9/6/14 The Morning Coffee: First Visitor!

A Good Morning to you—

Street photographer extraordinaire Juan Buhler was officially the very first photographer to sit on the Orange Couch at the TOP Secret Underground Command Bunker. An Argentine-born San Franciscan who used to work for DreamWorks and Pixar (where, the rumor has it, he was partly responsible for adding lens flare and bokeh effects to the animation for Ratatouille), Juan has posted thousands of his street photographs online. His website has a rabid following among aficionados. (here's his Flickr page.)

There's only one possible explanation I can think of for the sweet ride: There's lots of money in street photography!*

Currently between marriages (literally—the civil ceremony was a little while ago and the religious and ceremonial second act takes place in a few weeks), Juan and his fiancée recently completed an epic year-and-a-half-long trip from San Francisco to the tip of Patagonia and back in a VW van. Juan took pictures all the way and is currently working on the edit.

Butters likes biturbos

It was really nice to put a face and a voice to the name and the work, which I've known about and been following for years. Great to meet you, Juan, and I hope you can come back again some time. I'm hoping some combination of me, Lulu and/or Butters will make an appearance on Water Molotov sometime soon! And thanks for dinner.**

How you know it's Wisconsin: The Gasthaus has live accordion music
for fish-fry friday. (Very nice guy he was, too.)

I think a visit to the nearby Weissgerber's Gasthaus should become a tradition for all visiting dignitaries. It's an authentic taste of old Milwaukee, once the most German city in all of America. And they fix a pretty mean Wiener Schnitzel. Although nothing like you can get in Austria.

Have a double-turbocharged Saturday—

Mike

*What, there isn't? Okay, I'm kidding. The 2015 S63 AMG belongs to his father-in-law. He's driving it West for them as a favor.

**You show up in a car like that, though, you gotta buy dinner. A further view of the awesome JuanBuhlermobile, for fellow autophiles:

"Morning Coffee" is auto-published weekdays at 3:30 a.m. Central Time today to be in time for morning coffee breaks in the UK and Europe. For those who rise later, it will be there. The feature is a month-long experiment to give people something to check in with while I'm busy moving.

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Roberto: "Your recently removed 'sticky' post said, 'The Online Photographer (TOP) has never been a double-turbocharged V8 among photography sites.' Is this what prompted Juan to come and visit you with that car?"

Mike replies: I don't know, but it's a nice coincidence, eh?

BWJones: "What a great couch! Its soooo...orange."

Mike replies: I can't explain it, but I really like the orange couch. (It was on sale, for the obvious reason that almost nobody wants an orange couch.)

Bob Smith: "Oh I can't show my wife that couch. I'd never hear the end of 'I want one!' It is really good looking, looks comfortable too."

Bob Smith: "Crap, she just saw it. Thanks Mike...."

Juan Buhler: "It was a delightful evening, Mike!

"The Mercedes is not quite my speed. I am more of a flat-four, rear-engine kind of guy. This car is like shooting with the latest Canon DSLR all in auto, after years of working with a Pentax MX.

"I will post some photos of the evening once I process them. My website is definitely not a bi-turbo V8! :-)"

Comments

[wtlloyd]

The "Orange Couch"!
Even Nero Wolfe had only a single red chair.

[Jim Kofron]

Best ... couch ... EVAR!

[Tim Bray]

I believe that’s the Juan who was part of the wonderful Van en van blog, which I gleefully followed all the way to as far south as you can realistically drive: http://www.vanenvan.com/

[That's they, yes. Thanks for the link. --Mike]

[scott kirkpatrick]

Wow, I've also followed Buhler's site for years. Any chance he'd do a print sale?

scott

[We're going to work on that. --Mike]

[Jim]

Car porn on TOP, the horror!!

Seriously, looks like your new home is the start of a new cycle in your life. Best of luck!

[Ken James]

Now that you are in fancier digs maybe your new couch could be in the colour Burnt Umber.
Congratulations on finally getting moved into a suitable place.

[Dave in NM]

Best of luck in the spacious new office, Mike; although I suspect that by the Spring you'll be suffering from the Subterranean Homesick Blues, and looking for ways to bring in more natural light.

[Roger Bradbury]

The first social visitor is a big step towards the new house becoming the new home. Nice couch too, looks big enough to stretch out on to 'rest the eyes' for a while. Haven't looked at his photos yet, but will when I can. You do seem to find some good photographers.

[Bahi]

So happy to know that things are falling into place. And that is one glorious sofa.

[-et-]

As a dedicated picker of nits, I cannot resist asking if you should more correctly have written that Juan is the very first OTHER photographer to sit on the Orange Couch.

- Tom -

[Actually, no! He was here while it was delivered and he sat on it before I did. Honest! --Mike]

[Anthony Sawers]

That is one sweet dog.

[Ross]

Those bokeh FX on "Ratatouille" were a major contribution and worked treat.

[Sarge]

With Juan Buhler as first visitor to TOP's secret subterranean world HQ, TOP's *horizonless*!

*timeless, sans limits

[Damien]

Damn, I see a brown couch. No wonder I like black and white so much!

[Steve Jacob]

Having lived in Austria, I can't imagine a Weiner Schnitzel in Wisconsin could be any more disappointing ;-)

[Cmans]

Years ago I had orange "couches" in my basement too. (a hand-me-down from a friend) Ostensibly they were couches that converted into day beds once the single full-length, unsecured back bolsters were removed. In reality, they were nothing more than vinyl-covered box springs, neither suitable for sitting nor sleeping. But they sure were orange!

[Joe Holmes]

I just dug out my treasured copy of Juan's self-pubisihed book "Street Photographs," which he signed and numbered for me way back in 2006 when we were all just photobloggers. It's an incredible book and the images are really well reproduced.

[Godfrey]

Good to see Juan! Hey buddy, when are you back in the SF area?

And I like the couch too... :-)

[ShadZee]

It looks OK for a $150K car ;-)