Friends & Links: John Hawkes

For years, whenever I had a problem with my Mac computer, people told me: "Why don't you call John Hawkes?" and I thought "He doesn't know me from Adam, why would he want to help me?" Then our common friend Jay brought John for a short visit. When he introduced himself, I said: "Oh, you are THE John Hawkes? I have a problem with my computer." This must have been the thousandth time he heard that sentence. We made a pot of tea, spent the afternoon in the office upstairs and he recovered all my lost e-mails.

Now, we all have that one friend who's "good with computers", but John knows how to build and repair computers and working with him was really different. He calles them "machines" and works with screwdrivers. He had none of the ego and attitude you typically get from IT guys. When he ran out of ideas, I suggested something and he'd say: "Hey, that could work, let's try it," and take it from there, give it a new spin and solve the problem. As a self-thought computer geek, he simply has the one thing many well educated IT engineers lack - common sense.

We quickly became good friends. John is really more like a family member, than a friend. We stay with him when we're in Prague, he comes up for weekends. During the 2002 floods, when he was evacuated from his appartment in Prague, he stayed with us for 3 weeks. We spend time together during Christmas and holidays. It's like having an older brother - a brother who also builds all my computers.

But computers are just one of John's parallel careers. It didn't surprise me a bit when I learned, that ocassionally he's modeling or acting. As he travelled, eventually arriving in Prague in the early nineties, he held many different jobs and has a wide array of experience. With English as his major and passion for books, John is a great story-teller and I think he should write. He also co-owned or managed restaurants or bars and this is the career stays with for now.

In 2005, together with his business partner, he opened a new cafe, Metropole, in my favorite Prague quarter - Vinohrady. It's right next to the beautiful Riegerovy sady park. Besides an exellent sandwich and latte, you get a fast wi-fi connection for your laptop and maybe some free computer consulting. Adjascent to Metropole is a branch of the Anagram English bookstore, so you can get a good book to read while you sip your cappucino. I think it's the perfect blend for John and certainly perfect for me - you can bet you find me there a lot!