{"id":117,"date":"2022-04-05T18:13:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T18:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/?p=117"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:20:04","slug":"just-a-barista","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/05\/just-a-barista\/","title":{"rendered":"JUST A BARISTA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the opener for the musical MUFFINS,<\/em>\u00a0in which the four baristas who lead the show set the tone and tell us who they are. I read somewhere that everyone should be a regular somewhere, that place you go every day and they all know you. I spend hours in coffee shops where the temptation to speculate about the lives of baristas is irresistible, and led me to write a musical comedy that won best music award at a Chicago musical theater festival in 2016. –J. Linn Allen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJUST A BARISTA\u201d from the musica<\/strong>l <\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

MUFFINS<\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

LINDSEY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I KNOW I\u2019M ON THE VERGE OF FINDING SOME NEW KIND OF ME. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I PRAY EACH DAY I\u2019LL FEEL A FLASH OF INSIGHT SUDDENLY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OR MAYBE SEE A MAN WHO\u2019LL STOP AND TURN HIS BURNING EYES <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO PIERCE MY SOUL AND MAKE MY DOUBTS AND FEARS ALL VAPORIZE  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT THESE ARE SILLY DREAMS AND I\u2019M A BARISTA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINDSEY, ERIN, TRAVIS, PAUL:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M JUST A BARISTA <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU SEE ME EVERY DAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHERE I LIGHTLY GLIDE AND SWAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND SERVE YOU WITH A GRIN <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT YOU CAN\u2019T SEE WHAT REALLY HAPPENS <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HERE WITHIN <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO NO NO NO NO<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRAVIS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M JUST THE FACE ABOVE THE HAND EXTENDED WITH A DRINK<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO ONE KNOWS ME OR HAS ANY NOTION WHAT I THINK<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M TOTALLY ANONYMOUS AND AIM TO STAY THE SAME<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNTIL THE MOMENT COMES WHEN ALL THE WORLD WILL KNOW MY NAME <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT DREAMS ARE FOR TOMORROW AND I\u2019M A BARISTA<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ERIN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I ALWAYS FIGURED I KNEW HOW MY FUTURE WOULD APPEAR <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I HAD A LIST OF ALL THAT I\u2019D ACCOMPLISH YEAR TO YEAR  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT THEN I REALIZED LIFE WAS MORE THAN PASSING SOME EXAM<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND SO I\u2019M TAKING TIME AWAY TO FIND OUT WHO I AM<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M LEARNING HANGING LOOSE WHEN I\u2019M A BARISTA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINDSEY, ERIN, TRAVIS, PAUL:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M JUST A BARISTA  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU SEE ME EVERY DAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHERE I LIGHTLY GLIDE AND SWAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND SERVE YOU WITH A GRIN <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT YOU CAN\u2019T SEE WHAT REALLY HAPPENS <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HERE WITHIN <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO NO NO NO NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAUL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I HEAR OF LIFE\u2019S TRUE MEANING AND IT GETS ME SO PERPLEXED <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FROM WHAT I SEE LIFE\u2019S GOAL IS TO BE RICH AND OVERSEXED<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT SINCE I HAVE NO MONEY AND LOVE IS DAY TO DAY <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019LL FLOAT ON EVERY CURRENT UNTIL I DRIFT AWAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT\u2019S A PERFECT SPOT FOR ME TO BE A BARISTA<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINDSEY, ERIN, TRAVIS, PAUL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WE\u2019RE ONLY BARISTAS <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU SEE US ALL THE TIME<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SMILING LIKE A NURSERY RHYME<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TURNING KNOBS AND MEASURING<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR YOUR DAILY PLEASURING<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THERE AMID THE CROCKERY <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRADING CHEERFUL MOCKERY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IN A TEAM PROPELLING STEAM<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THROUGH MILK AND BEANS FOR THOSE WITH MEANS <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK IT MEANS<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO BE A BARISTA?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAKE A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHERE OUR HEARTS HAVE DEEP RAVINES<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COME AND SEE THE SECRETS<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OF THE BARISTAS.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the opener for the musical MUFFINS,\u00a0in which the four baristas who lead the show set the tone and tell us who they are. I read somewhere that everyone should be a regular somewhere, that place you go every day and they all know you. I spend hours in coffee shops where the temptation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lyrics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}