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9:40 a.m. Waking up at a decent hour so I can make the Casablanca breakfast buffet.
Scrambled Eggs. French Toast. Papaya Banana Smoothie. Tea.
Catching up on writing by “The Tower” where the only Internet abounds freely.
Checking out the gift shop for a t-shirt, cause all my shirts are dirty. I settle on a green Presidente shirt and grab a couple Dominican grown cacao bars for Ana. On a side note, the Presidente beer is literally the only beer available here, even throughout the country according to reliable sources.
I’ve been here this whole time and haven’t taken a dip in the ocean yet. I slap on some sunscreen and stroll over to the beach. The water is perfect. A man carries a tray of coconuts and pineapples to offer homemade pina coladas. I search for shells and rocks of all kinds in the sand. Such a beautiful picturesque scene – like living inside a picture of a vacation brochure.
Now it’s time to do what we came here to do. We shuttle over to another part of the resort where they hold big amphitheater sized shows. It’s hectic with all these people running around on stage and Nigel directing everyone. His goal is to keep everyone happy and make sure the show goes smoothly but in doing so sometimes he creates more chaos. In the end, we get everything ready to go. There’s always something to fix or work out – the projection isn’t showing in full rectangle wide view but rather in a circle view – no sound issues to speak of though.
Now the resort patrons have crowded up the tables. Grabbing some dinner from the big buffet they have set up. It’s overwhelming all the food there is. The cuisine is so confusing. I grab whatever looks good. Quenching my thirst with coconut water from a coconut a man chopped open with a machete.
Finally, it’s time to get on stage and do our Wink Floyd show. Most everything goes smoothly. Everyone in the band performs their hearts out. Jimmy, despite not being accustomed to it, commands the stage on lead vocals. There’s cameras everywhere (drone cameras, steady cams, and cams on long mechanical arms) filming close-up shots of each of us at any given time during the show. During “Comfortably Numb”, our encore song, Eric Edmunds has a long winded guitar solo. He walks off the stage right into a group of Canadian girls in the front row. It’s a perfect rock star moment as he wails on the strings – the girls put their arms around his legs and soak it all in. He’s a real guitar champion for sure.
Afterwards, dancers and acrobats with flames take over the stage and runway to the sounds of EDM pop music. Back stage they run in and out taking over the changing rooms. There’s barely any room to get around. Extremely fit Dominican theater dudes wear neon green and orange outfits, almost bird-like, some on stilts and some with masks. The girls look like they’re straight out of an escort website.
Later on, corralling above the ICE night club – going in and out for drinks and dancing – celebrating our successful show. With Chris and one of the Dominican locals who also played tonight. We watch Eric link up with a prostitute. I’m banned from my room temporarily. I wait it out in another hotel room where Nigel, Tony, and Jimmy are downing Maker’s Mark whisky and acting hysterical.
Eventually, it’s time to sleep after 3 a.m.
[i] Images by me.
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