being awesome.
Last night I was sleepy, missed a national soccer game to see a
Bollywood movie that I could've seen that afternoon if I hadn't left
my ATM card with the boat, and then ended up watching 70% of
Spiderman 3 instead because I couldn't wait 15 minutes for the
Bollywood movie to start and having sat myself down I was too lazy to
get up and switch theatres.
But then... I find a delightful Trinidad karaoke night right next to
my boat and meet some great kids.
Tonight I wanted to go out earlier but I drank beer and played pool
too long at another bar across the way, and then shot the shit with
boatmates for too long so I was almost too sleepy to go out. Then I
payed too much for a taxi to get to a club, which turned out to be
closed, and then got into one of these "you give me money, I'll make
sure you don't get mugged and show you around" relationships which
wasn't looking to good at first because the next club we went to was
about 40% prostitutes and 60% men. Then we were just sort of walking
aimlessly and awkwardly for a bit.
But then... I saw a Japanese nineties car with a shiny green paint
job and a sticker that said "Leprechaun" across the top and before I
know it I ask a guy I'm talking to what he does and he says "well I
sold marijuana for 25 years, but then I felt I had to
diversify" (except he said something else like "diversitize") so now
I'm... well they call it 'piracy.'" Dude goes to Trinidad copyright
enforcement meetings and drops the "hey, I'm giving these guys free
publicity" bomb. So I'm like "I started a movement!" (hearing the
Simpsons fast food teenager voice in my head but sounding normal) and
we talk shop about infringement for a while.
Some background. Street vendors that sell pirate CDs here go way
beyond the blanket. They make booths with deep cycle batteries and
phat car stereo amps bolted into homemade, wheeled speaker/shelves
that they wheel around the streets blasting the shit out of some hot
music with. So it makes an even bigger contribution to Trinidad's
urban spaces than the loud car stereo or sound-system-equipped
bicycle to our own, and thus is a profession beyond reproach. It
started pouring and I helped lay out a tarp to keep his merch dry,
probably breaking some ridiculous expansion of copyright law that's
been stuck on some budget rider since I left (worlds collide man,
they collide).
Then they give me a ride back to home (I pay them some bucks, but
they buy me some beers) and we listen to and discuss Sizzla on the
way. Did you know he was on Rocafella now? The mens' names were
David and Asher. Asher was the digital entertainment entrepreneur,
and his mobile booth had a plaque above that said "House of Asher" in
Celtic lettering. Did I imagine that his manner was distinctly
Irish? But I met some very Irish looking Trini kids at the bar last
night, I know the assholes had Irish sugar workers here back in the
day, and there seems something so familiar about peoples' manner
here. If I hadn't been to Ireland, the manner would just remind me
of some of my second generation great uncle.
