Ricky's music therapy cafe oasis

So I work as a waitress/ falafel maker/ counter girl at Sabbaba, a corner café open for lunch and dinner, owned by Israelis, staffed by people from all over the globe, serves mainly falafel and kebabs in pitas or on a plate. I really like work. The sign outside says Sababba. Food. Music. Friends. And this post is about the music.

During the day shift (12-5) Ortal and Ayelet generally are working and they play what seems like the same three remix cd’s over and over and there’s some terrible stuff, like this one that goes Hey child, stay wild, or one that goes Don’t say a prayer for me now / save it for the morning after, in this very morose sappy 80’s pop-ballad style. And then after 5 Nic the night shift manager takes over and it shifts to ultra-synth-dance stuff occasionally intermixed with Fleetwood Mac or Dido or the like.

But during the day shift, take five strides to land you in the kitchen and wow. Ricky’s music therapy oasis. Ricky is the day cook. He’s from Fiji (our night cook being Aziz from India) and has been growing his dreds for five years. I already knew Ricky had wicked taste in music, and if he was playing it, it was pretty certain I was going to like it. Pink Floyd. Check. A little REM. Check. Reggae. Check. And today… today was God’s gift to me in the form of Welcome to Ricky’s music therapy cafe, today we’re serving all your favorites cause we know you need them. I’d never heard Ricky play any of this stuff before but here it was, The Doors followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers. OHHH yesss. Riders on the Storm, Touch Me, Backdoor Man, Break on Through. Even before I fell over in astonishment to hear Jim Morrison’s vocals out back I’d volunteered to wash dishes for a half hour just so I could soak up Ricky’s reggae (what’s the name of that song that goes “What I really want to know / oh my baby / what I really want to say” – we had a blast harmonizing to it), then when he started playing Doors and RHCP I would do my job up front in the foggy atmosphere created by my depressed mood, Ayelet’s bad mood and Ortal’s bad music until I had to go surface in the kitchen to let Jim’s sedated hedonism breathe fresh life into me. And then Over the Bridge, Otherside, Parallel Universe. And it was Good.