writing – Greg Blee

Tofino cafes – a writer’s hangout

During my recent 2-week house-sit in Tofino, I set myself the goal to visit every coffee shop in town. I thought this would be a snap, because after seven years away I remembered only five. But people kept telling me about new ones that had opened, standalone or attached to new hotels or campgrounds. Early on, I was adding to my list faster than I could knock them off.

In the end there were fifteen on my list, an impressive (arguably ridiculous) number for a small town. I had to plan carefully to get to them all, balancing my folding bike use (for the more distant ones) with the storm that blew through mid-visit (for the in-town, walkable ones).

It was an over-caffeinated quest that barely wrapped up on my last day there. I think I got to them all (no guarantees). I’m not rating them, as they are each a unique experience and worth at least one visit. Also, I’m a coffee Neanderthal — I’ll drink pretty much anything, and the cost of a coffee is more table space rental than for a gourmet taste experience.

What I did note was their suitability for sitting for an hour or two and writing/emailing/browsing on my laptop. Some are set up for that, some not.

The ones I would (and did) return to are in bold below — my seal of approval for a good place to hang and work. Presented here in the order I got to them:

1. Driftwood (Wickaninnish Inn) — high-end but casual, great location at the end of Chesterman Beach, outside tables in good weather. Moderately busy, solid wifi for a limited hang.

2. Drift Mfg. Co. (Fourth & Campbell) — charming, quirky little hole-in-the-wall with good coffee and an eccentric motorcycle vibe. The tiny bar is more suited for people-watching than laptop use. Wifi, didn’t ask.

3. Tofino Sea Kayaking (Main St. near First) — a standard, back when I lived in Tuff City, and still terrific. The outside covered porch has the best view in town, with a half-dozen seats inside for the cold, rainy days. Bonus of good pastries. Wifi is solid. My only caveat is it’s tremendously popular, so the ethical laptop schmoozer can’t take up space when it’s crowded.

4. Common Loaf (First St. & Neill) — another old standby. Snacks galore, also a solid lunch spot. Any writer has to have a session upstairs in the turret. Good wifi, and it too can get busy.

5. Tofitian — once a fave of mine, for the coffee and the high-end pastries. Still great, with good wifi and a computer bar. Busy, but mostly for take-out. It closes at 3 PM.

6. Maq Cafe (corner Main and First) — a surprise. When I left Tofino, the Maq had been known as the “Devil Bar,” and had recently been shuttered. Hugely renovated since, the cafe is a fantastic hang spot with lots of table space and a great harbour view. Popular with locals. (Barista liked my hat!) Loud-ish music. Coffee and food service stops at noon.

7. Rhino (Campbell St.) — an iconic Tuff City cafe. Its highly visible location, along with trademark food and donuts, makes it tremendously busy most of the day. Loud, bassy music, solid wifi. Good for a quick bite (sit-in or take-away), but not generally for a laptop work session.

8. Tofino Coffee Roasting (corner Pac Rim Hwy & Gibson St.) — renowned for its coffee among local aficionados. Mostly a tiny take-away shop, though in good weather there is some seating outside.

9. Mizu Mizu (Mackenzie Beach Resort) — another new one to me, built (I hear) in the resort’s former swimming pool. Coffee, pastries, lots of table seating, solid wifi. I wasn’t the only hanger-out on a laptop.

10. Ahous (Main St. in The Shore building) — mostly a marine tourism outfit, but with a nice coffee corner. Fun staff and good wifi, not busy when I was there. Closed over the winter season.

11. Moss & Milk (Tsawalk RV Park) — an unexpected secret, with tables and an artisan coffee and food bar. Didn’t check the wifi but probably good. Coffee service closed at 3, but the building stayed open late. Probably quite busy when the RV park is full.

12. Beach Shack (Pacific Sands Resort) — the resort’s outdoor food and coffee bar, popular with guests, beach-walkers and locals. Limited tables, usable in good weather. Wifi is there but tricky to find.

13. Hotel Zed (Pac Rim Hwy) — another surprise, with a good hangout pit in the hotel lobby. It’s busy but interesting, which is a plus for me, with people and their pets (the hotel allows animal guests) wandering through. Coffee shop closes at noon.

14. Savary Island Pie Co. (near First St. wharf) — coffee and a selection of savoury and sweet pies, plus a nice view of the harbour and busy dock. No wifi, but lots of table space for non-connected work.

15. LoveCraft (corner Campbell and Second) — interesting little shop stuffed with local art and crafts. Good coffee (owner is an aficionado). No wifi or sit-down table space.

‘other men’s wives’ hot off press

I’m pleased to announce that my chapbook other men’s wives : love poems to a village of creative women is fresh off the press, as of a couple of weeks ago. Only 55 copies were printed — we’ll see how long they last.

We held a triple launch party on Nov. 22, as the kickoff event of the Clayoquot Oyster Fest. In addition to OMW, the packed-house evening featured a (very) dramatic reading from Tofino Timeless, a collaborative story by 10 members of the Clayoquot Writers Group, and David Floody’s wry Kittenstein and Frankenfur, the Gambling Cats (ebook here).

I must admit to some trepidation about publishing two dozen mostly bona fide love poems, most quite personal and many about women who still live here on the Wet Coast. I did my best to disguise all references to individuals (there were many), but i fear there may be a backlash of some sort.

UPDATE THREE MONTHS LATER — There are just four copies left. No significant backlash, though i did have a couple of “corrections.” Not surprisingly, about 80% of the copies were bought by women. As i say in the foreword, Women, wonderfully, are still susceptible to poetry. They get it; they understand it; it touches them.

Two lousy words from the word crowd

The literary world has two chronic word problems. As writers, we know the power of specific words to shape a reader’s thought and feeling. We spend hours searching for the exact words to capture what we want to convey.

Trashed Technology, from DaCosta1 flickr photostream (click to visit). CC licensed.

Our thesauruses are full of synonyms — myriad, plenitudinous, superabundant synonyms — and we take perverse pride in agonizing over which will be most effective in a given sentence.

Yet in our own hopeful business dealings, we begin and often end with two loose, sloppy words that carry all kinds of unpleasant baggage. Yet we seem blind to their effects upon us. I refer, of course, to “submission” and “rejection.” Continue reading “Two lousy words from the word crowd”

The Artist’s Way

It took me a long while to get to it. I first looked at a friend’s copy years ago. He recommended it highly, though he hadn’t done the program, just dabbled in it. Same as a lot of other people i talked to over the next few years — people who owned the book, intended (some day) to follow through its 12 weeks, but hadn’t — yet.

I’ve been a blocked, underproducing artist for some years now, sinking slowly into frustration, bitterness and a general rut. My artistic life consisted of mostly attempts to finish up things begun months or years ago, a backlog of seemingly good ideas that i couldn’t let go of and really should finish up so i could move on to the new stuff. It wasn’t crippling — i have managed to throw together a quite a few good poems and pieces — but there’s no doubt the energy and the fun was draining out of my writing, and out of life too. Continue reading “The Artist’s Way”

Normal life in America (ca 1995)

Going through old files yesterday, i ditched most of ’em. My new modus operandi is that if i’m not engaged in something today, or have definite plans to be engaged in it within a month or so, there’s no point in hanging onto a paper record “in case” i get to it in future. The future has its own fast-evolving set of circumstances, and its own ceaseless feed of interesting stuff, and its own imperative, and it’s unlikely that something i came across today will still be relevent. And if it is, odds are it’ll be available on-line. Continue reading “Normal life in America (ca 1995)”