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My consciousness awakens sporadically throughout the morning. My roomie for the weekend, Eric the guitar god of DEJA, over in the other bed sounds like he’s enjoying a peaceful and relieving moment. Hours later I arise from the bed and it’s time to rue the day.
I head over to what we’ve dubbed as “The Tower” for my Internet fix, the only place in the entire resort for free WiFi. Otherwise you’d pay an inconvenient fee to have it in your room. Nipping at a RX Breakfast Bar and sipping on a Coffee.
In the hotel room catching up on random stories and thoughts with Eric.
Grabbing lunch at the Casablanca buffet: Potatoes, Egg, Fruit, Plantains, Pineapple Juice.
Lounging on the beach beds catching up on writing.
Now I’m eager to find the fitness part of the resort. They have an area called Xtreme Zone and there’s a basketball court. After getting lost and asking a few people the right questions I locate the mini office where they hand out basketballs and get a chance to shoot for a little bit.
Our back line gear arrives in the hotel room. While Eric tinkers with the guitar amp I rip my hair out over this Yamaha Motif that I have no idea how to use. Fortunately, I still have my Roland Juno Gi for most of my complex patches but I still need decent piano, rhodes, and organ sounds for the bottom keyboard.
Time for dinner reservations at the Asian restaurant: Honey Glazed Tofu with Mixed Vegetables and Dumplings. And of course a Bahama Mama and a Pina Colada.
My night continues with Francisco (who will be running sound tomorrow and all around talented musician) and Chris (lead vocalist in local Virginia Beach band Audiostrobelight and our guide since he’s been here eight times now). First up, is a magic show at the coliseum. Some of the tricks are impressive but the magician includes random dance breaks in his routine to mostly EDM remixes of pop songs.
Over in the next section of the resort is a dance club downstairs called “ICE”. We walk into another world, another culture. The name of the club is irrelevant or ironic I should say, cause my glasses are fogging up from all the steam and humidity from the bodies filling into the room. Latin pop booms through the speakers. For some reason we missed the memo about wearing all white clothing. Dominican dudes dressed in white shirts and pants corral exclusively in the corner while their respective girls in flowery dresses and jean skirts shake their rump to reggaeton hip-hop beats. El Presidente is the beer of choice. Plastic cups of this cheap pilsner are slung immediately over to you when approaching the bar. We watch all the young girls hold up their phones and take selfies and videos of their friend’s asses. After a little while we head outside to the patio and link up with Nigel and Peace. Back and forth we fill up on drinks from downstairs. I’m extremely buzzed and feeling very social – enjoying my new brother friends.
Walking back over to our part of the resort and sitting down at the only place open, a Mexican joint that only serves hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries after hours. I chomp down on stale fries while we talk about our observations on this country (the food, the laws, philosophy) and how alcoholism affects working musicians.
Back at the hotel room Eric speaks his thoughts on things...
Complaining about a girl that’s been paranoid about him hanging out with other girls here.
“F*** it,” he says. “You only live one time...”
He kind of goes on tangents but it’s fun talking with him.
“I don’t wanna be buried,” he continues. “Burn my ass and float it off into space!”
“F*** all that burying shit. Put me in a litter box with cat shit all over me. I don’t care.”
“I’ve had long hair for most of my life.”
“I move around quite a lot but other than that I guess I’m not too bad.”
Sleep after 2:30 a.m.
[i] Images by me.
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