Coffee Culture

Another day in Xiamen, starting with a coffee festival of all things. Apart from pianos, the city likes to think it has a coffee heritage, and certainly there are many tiny independent coffee shops here which also ply records and books, those two essentials ingredients for coffee culture. There's obviously a massive irony at play here that has brought me to the home of tea (the first exports to Britain were from here) in order to understand what a barista is and does, but it was fascinating and really great to see an event aimed at empowering local enterprises. Starbucks weren't invited.
Aside from that, Duncan gave a talk in a busy pedestrian shopping centre, and then a gig in a lovely cafe perched on a hill at the end of a winding lane near where we did yesterday's Subtlemob. Very cool neighbourhood - reminded me of Tokyo's Omotesando or Seoul's Samcheong-dong.  I like Duncan's music, which is as subtle as his mobs - gently processed washes of electronic sound from a laptop with a couple of effects pads.