Global

In just eighteen hours...

Reuniting with some friends from the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, made our way down to the Bill Graham Civic Center Auditorium. Every concert there I have had a great time, first Bob Dylan, then Manu Chao, this weekends Ragga Muffins Festival did not disappoint.

We didn't have tickets and were only showing up for the last three acts, to catch up with the out of towners. The box office still had tickets, but I told my friend lets check the list.

So I walked up to the guy behind the will call table and said hi, "do you have any tickets that maybe did not get used and you would like to give away?" smiled. He said he had one ticket was I there alone? "No, my friend is at the box office window, called to her and she waved (by the way she is rockin the luscious brown locks ;) but there is only a few acts left and we don't know if it is worth it to pay the full price?"

He said, he had one ticket, I waved my friend over, he pushed the ticket towards me on the table. "Thank you! Certain we squealed and would have hugged him if he wanted." Back at the box office we got the other ticket. My friend asked, how did you do that? "I just asked."

It took a minute but we found our party the first band we saw was Midnight from St. Croix, pretty mellow for my taste.

Anthony B. from Jamaica though, brought the energy of dancehall to the stage and it spread throughout the auditorium. Made friends with the group standing next to us. It seems the drinks just kept coming, beer, cran and vodka, sprite and vodka, it was warm and the air smelled sweet.

Between acts the guest djs spun some crowd favorites then I started to hear Yee-haw. I was really confused. Why are they saying yee-haw? My friend said the next act was known for saying it, Eeka-A-Mouse from Jamaica. Still confused by the yee-haw my other friend explained Eek-A-Mouse also says meow, get it like a cat? I tried not to stare blankly back at him and we laughed.

Handy cackberry searched out options for festival after parties, reggae gold at the End-up? Not scheduled this weekend, they had already been to Club Six, then we came up with the intimate Senegalese spot, Little Baobab.

I think we hailed a Taxi pretty quickly then made our way to the Paris-Dakar International night. Everyone had a great time in the shoe box sized venue, dancing and drinking to french hip hop, music from various parts of the African Continent, when I heard the familiar sounds of Orixa, streaming out of the speakers I finally understood every single word...Everyone was from somewhere, global and friendly as they danced in very cramped quarters.

Everyone likes to keep a good night going, so we weighed our options with the blended group that poured out of the Beauty Bar and Little Baobab on the corner of Mission and 19th. The events change depending on the weekend of the month so we stood outside at two am, discussing options for afterhours and undergrounds and after parties at the Phoenix Hotel...Yee-haw!