Instant Coffee - One is never enough

Well, due to my suffering a series of extreme panic attacks over the past eight months, I've finally had to suck it up and cut out my favourite drug: caffeine.

Mmmm. Coffee. I remember the good 'ole days, the days when I consumed massive amounts of that tarry goodness. But no more. These days "Instant Coffee" is the only energy boost I'm allowed to suck up.

Have you heard of *Instant Coffee? It's a pretty groovy art collaborative that is currently conducting a series of event-based activities centering around a sculpture (read: the gallery's decked out as a sunken livingroom, which makes a normally sterile gallery ever so much more inviting).

The events are happening every Friday at the OR Gallery. After the jump, click on the image — you should see a listing of dates and events related to their show, "One is Never Enough".

But wait — just you look at the timestamp on this post ... that's right: 6:25 in the **morning. How the hell am I getting up early without jacking coffee through in the system? I don't understand. My c-c-caffeine world has been turned upsidedown. I'm reeling here, people, flat out reeling.

I'm also trying to get fit — again — and morning is the only time I can fit it in. Work soaks up about 11 hours of my day and bleeds into the early evening. I ask myself: how does one maintain AND foster an identity outside of work? I can barely make a joke. I am struggling to post.

The work brain- and energy-drain are not my major areas of concern, they're simple surface scratches. What really and truly concerns me is the identity melt that occurs in a work environ. Work is an all-too centering force, an ***interpellative creature that leaves you becoming what it calls you — be it bosses, co-workers, or your business battlewear. I'm fighting the melt, but it's a narsty, exhausting chore.

*"Instant Coffee barely resembles the real thing, but its effect is the same. Regardless of taste, it still works. Quality is beside the point. In this disregard Instant Coffee becomes a medium to be used. This is Instant Coffee.

**Morning people are a completely different breed of people. They tend to be very thin and fit and disgustingly happy. More sunlight? Aliens from outerspace? Tom Cruise clones? Or would that just make them aliens?

*** "Interpellative" the way Judith Butler describes it.