Mexico

When we finally got to Monterrey - including a 3/4 mile sprint to change planes at Dallas/Fort Worth airport which we just made by seconds - I discovered my luggage hadn't made it. It's been a recurring theme this year that I've had to buy new clothes in various cities when my luggage has gone AWOL. By far the best was Lufthansa at losing my bags - all the other airlines seem like amateurs at losing luggage by comparison. Lufthansa give you an amenities kit, spare undershirts, and can tell you where the bag is at any given time. That wasn’t quite the case in Monterrey.

I left the hotel late at night to go to a convenience store to buy toothpaste, deodorant, etc and on the way back on the steps of a club I saw a pimp with three girls. They were obviously waiting in plain sight of our hotel's lobby on the off-chance a guest felt like some company. The girls were all fat and dressed in tight shiny yellow and purple boob tubes; comely would be a generous adjective for them. I wondered if the roles were reversed and there were groups of male prostitutes waiting on a nightclub’s steps to attract trade if it would work if they were fat and stuffed into day-glo spandex? Must say something about men, right?

While the way things get done in Mexico can be a little excruciating, the people we met--aside for the Mexican equivalent of the TSA Guadalajara Airport who were dicks - were uniformly the kindest and warmest people I've met in some time. Everyone was gracious and tried to be helpful. America, are you listening? It's that manners thing again....

Outside the shows in Mexico City a small market appeared each night devoted entirely to Strokes swag – all bootleg of course. We were told the only group to successfully prevent this happening was U2. We all took turns to go out and buy some souvenirs. I was wearing a suit and the price was an additional 10% for me on everything. Suit tax. Fuck it, I bought loads of stuff anyway – there were some great shirts and mugs. I think the band will be ripping off some of the designs for their next tours. It was overwhelming just how much Strokes merchandise had been made for the 2 shows for sale. There were at least fifty stalls selling tee-shirts, mugs, posters, key-fobs, etc.






The venue in Guadalajara was a new 5000 capacity arena. We were their fourth show. When I asked what other shows they promoted I was told, “cock fighting.” I wondered how 5000 people could see two tiny chickens scrapping on the floor. Unless they have some big, fuck-off chickens down there bred just for fighting?