Creative Reset

Creative Reset is a new podcast that looks at our own creativity and how we can manifest it.

Creative expression is an important part of our lives, even if that expression doesn’t have a very big audience. Sometimes due to outside pressures such as jobs, friends, relationships, and other hobbies, we lose a little of that drive. Creative Reset will discuss creativity, what inhibits or prohibits us from doing those things we would like to do and how to reset our creative selves.

Our first interview is with Carmen Joyce. Come along as we trace her journey to her creative expression.

Carmen’s art and more of her story can be found here.

Back to School Affirmations

Back to school is both a joyous and anxious time. These days, that anxiety is fueled by the fact that we just don’t know what’s going to happen with schooling this year. Placeholder Image

Although we can’t change the reality of our situation, we can change how we react to it. For that reason, I have posted some Back to School affirmations. Keep these in mind as we change into the new academic year and make it one of our best.

There are, of course, other affirmations, including one for Mask Anxiety. In the coming year, I hope to add more affirmations to the YourTime channel, and other options in the hopes of making your day just a little bit better.

YourTime

I’ve started a new project, in part, to help everyone, including myself, deal with the stressful time we are all experiencing in 2020. It is a YouTube channel called YourTime. As of now, it consists of affirmations that I’ve written and recorded that deal specifically with the stressors of the day.

As I continue to develop the idea, there may be more ways for us to relax via the channel. If you would like to hear a particular type of affirmation or would like to see and hear other videos to help you relax, please go to the channel and comment.

I look forward to seeing you there.

B&L Cafe Bogotá

I have not done this for a while, but I wanted to write about B&L Piano Bar in Bogotá, Colombia, which appears in Café Chronicles. Sadly, because I took too long to write this, it has since closed. I have no one but myself to blame. b and l piano

It was a small jazz blues bar, a very small bar, in the Upper Chapinero area of the city. They had a pretty decent variety of beer and whiskey, and the owner would go off and find some rarities on occasion. He was also talking about brewing his own beer, so maybe he’s gone off to do that.

Speaking of the owner and the staff, they could not have been nicer. I went there when it first opened, and I went at odd times, so often it was the staff and me, so I got to talk to them quite a bit.

The thing is that the neighborhood seems to be changing rapidly, and there may be a sushi or ceviche place where the B&L used to be. In fact, as I google mapped my way around the area, I could see a number of new restaurants, cafes, and bars creeping south from the gourmet zone, which was a little farther to the north.

I still say that Bogotá is the place to be right now though it seems to be in constant flux, a permanent transition. Luckily, from as far back as I can remember, the one constant is the people, who continue to be wonderful, warm, and welcoming.

Remember, you can find Café Chronicles exclusively at Amazon.

Photo Credit: http://goguiadelocio.com.co/bl-piano-pub/

More on Basement Café

The name of the café in “Basement Café” from 2014 April 128Cafe Chronicles is actually Webster’s Bookstore Cafe in State College, PA. Located in a basement along Beaver Avenue, it dedicates three-fourths of its space to books and the final fourth to the coffee shop. The space is big but not particularly inviting. It is an acquired taste yet a local treasure.

The decor is an eclectic mix of things probably picked up at the nearby university salvage. What they do offer, aside from a large array of used books, is a space for local artists, musicians, and dancers to enjoy. The walls of the café area feature works by local artists. There is a small stage for performers and speakers of all sorts. And on Tuesday night, there is tango.

There are a few downsides. The coffee is nothing spectacular, you do get the sense you are in a basement, and they have a ridiculous system for wifi that involves entering an impossibly long code that only lasts 90 minutes. I guess back when they had a smaller, brighter space, people would go and just hang out all day without buying anything, but the ninety-minute rule is problematic.

“The Basement Café was written one night when I went down, and they had the tango group in an adjoining room. The atmosphere in the main café area was quiet and rather depressing, but through the door, I could see the dancers. The music was low, so it was hard to hear from where I was sitting, which made the sites even more incongruous. Nevertheless, I wanted to be with them, and since then, I’ve taken a few Tango lessons. I haven’t gone very far, but I may be able to pick it up again one of these days. Maybe tomorrow.

Cafe Chronicles is available at Amazon for $2.99.

More on Dollop in Chicago (Uptown)

dollop oldDollop is the site for the next Cafe Chronicle.

For the past 16 years, I’ve been living 573 miles away from Dollop Café at 4181 N. Clarendon Ave in Chicago, I’m surprised I found it. But if I find myself anywhere in the greater Chicagoland area, I will make the trip. Dollop, for me, is worth it and worth the parking headaches. Although, as of late, I would normally combine my coffee trek with a run or ride along the lake. I guess if I were to go today, it would be a hobble along the lake, but still.

uptownArtboard 2-100This is the original Dollop that opened in 2005, and I have never been to any of the others. I like the atmosphere here, I like the seating, and I especially like the coffee. The coffee is Metropolis which, along with Intelligentisa, are my current favorites.

The baristas, and mind you, I’ve probably only been there a dozen or so times over the years, are all lovely and helpful people. In the stories, I like to paint myself as a bit of an outsider, and maybe I am, but you just don’t feel that way in Dollop.

backroomI am also a fan of the seating. There are some long tables up front, more single work-like tables in the middle, and some comfortable reading chairs and couches in the back room. I rarely went in with a laptop, but I don’t recall finding an outlet to be an issue. It is not the type of place where you feel they just want to push you out the door. I hope as they keep expanding, that doesn’t change.

I will go out of my way for very few places, Café La Poesía in Buenos Aires, Amor in Bogotá, and maybe one in Puebla, Mexico. Dollop is on the list of cafés for which I will go out of my way.

Café Chronicles are only $2.99 on Amazon.

More on Café San Parrillón-Bogotá

The next story in Café Chronicles takes place at Café San Parrillón, which is on the corner of 7th avenue and 65th street in the Chapinero district of Bogotá. It is the perfect local diner-type restaurant. They have the special of the day and do the typical Colombian diner food along with burgers and all that. I went a couple of times and usually got the special. The ambiance of the place was also pure diner, but the staff was always incredible. There are very few places in the US where you can get good service, but in Colombia, it is still hard to find bad service. I imagine that will be changing over the next few years as chains take over and you get fewer staff members actually invested in the place. front

The other thing I liked about Café San Parrillón was its location. Having windows that look out onto Seventh Avenue gives you a never-ending stream of interesting and diverse people. The story does hint at the types of people you can see.

All over Colombia, men will give women attention as they go by. The lazier ones might make some sort of noise, on occasion, there are some who are more creative and even poetic. Women, though less common, have something to say as well and tend to handle the attention with aplomb.

The same sort of thing happens in other parts of the world as well. So, as I sat there, I started to wonder why people still might do this. Sometimes, it seems that construction workers and such do it as part of the job. It even seems perfunctory, and I can’t help thinking that they should just record them and use a motion sensor to start the recording. I also wondered about the efficacy of the act. This effectiveness of whistling at women becomes the conceit of the story, which takes on a fable-like quality.

More on Café Parrilla in Bogotá

parrillaThis post may get very serious very quickly, but Café Parrilla, the next story in Café Chronicles, is one door down from La Albahaca Café on Carrera 4a in the Upper Chapinero area of Bogotá and is very similar in a number of ways. They also offer a special of the day, so often, I would check the chalkboards in front of both places before making my choice. I also like to switch things up and not go to the same place too much. The thing about Café Parrilla is that there seemed to be more motorcycles out front most of the time. They must have had a booming delivery service.

Let me get right to the point here. There is a story that I avoid in the tale, but I do hint at it. It is true that in grade school, I wanted to be a writer, but that desire was slowly supplanted by doubt and people constantly telling me I needed to focus on getting a real job. I don’t think I ever really stopped writing. I remember writing things in high school and plays and short stories in college. I did very little with my writing and have always had this nagging regret when it comes to that.

I am still avoiding the point. The story has to do with the other character. I don’t want to give away too much, and I think I obfuscate fairly well in the short story, but the piece has to do with my memories of someone who committed suicide. I don’t think of him often, but I do still think of him, and I’m not sure why. I have memories of conversations that probably never happened, or maybe it is just that conversations grew up as I aged, and since we are unable to have grown-up conversations, those have to suffice. In some ways, they are frozen in time, and in other ways, they seem to be very present.

The other thing that happens is that the story is light and has humor to it. I think I did this more as an homage than anything else. If we had grown up writers, we would have been irreverent, and I like to imagine that he would appreciate the tone of the piece. Or maybe he would call bullshit on my story and tell me that it was too short and avoided way too much of the subject. In any case, I dedicate this story to him.

Lastly, keep stepping, and above all, keep writing.

More on Aquí en Santa Fe

aqui outsideAquí en Santa Fe is the location for the next story in Café Chronicles. I went there in part because it was a place that I had visited in 1996 or so when I first lived in Bogotá, and I figured it was time I went back. From what I can tell, the restaurant was started in 1986. I don’t know what was there before that time, but the building seems to go back to around the colonial period, which is odd considering its location. Most of the buildings in the Chapinero section of Seventh Avenue are much newer, but this one seems to have retained a charm that is lacking in newer architecture.

SANTAFE_1Inside the restaurant, there are smallish cozy rooms. The white stucco of the exterior is continued inside, accentuated by heavy dark wood. It is a warm, inviting atmosphere.

The service, like pretty much all service in Colombia, was outstanding, and the food was very good. I do recommend going for the arepas, though I would also say that one must try arepas in different parts of the country because you can find some very different styles and flavors. If anyone wants to back me financially, I’d be happy to do an arepa tour of Colombia.

aqui barAnother thing that grabbed my attention at the restaurant were the photos on the wall over my table. There were photos of Bogotá from the early twentieth century, and that’s what inspired me to imagine a pre-Hemingway, pre-Fitzgerald, pre-Gertrude Stein version of myself looking for writer companionship.

I’ve always had this fantasy of being a part of groups like that. I also figure there may be contemporary generations of writers that hang around in bars and the like, but they just refuse to invite me. That may be why I’m a café nomad. I continue to look for them, but they are always one step ahead of me.