Negril Notebook - Holiday in the Sun

 And so we come to the final installment of my holiday in the sun... the highlights so to speak, those little moments that stuck out and made an old stoner grin at the wonder of it all... with all the shit going on in the world one can forget it can be a beautiful place... though one day while i was sitting on the beach stoned and gazing at the water i was thinking about this island... and island that was at one point nothing more that a depot for the slave trade... but unlike the US, slavery formally ended in 1834 with full emancipation coming in 1838, i mention this because on an island where 90% of the population is of African descent i think it's a good learning experience for "white America" to go and be the minority... i understand that the dynamic is different, that as the moneyed tourists from the north pour in they still feel "privileged" and some even act that way... but it's an interesting experience... what's even more interesting is the number of African-Americans who vacation here and i believe it has something to do with this whole discussion... granted to get into the racial politics of it all would be a few posts in itself but there is an interesting dichotomy especially when African-Americans are still treated poorly in their own country... why not go to a place where the population looks like you? yes there are cultural differences but it made me think... 

So what were the highlights? there was the day, while getting ready to leave the beach for a quick beer and afternoon smoke that a couple of Rastas were walking up and down and playing music... they just so happened to stop near me, in front of a group of people lounging on the beach, and began playing Rivers of Babylon... fucking hell! it was gorgeous, just an acoustic guitar and a wooden box that the one Rasta sat on and played like a drum... it was brilliant... i stood off to the side listening, soaking it all in as the sun was beginning to start it glorious descent over the west coast of Jamaica (and sunsets over the west coast of Jamaica are some of the most gorgeous in the world)... i wish i would have had some money on me as i'd have walked up and tossed it the tip box, they deserved it but i was skint... sadly the people they played for seemed not to have a clue how great a rendition they had just heard was and pretended to ignore them... see paragraph above... 

There was also the drive to the Blue Hole where on the way we passed a little cluster of houses, it was a neighborhood made up of tiny trailers, little brick houses and some literal shacks... it was Sunday and out in "the yard", a common area, crammed between some houses, was a young kid playing music, a DJ, he had his system set up and was playing tunes for the whole neighborhood as people sat on lawn chairs or their little stoops, he was playing an old Wailers tune, Nice Time, when we slowed and passed by and had i been alone i'd have probably told the driver to stop... as a geek for Jamaican culture and music this was right up my proverbial alley... this was as Jamaican as it gets, a sound system in the yard, it was this very thing that led to what would become known as Hip-Hop in the US when Jamaican immigrants would set up at the parks in NYC and do the same, soon "Toasters" would get involved talking and hyping up the DJ, records and crowd just like they did back home and soon those Toasters would evolve into MC's... the rest as they say is history... but even my brief few minutes of seeing it was a thrill for me, the nerd who has read a half dozen books on the history of reggae and dub and Jamaican culture and how inextricably the music is tied to the people of the island... 

Speaking of that music... what amuses the hell out of me is that if you listen to the radio in Jamaica the bulk of what you hear are pop songs reworked into reggae, or maybe reggae pop, as there are many offshoots of the style... but it never fails to make me laugh when i hear some pop hit, past or present, being covered as a reggae tune... name a popular song and it guarantee it's been covered... 

Last but not least was my discovery, after three trips to the island, of what may be my favorite thing yet... (not counting the ganja of course)... Ting! and it's rival Bigga (think Coke and Pepsi)...
though i'm a bit more partial to Ting... what is Ting? well Ting is Jamaican soda that comes in all sorts of island flavors, my favorite being pineapple... granted the sugar content probably cleans the enamel off one's teeth but damn is it good and goes particularly well with some jerk chicken, fried plantains and peas (beans) and rice... how i never tried it before is beyond me but let's just say i took to it quickly... there is a Jamaican restaurant near me which makes excellent food and carries it when they can and lately i'm always stopping by to grab a little jerk chicken and check to see if they got any more in... (last time i walked in the music was so loud it was awesome, the guy came from the back room, saw me and smiled, not yet mon but soon he said it regards to the supply of Ting) 

Of course this whole little write up should have been posted long ago but things around the old house have been a bit of a mess and so the lounge has suffered from a bit of neglect due to the circumstances... that being said i'm hoping things can get a bit back to normal... hope being the operative word...