THE STORY OF ZEE'S CAFE CAFE

THAT'S A CAT
WITH A VERY LONG TALE

I heard the expression - that's a cat with a very long tail - decades ago. It stayed in my mind. It fits here. The story of how Zee's Cafe Cafe came to be - and now it came to be put aside for a very long time - goes back at least to 1999, and even to 1994.

So here's the story.

BUT FIRST,
A MORE HONEST TITLE:

DREAMS AND HARD WORK,
HIGH HOPES AND
DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT,
OVER AND OVER

That's the story of Zee's Cafe Cafe. Big dreams and high hopes, over and over. Hard work and deep disappointment, over and over. And trying again.

1994. That's when I started, unexpectedly, writing what I called "word pieces" - words meant to go with music. I started waking up with words in my head. I would scribble them down, follow the words. 19 pieces the first month. I remember counting the pieces at the end of the month.

I typed them up.

I kept on writing more.

Soon there were dozens, then hundreds of pieces.

Over time, the flow has been stronger and less strong, but has never left.

1999. I've been writing word pieces for 5 years. The pieces naturally fit one after another to tell a story. But where to tell the story? I get the idea - the dream - for a TV show, Zee's Cafe Cafe.

The cafe. One of those old cafes, with old wooden tables and old wooden chairs. A comfortable place. Low lighting. Regulars who come week after week.

The owner of the cafe is Zee, an alter ego. She tells - through the word pieces - bits of her story, week after week. There's room for other performers as well. And for the regulars.

I have a friend - let's call him Jack - who has produced some small TV shows. We talk.

A couple of years later, Jack tells me about a new emerging possibility - something online. There is a brand new grant available for such projects. I've never gotten a grant, but Jack suggests I try for one, so I do. I know nothing about making a webpage or using Photoshop, but I get to work, day after day. I spend the summer designing my first vision of the site, learning a bit of Photoshop, and creating my first vision of Zee's Cafe Cafe. In a few months I hear back. I didn't get the grant. The project is not well enough developed. I accept that.

The next year I submit a fully developed project, the product of masses of work. including works by other spoken word artists. Pages open smoothly, one to the next. I've work very hard, learned ever so much more.

I don't get a grant. I hear back that I wasn't considered the right person for the project.

I don't feel anything.

But I don't try again.

I do more on the project on my own, but then I stall. I've run out of energy - for that project, not in general.

2006. Something else happens. I create my first website.

I learn how to use keywords. I learn what is called SEO - search engine optimization - meaning getting the search engines to take notice. It works.

Nothing is easy, but I have such a strong urge to get my word pieces out into the world. And I do get them out into the world. Within about 3 years, I have quite an audience. Up to 60,000 page views a month. That's 750,000 a year. Three-quarters of a million. Plus I have a huge sendout list. This is in the Wild West days of the internet. No double opt-ins.

I still keep wanting an online Cafe. So a few years later I develop one as part of my site. This version of Zee's Cafe Cafe is still online. But I don't do more than set up a sample of the Cafe. Then, like before, I run out of energy for the project. I don't go further.

I also don't have the skills to go further. Putting individual pieces online - I learned the skills for that, bit by bit. This is way more. I would say, it is way too much.

Something else is happening. A huge change in my life. A change in focus.

Up til 2012 I keep posting quite a number of individual pieces, personal pieces for the most part.

But since 2006 I've been noticing both the way good thinking is becoming taboo and the way Islam is protected from objective evaluation. Instead we are to believe, believe, believe. For instance, we are to believe it's a religion of peace, no matter what the evidence.

My interest shifts from mainly the personal to mainly the social.

In 2012 I launch a new site, the World Truth Summit. I do several interview series on people who dare to look into Islam. I pay a lot of attention to Islam, then as well to further social issues.

More than a decade passes. I reach people.

I also come to feel horribly stuck. Nothing goes as far as I want it to. How to reach a larger audience?

Early 2022. I'm working with a coach. She loves the idea of Zee's Cafe Cafe. I dust off the project. I love the project as well, have loved it for such a long time, but long ago gave up trying to do anything with it.

Now I get to work again.

I decide on a launch for mid-June, just before summer. I put work into a new site and ever much more work into what I was to present at the launch. I create a teaser, just over a minute long, for the launch. I also record the full show - 25 minutes or so - like one I might perform, but all put together. A pleasure. Also, so much work!

My audience for my posts is several thousand people - about 5000 actually. They have long long gotten mainly idea pieces, and then the occasional creative piece.

I let people know about the launch. I send out more than one invitation, plus the teaser. Only about 10 people show up for the launch.

I'm disappointed, quite deeply disappointed, though the meeting does have a good feeling.

Almost nobody shows up the second week.

I'm discouraged.

And it's not just about Zee's. I wanted a membership group, a Truth Tellers Club, for a long time. For like-minded people - caring about good thinking and truth. I've kept feeling sure there had tyo be interest. After all, so many people online watching videos hour after hour, day after day. Surely a community could be interest.

I post about this. No interest.

Something in me lets go, completely, of the Truth Tellers project.

I also have no idea what to do to get an audience for Zee's Cafe Cafe.

So I put the Cafe aside again.

A final curtain? Sayonara?

No.

2023. Two new Truth Summits - each time with interviews with at least 21 amazing truth tellers. I have the skills. Recording. Editing. Website creation. Putting the videos online.

And there is Substack - you could call it a Youtube for writers - set up so it's easy to send out as often as I like.

I've also wanted a membership group for Truth Tellers - the Truth Tellers Club .A membership group for like-minded people - caring about good thinking and truth. I wanted such a group for a long time. I had small groups for a few years. I tried a year earlier to get a membership group going, but it didn't quite come together.

Once again, disappointment. The Truth Tellers Club - one part of which is to be Zee's Cafe Cafe, a creative space once a week - does not get any interest.

And Zee's also does not get interest.

What's needed?

I look at what works.

I 'm writing a lot, posting on Substack. Out of close to 5000 subscribers, over 1000 people (sometimes up to 2000) take a look . . . whenever it's convenient for them.

Today's date. July 10, 2023.

The new launch. Maybe July 21st.

- MORE COMING SOON -

STAY INFORMED!
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WHAT IS ZEE'S CAFE CAFE?

WELCOME TO
ZEE'S CAFE CAFE,
WITH YOUR M.C. ELSA -
MISTRESS OF
CARING,
CURIOSITY,
CREATIVITY,
COURAGE,
CONVICTION,
CELEBRATION!
A.K.A. ZEE -
ELECTRICITY,
ENERGY,
EXPLORATION,
ENCHANTMENT,
THE MAGIC
OF EVERLASTING
IMAGINATION!

SO NOW . . .

- ELSA at ZEE'S CAFE CAFE -
SPOKEN WORD, POETRY,
WORDS AND MUSIC,
IDEAS AND GOOD THINKING,
IMAGES AND MORE!!!

ELECTRICITY!

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