PAGE ONE; LEAD EDITORIAL

...You might ask why, if the publication is so crucial to the the site, it doesn’t get a higher priority. The answer is both simple and complex. Put simply, we have to recognise that as an e-zine, Coffeehouse Culture is an anathema in today’s multi-media society. As an entity based on the written word it is entirely out of tune with the mood of 21st century communication. That it is to be found on the web merely emphasises the anachronism that Coffeehouse Culture represents.
...Where does that leave us? Well, we would not be putting so much into keeping the site alive or into the production of new material if we didn’t want it to be read. Our problem has been and is getting people here and getting them to read it. Recognising that this is a multi-media society in which the historical pre-eminence of the written word has been toppled by other forms of communications, we sought to make the site more than merely words. To this end we created our virtual temple, the Inner Sanctum, a multimedia experience if ever there was one, and put together the Cultcha Shop with its enticing pictures of Amsterdam’s finest.
...Knowing full well that most people log onto the Coffeehouse Culture site for purposes other than reading and that many of them have the attention-span of a goldfish and/or a literacy problem that gives them the reading age of a five year old (goldfish,) we hope to draw them into the newspaper with the smart-assed one-liners that grace so many of the pages of this expansive web site. Well, at least they are short.

...There are three things people will almost invariably go out of their way for: money, sex and a laugh.We have none of the first and, therefore, would be pleased to accept any donations. We are pleased to offer you the second (please send a photograph.) But laughter, we can really get behind that. And it is just about the only tool we have on our utility belt that might just get them in there and reading. But the power of the written word is not what it was.
...There was a time, children, when words on paper offered the only access to the world at large. In the books in the great libraries of the world all human knowledge was gathered together. In the absence of fast transportation and instant communication, books were just about the only way that one society could find out about another. Through the written word those who could travel no further than their legs or those of a horse could carry them, could be transported to distant climes. That was -- and is -- magic. Reading a book was a bit like watching a movie in your head; the words created the pictures and the pictures simply played. The only requirement was that you picked up the book and read it.
...All that, of course, has changed in thelast 50 years or so. The power of the word has been debased, depleted and all but destroyed by the power of the image. Who needs a book to carry them into darkest Africa when they can go there with David Attenborough? Who needs to read about world history when there is history being made right now that you can watch play itself out as it happens? Who needs to be transported into another reality on the wings of words when there are movies that do it all for you? Reading The Times seems to be a lot of effort when you can just turn on CNN.
...Considering that is what we are competing against, you must be wondering why we do it. We frequently ask ourselves the same question. We always, however, come upwith the same answer.

...We do it because we have to. Like John Wayne, ‘We are on a mission from Gawd.’ Through Coffeehouse Culture we have something we have to say. Something that we think is important and significant, something new and fairly revolutionary. Indeed, we are writing about the primary issues that control the human condition -- personal development and evolution. These are the issues which decide the very nature of our society. What we are saying through Coffeehouse Culture, we believe offers less than a vision of and template for a better future We have already identified where that future is being made and, through Coffeehouse Culture, we can describe and define the nature of the beast.
...If that all sounds fine and high-minded and noble, it is time to bring you down to earth. For, into this equation, Coffeehouse Culture introduces an element that puts the revs into revolutionary. The bit of earth we wish to bring you down to is Amsterdam. Coffeehouse Culture was born within and came out of Amsterdam. The Amsterdam experience. What distinguishes Amsterdam from all other cities, what makes it a unique ‘social experiment,’ what has happened and is happening right now in Amsterdam was and is the inspiration for Coffeehouse Culture.
...Although Coffeehouse Culture might seem to be no more than a collection of writings dealing with and of interest to members of the alternative culture, almost everything it contains is designed to develop a hypothesis. Although it is something of an over-simplification, essentially the hypothesis is that smoking cannabis is an activity that has many positive effects on both the individual and society. In helping to develop the spiritual qualities that are among man’s loftiest aspirations, in bringing out the caring, kindly and compassionate qualities of the heart, in bringing personal confidence and mental strength, in wiping clean the lenses of vision, in creating a dynamic of mental activity in which original thinking is nurtured, in stimulating creativity and developing the impulse to communicate that creativity --- in all these areas of the individual cannabis can and does have an effect.
...Although almost every experienced dope smoker knows all this to be true, it is still fairly revolutionary to be saying it. These, however, are the things that Coffeehouse Culture stands for.

...None of this, of course, helps in getting people to read Coffeehouse Culture. No one but no one wants to read the rantings of a hippy eccentric. No one wants to be lectured. No one wants to be talked down to. No one wants to be educated. Therefore, we try and keep it quiet. Oh yes we do.
...Instead what we do is try to makeCoffeehouse Culture as capitivating as we can. For those with attention span problems there are plenty of one-liners; some of which convey in only a very few words the essentials of our ethos. We hope that the deep wisdom and/or profundity these have to convey will slip in under the laughter. We hope. And for those who can handle something a little longer (or, indeed, much longer) we have the articles that are the whole point of the thing. Every one of these is carefully groomed, primped and preened into a shape that we hope makes for easy and enjoyable reading. And, of course, humour is rarely long absent.
...And here we are back at the beginning -- why it has taken so long to get this issue of Coffeehouse Culture onto the site. The answer is, ladies and gentlemen, the amount of work. Just that. Constructing something that people might have an interest in reading and that has the ability to distract them from the short-term fixes provided by TV and computers, requires constant creativity, painstaking work, long hours, a good dictionary and a bottomless coffeepot.
...We are sorry that it has taken so long but, at last, here it is. We can only hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.