Colombo used to be a somewhat cosmopolitan city. In the gasp of the cease-fire, post-tsunami there were people and places and the ability to move around. Now people are leaving, places closing, and checkpoints on every corner. You can’t play music outside past 11. Can’t park nowhere, go nowhere, be nowhere, is nowhere, to go. Bars and clubs done closed and the ones that remain percolate with teeny boppers then stew. I don’t want to reminisce, but I remember and miss, as it were. The roads used to be open, cops weren’t about. Tantra was up on the corner and Jazz was packed. I’ve tried going out lately and it’s a facsimile, phoning it in. Of course, it is entirely possible that the everyone in the world is simply having fun without me.

These are my tweets from my most recent night out

indi.ca is inhabiting the carcass of Colombo
indi.ca – the aunties are dressing way the fuck up for no good reason. Menopause?
indi.ca is out on Thursday. Amuseum has more staff than people
indi.ca – something bout your body. Makes me require more toddy. To look at you
indi.ca is literally the last people here

Seems like everybody’s bunkered down from the war and the economy. I spend most of my time in people’s houses, playing Risk and nodding off by midnight. Can’t go out without spending like 2 bills. Btw, was at KFC and the value meal no longer includes french fries. Of all economic indicators, this one is freaking me the fuck out. I ordered extra chicken but it’s too much flesh, my diet is unbalanced, I’m hitting the ATM all the time, wtf.

But back to the nightlife. The rave thing has caught on, I guess. There are a few good DJs. With the noise regulations there’s this thing of having 10 to 10 parties, as in a full working day. I don’t take enough drugs for this. There’s also these 24 hour parties. But man, they used to be packed. The first Offshore Buba party was epic.

Now it’s just kids doing the vagina wiggle at Zanzibar or Sugar. Salarymen and women at R&B, I guess. I don’t get out as much as I used to.

Posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 in Colombo, Photography.