Greetings from Mykanos.
This month, the letter from Colombia is definitely ‘C’ … for Covid, the pandemic of the century, and for the Cosecha, the main coffee harvest of the year.
Not surprisingly, one is far preferable to the other.
As far as Covid is concerned, it is almost as though it never happened here judging on current relaxed behaviours. Certainly we now have masks as a fact of daily life, and social distancing and more terraces in restaurants, and sanitising, and limited numbers in certain areas, but otherwise life seems pretty normal. It is not, of course, and living here in the bush does not expose us to life in the cities, but economic activity seems pretty normal, or even increased. A successful vaccination programme helped. There are less ‘anti-vaxxers’ here and less antipathy towards common sense safety measures. Boosters are now happening, six months after one’s second jab, and I will get mine at the end of December.
Almost as though it never happened? No, it certainly did happen, and the tales of tragedy will long be with us.
One involved one of our customers, Juliette, who bought plantain from us. In her thirties, Juliette, was very careful. She took all the precautions as she was certain that Covid would kill her if she caught it. One day she told Adriano she was having a dinner at her home with her entire family, something the virus had prevented them from doing. Adriano suggested that might be dangerous as it might expose her to the virus. “No,” she replied, “I am only having family members.” Sadly some of those family members did not live in Juliette’s house (bubble). As a result, the whole family contracted Covid and, as she predicted, Juliette was the one that did not survive.
Another involved Joaquin, also in his 30’s, who works at the Co-Op. He was on a ventilator, in an induced coma for a month. He said that he was conscious all this time, but could not move. He could hear the doctors as they discussed his condition, predicting he was going to die, and was in intense discomfort, not being able to move or breath. He hated it and prayed for death. Suddenly he had a vision of a guadua stalk, the giant bamboo endemic to Colombian coffee country, which talked to him, telling him it was not his time and that he should pull himself together because he was going to live and recover fully. And he did.
As a country, cases and deaths are way down, and decreasing daily. Meanwhile we watch Australia going through the sort of lockdowns we had in 2020, while the UK rate goes through the roof
Meanwhile we are in the midst of the cosecha.
This year is not as big as last year. Weather has affected the flowering and development of the beans and the crop is smaller. The price however, has more than doubled over last year so things are pretty good.
It’s another C … Climate.
We feel sad that the cafeteros in Brazil have been suffering from frosts and drought, which has severely hampered production, but we cannot pretend not to be delighted with the resultant rise in prices.
This has been further exacerbated, or enhanced depending on your outlook, by Covid and the effect of interrupted and intermittent supply chains. In many countries Covid has also meant more people working at home and making their own coffee, which has become an ever more appreciated punctuation point in the home working cycle.
Good coffee is in demand, and in short supply. We are doing our best to help. All of our coffee this year has gone to Nespresso, so we must be doing something right in both cultivation and processing.
Fortunately, our farms inhabit a range of altitudes, which has meant that the coffee has matured at different times and comes in a steady stream, not in one enormous rush, so our boys have not been overwhelmed. We are hoping this remains the situation for the next month or so.
In the meantime we are receiving new avian visitors, who may well have dropped in from Canada and parts North to avoid winter, and spending more time in the studio and on the terrace, being productive or inspired or just delighted.
Two bits of history.
One concerns a palm that, ever since we bought Mykanos in 2010, has been weeping sap or some sort of liquid from two holes in the trunk. We had no idea why.
We are currently doing some building work and Mario, our builder, was working here at Mykanos in 2004 for the then owner, known as ‘Mister’, when a gang of guerrillas, attempting to extort ‘Mister’, staged a raid. Unbeknownst to them, ‘Mister’ had informed, and conspired with, the police, who lay in wait.
We were aware of this raid as there is a spot called ‘guerrilla corner’, about a third of the way up our internal road, where the main body were ambushed by police and mostly shot dead. What we didn’t know is that a smaller group attacked from the road. Police were secreted in the house and a firefight ensued. The palm tree was caught in the middle and took a few bullets, and it is from these wounds that seepage continues in 2021.
The other was inspired by the news that ABBA have a new album and are returning as ‘Abbatars’ to a purpose built theatre in London in 2022.
Several of you commented on, or were interested in, my father’s involvement in the music business in Australia and MIDEM in Cannes.
What he does not mention in his book, but what he told me about, was a meeting he had at MIDEM in 1972.
There was a ‘music publisher’ from New York called Ivan Mogull. He dated back to the Brill Building song factory days but his true forte was deal making. He used to go to MIDEM each year but never as an official attendee. He would stay in his usual suite at the Carlton Hotel and request the presence of those to whom he was prepared to offer a deal.
My Dad received a summons to attend the suite on Thursday at 2.00pm and duly arrived. One never turned Ivan down. Ivan explained that he represented a manager from Sweden called Stig Anderson who managed a band called Bjorn & Benny, Anna & Frida. Ivan had placed them with CBS worldwide except for Australia, where he wanted them to be on RCA. Why? Because, he said, he believed in Ron Wills.
Dad had a bit of a job convincing RCA Sales & Marketing on the group. Their first record ‘Ring, Ring’ in ‘72 or ’73 was not a great success, but he believed strongly in their potential and in 1974, as ABBA, they released Waterloo. The rest is history.
And I do mean history. In 1977, prior to the release of the album ‘Arrival’, every record company in Australia was pressing discs for RCA, as the demand was so immense.
In 1977 ABBA toured Australia to rapturous approval and acclaim.
Agnetha didn’t like touring much, but was good-natured when Melbourne radio personality Greg Evan asked her what she thought of the European media christening her bottom as ‘the sexiest derrière in pop’? “How do I know?” she quipped. “I haven’t seen it.”
The Sydney show was at the Sydney Showground on 3 March 1977. It poured with rain but the show went on. The stage was built high for maximum sight lines and could only be reached by climbing up a fairly long ladder. My Dad climbed the ladder following directly behind Agnetha. He told me it was one the highlights of his life.
Mamma mia.
Love from him and me,
Barry
PS. On the topic of music I offer the following.
I am not a Coldplay fan. I cannot even name one of their songs other than this one. It was released on 2 Nov 2019, a year before the US Presidential Election. It predates the ‘stolen election’, the global pandemic and its ramifications, the anti-vax campaign, and the Taliban taking Afghanistan.
It is called Everyday Life. It’s short, and it has affected me more than any song for quite some time.
Here is a live version recorded in Jordan in 2019.
Let’s be the future not the history, and make sure we live our dreams not doubts.
B
