| Friday, March 03, 2006 |
| another cuban installment |
Chapter 3: Gideon Yong as a metaphor for Cuban euphoria
myself with Gideon and Pete on our first night at Varadero. Pee in your pants good times. Literally.
So there we were inside of La Rumba on thursday night, 50 cent & mobb Deep's Outta Control blasting in the background, we're all on the dancefloor showing stella how to get your groove back (or on). I'm looking around thinking, it's around 1 in the morning, we paid 15 Cuban pesos which is the equivalent to like 18 Canadian dollars to get into this club to dance and instead of throwing on some salsa music or some beloved reggaeton, the DJ is playing North American fromage. Cmon now, give me Cuba! Give me mueve la colita at least...I'll even take Guantanamera ...annnnyyyttthiiinnngg but "i got shot 10 times and two gunshot wounds left permanent dimples in my face" 50 cent a.k.a. half a dollar a.k.a. spare change a.k.a. "you're better off spending your dollar buying a nail clipper at the dollar store than dropping any kind of money in buying my pretentious album". But have no fear, the night got better with the change of pace in music. At around 2, as most DJs do, the music genre switched from hiphop to thumpity thump thump techno. And i know, this is usually the time that ppl groan a bit, leave the dancefloor, approach the DJ booth and ask, "What's the deal hombre?? Where's the good stuff?", but lemme tell you, that that thursday night, this musical shift was the best thing that could have happened on the trip. Why? Because Gideon Yong happened.
Our hero Gideon Yong is wearing the white polo, whom everyone is pointing to as if to say, "it'ss allll youuuu baby!". And indeed it was all him. For thursday night/friday morning belonged to one Gideon Yong
I will use the words Gideon Yong in this story as both a noun and a verb. The noun being Gideon Yong himself as the person and the verb, "to Gideon Yong" I will get to in the meat of this story. Now where was I? Ahhhh yes. The moment the shift happened from tempo from gunshot sounds and windows shattering to constant pulsing beats with strange eerie ambient keyboard noises in the background, something clicked inside of Gideon Yong's head and he became a totally different person on the dancefloor. This is not to say that Gids wasn't getting down before this point but his mannerisms changed... inhibitions were totally lost and the Gideon Yong as you might know, completely changed. Upon noticing this (not so subtle) change in demeanor, the dance circle formed and Gideon was thrown into the center by our collective hands in order to display his artistic interpretation of the pulsing beats, to which Gideon provided little resistance. Can words do any justice to how he was interpreting the music? I don't think so but for your sake I will try my best to describe what was going on. In order to visualize the dance of delight that Gideon Yong was performing, picture a hunchback dancing on the spot with index finger of the right hand raised...sometimes twirling, sometimes pointing, but always moving. Gideon's eyes were for the most part, it seemed, closed as if to say that "nothing else exists right now but me and the music!" And indeed i believe that this assessment into Gideon's thoughts might very well be true. Our shouts of encouragement and laughter, endless pointing, seemed to fall upon deaf ears as Gideon , unfased by the attention, continued to rock the beat only the way that Gideon Yong could. There are no verbs present in the Canadian Oxford dictinary to describe this beahvioural shift, this dance of euphoria that Gideon Yong exhibited at La Rumba way into the early morning in our last day at Cuba... it needs to be given it's own word. Gideon pretty much "Gideon Yonged" it up at La Rumba and its effect served to lift up our own spirits as we shared in the experience and proceeded to "Gideon Yong" it up ourselves. So thank you Gideon Yong for sharing that experience with me (us).
Hands and spirits lifted high after "Gideon Yonging" it up
Gideon Yong redux
Now here I am back in kingston with newly downloaded trance music blazing out of my speakers in order to try to retrigger the Gideon Yong in the comfort of my own home... to little avail. The experience of Gideon Yonging, the verb, can and only be revistied in memories and captured pictures (where this blog serves as a historical marker). Same can be said for Cuba... which is why Gideon Yong is a metaphor for Cuba. Although we have Gideon Yong, the noun, the person, back in Kingston, back home with us, the Gideon Yong we knew at La Rumba is no more... as well as our Cuban experience. It exists only in the caveats of our memory, in documented pictures. Do I miss Gideon Yong, the verb a.k.a. the experience of Cuba? A little, but hey, everyday is a new day filled with potential of new experiences. Maybe 3 chapters is enough. Time to loook forward.
Peas. |
posted by DarrenGene @ 12:07 PM  |
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| 5 Comments: |
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so awesome dar! i couldn't have described it any better...haha
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definitely a laugh out loud entry. :)
i'm shocked that you downloaded trance music...
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"SHES FROM A COSMIC WORLDDDD"
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i know this should be for the previous post but who cares.
sunblock...usually they want u to wait 30 minutes before jumping in the water. i don't think any of us learned that during the trip
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i heart gideon yong
jw