Morocco: Rick's Cafe

Rick's Cafe, Casablanca, Morocco. December 31, 2019.

Memes-as-life

New Year's Eve in Casablanca, how exotic. Not really. I have never been a huge fan of staying up till midnight to greet the New Year. I am much more in tune with the Japanese who wake up early January 1st to greet the first sunrise. THAT to me is a good celebration of the New Year. It was the last New Year's Eve of "normalcy", 2019/2020 - no one knew what was about to come. I found myself in Casablanca, Morocco. I was ready to retire to my hotel room early that night across from Casa Voyageurs Station and wake up for a fresh day of touristing on January 1, 2020.

While walking through Casablanca's little "old town" (Ancienne Medina), I stumbled across Rick's Cafe of the film Casablanca fame. I will be honest. I am not sure if I've ever even seen Casablanca other than a few iconic scenes, but I certainly knew what a cultural phenomenon it was. And, of course, "play it again, Sam" (which was actually never spoken in the film) was a line spoken in no other place than Rick's Cafe, Casablanca. Here I was in front of Rick's on New Year's Eve - afternoon. For this place, I WOULD break my own tradition and go at midnight for a drink. Alas, many others had the same thought and the place was totally booked out. At least I saw the front of it!

Of course, there was never a real Rick's Cafe (except on a film set in Hollywood), so this place was its brick and mortar twin made by some enterprising Moroccan to feed off unsuspecting tourists wandering in Casablanca's Ancienne Medina. Hats off to you, dear owner of "Fake Rick's"! It brought me back to Indonesia and the Balinese who for a time capitalized on the song "Bali Hai" from South Pacific in their branding of items. Even the local beer there was called "Bali Hai". The filming of South Pacific was mostly done in Hawaii with some people attributing a few shots to Tioman Island, Malaysia - but that is not entirely clear. In short, the tune "Bali Hai" had nothing to do with Bali, Indonesia and Rick's Cafe, Casablanca, had nothing to do with its city namesake either.

We live, however, in a "meme-like" world where a name or an image can conjure up emotion. For good or ill, people will profit from that. Methinks it cannot hurt to drink a Bali Hai beer in Bali or have a cocktail in Rick's Cafe, Casablanca. It's the experience, the selfie, and the reflected-on enjoyment that matter.