XINGOLATI

As defined on their website: Xingolati embodies a creative and bold spirit and is all about the blending of worlds. The event blends the live music community together with performance artists and the beautiful creatures of the underground art scene.
Last May upon returning from Jazzfest in New Orleans, I received an email from the promoters at Jam Base. My head was still foggy as I read it, but something in my reptilian brain registered "very cool" as I quickly scanned the description of the maiden voyage of “Xingolati: the Groove Cruise of the Pacific.” Later that day one of my friends from New York who was at Jazzfest with us emailed me to ask if I had read the description of Xingolati. Mind you, this is the kind of guy that can tell you who is playing from 2a to 6a at some still-to-be-built wherehouse in Atlanta 6 months from now--if you’d only ask.
“Looks REALLY good,” he declared.
“Yes it does, now let me shake off Jazzfest and I’ll revisit later,” I said.
Revisit it I did. The next day I started reading the details. A three night October cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada featuring such acts as the Flaming Lips, G.Love and Special Sauce, Particle, BassNectar, Mutaytor, Slightly Stupid, DJ Motion Potion etc… I thought that sounded like a pretty solid line up, especially for a cruise ship. I figured it would sell out in no time, so I booked passage for my wife and I without giving it a second thought. I then hastily dashed out an email to The Posse—most of whom were still recovering from Jazzfest – and said something to the effect of, “look what I just booked, get on it dogonne it!”
I expected a lot of “hummms” and “haaaaws” from the gang, so I was truly shocked when I received 8 “I just booked it too” ’s back in the space of about one hour. When I got home and told my wife that we were going on a cruise in October, her immediate response was to look at me quizzically and ask if I was feeling ill. Everybody knows cruises are for bluehairs after all. After reading the details it didn’t take her long to warm to the idea of 24 hour room service, spa treatments, gambling, sun bathing, great music and umbrella drinks—if nothing else.
The summer months ticked away punctuated by the High Sierra Musicfest, Lollapalooza, Reggae on the River, Burning Man and many other activities that make summer great! Now and then we would discuss how we were going to dress each night on board. We debated a few themes and one that stuck was superheroes. The promoters helped us out by saying the first night on a cruise was traditionally “formal” so everyone be sure to dress their freaky-formal best, which we all did. Everybody knows that you have to dress like a furry animal to see the Flaming Lips, so just like that we had our costume scheme down—Friday night 70’s cheese-prom formal, furry animals (primate) Saturday night, and superhero SundayFunday. The many costumes we had made for Burning Man came in handy too, as everybody was essentially in some sort of costume the whole time.
As October neared we began to see that several cabins were still unfilled for this cruise. The cost is a big nut to swallow if you don’t consider what you are getting for your money. In any case they began to drastically cut the price of the remaining cabins for which we had paid full price. One of my friends sent an email to the promoters of the event and explained nicely that we were a little put off for paying full price when they were now practically giving away rooms. The promoter’s answer to our concerns was to give us two cabins for free! Free is good, and it allowed us to invite four more people. After much jockeying and a few false starts, those four spots were secured by the right people. I say the right people because in retrospect they all greatly contributed to the overall experience.
The Coast Hotel where we all stayed hosted a pre-Xingolati party the night before we were to set sail. Most of our group arrived that evening and we enjoyed good music and fire-twirling as a taste of things to come. We even picked up a couple of strays that night. One gal from Denver had decided to come on the trip despite her friend bailing last minute. It didn’t take long for one of the single guys in our clan to swoop in on her. She became a permanent fixture for the rest of the trip. A good girlfriend of another in our group lived close by, so she joined us for Thursday’s festivities. She had known another one of our friends on the trip from a wedding the prior summer, so they “re-kindled” things that evening. The next morning she was on her way home to pack for the cruise since “Denver” now had an extra spot.
It was that kind of trip.
Friday morning we had breakfast and lounged around the pool. About half the crew was eager to get on board so they headed over to the ship.
The rest of us took our time and paid for it. It took us about 90 minutes to get on; evidently this is common when boarding a cruise ship. The process is like getting on an airplane except there’s 2,000 rather than 200 people trying to board. Fortunately the weather was nice and they were selling beer outside.
Once on board we made our way to our cabins to drop off our carry on bags. When we booked our rooms months prior we took care to all book on the same deck. This turned out to be a GREAT call as we were on the Verandah deck very close to most of the action. I was a bit worried about our rooms being on the interior (no windows) but this was not a problem at all. The bed was very comfortable and the blackness was welcomed on the rare occasions that sleep was absolutely required.
We went out and joined the rest of the posse for welcome cocktails and rooted for one of our gals who was frantically trying to make her way across Friday afternoon LA rush hour traffic to get on board. I believe she was third-to-last to make it on the ship.
We shoved off about 5pm, witnessed a beautiful sunset and headed down to dinner in one of the “formal” dining rooms. This was actually quite fun as everybody was dressed up and the food was great! My wife decided she was going to let me speak on her behalf during dinner so she could witness the group dynamic without her usual conversational input. That was entertaining—for me at least—and it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would!
After dinner the line up I wanted to see was Medesky, Martin and Wood then Particle late night, but the great thing about having a music festival on a ship is that nothing is ever that far away, so it was easy to bounce around from venue to venue. The ship, by the way, had a total of 5 music venues. There were 3 stages: 2 were comedy club type set-ups, and one was outside on the top (lido) deck. Then there were two lounges for late night dj action. One thing all had in common was intimacy. One could literally reach out and touch whoever was on stage. Bassnectar (Lorin) was the best act Friday night as far as I’m concerned. The lido deck was goin’ off while he spun, and The Mutaytor kept the Burning Man vibe flowin’ when he was done. I went down to see Particle after that—not one of their best shows, but good nonetheless. It was about 4 am by then and I was pretty hungry, so I headed over to the 24 hour buffet and made myself a chili dog topped with scrambled eggs and sausage. Yeah, that’s right—you should try it sometime, it satisfies.
Saturday morning early my wife and I decided to go have a Jacuzzi at the stern of the ship. We were bubblin’ away with some other characters when Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips strolled by with a beautiful woman by his side. We called him over to see wazzup and find out who the hottie was. He said she’s his girlfriend and photographer, to which I commented, “it’s good to be a rockstar, huh?” He replied, “why yes, it is.” He took a few minutes and posed on the edge of the Jacuzzi with us whilst she clicked away. One of the guys in the tub was wearing a lion’s head costume—no doubt it was that furry animal that caught his eye.
We docked in Ensenada around noon Saturday and debarked by 2p. We pretty much made a beeline for Papa’s and Beer to celebrate one of our friend’s birthday. Our waiter put a Papa’s and Beer sticker over his eyes and did everything in his power to humiliate him. This was mostly offset by the gal we recruited to lick salt and lime off his nipples and from his bellybutton. Mostly. Everybody made their way back to the ship in their own way. My wife and I did a little shopping. A portion of the gang opted to go to a strip club where they got whipped by a stripper and turned one of our gals onto the joys of a lap dance! Who knew Ensenada could be so educational?
We got back to the ship and got into furry animal costumes then had a birthday piñata smashing. After scattering candy all around somebody’s else’s cabin we headed out to see G.Love’s first performance. All of the performers did multiple shows (sans The Flaming Lips) which resolved any potential schedule conflicts one may have had trying to see everybody. The G. Love show was not his best, but that was more than made up for the next day during his happy hour show.
After G.Love it was time for the main event—the Flaming Lips show. I’ve seen the Flaming Lips about 5 times now. I’m pretty sure they’re the only band I like that I’ve only seen live which means I don’t have any of their cd’s and they’re not on any of my mixes—it’s a peculiar situation. Subconsciously what I think it means is that they’re SO good live that I do not want to sully my mind’s image of them by listening to a recording. This show did not disappoint. It was pure energy through and through. True to form was the stage full of furry animals shining their spotlights all around and giant balloons bouncing off of a room full of uplifted arms. There were 3 marriage proposals on stage (two hetero, one lesbian) and Wayne personally sang happy birthday to our pal. It’s one of those shows that you just had to experience. I will put it in my top 2 best shows I’ve ever seen (I think the Porno for Pyros show I saw at Fitchburg St. U in Massachusetts back in 1992 topped it, but that was my first experience seeing a performance art skit custom choreographed for every song of an entire show). I looked around and realized I was standing in the front row in the center of the stage in what had to be one of the more intimate places they’ve ever played. I looked up and there was one of our boys onstage with the rest of the furry animals. He had hollowed out a teddy bear and was wearing it on his head—he fit right in.
I cannot be sure what happened after that show, I think we hit Perpetual Groove and DJ Motion Potion. I was pretty cooked after the Flaming Lips.
The next day was SundayFunday. My wife and I started out the morning in the hot tub again with a whole different cast of characters. I think it must have been Birthday Suit Sunday because there was no shortage of nudity at that early hour. As it turned out it was the harbinger of things to come. The security guards on board must have gotten very tired of telling people to put their clothes back on in the hot tub. Of course they’d observe a while before issuing their orders—they’re human after all. As morning gave way to noon, our troops mustered on the Verandah deck above the pool and the lido deck stage. We had a box full of Hawaiian leis that were quickly distributed to everybody in our vicinity. Nothing screams “PARRRTY” like a lei! Somebody ordered a double citron and lemonade and it became the Drink of the Day. Once it touched your lips it just tasted sooo good…! A completely empty hot tub right behind the lido stage splashed water up at us and beckoned us to “come hither.” One does not ignore the siren song of the hot tub, so we moved our party down a level and into its warm, bubbly embrace.
Slightly Stoopid kicked off the music on the lido deck stage. Basically we were in a backstage hot tub. Anybody coming to the stage had to pass us first, and things got pretty kooky after a while. There was a time when the Jacuzzi shenanigans were the main event. The waiters kept the double citron and lemonades coming, and a steady stream of tattooed circus freaks and not-quite-porn stars kept the Jacuzzi Soup plenty spicy. When G. Love was getting ready to go on we got him to come over and chat us up. I can’t blame him for keeping on his toes because I can assure you he would have ended up in the water with us had he given us the opportunity. We did get a round of hi-fives and plenty of smiles from him though. It was Happy Hour from 5-7p during the G.Love show, so the waiters kept the free beers and cocktails coming. There’s not much more that needs to be said concerning the Jacuzzi on that SundayFunday afternoon that hasn’t already been said. Again, it was just one of those things you had to be there to see. It was a vortex of positive energy, and many people jumped in with eyes wide open and both feet flappin’.
After 8 hours in the Jacuzzi it was time to shower up and get into superhero garb. The group was pretty fragmented at this point. My wife and I went to the formal dining room for dinner then met up with the rest of the marinated superheroes afterwards for the Particle show. This show was much better than the first one I thought. Things were blurry after that—I remember going in to one of the lounges for some dj action, but I couldn’t tell you who it was. It didn’t really matter anyhow. It was ALL good as they say!
The next morning we got up entirely too early. We were supposed to debark around 8a, but they did not start letting people off the boat until about 11a. The details are sketchy but one young lady died of a drug overdose onboard. Not sure if it was a suicide or what, but they had to complete the investigation before anybody could get off the ship. Truthfully, I was surprised more people didn’t die. I figured maybe a couple of people would fall overboard in a drug induced zombie trance. I’m glad I was wrong about that at least.
I try not to have expectations going into a new experience, but I have to admit I did have a few regarding this trip. In retrospect this trip exceeded all expectations. The vibe on board was really positive and I guarantee the crew never experienced a freakshow anything like that before. We were surrounded by a multitude of creative, beautiful people, which is easy to take for granted until you walked off the ship and saw the next crop of humanity waiting to get on board. My fellow travelers really made it complete. I am blessed to have such a good group of friends.

10-OCT-2006 UPDATE: Here's a link to the story about the young lady, Ashley Barnett, that died on the cruise. Sad story. My opinion of what happened: she had a dramatic flair, so she took some methadone to get her boyfriend's attention. Not having ever used drugs in her life, she was not familiar with what a proper dosage should be, so she overdosed and died. Methadone is particularly dangerous if it's abused.

18-MAR-09 UPDATE: My bouyiee Tim who met his wife on this trip sent me this link from another happy Xingolati veteran. Sounds like another happy customer...!