espiritista

un-Makati

I am in one of Mindanao's bustling corners, in a small city filled with Ilonggos and not Cebuanos, straddled between two mountain ranges and with no beach in sight.

The last retort is what makes me a bit ambivalent about coming here. i have always loved to see the beach, no matter how un-tourist class it may be. I think i may have been born to wander a bit, and with it the twin urge to always find rootedness. I think the beach represents both worlds, leaving and returning, going away and coming home at the same time.

Yet I have also felt extremely comfortable here. The bus trip was surprisingly hitch-free.

As it turns out, I came on the eve of the city's fiesta. And as in any provincial town fiesta, i just had to go see the perya.

There it was in one of the city's manicured corners. There was a tiangge lining up the sides leading to the ferris wheel. I didn't bring with me loose change and I felt a bit sheepish to ask the manong at the color game booth to break up my hundred peso bill, and since i was also getting hungry at 7 pm, i decided to just eat first and then come back. yes, come back for the color game.

there were food tents and tables with checquered plastic table cloths. i tarried a bit, trying hard not to appear like this duffus who didn't have any idea which food stall to check. I'm sure the locals know which ones are good, but i hadn't the slightest clue which they are. the tents offered the same barbecue menu, so i can imagine me trying to play the prince who gets to choose the correct door among several similar-looking ones.

this is what i call a roulette. in moments like this, i can be as irrational as a shrub. trying to make sense of all the signs of the universe, i finally followed the first attendant who took notice of me: a manong who asked if i wanted beer, isaw, inihaw na manok, and all the rice i can eat, all for 100 bucks. hmm, sounded like a good old rob to me so i took a glance at the food laid down on the grill, and turned around. not good enough! i tried to tell him, without of course, mouthing it. on the way out, i saw two pretty collegialas guzzling red horse and eating isaw on one table. suddenly, i felt this was the universe talking to me! no tent couldn't get any better for me, could it? I got back and looked for a place. (dont ask if it's beside them collegialas, or my wife will kill me)

I soon found out that the girls, er, i mean my belated instincts were correct,as ever. the place i found was near the stage. and in a few minutes, there would be bands playing. suddenly, it all seems like a good bargain.

the beer came first, then the band played, it sucked for a moment. and i hated the song list. mushy stuff from cueshe. freaking cueshe is ruining my life even in mindanao. (i mean especially in mindanao). the vocalist is feeling so guwapo singing those crap (is there such a word as craps?). i wanted to go up the stage and rip the vocalist's vocal chords to shreds, if only the pretty collegialas wouldn't mind. oh well, since i was starving, i contented myself to shredding the inihaw na manok which came surprisingly fast. sweet and spicy soy sauce with calamansi, and probably some other secret sauce (like the manong's sweaty armpit droplets) made me want to cry with ecstacy. this is so un-Makati.

just so u wouldnt forget that the band is cool, they played LAKLAK and ZOMBIE. The question "why do all college bands just have to sing laklak and zombie?" may just be the subject of my Masters thesis.

i finished 3 bottles of san mig light and 3 cups of rice. by the time i was done, the pretty collegialas were just about finished with the red horse litro. they were proceeding to open a bottle of gin bulag. bitches.

the band soon finished their set and up stepped a reggae band, complete with jamaican tams and the face of bob marley in different poses on their shirts. medyo oa, to the point that i wished bob marley had a porn video so their mothers could tell them to stop wearing those shirts.

but when they played, i have to say they really rocked! just a let-down that they played what i call "mainstream" reggae. basically brown man revival, some popular marley (the oft-abused waiting in vain), and some covers from the jamaikan me groovy album. i thought they played BMR's entire album, if i wasn't mistaken. Nothing against BMR, I think they play good reggae music, and some of their originals are really good. i think i just missed sublime, our reggae-god in college with the DAY CARE CENTER!!! (Dax at Jonas mag reunion concert na tayo!!!)

by the time they were singing another BMR song, my bladder was reminding me that the 3 bottles of beer is my one-sitting's limit. i just gotta pee.

i rushed to the hotel, peed to my kidney's relief (the original kilig factor), and then wrote this post in a matter of 15 minutes.

Ain't life grand? And i still haven't played the color game.

posted by dyeproks @ 8:07 PM