Finding your Strengths
Closerie des Lilas in Paris.
“Laptop Hobos” in Cafés: March 5, 2025
Today, I have three things going on at the same time: working on one of my short stories, reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, and writing this blog. The common feature is that I am at a cafe and trying to answer that question: Why do writers prefer being away from home to write, often settling in at a cafe with their laptop, coffee and whatever sugary treat keeps them wired long enough to finish their work? Why not stay at home? This subject came up a few times among writers at the Writer’s Colony. Home is a distraction. Music and conversation among customers at a cafe? Surprisingly, not so much a problem. An elderly couple seated at the table next to mine—easy to tune out. The music playing right now—I can’t tell you who the musician is because I don’t know—it doesn’t bother me. If I were at home, I’d start cleaning something, taking my dog for a walk, figuring out what to make for lunch. But at a cafe, I can concentrate on work. Across from where I am seated, there are one, two, THREE other people on their laptops plugging away on their keyboards. Even Hemingway admitted that he needed to find the right spot, which happened to be the Closerie des Lilas. Sure. For convenience, the cafe happened to be located near his home. Hemingway makes some good, though implicit observations about why the cafe is a better preference to working at home. There is a collective and unique number of people meandering in and out of a cafe. Another customer seated across from me is a gentleman, maybe in his sixties, wearing a beret, a long goatee, oversized eye glasses, his hair long to his shoulders. This is the kind of person with whom I would enjoy striking up a conversation. You have characters, people who are so unique, that no one could possibly be like them. That moves to my second point. Unless someone wants to engage in conversation, customers usually leave each other alone, observing that silent rule to respect each other’s space. There is also something about a collective likeness among the laptop group. Easily, they can spend up to a couple hours working while spending less than $10 at the coffee bar for latte and a treat, while using the internet and seating area to work. Every once in a while, one might come across someone who doesn’t understand “the code.” For Hemingway, this comes up when Ford Maddox Ford (aka the devil’s disciple) stopped by his table at des Lilas. They ask to sit down, but don’t wait for an answer and sit down anyway, bringing up topics that are irritating to discuss, distracting attention away from work. In order for anyone to make this distinction, again, they need to know “the code.”
Ione Skye in Conversation with Jon Cryer: March 7, 2025
Jon Cryer with Ione Skye at the Ann and Jerry Moss Theater
Every generation has a song or a certain movie that comes to mind when one reminisces about the past. No matter how much time goes by, whether it is Gen Z or the baby boomers, watching that movie or hearing that song brings back so much nostalgia. We picture the person we once were, our friends, parties, prom dates, everything. Let’s face it. Each generation needs that song or that movie to be reminded of a place in time when being young gave one the freedom of making mistakes, acting silly, having fun, and believing they were indestructible. It was our coming of age.
Say Everything Event in Santa Monica
In the eighties, day glow, spiral perms, shoulder pads, The Cosby Show (at least the episodes with Lisa Bonet), Madonna, French manicures, Depeche Mode, Aqua-Net hairspray, teen films written and directed by John Hughes, VCRs, MTV, Andy Warhol’s “15 Minutes”, Mickey’s Big Mouth Beer, and Paulina Porizkova defined my generation. “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds became a popular anthem after the film release of The Breakfast Club, and Molly Ringwald was the queen teen of box office hits, which meant having red hair and freckles was über cool. But Say Anything with John Cusack and Ione Skye was a definitive Generation X movie. The powerful scene of Cusack serenading Skye with a boombox playing “In Your Eyes'“ by Peter Gabriel still conjures up conflicting emotions of vulnerability and deliberate defiance. If you haven’t already seen the movie, check it out.
Last night at the Ann and Jerry Moss Theater in Santa Monica, Ione Skye talked with Jon Cryer (another eighties film icon) about her recent memoir, Say Everything. Skye literally wrote about “everything” from her talented musician / estranged father, Donovan and meeting him for the first time at age seventeen, to her relationship with lead singer, Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers followed by her marriage with Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. She was down to earth, sharing openly about her experiences. When Cryer asked about the hardest part of her life to write about in the book, she didn’t have an answer at first. Anthony Kiedis came up, and even then, she characterized the relationship as a life lesson, neither good nor bad. Reminiscing about her acting career, successes, disappointments, family and friends, she confided that she liked being married, and that Horowitz made her feel really safe, but Ben Lee became the love of her life.
Growing up is never easy. In fact, being young is probably harder than growing old. At least, for the most part, we begin to get it and figure things out by a certain age, when our hair is greying at the temples, the lines of our face more defined, and our perception of life far different than what it once was. Seeing Ione Skye last night was an inspiring experience, revisiting that exciting and complicated part of being Generation X.
Coming soon . . . AWP March 26 - 29
At the end of March, the AWP conference will be in full swing at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I will be reporting on various panels, recent trends in publishing, etc.
