wha gwan loves,

it’s been a while, eh? i’ve been running around like usual. for the long weekend i went to Jamaica to visit my homegirl Tygris. she’s studying at UWI in Kingston. i got there on thursday in the pouring rain, didn’t know if i would see sunshine but the days got brighter and warmer. we didn’t get to go out for bembe b/c of the weather, but on friday, after a tour of bob marley’s house in the afternoon, we did go to this club called quad, which was fun. the downstairs played newer dancehall and some american music as well, and then the upstairs played old school reggae. got myself a lickle taste of bam bam by sister nancy. that’s my joint. anywho, we stayed out til abt 4am, then once home we packed up for montego bay and were out the door again by 6am. we took a bus up to mobay where we were staying for Cure Fest 2007, the homecoming party for Jah Cure, who was released from jail over the summer after serving 8 years for rape and armed robbery…yeah. so, for the weekend we stayed at this old resort called sea castle with Ty’s friend Bev and her friend Dwayne, who gave us the hookup. the place was really nice, we had a private beach and a gorgeous suite with one balcony that looked toward the sea and another that faced the inner courtyard. jeez. it was like paradise, for reals. i have not eaten so well in a while– delicious red snapper, fresh veggies, saltfish and ackee, callaloo– even the patties were tasty. the real highlight of my stay, tho, was cure fest, which we did on saturday and on sunday. saturday we went down to pier one in mobay to catch the battle btwn the selectas and the radio djs, which was cool. we saw beenie man in the crowd, of course, cuz he’s everywhere all the time. and we also saw Jah Cure and took pictures with him (though they didn’t come out well…) cure invited me to spend a lil personal time with him, but that never happened. i must say he is fine though. very very fine…too bad we didn’t link up…haha. but he’s an alleged rapist, you say? yes. therein lies my moral dilemma.

okay, moving on…sunday was the big show at trelawny stadium. eventually we got vvvip access and got to take pics with a bunch of artists– Teflon (pictured above) who is also my homie now, Sizzla, Gyptian, and many others i don’t even know. we saw Lee “Scratch” Perry, Beenie boy (again), Munga, and others. it was so much fun. haha, groupie life is funny. anyway, the concert went from 8pm til about 9am, we left around 8:30, right in the middle of cure’s set. did i mention that he is fine? ughhhhh. anyway…monday was heroes day, a nat’l holiday which i think i may start to celebrate. we missed the bus and made our way by taxi back to kingston. the trip took 5 hours. which was indeed longer than my flight from nyc to jamaica. craziness. but i got to see a lot of the countryside which was enjoyable. tuesday i flew back to nyc, stayed with jj and came back to philly today on my beloved chinatown bus… well that’s the abbreviated version of the JA experience… i’ve missed you all.

bless