Monday, December 29, 2008

When Heather Met Buju



Well, according to this I haven't blogged in over a month. OK, I buy that. I took the fact that I couldn't remember the password as a sign it had been awhile. Plus, not only have I not blogged for a month, but I went out on Miss Constance. Sure, I like the song, but top billing for over a month? Not so much.

On the plus side, I will not be taking any classes in the spring. Wow, I had to take a minute there. That sentence still makes me a little dizzy with delight. After god knows how long of getting up at 4 AM, seven days a week and working pretty much around the clock, I'm out. I've got so many things going on that I'm excited to get a chance to focus on without, you know, typing something about booking your own shows with one hand while calculating Gini coefficients with the other. Also, I am now officially the world's most educated broke person, so that's exciting as well.

What I'm saying is - I've got more time to blog now.

And since it's been awhile, instead of just saying, "hey, guess what I'm watching on YouTube, cool, huh?", I'll tell you a story. A story about when I met Buju Banton. It goes something like this:

I used to work in a Jamaican restaurant, as I may have mentioned. It's long story. I went there hoping they had mix tapes. (Yes, in a restaurant. I know.) They got me hooked on ginger beer and then eventually offered me a job. Once I started working there, it turned out to be a great source for mix tapes, so ha ha, I was right all along. It was also a great source for other things which has something to do with why it is not around any more, but that's another story.

Anyway, when certain musicians would pass through town, they would eat at the restaurant. As the only waitress, I would clean up on tips on those nights, so that worked out for me. The biggest event we had was when Buju Banton came to town. Instead of our usual set up a big table/cook a big meal routine for other artists, Buju's visit was meant to be something of a party. A radio station came down, there was a butterfly contest (no, I didn't enter - I know my limitations), we took over part of the parking lots for the party - it was a lot of fun. Probably 150 or so people turned up, and like most nights, the kitchen had prepared enough food for maybe 6 or 7, so I spent a good three hours taking abuse from people who wanted to know how a restaurant could run out of food. It was a valid question. All I could do was offer carrot juice and coco bread.

Buju was introduced to everyone working in the restaurant, but he couldn't really be arsed. This was of great disappointment to me and another girl working there who had been playing Make My Day on repeat for several weeks in preparation. Then, however, Buju got asked to do a TV interview for a local college news station (their own campus news network, I guess, I really don't know). Buju decided he wanted to talk about unity, and then he pointed at me and yelled, "You!" Then there was some more yelling, and the next thing I knew, I was being pushed into a seat at a table with Buju with TV cameras being set up in front of us. The cameras rolled, and Buju started talking about us all being one people, and so on and so forth - it was a nice message, but as he went on, he started talking faster and faster, until eventually he lost me, the college kids running the cameras and most of the crowd. Every once in awhile, he would grab my hand and hold it up like I had just won a boxing match and become very animated. I just pretty much smiled and nodded the whole time. I think once he asked me if I agreed with something, and I just said, "yes."

And that was it! Interview was over, I was thanked from my services, and I was soon behind a sink washing dishes for a very long time. I've no clue whatever happened to that interview. That same university had a reggae show every Sunday on their radio station (still do, actually), so I listened that week, but there was nary a mention of Buju.

So, no, that video up there isn't the interview video. It's Make My Day , because, well, remember this? Unfortunately it's one of those "look at an album cover while listening to the song" videos because you can't embed the original video at Universal's request. Idiots.