Unurban Cafe - Sunday 2/10/2008

Hydra is taking a couple of classes from the amazing Fred Sokolow at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, so I went online and found this near-by coffee house, the Unurban Cafe.

What a fun place. Funky in that oh-so-urban way of the traditional coffee house. You know what I'm talking about. A collection of odd tables (mine was an old sewing machine table) and unique seating options ranging from mismatched chairs to old theater seats to padded benches lining the walls.

There was live music in the front room the whole time I was there, from about 3-5pm. Piano, drums and a really fabulous clarinet player who sat in on the jazzy 1920s style tunes led by the pianist, who also sang. When I left, there was an energetic woman singer on stage maybe in her early 40s, and a couple in their seventies sat poised, ready for their turn, she with a fiddle on her lap. (Or maybe that's a violin in this part of town.)

I sipped my iced coffee in the back room and reworked a handwritten scene for my novel as I typed it into my laptop. I wasn't sure if the place would be laptop-friendly, but boy was it. Outlets were all over the room and although they looked like they might surge at any moment, they were in high demand. In fact, everyone in the back room had a laptop. Even a couple came in and opened up sleek matching Apples back to back as if setting up a game of Battleships.

I just have to tell you about the guy with shoulder length gray hair who carried his ultra-slim laptop inside an old leather suitcase that he'd covered with carpet. He wore dark blue pants and sweater with a rainbow striped shirt underneath and a 4x6 paper sign hung on a string around his neck. It said, "MORE LOVE" in blue block letters.

This is the kind of person I should have the courage to approach, ask for a photograph and understand a little better.

But this is also the kind of person who scares me just a little. So I didn't.




Random shadow shot of my approach to the cafe, laptop in tow. I probably like this one more than I should.



"Why?" you ask. Because out in the boonies we don't have these new-fangled digital billboards. I hadn't seen these before and by the time we encountered our third one I was ready with my camera.

Ad #2.


Ad #3. We also saw three others during our sojourn at one stop light.