Besides hating the decor of Starbucks, I also hate their coffee drinks. Too bitter tasting and too much ice in their coffee shakes. Besides that they also have no character and their uniforms look silly! Also I hate the fact that they open right up next to independent coffee shops. Which comes to mind my favorite coffee shop in Japan experiences. My wife and I went in this coffee shop by chance that looked like someone's living room. An old man was reading the paper, he saw us and only told us that the only thing on the menu was coffee. So we ordered coffee - which tasted like instant coffee. So the coffee was horrible, but the surroundings were fantastic. It sort of reminded me of the interior of the big rooms in the film 'Performance.' Another great experience at a coffee shop was in Shinjuku Tokyo. I was told that this place served the most expensive coffees in Tokyo. I ordered a $6 cup of coffee. With that cup of coffee which was brewed only for one - I also had two waiters serving me. One held out the chair for me to sit and get up. The other made sure I had a supply of fresh napkins. If I used one, he would replace it with another right away. The experience was quite surreal and very amusing. Also the decor of the coffee shops in Tokyo from the 50's/60's are really cool. Low tables and chairs. Very clean straight edge and no frills design. So yes, one has the choice, but the choices are getting smaller instead of bigger. There are more chains now than individual coffee shops. My guess is that most people prefer the chain, but as someone of the minority I feel great sadness when I see a Starbucks. What this has to do with John Zorn, I don't know! Except I think his music and aesthetic is from these 'odd' coffee shops rather than the local (always consistantly local) Starbucks. -- Tosh Berman TamTam Books http://www.tamtambooks.com