Where they eat: Michael Schafer and Victor's 1959 Cafe

Sometime after midnight Minneapolis singer-songwriter Michael Schafer sits down in front of his "trusty" Macbook to begin recording his insomnia fueled acoustic rock. It is here that his songs of waiting for better things and coping with the helplessness of love loss go from ideas to "music in its roar." These songs, in their current state, exist somewhere around low quality demo but Michael is working to rectify this. He hopes to have ten tracks mastered and ready for album release in late fall or winter.

While music consumes Michael's midnight hours his mornings, at least on occasion, are spent at Victor's 1959 Cafe. For the past ten years Victor's has been cooking up revolutionary Cuban cuisine including staples like classic Cuban Sandwiches, platanos, criollo and croquetas. The star of the menu, in Michael's opinion, is the mango pancakes with a side of friend plaintain. The pancakes are crispy and delicious and are big enough to cover the whole plate. They have cooked in mango and are also covered with mango puree. His attempts to recreate this beautiful breakfast at home have been er...fruitless.

You can check out (and download for free) Michael's music at his bandcamp page.



Michael doesn't just communicate through acoustic forms. He also has an electronic project which he calls Port Vell. You can download the "electro" stuff at his Port Vell bandcamp page.