While I have a lot of San Juan stories, I'm not sure how many of them you will really care about because very few of them involve anyone who is a celebrity. Over the past couple of weeks I have watched as a lot of the places I have spent a great deal of time have been destroyed. You get the feeling there is an out of sight out of mind kind of element to what is going on. No one seemingly cares about what is going on in the Caribbean, especially Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Did you know the French President flew all the way from Paris to St. Martin/St Barths to make sure things were happening and they felt they were being paid attention to. The people of Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands should not have to worry their country is abandoning them. Right now at least it feels like they are.
To a happier time. This was back in the day. It was before the blog started. Not long before it, but definitely predates it. I had wanted to see the still new Coliseo in San Juan and had bugged this A list singer from the island to get me some tickets when he performed there. Of course he picked the high season to perform so every room was ridiculously expensive. I ended up crashing with someone from his band. One thing about this singer is that he is super private about his personal life and his family. They are not being splashed all over tabloids. I am calling him A list and he is probably actually A+ list in the Spanish speaking market and definitely is the A++ list king of a genre too.
This was right when he was hitting it big. Super big. Prior to that, we would run into each other at clubs that had 50 people there. Now? Well, he was selling out this venue. I have seen a lot of venues that were electric, but this was a hometown guy playing in front of a psyched crowd and that was a show that still gives me tingles and goosebumps thinking about it.
Anyway, after the show we went to a casino. Nothing fancy. No private section. We just wanted to get a drink and the place we picked had a casino. We aren't planning on gambling, but where we were seated was maybe two or three feet from a roulette table. We had been talking and he was buzzing after the show and he asked if we should put a buck down on the table. I said a buck each and we have to agree on the number. So, we did. We put the two bucks on 8. This was just something to do. We were still at the bar actually and he had leaned over a partition and given the money to the dealer. The next thing you know, the number comes up. We win about $70. Something like that. We are excited, and in the excitement, he spilled a drink on the bar. No big deal. He is looking down and moving things out of the way and the bartender comes to help and the next thing you know, we realized we forgot to take the money off the table. Well, it stayed there and the number that came up was an 8. Yeah, so now we are up to $2500. What had been we can't believe we had forgotten was now $2500. Well, there was no way we were leaving that money on the table. We both wanted our half and I knew I could actually get a room for the night. We get our chips and are bringing them back around the partition to the bar when the ball stopped rolling again. On the 8. Honestly, we laughed ourselves silly crying but didn't care we had picked up the chips. I think about happy we were that night and how happy I have been on other nights in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and other islands there and wonder how many people are happy right now and when they will be happy again.
To a happier time. This was back in the day. It was before the blog started. Not long before it, but definitely predates it. I had wanted to see the still new Coliseo in San Juan and had bugged this A list singer from the island to get me some tickets when he performed there. Of course he picked the high season to perform so every room was ridiculously expensive. I ended up crashing with someone from his band. One thing about this singer is that he is super private about his personal life and his family. They are not being splashed all over tabloids. I am calling him A list and he is probably actually A+ list in the Spanish speaking market and definitely is the A++ list king of a genre too.
This was right when he was hitting it big. Super big. Prior to that, we would run into each other at clubs that had 50 people there. Now? Well, he was selling out this venue. I have seen a lot of venues that were electric, but this was a hometown guy playing in front of a psyched crowd and that was a show that still gives me tingles and goosebumps thinking about it.
Anyway, after the show we went to a casino. Nothing fancy. No private section. We just wanted to get a drink and the place we picked had a casino. We aren't planning on gambling, but where we were seated was maybe two or three feet from a roulette table. We had been talking and he was buzzing after the show and he asked if we should put a buck down on the table. I said a buck each and we have to agree on the number. So, we did. We put the two bucks on 8. This was just something to do. We were still at the bar actually and he had leaned over a partition and given the money to the dealer. The next thing you know, the number comes up. We win about $70. Something like that. We are excited, and in the excitement, he spilled a drink on the bar. No big deal. He is looking down and moving things out of the way and the bartender comes to help and the next thing you know, we realized we forgot to take the money off the table. Well, it stayed there and the number that came up was an 8. Yeah, so now we are up to $2500. What had been we can't believe we had forgotten was now $2500. Well, there was no way we were leaving that money on the table. We both wanted our half and I knew I could actually get a room for the night. We get our chips and are bringing them back around the partition to the bar when the ball stopped rolling again. On the 8. Honestly, we laughed ourselves silly crying but didn't care we had picked up the chips. I think about happy we were that night and how happy I have been on other nights in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and other islands there and wonder how many people are happy right now and when they will be happy again.
Marc Anthony?
ReplyDeleteThe genre being Salsa?
ReplyDeleteRicky Martin?
ReplyDeleteBorn in SanJuan in 1971-I think
DeleteChayanne? He fits the age for being an Enty friend just coming up in the early 90s.
ReplyDeleteHe's Amazing
DeleteC'mon Enty, the president has more important things to do, like feuding with the NFL.
ReplyDeleteSo right....very funny ABw
DeleteI doubt Trump is intelligent or mentally lucid enough to understand the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are US territories. He sees all those black and tan faces and tells himself they aren't real Americans like the neo-Nazis and uneducated white Christians who believe every idiotic word of b.s. that comes out of his mouth and adore him.
ReplyDeleteAgree!
Delete@sandybrook isn't they the truth!! Could not have said that better myself. So +100000
DeleteLuis Fonsi. Marc Anthony was not born in PR - he was born in NYC. Ricky Martin shows off his kids to tabloids.
ReplyDeleteRicky Martin.
ReplyDeleteBlah blah blah. Boring blind so you can take a cheap shot. When Trump does go to Puerto Rico you will whine and complain that his presence is disruptive.
ReplyDelete@Amartel, they need more than a presidential fly over.
ReplyDelete3.5 million Americans face disease & death in Puerto Rico. People with no drinking water, no food, no medicine, no dialysis, no insulin, no homes.
Water full of feces. No fuel for generators. Where is the army, the navy, the marines? Why is there no massive airlift in and out?
FEMA announced that people could register on line. How do you do that if you have no internet? How do you call when phones aren’t working?
What is Trump doing?
Exactly. They are looking at possible six months with no power!! I was there two years ago and it already wasn't great. Rolling power outages to save money, budget cuts to all parks, no cleaning, fountains off and filled with garbage in areas. They already needed help and we have been dangling a carrot in front for years.
DeleteHoly shit I never thought about what happens to people who need dialysis/insulin during natural disaster. WTF. Thanks for enlightening me. ♥
DeleteRicky Martin for sure
ReplyDeleteIsn't FEMA there?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/09/24/federal-response-teams-assisting-puerto-rico-and-us-virgin-islands
we look back at the subhuman circumstances people were forced to endure after katrina and we can't believe such a horror was allowed to happen in this day and age. but it's happening again. but of course, puerto ricans aren't allowed to vote, so they really don't matter. (so much for no taxation without representation, which was the basis for our revolution from britain.) trump is too busy to care. he needs to focus on the things that make america great again, like raising funds for his legal defense, starting nuclear wars with idiots, insulting as many black people as possible, and destroying our already inadequate healthcare system to give back to the annoyed 1% who resent contributing to it.
ReplyDeleteFEMA is there but it's not nearly enough as the crisis is so critical. For starters, the Navy would be there if it was an actual state that was in such dire straits.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking it's Daddy Yankee, genre is reggaeton. He hit big in 2004, same year the Coliseo opened, and is private about his personal life.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_Yankee#Personal_life
Amen
ReplyDelete+1 Ricky Martin.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't the National Guard or the Coast Guard be there? I know here we had National Guard all over the place. I still haven't seen Red Cross, but Salvation Army has been around a lot.
Fairylights, apparently the criticism Trump received for being focused on weekend football while ignoring the Caribbean hurricane damage crisis got the White House's attention. I just heard on cable news that they sent people there today to assess the situation and make recommendations.
ReplyDeleteIt's really bad there.. besides no running water or phone service, 100 percent of the power grid in ruins.
I just saw that on the news, austin. The pictures are just heartbreaking.
ReplyDeletePlease donate to thew Salvation Army to help these people
ReplyDeleteRight, Trump will never pay attention to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. This is an opportunity to have the Russians and Chinese purchase the PR and VI land at a discount and develop concrete and bunker like resorts that will with stand the next hurricane. Sadly the PR infrastructure has been horrible since the mid 70's when corporate set asides were limited.
ReplyDeleteSorry to burst your delusional bubble enty, and actually correct you but Macron (the french president) flew into the french island 6 days after they were hit, and after a STORM of outrage from the locals and French themselves, over not doing fuck-all for the entire first 5 days!
ReplyDeleteWhile Americans and Brits were being evacuated and supplied with water, food and essentials, the Dutch and French governments left their people completely stranded. It took social media for them to actually do something!
A French woman was evacuated with her family on day 2 by an American military plane, which after taking in all Americans, filed up the planes with other nationalities, whose governments did not give a flying fuck.
Don't try this bullshit in the era of social media enty.
Willie Colon
ReplyDeleteHopefully FEMA and the Navy can cover this natural disaster too.
I'm in the area hit by Harvey, we're doing better, but some of the outlying smaller communities are still recovering.
I head there on the weekends with a chainsaw and do what I can.
i remember thinking during katrina that what bush needed to do was pull troops out of the middle east and put them to work on saving lives here. it was a perfect excuse for him to start the process of ending the war without looking weak. of course he didn't, almost 2,000 innocent citizens died, and here we are again. and the president is more focused on getting a tax cut for himself before he's impeached than on taking care of people. with so many disasters to manage, now's the time a country might want to impose a temporary tax increase, not lower tax revenue.
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioning the Virgin Islands! We feel forgotten after 2 category 5 hurricanes!
ReplyDelete