PAGE TWENTY; ARTICLE ONE; DIARY

To say that Coffeehouse Culture welcomes contributions would be an understatement. Whatever your interests and skills -- whether writing, graphics, design or web mastery -- we would love to hear from you and have you make a contribution. And the scope is endless.
Coffeehouse Culture represents and serves a society that is vibrant with creativity, throbbing with inspiration and packed full of original thinkers. There is just sooooo much creativity of such a high standard in the consciousness culture that it is a shame to see it limited by geography and the other factors that keep it confined. The first effect of a culture is that it feeds itself; the second effect is that it feeds other cultures; and the third effect is that it is recognised as a defined and definable creative force. The creative element in the culture of consciousness has had over 30 years in which to define itself as a recognisable entity so that today, in Amsterdam at least, it stands tall and proud. However, it has yet to achieve the vital cultural crossover that would bring it into the mainstream of creative activity and get it the recognition it deserves.
There are many reasons for this. Geography, energy, marketing knowledge and more.
Technology to the rescue. The world wide web has no geography; indeed, hardly any barriers at all. It provides world-wide access of such magnitude that creativity should be unconfined. So why isn't it? Maybe it is because there is not a recognisable medium through which the culture of consciousness can play itself out.
Coffeehouse Culture would like to provide that medium.
Like any publication Coffeehouse Culture has clearly defined 'areas of interest' and a tight editorial and design policy. When we commission stuff we provide a brief so that the end result fits into the particular context and/or appearance of the publication as a whole. However, whilst we cannot provide a brief in this case, to assist those who might wish to make some kind of contribution we can offer some guidelines and ideas.

Like any publication, Coffeehouse Culture lives or dies by its editorial. Not only must the editorial be crisply and professionally written but it must be infinitely readable. It is hard enough to get people to read stuff on paper but on the web, the job is even tougher. Therefore, readability is of paramount importance. That, however, does not mean that the copy necessarily needs to be trivial (although, as you will see, triviality does have a significant place in Coffeehouse Culture), superficial or unchallenging. As you can see from this issue of Coffeehouse Culture it includes a broad range of material of various lengths pitched at a fairly erudite readership. What distinguishes Coffeehouse Culture's features is the relaxed, chatty, easy-going but info packed style in which they are written. That is readability.
Not everyone, however, has the interest or attention span to read a 3000 word feature. Many people want short, sharp, easy-to-digest material that does not tax them intellectually. This where triviality comes in. What after all, could be more trivial than the very column that sits alongside this one? It is, however, a fine example of the point being made. But if its triviality and short, sharp, easy copy where not enough to justify its inclusion, there is one other factor that does -- fun. The column is, we hope, is fun to read and full of laughs.
And here we have another major ingredient in the Coffeehouse Culture recipe -- the laughter element. People like to laugh and we'll do everything we can to brighten anyone's day. Amusing, witty and fun, these are the qualities that justify the inclusion of the most trivial material. And these qualities should be evident in more substantial features. Whilst belly laughs might be a bit out of place in a serious, intellectually challenging (for some) feature, a good humoured approach to the subject is never out of place.
The scope for writers in Coffeehouse Culture is enormous. Not only are there a wide range of interesting, involving and challenging features to be written, there are also a number of regular columns available.
The Greenfinger column (on page three in this issue) is up for grabs but there are others.
Our own Dokker D'Ath could do with some help with the alternative health columns. There will be a several of these approaching this broad subject from a number of angles. If you would like to know more. please e-mail us.
There is considerable scope for writers who can put together strongly written and original material on aspects of music. At the moment Coffeehouse Culture has no music content so the field is wide open for features, one or more diary columns, review columns and just about anything else that fits.
For those who live in Amsterdam the scope is also pretty wide open. The Cannabisness section has need of coffeeshop gossip, features about the Amsterdam smoking scene and about what is going on in town. The range here is from news stories, through features to short, snappy pieces suitable for diaries or strong enough to stand alone.
In the paper version of Coffeehouse Culture we had a section called Total Amsterdam. This was a venue and events guide to Amsterdam that covered clubs, exhibitions and cultural events. While an events guide was very relevant in a monthly publication, in the web version of Coffeehouse Culture, which is much less time-specific, it is not so viable. However, a guide to music venues, museums and permanent exhibitions and cultural venues in the city is very relevant. And what a nice column to take on. Once the initial research has produced the format, it is just a question of updating the text each issue.

Just a few ideas. Maybe you have others that might be suitable. If so, drop us a line and send us some sample copy.
Alongside the regular columns there will be a number of serialised major in-depth features dealing with subjects of interest to members of the consciousness culture. Over the next few issues we will be starting long features on the history of alternative culture, on the development of the coffeeshop scene in Amsterdam, on the smart shop situation in Holland, on the Holy Grail and Templar myths, the real Jesus Christ, the roots of science, Madam Blavatsky and the Great White Masters and aspects of alchemy. One or two of these features will be in the range of 6,000 to 8,000 words but most are planned to be a minimum of 12,000 words. Writing to that length is a fairly substantial commitment. However, to assist the courageous, many of the features have already been researched to some extent and our research notes would be made available.
Finally, for those who have less elevated literary interests, there are the really short bits -- short paragraphs that throw some kind of humorous light on human behaviour. Hey, everybody knows at least one good joke that isn't filthy. Send it to us and we'll let others join in the laughter.
Not quite 'finally,' we're afraid. For there is one other skill for which we have a real need. Research. Research, thorough and detailed, is the backbone of every writing project. Like every publication, articles that appears in Coffeehouse Culture involve exhaustive research. Going to libraries, leafing through backnumbers of newspapers, trying to get through on the telephone to someone who could answer your question, research was commonly regarded as the worst part of being a writer.
All that has changed. These days all you need is a computer that is on-line and an enquiring mind. It is a joy. There are a number of research projects ready to go covering some interesting stuff.
So got your pen in hand? No? So, maybe you'd like to do some graphics for us.

We like pretty pictures but what do we do with them is always the problem. If they are really pretty we will always do our very best to make good use of general graphics but our need is really for stuff that is rather more specific to the articles in Coffeehouse Culture. Except, and it is a big exception, for cartoons. We are in great need of cartoons, either conveying a joke or just saying something in an exaggerated way about people.
In particular, we would like to encourage regular cartoon strips. We already have the Amazing Bouncing Ginsburgs (see below) and we have a number of other ideas for 'character' strips. Or maybe you have your own characters that you could use. The requirement here is for slick cartooning skills and a ready wit. But if your wit deserts you, we can probably come up with storyboards for the first six or so strips.
On a less specific note, if you are a graphics person, maybe you would like to have a go at redesigning some of the banners over regular features, like the diary columns. And, if you fancy a major project that will get you noticed, we are currently looking around for a cartoonist to produce a splash page for the Virtual Amsterdam part of the site. This will be a full colour project in which you will have every opportunity to exercise your wit to the fullest extent.

Although we are up on the web, how we got here is something of a mystery. Just dealing with the vast numbers of words in Coffeehouse Culture and the design of the web pages to accommodate them is a gigantic task. Trying to construct a fully featured web site as well makes for a fairly significant overload situation. Little by little it gets done but, as the Coffeehouse Culture site is essentially about the publication, the words will always come first.It is not that we do not know what we want on the site or, in some cases know how to do it, it is merely a question of time. If you would like to donate a little of your time to helping to build the Coffeehouse Culture site, we'd love you to death.

What is the 'bottom line'? For the accountants who have come to dominate the world in a silent, grey-suited pogrom, it is a line of figures. And, maybe it is something similar for all us. So what are you going to get out of Coffeehouse Culture (apart from love)? We would love to pay money for services and if we made any at all out of the site we would. But we don't. The Coffeehouse Culture site costs us money to run and we make not a penny out of it. As you may know, Coffeehouse Culture did not come into existence as a commercial enterprise, to make money. Sure, we would like to make some money out of the site. And, who knows, maybe, in the future we will. We are aiming for the site to be sufficiently attractive, interesting and worthwhile for it to get lots of hits and now we have the whole of issue one on-line we have something worth submitting to the search engines. But, for the moment, no money. As we said, we'll give you love, tons of it, and great big credits and help you promote and develop your skills in every way possible. It is just that we can't give you money. Sorry.
In the naive and pathetically optimistic view that Coffeehouse Culture applies to life, we believe that everyone in this culture wants the same things. One way to help bring about the changes in consciousness that we all know are the prerequisite to global changes in attitude that the world needs, is through Coffeehouse Culture. It is, after all, only doing stuff out there, in the real world, that is going to change things.