That's Me in the Spotlight

Thursday 4 November 2008
Palolem Beach, Goa

Not much happened today. I basically spent the day reading, relaxing, swimming and sunbathing. I saw two bulls cautiously butting each other's heads but it didn't escalate into a full blown battle, which would have been fun. I went to buy some new books as I'd read all of mine. I bought a couple of Eckhart Tolle books as they're really cheap, a William Darymple book and another book of a spiritual teacher (though I don't like the term spiritual; I don't know what to replace it with either, perhaps “wide perspective”).

I did a bit of exercise as there's a random bar thing right next to where we're staying and you can do a few pull ups on it. I then go for a swim afterwards. I'm feeling pretty healthy after all that. Evan talks to some people who are staying a few huts down from us and are paying half price. We check them out and although the workmanship isn't as good as ours the rooms are bigger and they're half price so we decide to move tomorrow.

We find out there's another live music / open mike night going on, so we head to that. I have an excellent Thai green curry. Then they start playing and after the main guy does his thing I get up and have a go. This time there's a six string guitar rather than the twelve string that I had to contend with yesterday, and the fact that I had now played once meant that I was more in the swing of things.

I kicked off with the classic There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, followed by Wish You Were Here, Mr. Jones and finally Live Forever. I play a hell of a lot better tonight than I did before and I can put a lot more expression and dynamics into it. They go down a storm and the English guys we're sitting next to are very appreciative.

Next up is a Welsh girl with a strong accent but a great voice, and she sings her own songs. There's a lot of soul and all the complex, passionate internal workings of the female psyche come out in force. Evan's in love: “I'd mack her for her voice” is his assessment. I can't say I disagree.
There's a Cornish old timer who comes up and plays some blues on a scratchy electric guitar. Then I'm called up again. I try to remember the lyrics to Crazy but I can't so as Evan requested it I start with Losing My Religion, then I slip in Let it Come Down Gently without anyone noticing, followed by Green Eyes as I'm running out of ideas, and then finish with Man on the Moon, and even though I get the chords in the chorus not quite right I more or less get away with it.

After that there's a lot of attention from various people in the crowd, but since they're all seated in groups there's not much I can do. Though I probably could if I really thought about it.
That's followed by a Yank who sings some country style numbers, and some guy from London who looks like Edward Norton joins him on lead guitar. They've never met before and the lead guitar guy aces it. It's a great moment.

After that we join the English guys, a German girl and a couple of Canadian girls and go to the late night bar we went to the previous night. I have a long conversation with the German girl in German and as per usual she is very impressed. We all have a good laugh and a good chat. One of the English guys tells us a story of a massage he had that very nearly turns into something more than he bargained for. An Australian guy joins us briefly and tells us a story of a racist dog which was quite funny.

Sometime after one Evan and I feel tired and we head back.