartha Kitt died at 81 late December. A sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality. She complained once at the White House to Mrs. Johnson about the Vietnam War, was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous (now, that's dangerous to our nation!). "The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth - in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth - you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," she told Essence magazine two decades later.

ya gotta have friends: here's where you can find our coffee beans, granola and whole wheat shortbread when the cafe' closes.

I LOVE PUMPKIN--Restaurant (1713 South Street), Market (1610 South Street) and Cafe' (1609 South Street). They use our coffee in the restaurant and cafe', and sell our beans and some treats in the market. Their loyalty toward buying local is giving me a run for the money! and the quality and calibre of their food is in the stratosphere. Ian is a culinary genius, and his wife Hillary could give organization and charm lessions t o the IRS' auditing department. Their eye for design is tasteful and unassuming. Visit them, and tell 'em Joe sent you.

KAFFA CROSSING is more than a fellow ICC member. They also sell our roasted Ethiopia Sidamo coffee at 4423 Chestnut Street, near UofP and Drexel. Having our coffee sold at the same place that serves incredible Ethiopian food and other treats is an honor. Check them out!

The Sexy Green Truck (NOT just a green truck) has been put together in collaboration by a North Philadelphia lunch truck owner and two Temple business students. The Truck not only aims to make fresh and healthy foods but also to serve the Temple community a much needed serving of sustainable and health related information. Menu items include grilled pita sandwiches, sweet potato fries, fresh salads and mini somosas. The Sexy Green Truck team has a vision of creating a competition between vendors to increase the quality of their menu while working in collaboration to support local producers. Since opening in April, The Sexy Green Truck has proven to be the new hot spot in the Temple area. Ask them for our granola and coffee! They're a business partner with joe,etc and we love them.

this 'n that...

GREEN TIP OF THE MONTH: BUY LOCAL/SHOP LOCAL.
If there's product manufactured or produce grown/animals raised within 150 miles of your home, you're making a huge contribution to your local economy, help employ neighbors and pay wages to the people around you, helps protect local family farms which in turn protects/improves our environment and slows urban sprawl. Fresher food that can be easily traced back to the source is safer than that which has been recalled in recent years—fresher, tastes better, robably organic or using less antibiotics than commercial food. Need more info that my rant? Go to www.TheFoodTrust.org and www.localfoodphilly.org

Until our last moment of cafe operation, we'll be selling products from MADECASSE-a new company founded by a former Peace Corp volunteer and a couple friends, selling more than fair trade: it's the worlds' first Equitrade company. The Equitrade ethos is to produce high quality finished products in the country of origin. The off-the-chart chocolate bars, vanilla sugar, vanilla bean powder vanilla beans and salts are crafted at its source, capturing the true flavors of the ingredients and vastly increasing profit for the people of Madagascar. Besides economically helping the workers, Madecasse supports Akany Avoko, a children's shelter in the capital of Madagascar. Akany Avoko provides food, shelter, education and a sense of community for abandoned children. I think they fit in nicely with us here at joe,etc, the only outlet in Philadelphia selling these incredible products. 100% natural, vegan, fair trade, organic.

Some members of Philadelphia's Independents Coffee Cooperative helped Peru coffee producers with solar dryers in Peru. joe-Philly's first fair trade coffee house and a co-founder of Independents Coffee Cooperative (www.independentscoffee.com) donated $2000+ toward the solar panel project of the farmers of San Fernando in Cusco, Peru. These are the producers behind the Independence Peru Select coffee we sell and serve to rave reviews. Equal Exchange (www.equalexchange.com), our major coffee roaster and the importer of these beans, has forwarded as an interest-free loan the money our coop pledged to theirs in Peru. Ask the other co-op members how they have contributed and direct your patronage accordingly.

meet the press...

During our 7+ years run we were fortunate being featured, interviewed, filmed, quoted by the media often. Thank YOU for the support, kind words, and encouragement to keep making change in our community. A thriving free press is more than stale words on old parchment—they're the true catalyst to the progress of society. Buy a newspaper! Often! Free local weekly's included! It's where the internet sources get their information. Thank you.

We were interviewed often about the challenges of local businesses and residents of the Philadelphia metropolitan area dealing without health care. Being a tenant of Thomas Jefferson University, meeting medical professionals daily, we saw/heard their challenges in a society that tries to have compassion for the infirm, but is severely restricted by insurance, money and labor. Go to www.covertheuninsured.org and learn how you can get involved by encouraging elected officials in Washington, DC to do SOMETHING. They have absolutely superb health care, great salaries, and WE pay for it all. Healthy employees earn more money and pay more taxes. Healthy children learn more, potentially earn more, and then pay more taxes. We can't afford to be the only industrialized country in the world not to provide health care.

Hours:

Monday thru Friday 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Saturday 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Sunday Closed Open later when events are scheduled