Coffee In the City: Commentary

The five posts I looked at:

Charismatic Coffee,

Wet Your Whistles,

CHAIN VS. PLAIN,

America May Run on Dunkin but NY Runs on Coffee,

and

Starbucks v. The Sensuous Bean

all used video to give viewers a taste (no pun intended!) of the coffee scene in New York City, specifically that around the Macaulay building. Each video had their pros and cons, things they did well and things that could have been improved, that inform how I would create and present a video on any topic.

Charismatic Coffee

This video had a lot of good footage of the interior of a few different coffee shops in the area, and it was a great length. While there were a few captions, and some speaking throughout the footage, the video could have used some more narration/voice over information or captioning so the viewer really understood how they came to the conclusion mentioned in the summary of their video.

Wet Your Whistles

This was one of my favorite projects on the whole site. The video was short and entertaining, there was a lot of great Q&A, and the viewer gets a great insight into Starbucks. The one thing this video could’ve used was a more engaging topic – everyone knows about Starbucks, so if they had examined some change or conflict revolving around this store or chain, there would’ve been more incentive for someone to view the video in the first place.

CHAIN VS. PLAIN

Like the first project i mentioned, this video had a lot of great footage, and not enough commentary. The video was however, much longer. On the one hand, this is great because it gives the viewer a more comprehensive look at the subject matter. On the other hand, the length could be a deterrent in terms of viewership – there isn’t really enough to keep the viewer interested for 8 minutes. To improve this, more engaging commentary could be added or the video could be further edited.

America May Run on Dunkin but NY Runs on Coffee

This, like Wet your Whistles, had a lot of great Q&A, was short and sweet and to the point, and unlike Wet your Whistles, examined the differences between coffee shops in the area. The best video of the bunch!

Starbucks v. The Sensuous Bean

Like some of the previously mentioned videos, this had a lot of interesting Q&A. It examined the difference between Starbucks and a mom-and-pop coffee shop, though it seemed to being with a clear bias toward the latter. Since the video was not presented as unbiased, this was fine (though perhaps a more impartial examination of this conflict would have been more informative). The people-watching section at the beginning of the video really pulled me in, though I believe the interview with Joe could’ve been edited further to keep the viewer more engaged. Overall, a great video.

-Kaitlyn O’Hagan, Hunter College

Commentary

Andrew Salimian- City College

I like the project, “Indian Burial Grounds Under Lincoln Center?” Although I was disappointed that they could not find any evidence, I found the topic very interesting. Also, since Lincoln Center is so close to the Macaulay building, I found the topic somewhat “close to home.” What this group did well was post a complete video with a fair deal of editing done.

I also liked the project, “CUNY Timeline,” because it utilized web tools. In this case, the tool that was used was Dipity. What I found most interesting about Dipity was the different interfaces that can be used to view the events. I thought the timeline view and the map views were the most important, and I would love to see a timeline with much more data sometime in the future. What I was mad about was that they listed the creation of City College as 1948, the date of its name change and not the date of its founding.

The post, “The Battle of the Brews” captured what I feel is an cornerstone of New York culture, coffee. In recent years, the explosion of Starbucks has led to a coffee shop on what seems to be every corner. If in the movies that take place in New York, there is at least one scene shot of the protagonist in Starbucks or with Starbucks in hand. The video was uploaded as a QuickTime mp4, which I thought was interesting. The video also had a expert degree of video editing and the creators interviewed locals, which is important for our final projects.

I liked the project, “The Empire Hotel.” I felt the group took a very classy approach. They managed to get inside a large amount of the hotel and provided a large deal of historical and informational research about the hotel. I noticed that the sound quality is not great on the flip cams, so the group decided to just have captions and display the video set to music. As an architecture student, I liked the juxtaposition in the hotel of what the group said was a modernistic design motif shared with Lincoln center and what appeared to be the original art deco floors. The video was also posted with Vimeo, which seems to be a little more user friendly than YouTube. I will definitely consider using this video format on my website.

The last project that I would like to mention is the project, “A Walk along Broadway.” This project merged videos edited with iMovie that were posted on YouTube with Google Maps. It was interested to see each video experience in terms of its location. This just added an extra layer of context. I wonder if you could merge these videos with a timeline such as the one in “CUNY Timeline.”

Macaulay Cake Walk

Maria Devikumar, Jemi Jacob, Maridalia Martinez, Swathi Mummini, Irene O’hare, Jane Shaji

We strolled down Columbus Avenue in search of a perfect treat to satisfy our craving. The busy avenue led us to our first attraction, the well known, Magnolia Bakery. As we smelled the sugary goodness, we knew we wanted to explore the sweetness Columbus Avenue had to offer. In a few short steps from Magnolia, we stumbled upon a quaint little coffee shop, with the alluring name of the Sensuous Bean. The smell of coffee from outside drew us in to the tiny shop with more variety of coffee beans than you can imagine. Craving for more coffee, we made our way back to 67th street to find a unique organic coffee spot called Café Saint Honore. Traveling on this sweet journey we learned that we could never go wrong with sugar and organic, and small cafes offer a cozy feel for a better value.
View
Macaulay Honors College- Cake
Walk in a larger map

67th Street Starbucks.

“What did you do?” I investigated the notion that Starbucks is evil.

“Why did you choose it?” Starbucks has been getting a lot of flack lately, despite their best efforts.

“What did you learn.” I learned that kids like to talk about how they hate Starbucks and how it is a “Yuppie-palooza” yet they continue to return to the establishment time and time again. Hipsters…

Starbucks v. The Sensuous Bean

Iona Hall – Brooklyn

Meredith Guss – Brooklyn

Ilana Dadras – Lehman

Rav Bhatia – Lehman

Aime Salazar – Hunter

Starbucks: Hardly Sensuous

We chose to take a closer look at the differences between a coffee chain product and a family business. In an area as historic as the Upper West Side, it is important to us to appreciate the small business offered by people like Joe, who try their best and love what they do. We would argue that their contributions are what make this area unique.

CHAIN VS. PLAIN

By: Katherine Brigandi, Patricia Cannizzaro, Michael Dibenedetto, Tanvir Jahan, John Troino, Susan Wu

1. What did you do?

Our group compared the Starbucks on West 67^th Street and Broadway and The Sensuous Bean located at 66 West 70^th Street. We videotaped both places and compared the coffee, food products, prices, décor, and the atmosphere of each café. Also, each member of our group sampled the product in each location.

2. Why did you choose it?

We choose this topic because each member of our group really enjoys coffee. We spend many dollars a year buying coffee at Starbucks. Starbucks has really good coffee but we wanted to explore alternatives. We were looking to find a place that sells coffee with a compatible taste at more reasonable prices. We also wanted to see if it offers the same scenery and atmosphere.

3.What did you learn?

We learned that Starbucks is a well-known chain coffee shop all over the country. Each Starbucks has a beautiful exterior and interior, fully equipped with flat screen televisions, comfortable couches, wireless Internet connection, and different blends and tasty treats. However, Starbucks is quite expensive. For example, a caramel frappachino costs $5.17, a hot chocolate costs $3.25, and iced mocha costs $3.87. We found that The Sensuous Bean has coffee that is just as good as Starbucks. They have six flavors of coffee with which they can make about thirty different combination specialties. They also have chocolate milk and hot chocolate. These drinks, plus snacks, chocolates and biscuits all are sold at more reasonable prices. Two iced coffees at The Sensuous Bean cost only $6. However, the Sensuous Bean has no wireless Internet connection and no seating. Overall, we learned that both Starbucks and The Sensuous Bean have pros and cons.

Macaulay Cake Walk

Maria Devikumar, Jemi Jacob, Maridalia Martinez, Swathi Mummini, Irene O’Hare, Jane Shaji
We strolled down Columbus Avenue in search of a perfect treat to satisfy our craving. The busy avenue led us to our first attraction, the well known, Magnolia Bakery. As we smelled the sugary goodness, we knew we wanted to explore the sweetness Columbus Avenue had to offer. In a few short steps from Magnolia, we stumbled upon a quaint little coffee shop, with the alluring name of the Sensuous Bean. The smell of coffee from outside drew us in to the tiny shop with more variety of coffee beans than you can imagine. Craving for more coffee, we made our way back to 67th street to find a unique organic coffee spot called Café Saint Honore. Traveling on this sweet journey we learned that we could never go wrong with sugar and organic, and small cafes offer a cozy feel for a better value.

View Macaulay Honors College- Cake Walk in a larger map

America May Run on Dunkin but NY Runs on Coffee

As a group we traveled to all the coffee houses around the 67th St Macaulay building to learn the importance coffee has on New Yorkers. We learned that EVERYBODY drinks coffee and that sometimes the small coffee houses are friendlier. We choose this because we love coffee!

Produced by:
Annie Baik- Baruch
Vanessa Castanier- Baruch
Julianna Fricchione- Baruch
Nav Ghuman- Baruch
Fernando Lopez- Baruch
Leyka Indarte-Hunter
Sylvia Wu- Baruch

Wet Your Whistles

Kate McQuater, Bhanu Seth, Miz Ahmed, Jasmine Varughese: Brooklyn

Alex Mozeak: Hunter

1) We headed straight to Starbucks! What better place for tired students to get a pick-me-up so close to campus?

We explored the reasons for choosing Starbucks over other coffee franchises.
What Starbucks does for the neighborhood.
Of course, we sampled the goods!

2) We chose Starbucks because of the proximity to the building. It seems to be a place that is incredibly convenient for students.

3) We learned that Starbucks equals Heaven.

🙂

The Macaulay Starbucks Escapade from Alex Mozeak on Vimeo.

Charismatic Coffee

We sampled 2 local cafes around 67th Street, in order to compare their wares and atmosphere to that of the ubiquitous Starbucks chain. We wanted to get to know the neighborhood cafes, and see if the local places offered the same (or better!) coffee that the chain we know and love provides. We learned that although the local cafes have intimate and unique atmospheres, and products that we did enjoy, Starbucks is still our one true love because it was more spacious, the baristas were much more personable, and the coffee is guaranteed to fulfill our caffeine needs. We also had a great time exploring the community around the Macaulay Center.

Mariah Carroll, Rachael Gomes, and Rosina Pzena: Queens