Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Flashing Lights: Guam: Day Two

Wednesday, July 23rd, 9:00 am. Show day, bright and early. Met up with Phi for breakfast, which was immediately followed by a press conference at the hotel. Gave my two cents, hopped in the big red beast to our first autograph signing at Cars Plus, a local dealership. While the fellas signed masks, posters and home-printed pics, Fred and I dove into the catering table. We discussed business, nutrition, scooters (and the possibility of purchasing one to have shipped home), and how bomb the food was.

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From left: Dee (our Head of Security and hostess), ya boy, and Joe (aka Punkee)
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About an hour and a half later, we rolled out to the local pop radio station Power 98 to do an on-air interview with the lovely Kai Young. After the formal introductions, the fellas ripped into a slammin' cover of "I Am Your Brother" by the Filipino American Idol-hopeful (the one that dressed like an angelic pimp and poured out his undying devotion to Simon Cowell). Ripped it.

Kai Young of Power 98
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So, on to the next spot, which was another autograph signing in a board room at a local bank that sponsored the event. After an hour of that, plus a short intervie in the limo with a local publication, we rolled out to our next destination: DJ Q's radio station FM 10-4, for another on-air interview. Unlike our local old school station here in the Bay, which boasts a rotation of the same 5 Motown songs everyday, Q's on-air selections were a pleasant surprise to all of us. "Apache", "I Wonder If I Take You Home", "Let Me Love You Down" (my favorite slow jam EVER!), just to name a few.

DJ Q of FM 10-4
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Next spot: Tech rehearsal at the Phoenix Center for an hour. Back to the hotel for a couple of hours to catch up on rest. As beat as I was (with a severe time difference of a day and 6 hours), I used my time to sew up some loose ends for the show on the audio tip.

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10 pm. Showtime. Ripped it.

Two of Chris' nephews.
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Time for the after party! We pulled up to a bar called The Venue. We headed straight for our "VIP corner" where people got a chance to meet the crew and shoot pictures (and various drinks). As I sat lonely in my own corner, where no one seemed to notice me, I got twisted off of some henny and coke (for my crew back home).

Enter: Aubrey and Shista. Two lovely "Chammoritas", as I've been asked to refer to them as, approach my drunk ass. Showing their apprecation for my performance, they asked to pose for a couple of pics.

From left: Shista, ol' drunk eyes, Aubrey
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After a couple more drinks, the two lovelies invite me on a night out on the town, where they would drive me through their respective neighborhoods, teach me local slang, walk me though Aubrey's fam's supermarket, and make a stop for a much-needed late dinner (beef steak and onions at Linda's. Damn delicious!). Throughout the night, I observed the chemistry between these two BFFs, and it was a bit reminiscent of Laverne and Shirley. They would argue and debate amongst each other a lot. I thought it was zany and cute.

After our late-night excursion, they dropped me off at my hotel. My internal clock read 11:30 pm. My watch read 5:30 am. Time to rush my restless ass to bed to get up bright and early for a 9:00 am call time.

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