The Sun Cafe is a greasy spoon place downtown that Dani, Perk and I ate at once in awhile when they were still around here. It's a few doors away from Cafe' Bassam, where watching people, with a cup of coffee at an outside table, is more interesting than watching most summer movies. I ate breakfast at Sun this morning, reading the editorial section of the San Diego Union-Tribune, with the sounds of Market Street outside.

At the Sun I can get a cup of coffee for sixty cents. It probably is brewed from a canned robusto - Folgers or something. And a breakfast of sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and toast is $2.70.

At Bassam the coffee is $1.60. They have a sign saying what the coffee of the day is and giving alternatives. The coffees are Arabica, and I'm sure they are excellent. I don't know much about coffee, but I know I like them. Because Bassam is licensed as a smoke shop, it's one of the few places in California where one can smoke inside. I don't smoke, but enjoy the smell of good cigars, and once in awhile (the smell of) a pipe with decent Latakia/Burley tobacco.

The coffee at Bassam isn't, to me, worth the additional dollar a cup because of the coffee itself. I don't know enough about coffee to appreciate it. It is worth the difference, to me, because of the location, which, while on the path of all Gaslamp foot traffic is also across the street from Hooters and their famous opaque flesh-colored-stocking-clad roller-skating waitresses and especially all the juvenile male gawkers, who, when influenced by strong drink, put on quite a show.

In coffee, as in wine, there are nuances to be looked for and savoured. Those nuances have a vocabulary describing them. The purpose of the vocabulary is both to give a way to describe nuance, and to provide a reference chart to look for nuance. A person equipped with the vocabulary, studied in the arcanae of coffee, but never having tasted coffee, could communicate, but would have nothing relevant to say. A person who drinks a lot of coffee, like me, but without the vocabulary and the study, can appreciate coffee, but not profoundly, and would have nothing relevant to say.

I don't know anything about coffee, but I know what I like.

Coffee snobs probably wouldn't listen to anything I have to say on the subject. Rightfully so. They are a bunch of elitists who think that someone without the coffee education doesn't have anything that can add to the body of knowledge about coffee. And they are right. Without the vocabulary and the experience and the study, and the desire, my opinions aren't worth much of anything. I guess if I reported that a particular place routinely burned the coffee they'd understand, but they probably never go to places that burn coffee.

Here it comes.

Art is elitist. Artists themselves aren't necessarily elitist, and they may have no formal knowledge of art. It's not necessary to have an education to make art, though I believe it helps immensely. Learning through the experience of others in a few years, what would take twenty years of trial and error just makes sense. But the appreciation of art is more elitist than egalitarian. Anyone can like a piece of art. But only those that care enough to study art can explain why, and appreciate it to any depth.

On a very basic level, I still get letters from "photographers" asking about my use of flash. There isn't one picture among the 300 or so on my site that even looks remotely like on-camera flash was used. A tiny bit of education would go a long way in letting people see my work for what it is.

But more importantly, there must be a vocabulary. There must be a way of communicating about art. And there must be a checklist of what to look for. The vocabulary serves both functions. Without knowing what to look for, and being able to describe art, there can be no serious communication. And without communication, who cares what you think? If one were, upon viewing a piece, able to understand the meaning of the size and vector of each brushstroke and the reasons behind each, but had no way of communicating it, that understanding is lost to everyone else. Even if the understanding were more profound than any earlier understanding of the piece, you add nothing to the world if you can't communicate it. If you look at a piece by Man Ray and cannot communicate about either the beauty or the meaning, or worse yet, cannot understand either the beauty or the meaning, then you have nothing to say.

Those with something to say are the "art snobs." The "elitists." They have the vocabulary, the understanding. They know what to look for - how to look. And what they say may be entirely wrong, but once they say something it's then open for debate and consideration. Unlike "I like it," which leaves nothing to discuss. "I like it," is a dead end and a useless comment.

In egalitarian America all people are created equal. That is, with equal opportunity under the law. There is absolutely no constraint about staying equal. Anyone who finds virtue in ignorance, or wishes to be average is either misguided, or copping out.

Learn about art, photography, coffee, wine, whatever. Contribute to improvement in the field. If egalitarian virtues were paramount, the calendar picture of the fluffy kitten would be the zenith of American photography. And that would be a shame.

-Don