~* PASS THE DUTCHIE *~

Twas the longest Friday ever. I got home at Saturday 7:30 am already. Basically twas Xaymaca at 9pm til 3am. Then went to eat shawarma at some place in QC. Went to my sister's office in Makati after that coz she had to sync her 02 XDA to her PC before she leaves for Germany today. I was quasi-braindead by the time I was hanging out in the waiting room of her office. Slept there while I waited. Left her office around 6ish am and then got home in time for Saturday breakfast. Friggin' looooong day for me. Now to backtrack a bit...

My sister leaves for Germany today for a 2-week business trip. She had her despedida at Xaymaca yesterday together with her staff, some of whom I've hung out with already in our past Friday-night-at-Xaymaca gimmicks.

Felt the earthquake around 10:30pm. Me and my sister were like: "Hey, teka, hindi pa naman ako lasing ah..." Heck, I haven't even ordered my San Mig Light yet! We thought we were just tipsy or something but then the freakin' earthquake was quite long. It was not an oh-u-missed-it-sorry kind of quick jolt. It was so surreal. Everyone inside and outside the bar were like sorta spaced out at one point and then a wee-bit panicky when we realized it IS an earthquake and not all of us being tipsy at synchro-mode.

During the earlier part of the night, this young punk-ska band (looks like UP peeps...) who call themselves Jeepney Joyride jammed before the first set of Brownman Revival was due. The vocalist of Jeepney Joyride was, ermm, let's just say, talbog si Dino sa stage presence. May ocho-ocho pang nalalaman. Hayyy. Crazy and funny in a baduy sort of way. They redeemed themselves when they performed Hard to Handle by Black Crowes. I luv that song :) *Hey, little thing lemme light your chemicals oh momma I'm sure hard to handle now...* (Did I get my freakin lyrics right? anyway, i love that tongue-twister chorus!) And then the super-patok thing they did was their encore number: a cross between Beyonce's Crazy In Love and Parokya ni Edgar's Yes-Yes-Show (?). Asteeeg. That was an absolute riot! The ho-hum Brownman audience was finally genuinely entertained by the crazy Jeepney Joyride dudes. I could even see Jayson (trombone, BMR) and Jao (bass, BMR) being thoroughly amused by the novelty act. Dino (vocals, BMR) who walked in looking like a schoolboy clad in white shirt and backpack managed to catch the last part of the Beyonce-Parokya hybrid. He was pretty amused too.

By 11pm, Brownman Revival started their first set. What's great about BMR is that they constantly change their set list. Every Friday, at least half of the songs they perform would be something that you did not hear the previous week. They mix their original songs with UB40, Big Mountain, VST and Bob Marley songs. That's why it's not nakakasawa for me to be there every Friday. One fix that I totally look forward to is their version of Eraserhead's Maling Akala. With the way the Xaymaca crowd was singing, one could easily tell that the song is a cult fave. I also love the reggae flavor they've infused for their version of senti staples: What You Won't Do For Love, The Only One, Reasons, Just Don't Wanna Be Lonely, Sharing the Night Together.

Tuesday Vargas happened to be there last night. I know-- it's not such a stellar find, but hey, Ryan Agoncillo was there the other Friday with his girlfriend. Now that was eye-candy! So anyway, I was surprised that Tuesday actually looked OK in person and not as jologs as her songs portray. But if my sister didn't point out that it was her who was on the side of the stage, I wouldn't have known that it was her. Funny though when some guys started humming "(Di ako bakla)Kla-kla-kla-kla..." :P. She jammed with BMR when they sang Waiting in Vain.

Now for those gals who were there last night (In case, some Xaymaca denizen out there stumbled upon this blog...), don't you just wish you were THAT gutsy chick who managed to dance with Dino, be hugged by him while dancing and then be kissed on the neck (although at the risk of being despised by all the Dino-crushers and being seen as, ermm, whorish *sorry!*)? Oh well. Whatever floats her boat!

Why pass the dutchie on my title? Coz I find it funny how I've been hearing the song all this time and it was only last night that I realized that THAT was the Pass the Dutchie song. With the Jamaican accent, I thought it was some weird jargon of foreign phrases (imagine hearing: "poss dee dotchi on dee lep hund sayde..." against lyrics: "pass the dutchie on the left hand side"). Tricky, isn't it?! And then I was like, WHAT THA HECK DOES PASS THE DUTCHIE MEAN ANYWAY? I also vaguely remember a Missy Elliot song with the same phrase. So predictably, it's weed-related according to the Urban Dictionary:

To 'have a dutchie', is to smoke a lot of weed in a small unventilated room. So that the room quickly fills with a smokey haze, getting all the occupant's of the room very high.

Yup. You got that right! Very Xaymaca-ish indeed. Xaymaca is small and by the time it's packed with its denizens, the aircons, the electric fans and the exhaust fan will not make any diff at all. (SIDEBAR: Now everyone is friendly at Xaymaca, but when you turn off the freakin' wall fan just so you can stand on the chair beside it... that means WAR, mhen! I can't believe how moronically inconsiderate some people can be!) And to say that nobody there smokes joots is the same thing as saying that all of us never ever lied in our entire lives. I am worried at the thought that I am techinically smoking weed (and regular cigs) and having read in Cosmo that maryjanes stick longer in our lungs than regular tobacco is not making it easy for me to ignore. I have asthma and yes, it is long-term suicide for me to expose myself in such environment. But what can I do? It's friggin' fun to hang out there. Besides, everyone dies anyway. Ain't it twisted how the reggae-dancing and profuse sweating is good for my health but then their benefits are totally negated by the fact that the place is a smoke house? Hayyy. Tough luck. Life's not fair indeed. Can't have my cake and eat it too. Ho-hum. Must figure out a way until wearing gas masks become in vogue.