Music Write-Ups
How do you know Chris Earley? his ex co-worker used to sleep with my friend, his other co-worker, ha!
How many MP3s do you have on your hard drive? >50
I really like Thievery Corporation. Their style fits perfectly into the electronic music niche that pleases me. World Beat/Latin/Hip-Hop/Reggae/House all wonderfully produced with different vocalists on each track. The first time I was introduced to Thievery Corp was by my sister during Christmas in 2001/2002. Wait, backup, this story really starts on October 31st, 1999.
Madrid, Spain - Halloween Part I: In 1999 Halloween fell on a Sunday, which meant that the best place to go was Weekend, a Sunday night event at a club called Ohm on Plaza de Callao. Most of us, us meaning the one year ex-pats I considered my friends along with a few locals, had really laid into it Saturday night but decided to go out again, however we weren’t going to do it to it like the previous night…or so I thought. Ecstasy (pastilla) was a pretty common part of my life back then and Sunday night was to be no exception. Little did I realize that Sunday’s dose was going to be that really really good shit. The kind where you get so floored that you sit down, rub the palms of your hands along your thighs from waist to knee over and over again just to keep yourself from grabbing that beautiful green lace hanging from that girls shirt right next to you. I bet it would really feel good to touch. Really good. That’s the point when I decided rolling a Porro was the best idea. A Porro is just a hand rolled cigarette, with a crutch made out of a quarter of the original filter from the real cigarette you just used, and a shit ton of hash added in for good measure. As I was attempting to roll said Porro, the guy next to me got my attention and pointed to his eyes. Remember, I’m floored at this point so I had no idea what the hell he was trying to tell me. In retrospect, he was telling me to be careful, security is watching. See, there was an un-written rule at the clubs there; if you got caught rolling a Porro, you were out but if you were able to roll one on the dl then you could smoke it right in front of their faces. This was because people smoked everywhere and it looked and smelled (for the most part) like a cigarette. I learned this rule the hard way and got kicked out. Not just kicked out, but literally thrown out. That was only because I tried to ditch the security guy as he was politely escorting me out of the club.
Madrid, Spain - Halloween Part II: Now I am out on the street and realized that it was past midnight, therefore my monthly metro pass had just expired. Fuck! I also had no money. Joder! I was fucked and fucked up. I asked a guy on a bench for a cigarette, I really didn’t know what else to do. Soon some of his friends came out of the club and sat with us. One of them happened to be this amazingly beautiful Cuban/American chick and they all appeared to be floating on a cloud at just about eye level to mine. Her second question after learning my name was if I was gay or not. This took me a bit by surprise until I realized that the other guys were her brother, his boyfriend, and their weekend lover while they were visiting Spain from Miami. This last one being the guy I shared a cigarette with. Once she found out I was a raging heterosexual, it was on like Donkey Kong. That was probably the best sex I have ever had. I will never forget that night. She also gave me money to get home the next day….
Miami, Florida - Christmas 2001: Okay, now we are back to the beginning of this story or the end really. I decided to go visit the Cuban chick on Christmas Eve while I was in Miami, visiting my father and sister for the holidays. Turns out she had a boyfriend and they lived in the pool house behind her brother’s place. Her brother had the same boyfriend so it was really nice to see them all. Good memories, you know. We started hanging out and partying when, the next thing you know, she disappears to the pool house with her new boyfriend. I don’t think he really liked me anyway. That left me alone with her brother and his boyfriend. I don’t know how this all happened but all of a sudden, there was porn on in the living room and I was doing bumps of meth with them. After that the conversation took a turn. I started getting questions like, “If you were getting a really good blowjob and closed your eyes and couldn’t tell if it was a guy or a girl, would it really matter?” If I never opened my eyes, maybe maybe not. But if I did, yes, it would. Awkward does not come close to describing the situation. It was time to high tail it (no pun intended) out of there. So I went home, which is where Thievery Corp comes in. I realized that it was 2am on Christmas day and I was all hopped up on meth. All religious implications aside, I really needed to get to sleep so I could make it through the next day. I put Thievery Corp into my portable CD player (pre-land of iPods) and voila, it was a magical journey. Suddenly I didn’t really care if I went to sleep or not. Nothing was awkward about the night either. I just really got into this music and it eventually put me to sleep. This song is the one I believe was playing right when I actually fell asleep. First thing I did in the morning was listen to it again. I still get chills sometimes when I hear it. Each time I listen to it, this one song rains down on my cerebral cortex all the drops of this story I have just shared with you. I still keep in touch with everyone I have mentioned and there is nothing awkward about it, just good times. Ironically the story is about a deceitful lover, but that only happened the next time I saw her….All my heart, All of your tears…Our whole world, Is smoke and mirrors….
-Jaime Rogers