Partying Gothic

In a couple of weeks, i turn a quarter of a century. It feels like just the other day, I was doing this


No, i was not drowning, I was trying to have a birthday party - by the pool. It did not occur to me that alcohol and pools do not mix, or if you really have to, then you need to make sure that your guests are natural floaters.


Yep, that is what I'm talking about. Buoyancy. Space for me to enjoy my party without having to jump into a pool now and then to save some stupid drunk. I suddenly think that Phelps
learnt his trade by attending pool parties. If he had pool parties like that one of mine, say 5 years in a row, that man had no choice but to be the best at it. I think that was his driving force. His Aphrodite. I'm tempted to think this was his mental image

I was tempted to have another pool party this year, with the exception of the water. That thought had a lifespan of about 10 seconds before i got this thought flash


Ok, not what i want to deal with. Would rather find this in my pool. Easier on the mind...though kinda harsh on the eye.

So I decided to have a Goth party. After all, i came into this world crying and shit. I'm talking about those people that think that "American Gothic" is a portrait . I figured that I'd have some Emo kids over, that way, they'd sit around, crying and hating life and not keep asking me where the drinks are. And if i get a power black-out like in my last party, I would not run around sourcing for generator. They are happy just embracing the darkness, being in their element.

I have learnt thought that my party is being referred to as a big 'Haunt'. This is the explanation i was given by Andrew Eldritch.

A Haunt is limited from one to four, because that's the number that can sit in an apartment room or middle sized dorm without crowding, or the number that can creepycrawl an abandoned building without startling the ghosts or arousing outside security (if they're careful), or the number of goths who you can call your best friends and who haunt your heart forever.

But that was corrected immediately after by Zac, who insisted that that would be Dearth. More than thirteen, more than you can count when your head is spinning from one too many Sampoerna Xtras and that last snakebite you had. Hope you're not on medication. Nightclubs always have a dearth of Goths. You should remember Zac from MmmBop. I heard that that was their fall from goth. That one song.

I think this is what i will get in my house on that day

..or not. I think these ones are called Scientologists. Or Joseph Smith-ers. Can never tell the diference really.

My biggest worry is that the kids I'm having over are so goth, they get hit on by necrophiliacs. I don't want those people in my house. Not really, not really, no. I mean this kids are so goth that nuns hate them for having garments that are blacker than theirs. I hear it's called 'Black Black' and they spend hours deciding what shade of that Black Black they should wear, then complain that those blacks don't match. These are people who did not cry for the soother when they were babies - they mourned. They only used black crayons, and their first words were 'death'.

Whichever the case, what could possible go wrong when hanging out with a bunch of kids of just want to die? Any disaster would be welcome relief for them. They will probably cry throughout the party at how much 'fun' is being had. After all, don't they dot their i's with frowny smileys and called a smiley smile an 'inverted smile'?

I do know that they are baking me this cake though.



By the way, i invited Phelps to the party, and told him the theme. Guy asked if he can show up dressed in this...

Told him no. He insisted it was black. Spent a couple of hours trying to explain the difference between gay and goth.

More goths are partying

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I will be sitting on luggage.

Posted in Nov 2008...

I'm not in the least bit superstitious. I purposely walk under ladders, I make black cats run cross the road in front of me. Hell, I have been trying to break mirrors since i was born, and i want my two dollar bills without the edges cut off. I will not pick pins, neither will I sit on my luggage before traveling. Russians are wired anyway, why should I care about sitting on my luggage? And in a typical stereotype, I might be smuggling my relative to whatever country I'm going to. It's hard enough that they have to travel in the luggage compartment (or whatever fancy name they have for that hold in a plane), without me having to sit on them!

But I traveled on Tuesday night, and i did not sit on my luggage. Partly because it was just ONE backpack, and I'm not into molesting backpacks. Little did I know what I was about to enter. Not twilight Zone. Things move way too nicely there I tell yah! I left DVP at the get-away resort and came back to work on Thursday morning. (Oh yeah, you don't know that he is in Kenya. Well, now you do. A story for another day). Where was I? Oh yeah, I came back to work. Finally, after months and months of editing, the 'TV Ad that is a movie', it was time to run transmission copies. I made up my mind a long time ago that i will not learn how to edit... ever. And i will rely on my boss to do it ...and the interns. As luck would have it, my boss is off filming Gorillas in Rwanda. I did not need him, I thought.

At around noon, i send one of the interns to have the TX (transmission copy) put on a Betacam format - which is what is required to send to a TV station. Once he leaves the office, I figure that that is out of my hands and it should be done soon, give or take an hour. So I blissfully go on with my work, until at 2 pm, it dawns on me that the the guy i sent is yet to communicate! So i frantically call him and what do you know, they have not even started work on my TX! Now, i think i should point out that we promised client they will have it ready by 4.pm. A raise a little hell, a baby hell to be precise and they start working on it. 2 hours later, the TX is done. But what do you know? It can't play back well. The colour correction is all wrong. So, it's time to deliver to client, and i have nothing!! So i call client and try a little bit of damage control. Wonder why it's called 'control' when it already happened! Client agrees with the option of putting the TX on DV Cam tape, and i cross my fingers, hoping that works. It does but we have to beat the traffic to the clients office. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get the TX done on Beta at some other place. My other boss even offers to drive me there. I get there and all excited that I can still deliver what clients wants...NOT! The DVD i went with wont open!!! So I call my other boss in Rwanda for some troubleshooting. I'm on phone with him getting instructions, and relaying the same instructions to another intern in our edit suite - on phone. Yes. I'm on two phones at the same time. Glad I was not driving! Since the DVD has refused to playback, we figure than maybe i should go back with a Mini DV tape. Which is why I'm on two phones.

I get back to my office and rush to the edit suite. All the instructions i had been giving on phone did not work, so i decide to do it myself. So there I am.. lost in an edit suite...only to finally figure out, 1 hour later that one of cables have a problem.

Meanwhile, DVP and I were supposed to have an interview with MNET Africa and they wanted to do a recce of my house. We had agreed that they could pick me from the office at 5 pm, since i did not anticipate to be in the office long. Since they were in the neighbourhood, they thought it a good idea to pick me at 4.30pm. Wrong move! It was now 6 pm, and they were still parked outside my office, watching me making the runarounds like a headless chicken. What imagery!

Then, as if there could not be a better time in the world, it starts to rain. I'm worrying about my laundry that has been in the hanging lines since Tuesday then remember that even DVP is not sheltered. When i left him at the getaway place, i accidentally left with his phone! He could not call me to check what time I'll be home and he had no spare keys to let himself in. By the way, I did not have the keys on me. I had left the painters doing their thing in my living room, what with the aftermath of the partying Gothic, which by the way, has been on the local news way too much. I had asked the caretaker to give the keys to the night guard who should give the same to DVP when he lets him in. I make it clear that i do not have another set of keys, neither does DVP, and insist on the importance of giving the key to the guard. So i stopped worrying about that, knowing that it has sunk in. It becomes apparent that i will not deliver the TX to my client, because by the time i figure out that i should carry our whole edit suite to the other company, it's about 8.pm, far too late! So i have to make that call of shame. But the idea to give her the DV Cam tapes was a good one since that worked. It's now 9 pm and i just want to go home. I call my taxi guy who tells me that he is closed for the day. WHAT? He promises to call another one for me. Oh, by now, the MNET Africa guys who were to drive me home have left. They decided to wait for me in my neighbourhood. The replacement taxi guy is not available, so have to look for another one. Finally arrives to pick me up at 10.00 pm. I get home. I ask the night guard for the key. He says don't have it. He has a phone number though. Great, I can open my house with a phone number! I call the caretaker who tells me that he thought it was not safe to leave the keys with the guard, so he left with them. I breathe in.. deeply. That chill you felt was me breathing in very very deeply. Calmly, I ask him to bring me the keys. He says he is too far gone and cannot come back. I'm amazed at how calm i still remained. Must be all the air i sucked in! Finally he agrees to come back. 30 minutes later, he arrives. MNET crew recce's my house, decides it's fit for the interview, meanwhile, DVP is fishily drunk. He has been at the bar since 3pm.. waiting on me to come home. Poor man.

To crown it all, i had stolen 45 minutes of my 1 hour lunch to make my hair. I finally decided to change from my dreadlocks to braids. Normally, this process takes 2 hours. I had about 7 (seven) women working on my hair. The result was my hair being done in 45 minutes, and my scalp feeling only what i can only assume the soil feels during the California fires.

I did not sleep. My head was on fire.

Perfect end to my day!

This is why I will be sitting on my luggage from now henceforth!

They do sit on luggage here too!

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