Akron/ Family
Haci Baba, 2010
There is something unifying in the appreciation of a well-roasted and brewed espresso. Miles Seaton, Seth Olinsky and Dana Janssen from East Coast (somewhere between Williamsport and NYC)-based Akron/Family can tell you a thing or two about it. They are all really big into gourmet espressos and Miles and Seth, whom we meet for a video shoot on a chilly November evening in Vienna, have actually got to know each other when working at the same coffee shop in NYC. Anyway, it is not a classy espresso bar, but a Turkish café and confectionery, where Seth and Miles stop off to perform the up-to-date still unreleased jig of glee “Silly Bear” followed by the atmospheric ballad “Crickets”. The happy outcry “We came to the right place, I love sweets” from Miles and the nibbling of delicious baklava is further on a bit spoilt by the dying guitar (as the neck of the acoustic guitar has been seriously bent and thus turns out to be untuneable). Nonetheless Seth and Miles get going with an ambitious performance in bright vocal harmonies about silly bears in search of sweet honey and other comforts or crickets singing songs to bury the sunshine. Akron/Family’s session in a bonbon-coloured setting with the aroma of Turkish café, honey and butter oil in the air let forget any technical problem, but rather leave you spirited, stimulated and with a sweet tooth.
- Camera
- Michael Luger
- Sound Recording
- Sarah Brugner
- Post production
- Michael Luger
- Photography
- Simon Brugner
- Artist
- Akron/ Family
Haci Baba
At the corner of Yppenplatz and Brunnenmarkt you can find the Turkish café and confectionery Haci Baba. The sugary and brightly coloured café offers a wide range of pastry, sweets, cakes and some non-sweet bakery products. The area around Yppenplatz and Brunnenmarkt has always been a neighbourhood for people with a Turkish background, yet has experienced gentrification in the last years. So now when there are several young and trendy cafés around the square, where people like to have their brunch outside, Oriental-style Haci Baba might still serve the lowest price breakfast (though no brunch). If you page through Haci Baba’s menu of cakes such as a three-tier wedding cake surfaced by an edible photograph of a couple, reduced and supercool artyness can not be further away than that. There are some reasons while Haci Baba is worth a visit, but delicious pastry is the most outstanding one. When the shop owner sees how Seth and Miles from Akron Family enjoy their pastries, he smilingly explains: „No wonder, many confectioneries nowadays substitute cheap margarine for butter. We go in for quality and stay with real and tasty butter.“ Keep it real – forget low fat!